APRS Data Display

[John Hudson]

I know there are a lot of gadget freaks and ham operators here on ST, so I wanted to see if anyone out there could help me out.

For this chase season, I wanted to purchase some APRS/telemetry hardware like the TinyTrak for my ICOM 2 meter mobile, and integrate the GPS position info with my website so my family can follow our chase progress on the plains.

I had planned on using Google Earth or Delorme to display the data, but I'm not certain as to where I should start.

Any advice would be hugely appreciated!


John

 

[Jeff Snyder]

I tried to set something like this up several years ago. In my case, I connected my laptop to my Yaesu FT8900R, and I set up my laptop via AGWPE. Essentially, such a setup allows my laptop to send and receive APRS data through the ham radio, with no other special APRS hardware necessary. I spent a month or two setting up a Google Maps part on my website, but these maps broke when Google changed the way they handle their Google Maps service (this was several years ago). The whole purpose was to allow people to track my while I chase, a purpose which you share. However, I found the data coverage through my cell phone to be greater than the coverage of APRS inets (APRS stations that upload your position to the web). So, I modified a little program that submits my position to the APRS database via the inputpos script at FindU.com. This essentially got my APRS data into the datastream without actually using the radio, which meant that I could then retrieve and plot my APRS positions on a Google Maps map on my website.

However, I still didn't have time to go back and actually fix the Google Maps code. A year or two later, I discovered SpotterNetwork, and I've just used that program since that time. It would be neat if SpotterNetwork had ways to retrieve a single user's recent positions, since I could then use SpotterNetwork almost exactly like how I used APRS to plot my recent positions. Not too many tips or pure info in this post, but I just thought I'd give my experience with APRS.

 

[Kyle Harmon]

I've been playing around with this myself. As Jeff mentioned, APRS IGate coverage is spotty at best. Personally, I've started using http://gpsgate.com. I was already using GPS Gate Standard to split my GPS to several applications, so all I had to do was register on GPSGate.com and add it as an output in my GPS Gate software. It automatically sends your position to the server at your specified interval (in time or distance) and they give you the code to embed an automatically updating (in real time) Google Map in to your website. It worked out extremely well for me because it meant that I didn't have to bother with any software I wasn't already using.

If you ARE using APRS, an easy way to embed your position in your website without messing with any real code is to use FindU's Google Maps frame. Just stick this code in your website and change it to your callsign:

<iframe src="http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/gmap.cgi?call=KY4WKH-9&aprsworld=1"scrolling="no" width="720" height="551"></iframe>

... it's not exactly the most elegant solution, but it's quick and easy. My position tracking page actually has both on it. I figure the GPSGate.com one will stay active as long as I have Internet access (and I like the way that one works better), while the APRS one will stay updated on the rare chance that I don't have Internet access but I'm in range of an IGate.

 

[Bob Hall]

I am running a Kenwood TM-D700 and last year I was reliably I-gated about 95% of the time across rural Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska in places where there definitely was no cell coverage. A 50 Watt digital signal propagates pretty well compared to the 2 Watt on the cell card amplifier. I obviously lower the power in dense population areas. I also used the Find-U site last year.

I have been looking at http://www.aprsworld.net/ as they will allow you to execute SQL queries against their database once you register. So you can execute something like:

mysql> SELECT * FROM lastposition WHERE source='WX5SKY'

and it will return the information about your last position. The lastposition table is a very nicely indexed that returns your last reported position fast. I haven’t had time to integrate this with the Google maps API yet, but in principle they have done most of the heavy lifting.

Aprsworld.net integration information:
http://aprsworld.net/info/dcc2003/paper.php
Google Map API integration information:
http://code.google.com/apis/maps/

 

[Jason Foster]

http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/showthread.php?t=14749&highlight=globalcomsatphone

The above thread shows something I was thinking about getting....If I'm correct it'll be available 100% of the time (well maybe if there isn't some big hulking supercell in the way of the satellite signal.

Better idea, do both (Satellite and APRS)