APRS Article 14

November-December 2001

More Email Questions

By Jeff Robbins

VE3JTR (Voice Call)

VA3JTR (APRS Call)

EMAIL: va3jtr@rac.ca

WEB: http://www.qsl.net/va3jtr

Good day folks,

It sure is nice to be back on the map. Just this week (early Sept.) I have got everything hooked back up, with new coax routing in the house, and we can see the APRS world once again. The map is kinda quiet here in the Quinte Region, but we do see some new stations. VE3IEM has setup shop over in the County, VE3FFR, VE3UIN and VA3KGB are still holding down the fort in the Greater Kingston area. I also see that VE3RWJ is south of the border in the Watertown region at this time. Also notable, north of Brockville, in Charleston Lake, is Sean K3XT. I am also pleased to see that Doug, VE3FFR has used a static icon to pinpoint the location of an upcoming Hamfest north of Napanee.

Let’s dip back into the Email bag for some more inquiries:

Andy writes:

Hi Jeff,

I seen your article in the RAC Mag. and was wondering what SSIDs you follow in Ontario? Here in Vernon B.C. we use different ones and I like to get the guys out here to follow with the same SSIDs

Thanks

73

ANDY VE7FTR

For the most part, stations within my view use the APRS standard SSIDs that were established in the early days of APRS by Bob Bruninga, WB4APR. They are as follows:

1 – Ambulance

2 – Bus

3 – Fire Truck

4 – Bicycle

5 – Sailboat

6 – Helicopter

7 – Aircraft

8 – Power Boat

9 – Car

10 – Motorcycle

11 – Balloon

12 – Jeep

13 – Recreational Vehicle

14 – Truck

15 – Van

By far, the most popular mobile station would be –9. For base stations, most hams do not use a SSID, just their callsign. I use –12 for my Jeep, but I may be trading in for a truck in the spring, so I might have to change my SSID to –14! Now don’t forget, you are not restricted to using the default icons when selecting an SSID. You can use the method described at http://www.dididahdahdidit.com/text/symbols.txt to select any one of several available icons from simple colored dots to a canoe to the space shuttle! Remember, have fun with it.

Hal writes:

Jeff,

I have at home a TS-450SAT and KAM Plus which I have been on APRS from time to time with, TM241A and my computer is 800mhz and a high speed connection to the internet. I have a FT-5100 and a FT-900 and a Garmin GPS12XL in the car.

I would like to run APRS from the car and want to know if it is to my advantage to get the Tigertronics TM-1 at $89.95 USD over the Byonics TinyTrakII at $30.00 USD?

How do I make my mobile position work through my home station into the APRS internet? software, hardware, url for the internet connection etc. I am having the darndest time to find any information relative to all of the above. Any help will be greatly appreciated or where I can find the information to

get things rolling. Once started it may make APRS take off in the Truro, N.S. area.

73 de Hal, VE1LV

Well folks, can anyone help out Hal. Lets hear some opinions regarding the Tigertronics versus the TinyTrak. Hal hasn’t mentioned what flavour of APRS he is running, but regardless, most versions of APRS is capable of Igating to the net. Lets refer briefly to my last article appearing in the Sept/Oct issue of TCA. Steve Dimse, K4HG wrote APRServe, which is a server based program that you can use WinAPRS (for example) to log into, and port your APRS data onto the net. Checking the documentation for WinAPRS, it states:

To connect to these servers, you have to be connected to the internet, either directly or via dialup (PPP or SLIP). Also you must have a file called "APRSserv.txt", this contains the names and port numbers for the various APRS reflectors. Of course you MUST also have TCP/IP installed and configured. If you have internet access and can run Netscape or other Web browser, then this part is already done.

To open the connection, simply select the server you want to connect to from the TCP/IP connections sub menu under SETTINGS menu. Then sit back and watch, stations counts greater than 700 are common.

Mac/WinARS can also operate as an APRS server, it allows connections on port 14439 or port 23. When you connect you get a dump of the current station list from the server.

So by searching the various websites, you should be able to come up with the latest copy of APRSserv.txt, which lists the latest APRServe sites on the net. Then it appears to be a matter of selecting the site you are interested in connecting to, and providing your TCP/IP is functional, and you would be off to the races.

Toby writes:

Hi,

My name is Toby (N5SIM) I have been getting APRS set up here in South Texas. Can you recommend a site that I could get a solid explanation on how all the path statements work? Wide,Relay ,wide, wide etc.

Great web site, keep up the good work...

Toby D.

There is a good article at http://www.dididahdahdidit.com that addresses the use of RELAY and WIDE digipeaters together. Quoting a portion of the article:

It is important that the number of WIDE digipeaters in the network be limited to only those that truly have wide-area coverage. A site that can only be heard 5 or 10 miles out is not really a WIDE, unless it happens to be the only digipeater in your "network". Such a station can prove effective as a RELAY-only station, provided that it can hit at least one WIDE in the network, and fills a hole in the receive coverage of that WIDE.

So WIDE digipeaters make up the backbone of the RF APRS. So if you make a PATH statement containing a couple of WIDEs, you will probably get onto the network fine. Trouble may occur when you cannot hit the WIDE. This is where RELAY stations come in. Smaller stations that do not qualify as a WIDE, can digipeat on the RELAY alias, for a single hop, to get you to the nearest WIDE. So if your PATH statement is modified to be RELAY,WIDE,WIDE you can utilize a lower power digipeater to reach the APRS backbone. If you can reach a WIDE directly, that is OK too, because most people program their digipeaters to recognize RELAY and WIDE, so you should also get right onto the network. Please also note that this should be used for mobile stations only. Your home station is fixed, usually, and you should be specifying a static path to the nearest WIDE to avoid unnecessary traffic on the channel.

I know that my articles tend to have an Ontario flavour, but that is because I haven’t heard from anyone out west or down east in months. I just know things are going on in the rest of the country, but I need you to send me some email if you want to see it appear in this space. How are you using APRS to make your hamfests, ARES activities, or public displays more exciting? Drop me a short line via email to let me know.

Now that I am back on the air, I’ll really be seeing you, ON THE MAP!