HOW
TO SHOW UP ON AN APRS MAP
de WB4APR
AND
HOW TO BE SEEN BY Kenwood MOBILES and HT’s:
APRS
only has three types of packets, POSITION, STATUS and Messages.
MESSAGES:
APRS messages are easy. Just begin your packet line with a
Colon,
a 9 character TOADDRESS and another colon and then the text.
Example: :ALL------:Everyone will capture this 64
byte message text.
The “------“
are six blank spaces to pad the 9 character TOCALL field.
We use
ALL, because if you use individual callsigns, then ONLY that
Person will
see the message, and all other Kenwoods will totally
Ignore the
packet. This is not good for just
reading the mail.
POSITION: The simplest human generated APRS
position report is to include
a gridsqare
in your packet. The easy way for this
to show up in all of
your
packets is to put it in your UNPROTO path.
There are a few other
suggestions
that will assure that your packet is visible by the
largest
number of monitoring stations.
1)
Include either your Gridsquare or Name in your UNPROTO path:
UNPROTO CQ VIA ARISS,GG##GG ç GG##GG is your gridsquare
UNPROTO CQ VIA ARISS,GG##GG,Bryant ç To
also include your name
2) Use
the TOCALL of CQ as shown above so that Kenwoods and many versions
of APRS
software will not ignore your packets as being to someone else.
STATUS:
At the start of each line, type a “>” character at the beginning of
your
text. This causes the packet to be
recognized as an APRS STATUS
type
packet and it will thus be captured on all APRS systems, including
the
Kenwood radios for display. For example:
| |
Hi All.
Kenwood guys| won’t s|ee this…
>Hi all, includng you| kenwood| guys…
| |
Using
the above steps will assure that the largest number of people
Listening
to the downlink will see your packets. The vertical marks
Show the
20 and 28 character limit of what is displayed on the HT and
on the
Mobile rig. Another thing that is
missing is that the non (G)
model Kenwoods
will not parse the grid Position, although they will
display
it. We hope all other APRS software will
too. Also, you cannot
send
your Type of station ICON this way.
POSITION
AND STATUS: The best way to send a packet including GRID
SQUARE
and
ICON and status is to type the format
>GG##GG/- … at the start of
every
line. This transmits the GRID and your ICON
(/-) in the standard
APRS
format for display on all systems including the 20 or 28 character
status
A
subset of those ICONS thought to be useful for this ISS experiment
are
listed below. To appear as something
other than a HOUSE, simply
replace
the "/-" shown in the example grid square example with
one of
the following pairs:
/- House with VHF vertical* \-
House with HF dipole*
\+ Church /+
Red Cross
/, Boy Scouts \, Girl Scouts
/; Campground* \;
Park/Picnic area*
/< Motorcycle* /=
RAILROAD ENGINE
/> CAR* /C
Canoe
\C Coast Guard /E
EYEBALL
/H HOTEL
/K School
\L Lighthouse /`
Dish Antenna
/N NTS Station \N
Floating Buoy
/O BALLOON /*
SnowMobile
/R REC. VEHICLE* \R
Restaurant
/S SHUTTLE
\S Satellite/Pacsat
/T SSTV* /U
BUS*
/V Amateur TV* /X
HELO
/Y Sailboat* /[
Jogger, walker or runner*
/^ LARGE AIRCRAFT* /' Small
AIRCRAFT
/a AMBULANCE* \a
ARRL ARES etc
/b BIKE* /d
Fire dept
/e HORSE /f
FIRE TRUCK*
/g Glider /h
HOSPITAL
\h HAM store /i IOTA
(islands on the air)
/j JEEP* /k
TRUCK*
/o EOC /p
ROVER (puppy)
/r ANTENNA /s
SHIP (power boat)*
/u TRUCK (18 wheeler)* /v VAN*
(*)
NOTE. The subset of ICONS marked with a
(*) will actually
show on
the Kenwood D7 and D700 front panel displays.
For more information about APRS on the International Space Station, see the APRS-ON-ISS-FAQ file