What is APRS ?
VK4GO -- JA1OGS
Automatic.Position.Report.System
Packet radio has great potential
for passing large pieces of message traffic from one station to another.
However, with the internet growing by leaps and bounds a lot of folks,
including myself, seem to become disenchanted with packet. Then I discovered
APRS! (Of course some of us discovered APRS before then but I digress…).
It was always difficult to apply packet to real time events. Especially
since these events seem to always be short lived. APRS can avoid this problem.
It is not limited to a connected network or its complexity. APRS permits
any number of stations to exchange data just like voice users do on a voice
net. Any user can send information and all stations receive it or transmitted
it. Secondly, APRS recognized one of the greatest real-time needs of any
special event or emergency. That is tracking of key assets! For instance…
Where is the event leader ?
Where are the emergency vehicles ?
What is the weather at various points in the
country ?
Where is a mobile\base amateur station ?
Where is the hurricane ?
Where is my car now (if stolen) ?
Where is a DX station?
Where is a Jota scout station ?
To answer these questions, APRS is a full featured
automatic vehicle location and status reporting system too. All this is
happening here in Australia & all over the world on the country allocated APRS
simplex frequency Australia 145.175MHz.
PS: There are a few HF APRS Gateway`s
This is great for travel in the country HF-VHF
See the
world APRS frequency webpage here.
So if you have a Packet,SSTV,PSK-31 Radio Modem
or a soundcard interface then you can monitor the APRS traffic flow (VHF
1200bd Packet) activity.
The UI-View APRS software and maps are all free, but only for a hamradio
station with a Amateur Callsign
and no SWL or Commercial !.
See
the APRS stations list in Japan
See the
APRS stations list outside Japan
Return
to the APRS Page ...... Double click this line ..
Link
to: JA1OGS APRS-Link Page
Link to:
UI-View APRS Download Page
....Click the Icon to get Page hits info Worldwide