Amateur Radio FAQ

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  • kshaw

    Active Member
    Nov 21, 2012
    310
    Gaithersburg, MD
    APRS Questions:
    I am interested in setting up an APRS weather station on a lake area powered by solar. Can APRS be easily modified to report lake water temperature in addition to the standard reporting items?
    Are there any pilots here using APRS to send email and text messages while in flight?
     

    MigraineMan

    Ultimate Member
    Jun 9, 2011
    19,109
    Frederick County
    APRS Questions:
    I am interested in setting up an APRS weather station on a lake area powered by solar. Can APRS be easily modified to report lake water temperature in addition to the standard reporting items?
    Are there any pilots here using APRS to send email and text messages while in flight?
    Yes, you can create a custom Telemetry packet and include a field identifying what the reported value represents. (ref. page 68, Chapter 13 of the packet format spec.) I've built a number of Cubesat payloads that do just that - they report all manner of non-standard values like battery charging currents and solar panel voltages.

    APRS really isn't an email transport mechanism. Does well for brief messages that don't have a timely-response requirement.
     

    Hibs

    Active Member
    Dec 23, 2015
    965
    Maryland
    License Exams are being conducted in two weeks, on Tuesday evening, October 26, 2021 at 5:45 PM, by the Maryland Mobileers Amateur Radio Club.

    Location:
    National Electronics Museum
    1745 West Nursery Road
    Linthicum Heights, MD 21090

    Walk-ins ARE accepted, but pre-registration is preferred (streamlines the sign-up process and speeds things up for everyone).
    For pre-registration, please see this page:
    https://sites.google.com/view/mmarcveteam/pre-registration

    Two things to know:

    1) Due to Northup-Grumman's corporate directives, masks must be worn while inside the museum.

    2) IF YOU ARE SITTING ON THE FENCE WITH GETTING LICENSED - DO IT THIS YEAR. Starting in 2022, the FCC will be instituting a $35.00 charge for testing/licensing. This fee is NOT for the local VE teams or the clubs that run it, it is an FCC thing. DO IT NOW.
    .
    .

    Bookmarking this as a reminder for myself. I’ve been putting this off for too long. Looks like I need to study up this weekend.
     

    kshaw

    Active Member
    Nov 21, 2012
    310
    Gaithersburg, MD
    Yes, you can create a custom Telemetry packet and include a field identifying what the reported value represents. (ref. page 68, Chapter 13 of the packet format spec.) I've built a number of Cubesat payloads that do just that - they report all manner of non-standard values like battery charging currents and solar panel voltages.

    APRS really isn't an email transport mechanism. Does well for brief messages that don't have a timely-response requirement.
    I have used it before for email and SMS messages. I forgot where I found information on the gateways.
     

    E.Shell

    Ultimate Member
    Feb 5, 2007
    10,245
    Mid-Merlind
    Bump again, exams THIS Tuesday.
    Bumping this - exams next Tuesday.
    License Exams are being conducted in two weeks, on Tuesday evening, October 26, 2021 at 5:45 PM, by the Maryland Mobileers Amateur Radio Club.

    Location:
    National Electronics Museum
    1745 West Nursery Road
    Linthicum Heights, MD 21090

    Walk-ins ARE accepted, but pre-registration is preferred (streamlines the sign-up process and speeds things up for everyone).
    For pre-registration, please see this page:
    https://sites.google.com/view/mmarcveteam/pre-registration

    Two things to know:

    1) Due to Northup-Grumman's corporate directives, masks must be worn while inside the museum.

    2) IF YOU ARE SITTING ON THE FENCE WITH GETTING LICENSED - DO IT THIS YEAR. Starting in 2022, the FCC will be instituting a $35.00 charge for testing/licensing. This fee is NOT for the local VE teams or the clubs that run it, it is an FCC thing. DO IT NOW.
    .
    .

    Bookmarking this as a reminder for myself. I’ve been putting this off for too long. Looks like I need to study up this weekend.
    Good, I hope you make it out and wish you luck on your exam(s)!!
     

    MigraineMan

    Ultimate Member
    Jun 9, 2011
    19,109
    Frederick County
    I have used it before for email and SMS messages. I forgot where I found information on the gateways.

    You *can* use it for email, but it's not really *good* at that. APRS is a "connectionless" transport structure that relies on statistics to get a message from Alex to Barbara without the need for centralized resources to route traffic. It's the embodiment of "spray and pray." When Cmdr. Bruninga created APRS, his objective was to get information from anywhere to anywhere with no other planning/coordinating resources required.

    Smaller messages have a larger probability of successful delivery because they present a smaller cross-section for collision with another message - there's no flow control, no collision detection/avoidance, and any packets with an invalid checksum are discarded. As traffic on a net increases, so do the number of collisions. Larger messages take the brunt of the channel degradation first. Ultimately, there's a traffic load point where no messages get through.

    So while there are gateways and bridges, APRS is a sub-optimal protocol for certain payloads like email. (I'm making a distinction that "email" contains a larger message-body and potential file attachments.)
     

    BFMIN

    Ultimate Member
    Nov 5, 2010
    2,767
    Eastern shore
    Question, not really Ham, but radio related.
    Whats the "short form" of all the changing of FRS/GMRS allocations?
    I blew the output of one of my FRS/GMRS radios (it no longer transmits anything including call beeps) & it sounds like they've basically rolled FRS into GMRS & added a set of 3 repeater channels?
    Or am I missing something.
     

    BFMIN

    Ultimate Member
    Nov 5, 2010
    2,767
    Eastern shore
    Question, not really Ham, but radio related.
    Whats the "short form" of all the changing of FRS/GMRS allocations?
    I blew the output of one of my FRS/GMRS radios (MidlGXT650) and (it no longer transmits anything, including call beeps) & it sounds like they've basically rolled FRS into GMRS & added a set of 3 repeater channels?
    Or am I missing something?
     

    K31

    "Part of that Ultra MAGA Crowd"
    MDS Supporter
    Jan 15, 2006
    35,632
    AA county
    Not sure if this belongs here or it's own thread, but I feel like I'd get a better response from yous types:

    Do you listen to, or know of, any shortwave stations?

    I'm having trouble finding a good accurate list from google.

    This was asked a while ago and I gave the list (paid) I use but I found this site today and I thought I'd post it. It seems to be mainly national or commercial sites (versus .mil or clandestine ones) but it's free and seems fairly comprehensive.

    https://short-wave.info/
     

    K31

    "Part of that Ultra MAGA Crowd"
    MDS Supporter
    Jan 15, 2006
    35,632
    AA county
    Its short wave (HF) isn't what it once was. Much less government traffic since the Cold War ended

    I think it's .mil and .gov rely (too heavily, IMHO) on satcomms, have alternate means (Algore's Internet goes many more places), and what's left is encrypted in proprietary ways.
     

    Mark75H

    MD Wear&Carry Instructor
    Industry Partner
    MDS Supporter
    Sep 25, 2011
    17,174
    Outside the Gates
    HF isn't that reliable due to atmospheric conditions. Satcomms work everyday, all day regardless of how much atmosperic reflection there is
     

    K31

    "Part of that Ultra MAGA Crowd"
    MDS Supporter
    Jan 15, 2006
    35,632
    AA county
    HF isn't that reliable due to atmospheric conditions. Satcomms work everyday, all day regardless of how much atmosperic reflection there is

    Yeah, and they are vulnerable to attack, CMEs, take time to replace.
     

    K31

    "Part of that Ultra MAGA Crowd"
    MDS Supporter
    Jan 15, 2006
    35,632
    AA county
    Bob Buringa, Creator of APRS - SK

    From the ARRL:

    APRS Developer Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, SK

    02/09/2022

    The creator of the Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS), Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, of Glen Burnie, Maryland, died on February 7. An ARRL Life Member, Bruninga was 73. According to his daughter, Bruninga succumbed to cancer and the effects of COVID-19. Bruninga had announced his cancer diagnosis in 2020. Over the years, he readily shared his broad knowledge of and experience with APRS, among other topics in the amateur radio and electronics fields.
     

    Baccusboy

    Teecha, teecha
    Oct 10, 2010
    13,882
    Seoul
    Bob Heil's daughter sold the company to some longtime employees. Saw that in the ARRL news, today. Bob will still be around as an advisor emeritus.
     

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