[aprssig] Aprs and Repeater Controllers

[Wes Johnston, AI4PX]

What happens when AI4PX comes through your town?  Have you got enough
inputs for that?  I think people might get tired of hearing "AI4PX is
on aprs" every 120 seconds when my car squawks.

You might want to check into a text to speech chip like speakjet.

http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=9578
http://www.magnevation.com/SpeakJet.swf

As I recall it has a TTL output that indicates speaking, so that could
cause  the PTT to trip on the repeater.  Perhaps it could be wired
into an auxlilary audio input.

Wes


On 2010-07-16, Radio Guy <ve3sne at gmail.com> wrote:
> Has anyone found a way of connecting an Aprs program to a repeater
> controller?
> This is what I was thinking; what if we had a list of calls that we wanted
> to know when they came close to a certain point, and when they did, have
> that call announced on the local VHF repeater.
>
> If there was a client program that would check calls against a list, when
> heard, that call would cause a pin to go "high" on a serial port of the Aprs
> computer. The port would be interfaced to the input port of the VHF
> repeater. A macro could be wrote to respond to the change in input. For
> example when pin one goes high execute macro that says " VE3 ABC mobile".
> When pin two goes high execute macro that says " VE3 DEF mobile". The macro
> on the controller could be wrote to only respond to so many "inputs" or
> beacons per hour, and when the message was announced.
> I was thinking of interfacing to serial cards, but if the Aprs client
> program was written to interface to a USB port then we would need a USB
> break out box, that would allow more outputs, more calls to be announced.
> We could use this to make the voice repeater users aware of what was
> happening on Aprs by hearing different calls, and stations at  certain
> coordinates.
> The only limiting factors would be how many options the Aprs client could
> look for, Ex call-1, call-2, call-1 at lat and long, exclude call-3 if not
> moving in "X" minutes AND how many outputs we could get, AND how many inputs
> the VHF controller could deal with.
> There is probably a better way of interfacing Aprs to voice repeaters, but
> this method would be automatic and with a creative macro the voice repeater
> could say: " VE3ABC is Aprs mobile."
> In my area Vhf repeaters and Aprs are worlds apart.
> Just a note that I made up these calls!!!!
> Just an idea on a hot afternoon.
>
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> -------------------------------------------
> Ken
>


-- 
Wes
---
God help those who do not help themselves.