Simple to Setup
Only a Callsign is required. To get on Air. To send to the internet a password is also required.
• Install the EXE file into a suitable directory, preferably NOT under the Windows Managed folders (ie Windows or Program Files).
• When you run APRSISCE/32, the program is configured with all the basic settings to enable immediate operation using internet connectivity.
• Enter your callsign and passcode (Obtain from Lynn for free) in the Configure Screen.
• Zoom your map to where you are located.
• Then choose the Transmit option, and Centre ME Here Yes..
• You are on “the Air”and should show up in Aprs.fi, or findu.com.
For a view of the software in use Julian G4ILO's videos are essential viewing Port Setup and First Use
APRS-IS
Internet Connectivity can be enabled or disabled when required.
Being connected to the internet is NOT critical to the operation of the program that is it will work if not connected.
Being connected provides two main functions;
• Access to messages, objects and station information from out of RF range of your location.
• Access to update detailed Open Street Map (OSM), maps for the area you have on your screen. You can see OSM maps that have been previously downloaded from the internet,
or OSM maps saved from another program that uses the same maps.
Center on Station
Tracking of moving station on map.
The map will move to keep the station centred.
Provides the ability to gain situational awareness of the area around a station, and any information that the station has transmitted.
Station display
Choose numerous different views of stations and objects. for example view by symbol
Metric/Imperial
Configure for your local unit of distance, altitude and speed etc. Altitude,Distance,speed,temperature and rainfall
Tracking
Path of Travel can be shown on the map. Moving station will leave a track on the map
Telemetry
Access to sending and receiving telemetry data.
APRS has a method of specifying what all the telemetry information means. This is done by means of an APRS message, which is addressed to the digipeater itself and transmitted as a beacon.
If the APRS program you use supports it, it will show the telemetry data with the correct labels and units. It can even do some equations and determine if a '1' bit in a binary value means 'active' or 'inactive'.
Messaging
Very flexible and easy to use Chat system. Can be easily used for messaging via Satellite.
Messages can be sent directly from the keyboard, and sent to other stations, either locally or on the other side of the world.
The messages can be used to find out the name of an operator from QRZ.com, send an email (short) or interrogate a service such as satellite predictions.
The message window allows entering of up to 300 characters, which are split automatically into 64 character APRS messages.
The message system has the ability to turn of Ack and send RF only especially useful for satellite use.
Announcements
Flexible monitoring of the ANSRVR System. Used to send and receive to multiple users.
Find out about what is happening “NOW” be it a balloon launch, or someone listening on an echolink or IRLP node, or even a satellite launch.
Send alerts to like minded indivduals
Bulletins
Simple to use info broadcast system. Can be used to send local or global information
Setup and activate information about your local repeater, or local club, have the info sent routinely with selectable time frame..
All this is about letting PEOPLE know what is going on, encouraging an awareness of the local area, or seeing what is going on in a distant local area.
Open Source Maps
Free configurable detailed and fully scalable map source. Users can edit the maps at the OSM site
OpenStreetMap (OSM) follows a similar concept as Wikipedia does, but for maps and other geographic facts. People gather location data from a variety of sources such as recordings from GPS devices, from free satellite imagery or simply from knowing an area, and upload this data to OpenStreetMap. The uploaded data can be further modified, corrected and enriched by anyone who notices missing facts or errors
Map Preload/Cache
In an RF-only APRS environment, it would still be nice to see the OSM map tiles; hence the prefetch option.
To use it, simply zoom in or out and pan around until your map view shows the area whose maps you want to prefetch. Then simply select Screen/Map/Prefetch. APRSISCE/32 will calculate how many tiles will be necessary to have the current zoom and two additional zoom levels at the current size of your window. When you accept this confirmation, ALL of those tiles are queued for fetching and you get to watch an expanding circle moving slower than you've probably seen it move to date. Don't be alarmed if the number of tiles queued doesn't match the original estimate. The second number takes into account tiles that were already resident in your tile cache.
When you DO go mobile without an Internet connection, just toggle off Enables/OSM Fetch Enabled and APRSISCE/32 will not attempt to load any additional tiles. If you zoom in further than you did while prefetching, APRSISCE/32 will simply stretch the closest available tile resulting in a grainier looking map than you would otherwise have, but at least you have a map!
AGWPE
Use AGWPE single port for very flexible connection to TNCs
This program does all the traffic between the packet applications and your TNCs. It runs as an Icon. It has the capability to handle 100 tncs and 100 applications at the same time.
External TNC
Can use many different types of TNCs. Can put the TNC into and out of KISS mode
NMEA GPS
Can use separate GPS and integrated data stream. Can retrieve the NMEA data from a combine NMEA,APRS stream
APRS Radio
Can utilise APRS aware radios. Such as the Kenwood D710
Integrated Logging
Logging of many features available if required. Most data can be logged to aid debugging
GeniusBeaconing™
GeniusBeaconing™'s Forecast Error works by calculating where an outside observer would think you are based on your last beaconed speed and heading. It takes that last information and extends it by the time it has been since your last beacon to arrive at an expected lat/lon. This is compared to your actual lat/lon (which, of course, only you know at this point) to derive an error vector (distance and direction). The red dot is plotted inside the circle in that direction and scaled such that the circle is the configured Genius Forecast Error distance.
When the red dot hits the circle, the configured Forecast Error distance has been reached and a new beacon is sent (provided that at least the Min Time has been reached).
So, if you're driving along in a straight line at a steady speed, you won't see the red dot. (It's actually bouncing around a bit underneath your icon in the center of the circle).
If you slow down, that outside observer will still think you're driving fast and will have you further ahead of where you are and the red dot will start moving towards the top of the screen. If you then resume your original speed, the red dot will freeze at that distance ahead. If you go faster than your last beaconed speed the red dot will drift back to the center and will then start falling towards the bottom of the screen as your actual location gets ahead of where the elapsed-time forecast would place you.
Slight heading changes are even more fun. If you turn to the left (by less than the configured Heading Change or that will trigger a new beacon), the red dot will begin drifting to the right. Veer right and it will drift to the left. Resume straight line motion in the new heading and the dot will continue to drift as your actual location continues to get further away from the course indicated by the previously beaconed speed and heading.
IGate
Configurable Igate for sending and receiving messages, objects. To and from the interne
An IGate (Internet Gateway) has two functions: to pass all packets heard on RF to APRS-IS and to pass all message packets destined for local stations to RF (if a bidirectional IGate).
An IGate should be set for the minimum number of hops necessary to cover the intended area (both in the transmit path and what is considered a local station). It should only gate to RF for local stations heard within 1 hour (or less) and within the intended coverage area
Digipeater
Flexible Digi setup to meet local needs. Can be configure on an individual path basis
In order to extend the range of transmission, APRS uses a system known as digipeating - this operates like a voice repeater. Any packet that is received by a station that has an unused path is automatically retransmitted.
Update
Integrated updates with Internet access. Software downloads are announced and download within the software
WHO-IS
Click to find call details when online. Find contact details of a station. who-is uses data from the QRZ database
NWS
Mapping of Weather warning areas, for the USA and Australia.
QRU
Set up local objects that can be remotely queried. A built in very advanced object query system
The intention of QRU is to allow remote stations to send a query to the call QRU and retrieve objects of interest local to themselves, not necessarily local to the QRU server.
For example sending ?RPT2M to QRU (at least in the UK) will get the nearest 2M repeaters to your location, with the frequency and tone, in a format compatible with the tune function of some radios.
So send a query and you have all the local repeaters.
GeoNames.org
When clicking on a station and then lookup address APRSIS attempts to find the street address of the stations current location via Geonames
GeoNames is integrating geographical data such as names of places in various languages, elevation, population and others from various sources. All lat/long coordinates are in WGS84 (World Geodetic System 1984). Users may manually edit, correct and add new names using a user friendly wiki interface.
Direction-Finding
Pie shaped Direction Finding object that originates from your specified location and expands in the specified direction.
This direction is the bearing to the transmitter as determined by your DF equipment.
The shape is defined by
Bearing, Compass direction of the strongest signal heard.
Range, which is a judgment call based on s meter readings and experience.
Quality, How accurate is your DF equipment.
DFS
Places a circle around the location of your reading based on
Strength, S Meter Units.
HAAT, Height above AVERAGE terrain. (PHG)
Gain, The gain of your antenna.
Direct, Directionality of your antenna if any.
Multiline Objects
The APRS protocol defined support for reporting National Weather Service bulletins. This was fine for putting a text bulletin that would give a description of the warning, but APRS is about being able to map out things in a graphic fashion.
APRS has the ability to create area objects, but the area objects are limited to lines, boxes, circles, triangles, and ellipses.
NWS alert areas rarely nicely fit into the above defined shapes, thus the multiline definition was born.
The APRS multiline object definition is based on an APRS object, which is one of the basic building blocks of APRS. The multiline portion of the definition is encoded into the comment of the object.
Altitude and Range
When a Balloon launch is detected, well any altitude-transmitting station above your minimum altitude setting, a communication range (footprint) circle may be drawn using the following formula Range-in-miles = 1.23*sqrt(Height-in-feet). This is a simplified (but good enough) formula that assumes the earth is a sphere (even though the earth is actually ellipsoid which you can read all about at Line of sight propagation).
As the altitude of the balloon increases the range circle will expand. Stations within the circle have a good chance of receiving APRS transmissions from the high altitude station.
The range of the circle is also displayed as part of the label in the format altitude~range
The range of altitude that enables the range calculation and footprint circle display is specified under the configure / screen / labels / footprint menu in conjunction with Screen / Labels / Footprint which can toggle the circles on and off. If you have rotating colors enabled each range circle will be drawn in the same color as the owning station's track.
One nice effect of using footprint circles is to make it easier to see how high a balloon is from the size of a circle without having to zoom in to see the label. Eventually, the altitude label itself may include the calculated range, although probably not the labels of the track points.
Any station above the min altitude set for the range circles will show with a circle, the setting is not limited to balloons, but the function was added to allow communication range circles for Amateur Radio High Altitude Balloons (ARHAB) and/or high-flying, APRS-tracking airplanes.
Transmission path
Live plots of transmission paths, Show transmission paths between stations, digipeaters and Igates
PHG Circles
The APRS specification includes a definition that is used to approximate the radio range of a station. The information available in the PHG specification includes:
P - Radio transmitter power level
H - Height of the antenna (Note, not absolute altitude, but height above average terrain)
G - Gain of the antenna used
D - Directivity (favoured direction, whether due to antenna pattern, or terrain effects)
You'll probably immediately note that there's a fourth character at the end for directivity. That has always been part of the specification, but never gets mentioned in the abbreviation.
Dead-Reckoning
New green-to-red (based on age) line extends from a station transmitting course and speed to the projected location based on that information and the elapsed time (up to 5 minutes since last beacon). The station symbol is shown at the end of the line. A centered and locked station will not move the map until an actual beacon has been received (centering doesn't chase the DR symbol). Currently the DR icon is not clickable, but that will eventually be fixed.
GeoCaching.com
Load geocaches on your map. To enable use while geocaching
Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location.
Weather
Current observations are available. From those sending weather information
Connectivity
Configurable to use with USB, Bluetooth, serial and TCPIP connectivity.
Map Transparency
Left/right arrows will increase/decrease the transparency (decrease/increase the saturation) of the OSM map backgrounds. This is pretty handy when there's lots of tiny little stations on the screen that you're trying to see.
When you make the OSM maps 100% transparent (the whole way to the left), APRSISCE/32 switches from the Mercator projection that we're all used to and instead places stations according to their range and bearing from the center of the screen. As of a fairly recent version, it also adds lat/lon lines at 10 degree increments. Dragging the world map in this mode is quite interesting, especially if you have stations visible from all over the world. It makes it pretty obvious that things that appear to be East or West of you are in fact, closer if you go "over the pole".
I know there's a name for this projection (Azimuthal equidistant projection thanks to James VE6SRV) because HF operators use something similar from their QTH to figure out the actual compass setting to point there beam to work certain areas of the world. Mercator projections don't make this easy.
|
