Automatic Position Reporting System Capabilities (APRS)

Larry Scott, NM5LS, will be presenting a review of the capabilities and some of his applications for this Ham Radio-born system.

His initial interest was in tracking vehicles and objects knowing their exact geographical location in real time. Later he had a need for a remote off-the-grid weather station with telemetry accessible from local regional locations as well as distant locations.

He will bring several examples of equipment used to accomplish these needs and relate his first meeting in the 1990s with Bob Bruninga, W4APR, the APRS grandfather and relate some history of the evolution of the system into its current form capable of data for positioning, weather, telemetry, text messages, e-mail, direction finding, and search and rescue data.