APRS (a GPS Sort of thingy)

[Strahan Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Strahan]

I noticed that Speedy has an APRS setup.
As there seems to be a few radio nerds out there (like me! VK7CBR) I was wondering if he could give us some more info on his setup?

For those not in the know its a GPS positioning sort of thing via radio.

Hope fully Speedy can tell us more!

[Gordo Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Gordo]

Here is a good link for the unfamiliar

http://www.aprs.net.au/

[speedcomm Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close speedcomm]

Sorry guys, I somehow missed this post, wasnt trying to be a snob on purpose ops:

APRS is an amateur radio " toy" In its simplest form it consists of a network of " Digis " which if you like are repeater sites, these are located on hill tops and talk to the next hill top, A mobile in the field eg my car has GPS and a radio, The GPS outputs NMEA data which is the common data that is output from a serial GPS, this NMEA serial data is injected into a device that converts this GPS data into a " packet" which is then transmitted over the radio, once the radio transmits the " packet" a " digi" hears this "packet" and retransmits it from the hilltop, to the next hill top and so on. After a few hops at most an " I gate" will also hear the signal and put the " packet" out on the internet.

At the recieving end of all these " packets" are PCs at other amateurs houses etc that run a mapping software program that converts the " packet" back to its original gps location and plots this as an icon on a map on the pc.
SO, anybody anywhere in the world can view this data via internet or if within earshot of a " digi" can see the " packet" by radio.
As well as " vehicle tracking " the network is also used for short messaging and emergency duress, the system also gets used in many races to track the position of racers.

This is a very simplistic overview of the system, if anyone wants more detailed info let me know.
APRS is used entirely as a hobby and is not used or permitted to be used for commercial gain :wink: Oh and dont steel my car as I will be able to find you 8)

Any aditional stuff you want to add Strahan ?

[LiveFreeAndRoam Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close LiveFreeAndRoam]

Great info speedcom.

I wonder what sort of money gets you into the APRS? I can certainly see some very useful applications.

LFaR.

[speedcomm Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close speedcomm]

The main requirement is to have an Amateur radio licence,
Im using a Kenwood TMD700 dual band radio ( VHF and UHF in the same radio ) that has the APRS functionality built in, I run a Garmin GPS35 which ia a GPS antenna with an engine built in ( mouse looking thing ) which outputs serial data to the radio. This way I keep my GPSMAP60C as a navigating etc device and is not tied to the radio. I paid about $ 330.00 second hand for the radio and " aquired" the GPS35.
You need to remember that APRS is a hobby and is not designed to be used for anything other than hobby use,
Out of interest if you want to do this kind of thing with your mates and use UHF CB frequencies and not concern yourself with obtaining a licence, Uniden and Garmin both offer units that are a GPS with a UHF built in that you can transmit your location to your " mates" who have a similar device, I havent seen this in action but the claims on their websites are interesting. The Garmin one is a Rhino http://www.gme.net.au/garmin/rino520.php
and Im not sure of the Uniden one, from memory it is a fixed car mount UHF.

[speedcomm Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close speedcomm]

Here are a couple of shots of my setup.
This first one is the GPS35 on the roof.

This is one shot of the D700

And a second shot of the D700, Both of these shots show the 2 sides of the display, the left is for APRS and the right is the voice channel, UHF or VHF. Also show what a grotty 2 year old can do to your mirror !