[K3CAL] APRS and Packet Radio, today. (WAS: Borrowing the APRS digipeater)

[Eric Christensen]

On 05/13/2016 10:01 PM, Rich Weaver wrote:
> Can I ask a question about APRS?
> What and how is it used?

Automatic Packet Reporting System[0] (APRS) uses unproto packets to 
broadcast a variety of information out over several "hops" using 
digipeaters.  Based on the rest of your message I suspect you'll 
immediately cringe at the idea of using digipeaters and unproto paths to 
move information as nodes and point-to-point communications are MUCH 
more efficient/reliable.  That said, APRS actually works fairly well and 
is somewhat fault-tolerant since the information is refreshed every few 
minutes.

APRS is mostly used to track the location of users[1] which is 
unfortunate since there are many other objectives that can be used with 
APRS including messaging, obtaining local information regarding 
repeaters (and other objects of interest).

You can have keyboard-to-keyboard QSOs over APRS.[2]

> Back in the late 80’s I was very involved in Packet Radio and used
> several type of packet modems.
> Back then it was basically used for a QSO or a message delivered to a
> mail box. I could send my son who is
> also a ham in Cleveland a message from Waldorf. Since the communication
> revolution and smart phones
> just how is packet radio used today? I have been out of the loop for
> quite sometime.

*Sigh*

Yeah, I miss the days of packet radio networks.[3][4]  I sat on a 
1200-baud VHF LAN that connected to a 9600-baud UHF WAN connection that 
connected me to the rest of the world.  I was only a few hops away from 
a full-duplex, 19,200-baud link (read that as FAST!) that ran from 
Roanoke Rapids, NC to Norfolk, VA where a slow-but-reliable 300-baud HF 
connection connected me to Europe.

Keyboard-to-keyboard operations were prevalent as was BBS traffic moving 
personal messages, NTS traffic, and bulletins of all topics around.  I 
really do miss those days.  There are a few folks still using packet 
radio to chat.  Virginia has a pretty decent network.[5]  I hosted a FBB 
BBS on that network to bridge the NTS digital network (NTSD[6]) with the 
rest of Virginia until I moved up here.  I think Bob over in Charles 
County (sorry, I can't recall his callsign at the moment) is running a 
BPQ BBS[7] with VHF and UHF LANs.  I think he was planning an HF 
connection as well but I'm not sure what his plans were for linking 
outside of the area.  Might be fun to put something up over here and 
link back to him.

This is where I'd like to point out one of the coolest packet networks 
I've ever had the opportunity to play on.  In central California there 
are twelve KA-Nodes setup in somewhat of a ring[8].  To make it work you 
figure out where on the ring you are and start entering the nodes in the 
ring into your unproto path.  What ends up happening is whatever you 
type (unproto) gets passed around the ring and if you can hear the last 
KA-Node in the ring then you get to hear your message come full circle 
(literally!).  They have a net on that network and folks hang their PBBS 
off of it (no BBS-to-BBS connections, only keyboard ops).  With 92 
regular users of the network you're libel to find someone hanging around 
at all hours.  :)

Hope this helps and perhaps stirs up some interest.

73,
Eric WG3K

[0] http://aprs.org/
[1] http://aprs.fi/#!lat=38.68583&lng=-76.53433
[2] http://aprs.org/aprs-messaging.html
[3] http://www.ipass.net/teara/index2.html
[4] https://www.tapr.org/pr_intro.html
[5] http://vden.org/
[6] http://nts-digital.net/mw/index.php/Main_Page
[7] http://www.cantab.net/users/john.wiseman/Documents/index.html
[8] http://www.varmintal.com/ahamp.htm