Where are you? Adding APRS to the Ham Radio Comms
November 5, 2017
It wasn’t all that long ago that I got my Ham radio license and installed an Icom-5100 in the truck. A great radio, it’s gone now — because a great radio isn’t all I need; I need a great radio that can also do APRS.
What’s APRS and why’s it so important?
Great question, let’s start there!
APRS is the “Automatic Packet Reporting System,” a machine-parsable protocol used on a known frequency (144.390 in the US) to send all kinds of information from one ham radio to another. But the reason I care about it is that it’s can be used to report position information for a mobile ham station. With that position information, others locally (within range of your broadcast), as well as remotely (once your broadcast is received by an internet-connected receiver) can see where you are, and where you’ve been.
That’s especially useful for someone who does a lot of remote adventuring for two reasons:
- When you go out adventuring with others, you can all see where each other are on a map (without having internet connectivity, since the communication happens through the ham radios)
- When you go out adventuring, people “at home” can monitor where you are — even if you don’t have cell service. And, there are ways to communicate from ham radio to cellular text (and vice versa) should something go wrong.
So, as much as I liked the interface on the Icom-5100, it was time for it to go — because there wasn’t a great way to get it to do APRS.
Why not? What do you need “to do APRS”?
Another great question. You are a savvy reader. Bringing your A-game as it were.
To learn what you need to do APRS, head on over to Adding APRS at adventuretaco.com, where I’ve got all the details!
Originally published at adventuretaco.com.
