VE6AB Mobile Ops

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Digital Comunications

With a big part of my day spent away from home, I like to stay connected, and my mobile is equiped to make that happen.

APRS is digital communications information channel for Ham radio. As a single national channel, it gives the mobile ham a place to monitor in any area, at any time to capture what is happening in ham radio in the surrounding area. Announcements, Bulletins, Messages, Alerts, Weather, and of course a map of all this activity including objects, satellites, nets, meetings, Hamfests, etc.

With a APRS mapping system running on my computer, and with telemetry being downloaded from my Kenwood TM-D710A, I have a birds-eye-view of the beaconing stations around my mobile, and I can zoom out to include all of Alberta, Bc, Sk, and the Northern US States.

Be aware that the Kenwood APRS transceivers allow for pairing with a computer, as Yaesu doesn't yet support transmitting from computer control, and will only receive. The Kenwoods are also capable of being utilized as a Digipeater.

With APRSIS32 running on my computer, I have been pleasantly surprised by how well it works, and how many features it implements. It uses OpenStreetMap to render the maps. You can do messaging, APRS email, iGate, station tracking, callsign lookup on QRZ, and just about anything else you want it to. APRSIS32 uses the Internet or RF as a signal source, and its a real pleasure to have a real keyboard for messenging. So whether or not your mobile, or using your home computer, it's worth downloading and trying out the software.

Click on the photo for a closer look...

I recently added HF APRS to my mobile......
http://ve6ab.blogspot.ca/2015/03/cross-country-hf-aprs.html