[aprssig] aprssig Digest, Vol 70, Issue 2

Sat Apr 3 20:41:00 UTC 2010

Dave,

See if you can hear and work my vhf/hf/tcpip gate located ln Pitt County NC. on 14,151 mhz.  Its up 24/7 - at least that is my goal.

73 KB4MK Michael 

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From:  aprssig-request at tapr.org
Subj:  aprssig Digest, Vol 70, Issue 2
Date:  Sat Apr 3, 2010 7:00 am
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Today's Topics:

   1. Re: Cross-Band Digi or Gate? (Dave Skolnick)
   2. New Twist on APRN! (Stephen H. Smith)
   3. New Twist on APRN! - Field Test (Stephen H. Smith)
   4. APRSPad in the app store (Gregg Wonderly)
   5. Re: APRSPad in the app store (Scott Miller)

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

Message: 1
Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2010 08:26:20 -0400
From: Dave Skolnick <dskolnick at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [aprssig] Cross-Band Digi or Gate?
To: aprssig at tapr.org
Message-ID:
	<w2ke1713a6d1004020526n433df7e6hacb3095273b3f88a at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

> The real question, though, ?is: Will the locals in these various remote
> VHF areas appreciate having random "DX" stations from hundreds (or
> thousands) of miles away suddenly appearing on their local 2-meter
> channel???

True. How about local stations. Might there be valid reasons for
gating reasonably close HF stations?

Anyone who cares where I am while halfway between Bermuda and Norfolk
can, as you say, use APRS-IS to locate me based on an HF signal that
is gated to the IS somewhere. As I proceed up the Chesapeake Bay
toward home in Annapolis however it might be appropriate for HF/VHF/IS
stations to gate my position to local RF.

Since a minute (of latitude) is a mile you could gate any HF station
within 2 degrees of latitude AND 3 degrees of longitude to local VHF
RF.

Just a thought, if processing power allows.

73 es sail fast, dave KO4MI

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

Message: 2
Date: Fri, 02 Apr 2010 17:16:39 -0700
From: "Stephen H. Smith" <wa8lmf2 at aol.com>
Subject: [aprssig] New Twist on APRN!
To: TAPR APRS Mailing List <aprssig at tapr.org>
Message-ID: <4BB688E7.8020402 at aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

I have been implementing APRN - Automatic Picture Reporting Network 
(combined SSTV and APRS) using various hardware TNCs to decode the Mic-E 
position burst, following the SSTV transmission decoded by the PC sound 
card running mmSSTV.    This has meant various messy forked audio cables 
to supply the same RX audio to the TNC and to the computer sound card.   
(Of course the lazy but expensive way to do this would be to tie up a 
D700 so that it's internal TNC, and computer sound card via the mini-DIN 
"data" jack,  can hear the same RX audio. But you would still need a 
serial port on the PC.)

I just redid my Ham "Super Server" software that runs three instances of 
UIview for my personal APRS webserver, mmSSTV and another instance of 
UIview for the APRN system on UHF, and Echolink on UHF.     Details here:

    <http://wa8lmf.net/EPIAserver> 

The APRN gateway and the Echolink node have always shared a single radio 
and UHF RF channel.  However, in the past I was running TWO sound 
systems (one for mmSSTV and a second one for Echolink) -AND- a KPC3+ for 
the APRN packet bursts.

During the upgrade of the operating system from Windows 2000 to WinXP 
SP3, I accidentally discovered that unlike Win 2000, XP can allow MORE 
THAN ONE APPLICATION TO USE THE SAME SOUND CARD AT THE SAME TIME!

I now am running a totally software-based APRN  setup.  I have a radio 
connected to the sound system LINE input and LINE output of a Dell L866r 
mini-tower PC. [This is a 866 MHz Pentium III PC running WinXP SP3 in 
512K RAM; i.e. not a bleeding-edge super-screamer maxed-out 
machine.]       The same RX audio from the same sound card input is 
being used simultaneously by mmSSTY, the AGW Packet Engine soft TNC for 
packet, -AND- Echolink ! 

It really works!    The transmitted SSTV pics show up in mmSSTV.  The 
packet bursts decoded by AGWpe show up on the UIview map.  The Windows 
Task Manager shows only about 10-15% CPU utilization and only about 320K 
RAM in use.  And NO serial ports or pain-in-the-neck USB<-->serial 
dongles required!

Running Echolink was the ultimate torture test of this sound card 
sharing.  In actual use, for the receive-only APRN setup, I will be 
running a Bearcat 760 scanner's "tape recording" output into the PC 
sound system with "just" AGW  and mmSSTV sharing the single sound card 
as a turnkey ready-to-go APRN package. 

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

-- 

Stephen H. Smith    wa8lmf (at) aol.com
EchoLink Node:      WA8LMF  or 14400    [Think bottom of the 2M band]
Skype:        WA8LMF
Home Page:          http://wa8lmf.net

NEW!    Universal HF/VHF/UHF Antenna Mounting System
 http://wa8lmf.net/mobile/UniversalAntMountSystem.htm

"APRS 101"  Explanation of APRS Path Selection & Digipeating
 http://wa8lmf.net/DigiPaths

Updated "Rev H" APRS            http://wa8lmf.net/aprs
Symbols Set for UI-View,
UIpoint and APRSplus:

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

Message: 3
Date: Fri, 02 Apr 2010 18:32:02 -0700
From: "Stephen H. Smith" <wa8lmf2 at aol.com>
Subject: [aprssig] New Twist on APRN! - Field Test
To: TAPR APRS Mailing List <aprssig at tapr.org>
Message-ID: <4BB69A92.3040801 at aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Stephen H. Smith wrote:
>
>
> I now am running a totally software-based APRN  setup.  I have a radio 
> connected to the sound system LINE input and LINE output of a Dell 
> L866r mini-tower PC. [This is a 866 MHz Pentium III PC running WinXP 
> SP3 in 512K RAM; i.e. not a bleeding-edge super-screamer maxed-out 
> machine.]       The same RX audio from the same sound card input is 
> being used simultaneously by mmSSTY, the AGW Packet Engine soft TNC 
> for packet, -AND- Echolink !
> It really works!    The transmitted SSTV pics show up in mmSSTV.  The 
> packet bursts decoded by AGWpe show up on the UIview map.  The Windows 
> Task Manager shows only about 10-15% CPU utilization and only about 
> 320K RAM in use.  And NO serial ports or pain-in-the-neck 
> USB<-->serial dongles required!
>

I went out for a one-mile walk around the neighborhood to test the setup 
over-the-air "foot-mobile".    Hand-portable setup was Kenwood TH-D7 
with Garmin Foretrex 201 GPS velcroed to it.      A Kenwood VC-H1 
hand-held SSTV device was connected to the D7 with it's stock (awful) 
camera head replaced with the NTSC output of a Canon Powershot A520 
digital camera.  Antenna was a Diamond SRH77ca dual-band SMA-based whip 
that is a full 19" quarterwave on 2 meters, counterpoised with a 
flexible 19-inch "rat-tail" dangling from the hand-held at the antenna 
base. (Soldered 19" of very flexible headphone cable from some dead 
earbuds to a 1/4" ring terminal, and slipped the ring over the D7's SMA 
connector before screwing on the whip.).  The radio was on a belt-clip 
on my waist; i.e. not being held up in the air. 

For this test run, I placed a Yahoo! satellite photo of the neighborhood 
underneath the vector mapping data from Precision Mapping 8.1 in UIview.

Here are the results of the pure software-based APRN system:   

    <http://wa8lmf.net/aprn>   

Click on link for "Go to live picture list".  Then scroll down list to 
bottom for today's transmissions (2 April 2010).  Note that current 
versions of Internet Explorer and Firefox try to downsize the oversized 
map images to fit.  Just click in the map picture somewhere to restore 
to full size.  

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

--

Stephen H. Smith    wa8lmf (at) aol.com
EchoLink Node:      WA8LMF  or 14400    [Think bottom of the 2M band]
Skype:        WA8LMF
Home Page:          http://wa8lmf.net

NEW!    Universal HF/VHF/UHF Antenna Mounting System
  http://wa8lmf.net/mobile/UniversalAntMountSystem.htm

"APRS 101"  Explanation of APRS Path Selection & Digipeating
  http://wa8lmf.net/DigiPaths

Updated "Rev H" APRS            http://wa8lmf.net/aprs
Symbols Set for UI-View,
UIpoint and APRSplus:

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

Message: 4
Date: Sat, 03 Apr 2010 00:41:33 -0500
From: Gregg Wonderly <gregg at wonderly.org>
Subject: [aprssig] APRSPad in the app store
To: TAPR APRS Mailing List <aprssig at tapr.org>
Message-ID: <4BB6D50D.7040903 at wonderly.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

I've been spending some time putting together an iPad app for APRS, and I've 
submitted it to the app store today.  This application still has some growing to 
do, to cover all the features that I want to support.  You can find some 
additional information about it on the web at http://www.wonderly.org/aprspad.

The application will not be free.  I chose to charge a nominal cost to try and 
encourage people to participate with an interest rather than just conversation.

Here's what's there right now.

1. map display (of course)
2. icon aging using alpha levels
3. messaging review
4. bulletin/announcement board display
5. APRS-IS connectivity with filters you can setup as well as just establish
    based on where you've zoomed on the map.
6. Simple weather text review with linking to aprs.fi for historical data review
7. Station data review via findu.com

There are some other bits and pieces that will be visible and I'll work on 
describing them on the web site.

Gregg Wonderly
W5GGW

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

Message: 5
Date: Fri, 02 Apr 2010 22:50:51 -0700
From: Scott Miller <scott at opentrac.org>
Subject: Re: [aprssig] APRSPad in the app store
To: TAPR APRS Mailing List <aprssig at tapr.org>
Message-ID: <4BB6D73B.1020306 at opentrac.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Where does the map data come from?  If this works well it might actually 
give me a reason to buy an iPad.

Scott
N1VG

Gregg Wonderly wrote:
> I've been spending some time putting together an iPad app for APRS, and 
> I've submitted it to the app store today.  This application still has 
> some growing to do, to cover all the features that I want to support.  
> You can find some additional information about it on the web at 
> http://www.wonderly.org/aprspad.
> 
> The application will not be free.  I chose to charge a nominal cost to 
> try and encourage people to participate with an interest rather than 
> just conversation.
> 
> Here's what's there right now.
> 
> 1. map display (of course)
> 2. icon aging using alpha levels
> 3. messaging review
> 4. bulletin/announcement board display
> 5. APRS-IS connectivity with filters you can setup as well as just 
> establish
>    based on where you've zoomed on the map.
> 6. Simple weather text review with linking to aprs.fi for historical 
> data review
> 7. Station data review via findu.com
> 
> There are some other bits and pieces that will be visible and I'll work 
> on describing them on the web site.
> 
> Gregg Wonderly
> W5GGW
> 
> _______________________________________________
> aprssig mailing list
> aprssig at tapr.org
> https://www.tapr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/aprssig
> 
> 

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

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