APRS is a registered trademark Bob Bruninga, WB4APR Copyright © 2004 – Peter Loveall AE5PL All Rights Reserved APRS in North Texas Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

APRS is a registered trademark Bob Bruninga, WB4APR Copyright © 2004 – Peter Loveall AE5PL All Rights Reserved Beginnings DFW AX.25 packet forays –TheNet –RoseNet –TexNet –IP –DX Clusters

APRS is a registered trademark Bob Bruninga, WB4APR Copyright © 2004 – Peter Loveall AE5PL All Rights Reserved APRS – The Early Days RF Only Spotty WIDE coverage Experimental Few operators (< 10)

APRS is a registered trademark Bob Bruninga, WB4APR Copyright © 2004 – Peter Loveall AE5PL All Rights Reserved APRS Grows KC5GOI IGate Multiple WIDEn-n Coverage RF trackers Weather stations 30 – 40 hams active in the area

APRS is a registered trademark Bob Bruninga, WB4APR Copyright © 2004 – Peter Loveall AE5PL All Rights Reserved APRS Today Full area coverage by WIDEn-n digis Full area coverage by IGates 120+ stations active at any one time Experimental status on no longer possible

APRS is a registered trademark Bob Bruninga, WB4APR Copyright © 2004 – Peter Loveall AE5PL All Rights Reserved WIDEn-n Coverage

APRS is a registered trademark Bob Bruninga, WB4APR Copyright © 2004 – Peter Loveall AE5PL All Rights Reserved WIDEn-n Coverage

APRS is a registered trademark Bob Bruninga, WB4APR Copyright © 2004 – Peter Loveall AE5PL All Rights Reserved APRS Future Congestion Prevention Paths Beacon Rates RF = Tactical Internet = Strategic

APRS is a registered trademark Bob Bruninga, WB4APR Copyright © 2004 – Peter Loveall AE5PL All Rights Reserved APRS Path Settings RELAY – Only use as first entry in path WIDE – Should only appear once as first or second entry WIDEn-n – Should only appear once as first or second entry TRACEn-n – For temporary experimentation only GATE – Means “gate packet to HF” NOGATE, RFONLY – Means “don’t gate to Internet” TCPIP, TCPXX, qXX – APRS-IS only, not used on RF

APRS is a registered trademark Bob Bruninga, WB4APR Copyright © 2004 – Peter Loveall AE5PL All Rights Reserved Why are the next slides so important? Only 49 out of 131 stations are within 1 (or 2) digi hops Average packet length on RF is about 82 bytes Average time for packet transmission is about 1 second (using about.4 startup/end time) Average beacon rate – 10 minutes 131*3*4 = 1572 seconds 30 minutes = 1800 seconds

APRS is a registered trademark Bob Bruninga, WB4APR Copyright © 2004 – Peter Loveall AE5PL All Rights Reserved Paths Fixed Stations – Digi,WIDE – Digi = nearest digi Mobile Stations – RELAY,WIDE Airmobile Stations – WIDE Special Event Stations – RELAY Digis – None

APRS is a registered trademark Bob Bruninga, WB4APR Copyright © 2004 – Peter Loveall AE5PL All Rights Reserved Beacon Rates Fixed Stations – 20 minutes Mobile Stations – 3 minutes Airmobile Stations – 5 minutes Special Event Stations – 3 minutes Digis – 20 minutes Wx Stations – 5 to 15 minutes

APRS is a registered trademark Bob Bruninga, WB4APR Copyright © 2004 – Peter Loveall AE5PL All Rights Reserved Shared Frequency Use Frequency congestion –WIDE7-7 or TRACE7-7 –30 second or faster beacon rate APRS is designed as a tactical communications Backbone structure for strategic messaging Shared frequency, no one station “most important”

APRS is a registered trademark Bob Bruninga, WB4APR Copyright © 2004 – Peter Loveall AE5PL All Rights Reserved To Digi or Not to Digi Mobile/Portable RELAY digi ONLY for special events. Home RELAY digi only if area of coverage not well covered by WIDEn-n digi WIDEn-n only in coordination with other WIDEn-n sysops

APRS is a registered trademark Bob Bruninga, WB4APR Copyright © 2004 – Peter Loveall AE5PL All Rights Reserved APRS Special Uses Skywarn Bicycle Rides Marathons Balloon Fests Voice for sound, APRS for visual

APRS is a registered trademark Bob Bruninga, WB4APR Copyright © 2004 – Peter Loveall AE5PL All Rights Reserved TNC Settings No headers No echo No filters AEA TNC’s- Set BBSMSGS ON OR – Use KISS mode

APRS is a registered trademark Bob Bruninga, WB4APR Copyright © 2004 – Peter Loveall AE5PL All Rights Reserved Q & A Peter Loveall