Anyone using APRS?

[Ubiety]

I have not seen the ability to create an APRS objects in aprs.fi iOS app; waiting on mobilinkd to explore more. Will update thread with findings.

 

[Downs]

Guys here is some food for thought. We spend plenty of money of our rigs and gear as is so when people complain about spending money on a radio tell them to think about that. It is yet one more piece of kit that expands our capabilities and can act as a safety device. I mean how much money has each of us wasted of gear that didn't work out? Now think about spending less then $300 on some kit that is proven effective and helps to improve our safety and capability.

You're preaching to the choir here man. You're talking in many cases folks that have no interest in making radio any kind of hobby and just to turn a knob and have it work. It's why CB is still dominant in many areas of the country with GMRS slowly gaining ground and HAM lagging way behind. The folks on this website are a very small subset in the grand scheme of things and those of us interested in radios an even smaller subset of that.

 

[jeep670]

I have been getting more active with APRS again and stumbled on the Anytone AT-D878UV radio that is a self contained APRS HT at around $200. A little over for the BT model and a little under for the non-BT model. That is less than half the price of any other APRS self contained HT or mobile; have one sitting in my cart... What is holding me back from clicking "purchase" is that it is primarily a (cheap Chinese) DMR radio and I am not (yet) into DMR and with accessories my order is right at $300 and that is half/most of the way to what I really want: Kenwood TH-D74A.

Which gets me thinking. I have a Kenwood TH-D7A HT which is an older APRS capable radio; it is early enough that it does not have an onboard GPS but I do have the supplied cable and most, if not all, of the accessories. I just pulled it out of the closet and bought a new AC charger, battery, whip antenna; it runs great, is in great condition and has had an easy life. If memory serves these usually sell used in the ~$250 range and ebay currently has one at $175 and another at $335. I'd be willing to let it go to a licensed ham / forum member for $200; I might even be swayed to throw in a mag mount antenna and adapter for a mobile solution. I used it that way recently debugging an antenna issue on the main radio in the Jeep and it worked extremely well.

I have had the opportunity to do several long road trips using the Ram mounted iPad Pro 11 as my nav/music/phone control center and LOVE it! Using combination of Apple and Gaia maps - being able to flip between on the fly is awesome! I like Apple's guidance through towns and Gaia out of towns (typically). Now I want to add APRS to the iPad scheme. The Mobilinkd is a ~$120 way to tether your Baofeng (etc) to APRSDroid or APRS.fi apps. Looks very interesting but does not fit into my plan, may have to get one to play with though :) Some of the other outstanding APRS related items that I have stumbled on recently are many things at Byonics and the HamShield (mini too). Recently purchased a Byonics GPS/MicroTrak 2001 for a friend's Christmas/Birthday gift and it is pretty cool!

Anyway, enjoy whats left of your weekend!

The Anytone is the best affordable dmr ht you can currently find. Best sound of any ht and the battery lasts 3 days.
However, its aprs is limited to sending and receiving beacons, nothing else. So I wouldn't consider an aprs device at all.
If you want the full aprs feature set in a ht you must go with either the Kenwood TH-D74 or the Yaesu FT3DR. I have them both. The D74 is way more feature rich than the FT3 but it is larger and more expensive (for good reasons).
Regardless, no ht is great inside a vehicle without an external antenna. And they're only 5watt anyway.
For a mobile aprs setup I recommend the Yaesu FTM400XDR. (Which I own as well.)

 

[Sparksalot]

Guys here is some food for thought. We spend plenty of money of our rigs and gear as is so when people complain about spending money on a radio tell them to think about that. It is yet one more piece of kit that expands our capabilities and can act as a safety device. I mean how much money has each of us wasted of gear that didn't work out? Now think about spending less then $300 on some kit that is proven effective and helps to improve our safety and capability.

Radio is another place where buy once, cry once is a good axiom to follow.

 

[Ubiety]

The Anytone is the best affordable dmr ht you can currently find. Best sound of any ht and the battery lasts 3 days.
However, its aprs is limited to sending and receiving beacons, nothing else. So I wouldn't consider an aprs device at all.
If you want the full aprs feature set in a ht you must go with either the Kenwood TH-D74 or the Yaesu FT3DR. I have them both. The D74 is way more feature rich than the FT3 but it is larger and more expensive (for good reasons).
Regardless, no ht is great inside a vehicle without an external antenna. And they're only 5watt anyway.
For a mobile aprs setup I recommend the Yaesu FTM400XDR. (Which I own as well.)

And you cannot get directly at the AnyTone's TNC via serial/BT which is important for hackability. I am holding out for the D74. The FTM400XDR is a nice radio and would be my choice if I were looking for a new mobile today; love that display!
I agree on the external antenna for range and have an extra loaner mag mount for the time being. I think, for my group, than an external antenna might be a hard sell. Hoping that the HT antenna will do it for a relatively tight convoy. Voice over HT with stock antenna works fine if we are not spread out too far (miles in uneven terrain). We tend to place a strong mobile at the beginning/end of the convoy and that helps make up for weaker HTs with stock antennas. I am also planning on digipeating out of my Jeep (D700 with external antenna) and placing myself in the middle of the convoy; hopefully that helps.

 

[jeep670]

And you cannot get directly at the AnyTone's TNC via serial/BT which is important for hackability. I am holding out for the D74. The FTM400XDR is a nice radio and would be my choice if I were looking for a new mobile today; love that display!
I agree on the external antenna for range and have an extra loaner mag mount for the time being. I think, for my group, than an external antenna might be a hard sell. Hoping that the HT antenna will do it for a relatively tight convoy. Voice over HT with stock antenna works fine if we are not spread out too far (miles in uneven terrain). We tend to place a strong mobile at the beginning/end of the convoy and that helps make up for weaker HTs with stock antennas. I am also planning on digipeating out of my Jeep (D700 with external antenna) and placing myself in the middle of the convoy; hopefully that helps.

Anytone does not have a tnc. But D74 does, and it is accessible over BT. I have my phone with aprsdroid connected to D74's tnc over bt with no fuss. The D74 is a real monster!

 

[Ubiety]

Just ordered the D74 from HRO :) It was on sale and their picture showed the radio tuned to 144.390 and 438.500 - precisely the two frequencies that we use overlanding! I had to buy it, right? :)

I will be able to outfit three other rigs for APRS (beacon at least) and one other guy is talking about getting the mobilinkd if I like it. That should just about cover my group for beaconing.

 

[jeep670]

Just ordered the D74 from HRO :) It was on sale and their picture showed the radio tuned to 144.390 and 438.500 - precisely the two frequencies that we use overlanding! I had to buy it, right? :)

I will be able to outfit three other rigs for APRS (beacon at least) and one other guy is talking about getting the mobilinkd if I like it. That should just about cover my group for beaconing.

Great choice! [emoji106]

 

[TerryD]

I'll post this here I guess.

Thanks to a buddy being out of work right now, our interest in getting our TM-D710Gs on the air with APRSDroid and both of us beating our heads against the issue, we now have our tablets running APRSDroid through our 710s in full control. This is a really cool step for both of us as we will be able to track each other when on the trail.

I'm working on getting the APRSDroid interface going properly with Backcountry Navigator XE right now. I think it worked properly for a few minutes but then it appeared that APRSDroid went to sleep in the background and I cannot find a setting to correct this issue. I'm sure it's there somewhere, I just have to find it.

But we will at least be able to use downloaded maps with APRSDroid OSM and see each other displayed on a map. But I would like to have BCN functional as intended so I could not only log my routes but see RX stations displayed on the same interface without having to swap back and forth.

Anyways, this is a work in progress and at the moment we don't have a way to charge the tablet while it is running but we have a plan to move forward with that soon I hope. My buddy ponied up for the parts we think we'll need and is going to test it. If that works I'll be ordering it soon and once this is all said and done, we'll try to do a proper writeup on it.

 

[Radar]

Hello!

I'm curious if any Ham operators here use APRS during their travels (for tracking/locating/emergency recovery/other reasons). I'm researching new mobile radios for my new ride and would appreciate any feedback!

Thanks =)

Please take this with a grain of salt, I'm certainly no expert. However, I do own a FT2D and a 5100 and have to say, the Yaesu appears to be easier to use. Don't get me wrong, the Icom 5100 is a great radio but they a different approach to APRS. I've used APRS for tracking and sending text messages to cell phones and other APRS radios/gateways. I have yet to receive a (or reply) from a cell text that I initiated but hope to find the solution to that problem. Best of luck on your purchase of a mobile radio.

 

[evilernine]

I can only give you an example of what I use and how I use it. I use APRS to let my family and friends know what I am up to and doing. I use the setup for navigating (with BackCountry Navigator with GPX trails, APRSdroid for positioning and messaging). I have a Kenwood TM-D701A in my 2014 Jeep that I have had for many years. It is paired with a 8" android tablet with a Mobilinkd bluetooth TNC to connect the two. Granted with this setup you do not need the D710A and can get by with say a TM-V71A or similar since I and not using the built-in TNC. I had the D710A with a Nuvi 350 and GTRANS cable before the tablet and it worked great. With the tablet setup I have I can use BackCountry Navigator with ARPSdroid (paid version) since there is a API connection between BCN and APRSdroid. This allows me to see nearby stations while having a GPX of a trail loaded on BCN. The tablet also allows me to have a full on screen keyboard for messaging over APRS instead of creating a message the long way on the D710A's head.

Is this setup for everyone, probably not but works for me. I did try a FTM-400 for a bit but it did not get me anything beyond what I have now other everything mostly in one package and a D710G is a close second (no fancy display). I have not used any ICOM VHF/UHF mobile radios (I do have a IC-7000 and screwdriver antenna on the Jeep). My advise is to use what you have and or can afford. For an another example I have a single band VHF HT with an another Mobilinkd TNC and my android phone. Similar functionality to the mobile setup except for output power and cheaper. My setup does have a substantial investment, but it did grow over time.

Bryan - K7GX

 

[M Rose]

I’m setting up an APRS station using a Raspberry Pi 3, Mobilinkd TNC 3 and cheap Chinese HT. Nothing really substantial to post on my setup yet as I am still building the whole system. I just got some of the software installed last night, and am currently setting up the software side of things as I research building a GPS VS stealing GPS out of my tablet connection.

 

[Prerunner1982]

I’m setting up an APRS station using a Raspberry Pi 3, Mobilinkd TNC 3 and cheap Chinese HT.

Any particular reason you didn't go with a TNC-Pi?

TNC-Pi: TNC-X for Raspberry Pi

 

[M Rose]

Any particular reason you didn't go with a TNC-Pi?

TNC-Pi: TNC-X for Raspberry Pi

Because I was given the TNC3 to play with, and the TNC3 connects to my iPad

 

[KonzaLander]

I'll post this here I guess.

Thanks to a buddy being out of work right now, our interest in getting our TM-D710Gs on the air with APRSDroid and both of us beating our heads against the issue, we now have our tablets running APRSDroid through our 710s in full control. This is a really cool step for both of us as we will be able to track each other when on the trail.

I'm working on getting the APRSDroid interface going properly with Backcountry Navigator XE right now. I think it worked properly for a few minutes but then it appeared that APRSDroid went to sleep in the background and I cannot find a setting to correct this issue. I'm sure it's there somewhere, I just have to find it.

But we will at least be able to use downloaded maps with APRSDroid OSM and see each other displayed on a map. But I would like to have BCN functional as intended so I could not only log my routes but see RX stations displayed on the same interface without having to swap back and forth.

Anyways, this is a work in progress and at the moment we don't have a way to charge the tablet while it is running but we have a plan to move forward with that soon I hope. My buddy ponied up for the parts we think we'll need and is going to test it. If that works I'll be ordering it soon and once this is all said and done, we'll try to do a proper writeup on it.

This will also work for the TM-V71A as well since it has the onboard TNC but not the built in APRS functionality. You just wouldn't have the option to run APRS without the tablet in play like the 710 will which is how I intend to use it when not actively mapping or tracking another station on the trail.

If you manage to get APRSDoid within BCN XE to work reliably, please share your path to success. I have grown fond of BCN XE but can't make the full leap from BCN Pro since APRS stations seem to simply quit populating on XE after some time. Stations populate without an issue in BCN Pro.

I do not believe the TM-71A has an on-board TNC. If so, I couldn't figure out how to access it. I've been running a Mobilinkd TNC hooked to my TM-71A via the data port for a few years and it continues to work flawlessly with APRSDroid.

 

[Prerunner1982]

Because I was given the TNC3 to play with, and the TNC3 connects to my iPad

Awesome.

 

[TerryD]

I do not believe the TM-71A has an on-board TNC.

That is indeed my bad. I was thinking that the only difference was the onboard APRS functionality of the 710. It appears as though the TNC is built into the head.

I will correct my post directly!

 

[Joel S]

For what it's worth you can use offline mapping on APRSdroid as well.

That, and I hard you can use it with backcountry navigator. at least in beta

 

[1airbourne]

I use a Kenwood D700 for my APRS system and also do SlowScan TV for those who would like to see real time photo's of an event or if needed
help information.

Software to SSTV

MMSSTV - HamSoft

Official English Website distributing and supporting amateur radio programs by JE3HHT

hamsoft.ca

 

[TerryD]

That, and I hard you can use it with backcountry navigator. at least in beta

I've been working with this setup recently and the new XE seems to put APRSDroid to sleep. I'm going to have to try BCN again and see if it's a new software issue or an issue with my tablet.