TH-D72A/E - N3UJJ
TH-D72A/E - N3UJJ TH-D72A/E - N3UJJ
2 HOW YOU ENJOY APRS WITH TH-D72A/E(WRITTEN BY BOB BRUNINGA, WB4APR)APRS OverviewThe TH-D72A/E APRS Handy Transceiver brings so many new capabilities and enhancements to theportable and mobile operator, that it is hard to fully grasp the power that this brings to APRS. Besidesthe built-in GPS, and significant enhancement of the capabilities and depth and breadth of APRS, thenew radio continues the evolution of the fundamental principles of APRS as a common informationresource channel for facilitating human-to-human communication on Amateur Radio. To see howthis fits in, it is first necessary to understand the history of APRS and packet radio.Packet Radio HistoryThe roots of the Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) go back to the late 1970s as theAMRAD (Amateur Radio Research and Development) Group was excitedly beginning to experimentwith AX.25 packet radio. This was before the Internet and as we spent our free time in our shacks,we were in fact all socially networked by the AMRAD voice repeater. All evening and weekends,someone was working on something or developing something new and sharing the excitement withthe others. We hung onto our handy transceivers everywhere we went like kids these days hangonto their iPads and smartphones to keep up with the excitement.Figure 2-1 The History of APRS from VIC-20 to TH-D72A/ESince only RTTY was legal in the USA, we developed a RTTY chat channel to augment our repeatercommunications. We wanted a digital channel that worked just like a voice repeater. That is, anyonewho had info transmitted it, and everyone monitoring captured it. Advancing from RTTY, AMRADdeveloped the AX.25 spec and as soon as it was legal, we were on the air as a chat group using realtimeUnconnected (UI) packet messaging. For this technical group, the only AMRAD operational eventwas communications support for the annual Old Dominion 100 mile endurance run. In the mid 1980s,the first vestige of APRS used Vic-20s and packet radio to share information on the hundreds ofrunners and horses across the hundreds or so square miles over the 24-hour event. There was nosuch thing as GPS. The system consisted of simply a packet channel where each checkpointbeaconed information and objects about arrivals and then transferred object responsibility as it wastaken over by the next checkpoint. At any instant, everyone could see on their screens, a list of theobjects reported at each station and their status. New information was beaconed at a high rate forimmediate delivery but decayed rapidly to reduce channel loading so that fresh information had prioritywith minimum collisions.4 CONTENTS TH-D72A/EFrom The N3UJJ.COM Document Library
2 HOW YOU ENJOY APRS WITH TH-D72A/E (WRITTEN BY BOB BRUNINGA, WB4APR)Packet Network GrowthBeginning in 1983, we added VHF, HF and a phone line to the Vic-20 as well as a BBS messagestore and forward capability and began expanding to the Commodore 64. It was linked with othersystems on 145.01 and had the first dual-port HF link onto the 10.149 MHz HF packet frequency westill use today for APRS. It was an exciting time, but packet radio was being used more and more forconnected point-to-point traffic and then to BBS systems and the real-time connectivity betweenoperators was being lost. By that time, live beacons to announce real-time activity and to conductgroup chats by UI messaging was not only disappearing but were actually being outlawed on theshared BBS channels. Even UI digipeating was being disabled in all packet nodes to make sure thatno one beaconed or chatted on the BBS network and dozens of restricted/exclusive use packetfrequencies.But we still wanted that live operator-to-operator UI packet chat capability and we still needed atactical real-time local communications and information distribution channel for rapidly exchangingdigital data of immediate value to local operators and operations. In 1992, we abandoned theCommodore 64 and switched to the new IBM AT personal computer running at 4 MHz and changedthe name from the Connectionless Emergency Traffic System (CETS) to Automatic Packet ReportingSystem (APRS) since it matched my call so nicely.APRS in 1990sI formally presented APRS at the TAPR/ARRL Digital Conference in 1992. APRS really took off asthe cost of GPS got below $500 each and I manually digitized the entire U.S.A. and some othercountries using coordinates measured from paper maps. It was during these times that the “P” wastemporarily called “Position” to highlight this new capability. Unfortunately, this was a mistake. Overthe next decade as GPS became readily available, too many hams only saw the position maps ofAPRS and not the broad communication applications for human-to-human tactical ham radioinformation exchange in real time. Too many operators bought transmit-only GPS trackers andfurther ignored the real-time human communications element. Many follow-on software clientsfocused on maps with little attention to the underlying network protocol and human-to-humanconnectivity.TH-D72A/E CONTENTS 5From The N3UJJ.COM Document Library
- Page 1 and 2: TH-D72A/EFrom The N3UJJ.COM Documen
- Page 3 and 4: About Registered Trademark• Windo
- Page 5 and 6: CONTENTS1 DEVELOPMENT CONCEPT .....
- Page 7 and 8: PROLOGUEAmateurs Building the New G
- Page 9 and 10: 1 DEVELOPMENT CONCEPTFollowing is t
- Page 11: 1 DEVELOPMENT CONCEPT1.3 Other New
- Page 15 and 16: 2 HOW YOU ENJOY APRS WITH TH-D72A/E
- Page 17 and 18: 2 HOW YOU ENJOY APRS WITH TH-D72A/E
- Page 19 and 20: 2 HOW YOU ENJOY APRS WITH TH-D72A/E
- Page 21 and 22: 2 HOW YOU ENJOY APRS WITH TH-D72A/E
- Page 23 and 24: 3 PREPARATIONS FOR OPERATING APRS3.
- Page 25 and 26: 3 PREPARATIONS FOR OPERATING APRS3.
- Page 27 and 28: 3 PREPARATIONS FOR OPERATING APRS3.
- Page 29 and 30: 3 PREPARATIONS FOR OPERATING APRS3.
- Page 31 and 32: 3 PREPARATIONS FOR OPERATING APRS3.
- Page 33 and 34: 4 GPS4.1.2 Datum (Geodetic Survey S
- Page 35 and 36: 4 GPS4.2.4 Settings for Geodetic Su
- Page 37 and 38: “Time, Altitude, Travel direction
- Page 39 and 40: 4 GPS4.3.5 Internal GPS Unit SaveIf
- Page 41 and 42: 4 GPSPressing the [TNC] key again i
- Page 43 and 44: 4 GPS4.3.9 Mark WaypointYou can reg
- Page 45 and 46: 5 APRS SOFTWARE FOR YOUR PC5.1 UI-V
- Page 47 and 48: 5 APRS SOFTWARE FOR YOUR PCFigure 5
- Page 49 and 50: 6 OPERATIONAL EXAMPLES OF APRSWhile
- Page 51 and 52: 6 OPERATIONAL EXAMPLES OF APRS6.1.4
- Page 53 and 54: 6 OPERATIONAL EXAMPLES OF APRSBy ch
- Page 55 and 56: 6 OPERATIONAL EXAMPLES OF APRS6.1.6
- Page 57 and 58: 6 OPERATIONAL EXAMPLES OF APRS6.1.6
- Page 59 and 60: 6.2 Base Station (Weather Station)6
- Page 61 and 62: 7 APRS NETWORKS7.1 APRS ServersIn t
2 HOW YOU ENJOY APRS WI<strong>TH</strong> <strong>TH</strong>-<strong>D72A</strong>/E (WRITTEN BY BOB BRUNINGA, WB4APR)Packet Network GrowthBeginning in 1983, we added VHF, HF and a phone line to the Vic-20 as well as a BBS messagestore and forward capability and began expanding to the Commodore 64. It was linked with othersystems on 145.01 and had the first dual-port HF link onto the 10.149 MHz HF packet frequency westill use today for APRS. It was an exciting time, but packet radio was being used more and more forconnected point-to-point traffic and then to BBS systems and the real-time connectivity betweenoperators was being lost. By that time, live beacons to announce real-time activity and to conductgroup chats by UI messaging was not only disappearing but were actually being outlawed on theshared BBS channels. Even UI digipeating was being disabled in all packet nodes to make sure thatno one beaconed or chatted on the BBS network and dozens of restricted/exclusive use packetfrequencies.But we still wanted that live operator-to-operator UI packet chat capability and we still needed atactical real-time local communications and information distribution channel for rapidly exchangingdigital data of immediate value to local operators and operations. In 1992, we abandoned theCommodore 64 and switched to the new IBM AT personal computer running at 4 MHz and changedthe name from the Connectionless Emergency Traffic System (CETS) to Automatic Packet ReportingSystem (APRS) since it matched my call so nicely.APRS in 1990sI formally presented APRS at the TAPR/ARRL Digital Conference in 1992. APRS really took off asthe cost of GPS got below $500 each and I manually digitized the entire U.S.A. and some othercountries using coordinates measured from paper maps. It was during these times that the “P” wastemporarily called “Position” to highlight this new capability. Unfortunately, this was a mistake. Overthe next decade as GPS became readily available, too many hams only saw the position maps ofAPRS and not the broad communication applications for human-to-human tactical ham radioinformation exchange in real time. Too many operators bought transmit-only GPS trackers andfurther ignored the real-time human communications element. Many follow-on software clientsfocused on maps with little attention to the underlying network protocol and human-to-humanconnectivity.<strong>TH</strong>-<strong>D72A</strong>/E CONTENTS 5From The <strong>N3UJJ</strong>.COM Document Library
Change language