[CALV-AUXCOMM] APRS Class

[Shawn Donley]

All,


I just received this info from Steve, KC3DSO.  Looks like a good opportunity to learn about APRS and supporting equipment.


Shawn


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


FWARC is hosting a nice APRS Class. The class description is:


Southern Maryland Amateur Radio Club Presents APRS 101 Gordon is area renowned for his in depth knowledge of APRS. The program will consist of his “APRS 101” discussion followed by a practical demonstration of the APRS network. He will talk about KISS mode and APRS Software, like ARPSIS32 that he uses for IGate and Digi. 


• When - Friday February 9, 2018 

• Where - District 5 Prince George’s County Police station auditorium (enter through the rear doors.) • Address - 6707 Groveton Drive, Clinton, MD 20735 

• Time - 7:15 PM - 9:30 PM 


Specific hardware will be: Kenwood TM-D710 (A and GA) and Kenwood TH-D72a Any other radio with APRS capability, including Yaesu HT’s and FTM-400R Bring along your equipment so you can optimize your APRS settings and be part of the practial demonstration 


Info Gordon also went over these topics in a previous class:

We will explore the properties of the several integrated APRS mobile and portable radios, their features, limitations, and configuration options.  We expect that the participants will have their radios with them in the classroom with good batteries and spares for practical exercises. 

After the HT’s are configured and playing nicely in the network, we plan to go outdoors and work on integration of mobile units that the participants have with them. 

It should be noted that, in a serious emergency, any two-meter FM transceiver can be pressed into service in the APRS network, whether or not it has any data communication features.  It simply needs FM voice on the APRS network frequency of 144.390MHz and a PL tone of 100.0 Hz on transmission. 

We will demonstrate a proposal to adopt APRS Voice Alert as a last-ditch “party line,” where APRS stations will be able to receive voice and data transmissions on the frequency.  Voice stations will be able to listen for APRS data packets from Voice Alert stations and contact them with a voice transmission. 

Throughout the session, we will emphasize the requirement for correct formatting of APRS beacons to enable the more advanced and very useful features APRS. 



Please pass this along. This is a great class. Even if folks don't have radios/gear we will have a lot of stuff there for folks to play with.


73

Steven Keller
KC3DSO
PG-ARES
ASSISTANT EMERGENCY COORDINATOR - OPERATIONS