Why do I want APRS???

[Longrange308]

What is the major benefit of APRS? Is there any other uses other than sending your GPS location via the ham waves? I guess I just wonder if its worth the extra gear and cost since I have a SPOT gps locator already..

Thanks!

 

[unseenone]

If you have to ask, then maybe not.... Other users, depending on your implementation. Sending messages, distance and bearing to other APRS stations, such as search and rescue operations, etc. It is useful if you want a free way to track your travel history, location, sometimes other things like battery voltage, and so on. The best aprs web site IMO is aprs.fi go there, put in a city and see what kind of aprs activity you find.

The range will be limited on aprs to that of the nearest station that can hear your signal, and likewise. Say-- 5 there are 5 stations nearby, you might be able to get the GPS coordinates, distance and bearing..

 

[gary in ohio]

APRS has always been a solution for a problem no one seems to have. It has a few application in ARES application but generally a novelty..

 

[Frdmskr]

One of the best is simple tracking but if you are remote you want HF APRS not VHF. You can do short messages to other hams or even emails now. (You need someone far more versed than I for that one. I just read about that recently.)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[expedition4x4]

short messages to other hams, emails sent home to let everyone know you are ok or not, and now even text messages from your rig...

 

[Tennmogger]

APRS has always been a solution for a problem no one seems to have. It has a few application in ARES application but generally a novelty..

Great answer! Back in the 90's we played with APRS for ARES comms. For areas in the mountains of Colorado with no radio coverage on VHF or UHF, we could type up a short message, tell the APRS to send it, then let it keep trying until successful. When some enhancing condition happens, like a little hilltop, reflection off a mountainside, bouncing off a plane flying in view, etc, and those messages would get through. But that was in an area heavy on APRS useage at that time. If there's no node listening, no message will be sent.

Bob WB4ETT

 

[AlbanyTom]

I hear lots of people like it, but I also hear from the same people that not many people use it. Maybe it's regional.

To me, if you can hear my voice over 2m radio, it means I'm probably within 100 miles or so, and I don't even like that I have to give that much info out. I've never had a radio w/ aprs built in, never desired it. It does offer the possibility of tracking groups of people for events or whatever, but that only works well if everyone has it, and not everybody ever will....and most don't see the point of tracking half of a group.

 

[prerunner1982]

If the group is running together you don't need to track the whole group or even half the group.

APRS was meant for situational awareness, but has turned into not much more than GPS tracking. But that aspect alone can be used in a variety of situations. Multi-group trail runs, search and rescue, storm chasing, lets the wife keep tabs on you, can track your vehicle if it is stolen, etc.

As previously mentioned you can send messages to other APRS users as long as they are running a full setup as opposed to a tracker only set up, you can send text messages to a phone and emails.

I had an extra Baofeng HT ($30) laying around, purchased a Mobilinkd bluetooth TNC ($65) and a cheap android tablet (Asus, $80) off amazon that has bluetooth and gps and with a mag-mount antenna had a fully function APRS set up where I can see stations on a map, send messages, etc. I spent a little more than I would to buy a new SPOT beacon but have no subscription to pay, ($200+ a year) and I can not only track myself, but I can track others.

APRS.fi and OpenAPRS.net are both good websites, but if you look at your area on the map and don't see anything that doesn't necessarily mean there isn't any APRS activity in the area it may just mean there isn't an IGate to pass the info to the internet.

 

[wirenut]

I often work in places with no cell phone coverage, sometimes all alone. My wife didn't like that she couldn't get in touch with me all day long if she needed too. I convinced her to get a ham license like I had and now we can keep in touch with 2 meter voice by monitoring the same repeater. This requires both of us to listen to all the chatter on the repeater all day long.
I'm working on getting a similar set up to prerunner1982 with the Mobilink D bluetooth TNC. This will allow me and my wife to keep in touch with "text" messages thru APRS instead of having to listen to the repeater all day long.
If I had teenage drivers you can be assured a tracker would be on their cars so I could keep track of them.

 

[abruzzi]

Too many hams see aprs as something that relays your location to the Internet. I like it for the potential of local device to device communication without reliance on infrastructure. If you are never out of cell range, there are a hundred apps that will work better than aprs.

 

[whatevah]

A buddy of mine has been using APRS for tracking his car and sailboat for over a decade, but me being a latecomer to amateur radio only started using it last year for tracking during an overland trip through CO and UT. I knew that I'd be well out of cell reception and wanted emergency communications and the tracking ability was simply cool. I had a bunch of people back home following the trip on aprs.fi, even when I was high up in the San Juan mountains or deep in the Utah canyons. I was using the OpenTracker USB which has the capability of two-way communication with the correct accessories, but I was only using it as a tracker.

Shortly after completing the trip, I sat in on a presentation on APRS given by Bob Bruninga (the guy behind APRS). It was a basic presentation for people that didn't know anything about it, but also gave his feelings on the capabilities. Since then, I've upgraded my mobile rig to a Kenwood TM-D710 that has native APRS support so I can send (painfully) and read messages along with seeing the local stations on the display. Along with that, I've configured my radio to use the Voice Alert setting and 100hz squelch. With that, your radio will mute all of the APRS traffic from the speaker except when the 100hz tone is included. That tone is not used by repeaters so you'll only hear it when somebody is within simplex distance. So, if you're bored, you quickly have somebody to chat with. And, the radios with native APRS support will include their voice frequency in the comments so you can quickly tune to their frequency to chat.

It's a very powerful, if also simple system... great possibilities but also limited by most of the operators only using a simple tracker with no two-way support. It's local and yet global because of the internet relays. You can send a text message to a callsign from thousands of miles away and as long as they're near an igate with a two-way radio (some are receive-only), they'll get the message. That's incredible. VHF coverage is pretty good, but does depend on local hams to build the infrastructure... YMMV.

KC3DEI-9

 

[jerdog53]

I to do not see the need for this.

 

[unseenone]

I find it handy when I want to know where my car is. Or when I want someone else to know where it is..

 

[tgreening]

There are relatively few things in life that you truly need.

 

[dstn2bdoa]

I like the idea of my wife being able to track and txt my boys and I when we're out and about on our adventures. But I thought it didn't work if there weren't any nodes around. We like to frequent the SoCal deserts and the Sierra 's, with Utah, Colorado, Montana, and Idaho being on the list for future trips. Would it be reliable in remote areas? I had written it off because I thought it wouldn't work reliably.