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140840	149060	Okay, it's time for the demo. KG7OOW here with the Ham Radio Village. Let's get going on APRS
149060	156900	and a quick walk around on usage of every aspect. So, let's get going.
159020	168160	So, APRS, the Automatic Packet Reporting System, is based on the AX25 protocol from the
169100	175520	1980s. Pretty old. Another slang term for this protocol you may have heard is packet.
175820	183540	Packet is basically another use of this. We're going to dive into more of the APRS route of this
185700	194020	and some of the basic usage. So, we'll go from the APRS website, how to see APRS. You won't need
194300	201720	a license to do this. We are going to go to the end user, someone transmitting APRS from a
201720	209040	handheld mobile. And we'll also take a look at a DigiPeter, vital parts of the APRS network that
209040	217180	get your message to other DigiPeters or to an iGate out on the internet to be posted online.
217180	225460	So, let's first take a look at where I go. This is where you are going to see APRS traffic live
225460	237410	for your area. There's two main websites. Let's dive into the first one. So, this is aprs.fi.
237850	245130	For those of you who haven't been here, it's a great resource to see live APRS traffic.
245130	255630	We'll zoom out here. Let's go to the Las Vegas area, Defcon Central here, and see what's going
255630	263090	on. So, when you come to the site, it'll first probably throw you somewhere in Finland. You'll
263090	269250	have to navigate to where you want to go. The right hand side will let you select how much
269250	273170	traffic you want to see. Do you want to see traffic for the last hour? Do you want to see
273170	280810	the last traffic for the last day there? So, plenty of information to see. We're mainly going
280810	288550	to focus on the map here though. So, here's the Vegas metro area. There's all these icons about.
288930	299210	We got, looks like an RV icon down here in the middle. Driving around is RV. Broadcasting APRS
299210	309010	packets. We have weather stations. We have other objects on the map, such as DSTAR repeaters
309530	318670	and things like that. Like N7ARR over here. Zoom is not working great on the video. We'll
319210	326030	get some more details later there. And then, here we are outside of Vegas. My favorite mountain,
326030	335030	Mount Potosi. This is home to the Vegas DigiPeter and EyeGate. So, it's definitely
335790	340530	really cool to see all this on a map. And again, you don't have to be licensed to
340530	352850	view this map. It's definitely a great resource. So, this is what I go to when I am looking for
352850	358810	who's coming through my area. What are they doing? Are they listening on a frequency that
358810	367810	I might want to talk to them on? Mainly for vehicles here. But, if we pan out into the
367810	373530	desert, a lot of the times you'll see planes. You'll also see weather balloons and other
373530	378990	things like that going across the map. So, definitely keep an eye out for those.
380450	385970	Let's perchance see if there's any weather balloons or anything going across right now.
385970	393250	I do not see anything up. They typically do launch every couple weekends though
393250	398370	out here in the West Desert. So, definitely something to keep an eye out on.
401110	408010	Okay, let's look into detail on some traffic. What are these users... what are these objects
408010	415380	sending to the APRS network? So, here's a car out in the West Desert going just past...
418450	427550	let's see... just past the test site over there. We have K6VFA and he is cruising along the highway.
427550	436480	We can see the time stamp of the data. We can see his heading, his speed, his altitude,
436480	444000	any GPS metadata that that radio is capable of putting out. He has a little message,
444000	456080	MikeENroute, and he is repeated by the Vegas Mount Potosi repeater. If we zoom out here,
456080	464380	we'll know... we can kind of visualize how his packets are getting to the internet map here.
464380	474000	Oh, come on. It is not wanting to clear. So, if you hover over an object... oh, come on.
475720	486060	It is not wanting to work for me here. There we go. Let's get out here. Okay, see? So,
486060	491440	I'm hovering over his icon there. You can see it's going through the Vegas DigiPeter
491440	499520	up on Mount Potosi down in the bottom middle there and looks like it's going to another eye
499520	506160	gate. Maybe the eye gate there at Potosi is down. So, these eye gates that it's going to transmit
506160	511140	to can be hundreds of miles away. Looks like that's down in the San Bernardino Valley.
511460	517020	So, that's a pretty crazy run for some APRS traffic.
517980	521000	And when you get to things like weather balloons, you'll have
522520	527540	hundreds of stations picking those up directly. But the first station that picks it up is the
527540	537160	one that gets to report it to the system. So, another really cool map to hit up when you're
537160	544900	looking for some APRS action is APRS Direct. It's more of a
547860	555900	high-end web 2.0 type interface. It's got live updates. The icons will update live. You'll be
555900	562680	able to see pings on the map when things happen as they're happening. So, sometimes it's a little
562680	571780	easier to see things here. This is kind of a newcomer to APRS maps, which is great. Here,
571780	581320	let me throw a link there in chat for you guys, what I'm going through. So,
583140	587960	this map, very similar to the last map, it's just a little more interactive.
588360	597000	We got the same amount of data. You can see hops that these packets are going through. You can
597000	603980	click on an object. There's our same guy we're going to be picking on here, K6VFA. He is
604600	612820	cruising along. There's his same path. He's being reported through Vegas.
613780	618360	And his timestamp, same information, bearing, heading, things like that.
619340	626260	So, this is just a really cool, very awesome way to see what's going on with the APRS network.
626260	635900	Now, how do you get traffic to the APRS network? So, this traffic, including weather stations,
635900	644700	handheld radios, mobile radios that are APRS capable, or anything else you can think of,
645450	654120	they all require a modem-enabled device or just a fully integrated APRS device to get out there.
654120	661880	One of the easiest ways to get into it is with an integrated radio. So, let's look at
664100	671470	my handy Kenwood THD72. It's a great... here we go...
673670	678660	It's a great little radio. Not really little. It's a little bulky.
679540	685840	Needs to go on a little diet there, but it's an all-in-one solution to get your packets
685840	692500	out to the APRS network. This particular handheld can be used with the built-in GPS
693300	700520	with the antenna on the top there. It can also be connected with a cable to a weather station
700520	711560	or other KISS-enabled device. So, it's very cool, very fun to hear APRS going on.
712420	715520	So, it looks like someone's keyed up on APRS, but
717300	724220	sounds like voice data. Someone's got a hot mic. So, the APRS frequency you're going to want to
724220	735820	dial to on your all-in-one inclusive device is 144.390 in North America. I haven't gone
735820	742500	through APRS on any other countries, so I'm not 100% sure if they're throwing other frequencies
742500	752420	around for other regions, but definitely 144.390 for North America. Now, tuning into this frequency,
752420	759880	you're going to hear the raw APRS packets. They are going to sound
761860	769880	very much like an old classic modem. I don't know... it sounds like I'm getting some
769880	776980	interference or someone's hot micing 3.9.0 for me, so I'm not going to be able to decode anything.
779000	787620	Yep, just static. So, I'm thinking I got some interference, but with this handheld,
790240	799840	I can beacon directly just by hitting beacon here, and it will manually beacon my location
799840	808520	based on the GPS to the APRS network. I'm inside, so my GPS likely is not going to get my coordinates
808520	817280	and without proper coordinates, I don't think it will show up, but just in case, let's go
818780	826860	look for KG7OOW. I am not showing up, so there's definitely some traffic around, though.
827760	834540	So, with a handheld like this, we get to configure it. So, out of the box,
834540	841060	need to configure your handheld with typically just your call sign. So, I just go to the menu,
841060	847940	hit up APRS, and it typically just needs your call sign. So, you throw your call sign in there.
847940	855820	Oh, there we go. You'll typically just throw your call sign in, maybe a SSID
857600	862940	at the end. See that dash nine at the tail end there? You can do that if you have multiple radios
862940	873020	or if you want to have a specific ID for that radio. And then you'll basically just need to
873020	880220	tell it how to beacon. So, on this handy can book, we got... here we go...
884720	890080	where is it going? You can set your position manually and you have beacon. So, this is how
890080	894900	it's going to beacon your information. Typically, on a handheld like this, you can set it to
894900	901740	beacon on an interval, or you can have it beacon using what's called smart beaconing,
901740	908060	and that will automatically beacon you based on your speed and your heading. So, if you take a
908060	917440	turn, you change speeds, it's going to broadcast your APRS data accordingly. So, it's really cool.
917440	925960	Little handhelds are great, but definitely on the pricey end. So, this Kenwood THD72,
925960	933320	had to look that up there, is... I think I got this around 500 bucks, so it's definitely pricey.
933700	941600	It's definitely capable, but there's other options out there. So, let me slide this over
942020	951480	and give kind of a cheaper option. So, one other cool option is a standalone unit.
951480	962700	I got this handy AVRT5 from Amazing AliExpress. These little things, all inclusive. It's only
962700	970520	one watt of power, but you'd be surprised how far you can get out with APRS on one watt of power.
971240	978860	This handheld, this Kenwood, I've gone probably 150 miles,
979440	985940	is pure line of sight. So, this was definitely to a mountaintop digipeter. I was out in the
985940	991900	Nevada desert and was able to get to a digipeter in central Utah. So, that was really cool.
992920	1003300	But this little one watt Chinese, kind of hard to configure radio, is actually pretty handy.
1003300	1010120	I got hands here that will either throw, just leave it alone, or throw a linear amp on it
1010120	1014720	and get a little bit more distance out of it. But definitely something you can throw into
1014720	1022960	your backpack, hiking, on your bike, in your pocket. So, it's very cool. Very,
1024060	1027760	very nice little slim device here.
1029700	1036720	Another option when you're picking end-user APRS equipment is definitely
1037680	1046580	an app called APRS Droid for Android. So, APRS Droid, I haven't gotten to work on the latest
1046580	1054780	version of Android, but most ham software, you're going to expect that. You can get little,
1054780	1061860	this is called a micro-linked TNC, and it's just a little 3D printed case with basically
1062380	1071900	a Arduino Nano inside. And it connects via a little 3.5 millimeter jack there
1073200	1080080	to an adapter cable to your radio of choice. So, it can be paired with a Baofeng, it can be paired
1080080	1089460	with another radio, anything you want. And it connects via Bluetooth to your phone. So, your
1089460	1096520	phone will be running the APRS Droid app, and very much like the handheld Kenwood, you get to
1096520	1107260	put in your call sign, you can put in icons that you want to put, and any messages that you want
1107260	1116960	to put as your beacon. Another really cool feature about APRS is not just GPS location, but messaging.
1116960	1124820	So, on my little Kenwood handheld here, I can send messages by, you know, using the keypad.
1125460	1130660	Pretty old school, kind of like how you used to have to text back in the day,
1131330	1137130	with the touch pad there. But the advantage of this cool little micro-linked
1138940	1143260	TNC with your APRS Droid enabled phone,
1143260	1148440	you can just use your Android phone, type the message and get it sent. So, it's much easier to
1148440	1159140	use this paired with a phone and a radio than to just use the radio if you're going to go the
1159140	1166460	messaging route. So, definitely something really cool. There's just, I always look on AliExpress
1166460	1174080	or Amazon for new APRS devices, and there's just, every once in a while they'll come out
1174080	1184160	with something really cool. So, that gets us around the end user devices, handhelds,
1184780	1193140	other dedicated units from China that may or may not have reporting capabilities for
1194120	1202360	the government there, to mobile-linked TNCs with your Android phone. But there's another
1203380	1209940	piece to this puzzle, and that's the stations that actually get that data, the packets that
1209940	1216340	these devices put out to other DigiPeters and eventually to the internet. And that's where
1217340	1227000	a DigiPeter comes in. So, this is a basic DigiPeter setup. I got these all over the state
1227000	1237000	here in Utah, and we have definitely increased the... here, let me zoom out here and we'll see
1237000	1243180	if we can... okay, we have definitely increased the APRS coverage in my region and hoping to
1243180	1256200	expand into other parts of Utah. So, this whole setup consists of a 2-meter radio. This particular
1256200	1264180	radio is just one I got off a surplus. It's an EF Johnson RS-5300 here, and all you need is a
1264180	1274060	2-meter radio that has connections on it for push-to-talk and for the audio mic and speaker.
1274060	1279160	Most radios you see out there will have this either through the front port jack here
1279700	1285520	or with a dongle or connection in the back. This one just happens to be done with a DB...
1287140	1297540	what, 15 connector on the back, DB9. And this just plugs in and gives me the breakout for audio,
1297540	1308380	push-to-talk, and that's all we need on the radio side. So, a 2-meter radio. It can also be a
1308380	1314360	handheld. I've seen people use bow fangs for this, so definitely something that can be done a little
1314360	1325980	cheaper. But this is a nice surplus radio. I got it for about $35-$40, so not too bad, not too shabby.
1326020	1337420	So this radio needs to hook up to a device that can decode these APRS packets. To do this decode,
1337420	1350140	I interface my Raspberry Pi with a EasyDigi. These are available on eBay and it comes in a little
1350140	1356400	kit. You have to solder it together, just a little more part of the adventure. All you really have to
1356400	1366400	do is solder two leads for the audio and the connections to your radio for push-to-talk,
1366400	1375100	things like that. So in this particular setup, I am using the GPIO for push-to-talk. You can also
1375100	1381940	just use VOX if you're using a handheld radio or bow fang. This particular 2-meter mobile radio
1381940	1387960	is not capable of VOX, so I definitely have to manually trigger push-to-talk, and that's where
1387960	1398380	GPIO on the Raspberry Pi comes in. So radio goes to your EasyDigi. The EasyDigi is basically just
1398380	1403560	an isolation. You actually don't need the EasyDigi. You can wire things directly. It's just
1404260	1413060	safer. You're not going to ruin your Pi with its low GPIO voltage,
1413060	1419360	and you're not going to screw up your radio, and you'll also get cleaner audio. So definitely go
1419360	1428440	with the EasyDigi. On the Raspberry Pi, it's fitted... since it only has a speaker output,
1428440	1435860	I wish they made this a four-pole connector with a mic input, but hey, you can always go to another
1435860	1442380	Pi variant like the Banana Cream Pi or something for that. I just fit my $35 Raspberry Pi
1444840	1454020	with a $4 or $5 USB audio card. So you can grab these on Amazon. I'll put a link in a little
1454020	1464800	write-up when we post this video. But you just take your microphone, plug it in, and your speaker
1466040	1475280	for your radio. Plug it in there, get it in the Pi, and you're good to go on the hardware side,
1475280	1484900	I guess, other than the GPIO. So GPIO is another step in the setup. The GPIO portion,
1484900	1490380	as well as the software portion, is covered in the documentation of the software I use,
1490380	1504040	we'll get into that right now. Let's go to the good old browser view here. So
1506020	1512960	my choice of APRS software for my Raspberry Pi or any other system is called Direwolf.
1513620	1520380	So we'll hit up Direwolf. I'm just going to use Google here. They have a great
1521280	1529500	set of documentation on GitHub. You can go through any doc on here, but the main thing
1529500	1538840	you need to do is go for the documentation on your system. So they have documentation for Linux,
1538840	1545240	they have documentation for Windows, and they have specific documentation for the Raspberry Pi.
1547620	1553100	So let me look here. So yeah, I'm just going to scroll down here just to
1556080	1565280	make sure I'm speaking the truth here. But there we go. Raspberry Pi for ham radio. So Direwolf is
1567980	1572840	going to be built on top of your Raspberry Pi. So you need to install
1573400	1582480	distro. I just use Raspbian for my Raspberry Pi. Get that installed on your Raspberry Pi and then
1582480	1591480	use the instructions from GitHub here, the documentation repo, to build it for your system.
1591720	1601600	Mostly it is literally just downloading the source and then compiling it. Once you've compiled it,
1601600	1613020	you can start right out and get it running. So let's go to console and see what
1614120	1619660	Direwolf gives us on the Raspberry Pi. What kind of information, what does it look like
1619660	1624440	when you're actually using Direwolf on a Raspberry Pi. I'll go and I'll probably post
1625740	1629840	maybe some quick dirty instructions for actually building a Direwolf kit
1629840	1637300	on the website hamvillage.org. But for now let's go cut to the end results. I think I'm
1637300	1643480	pretty low on time here and we'll go to the console here.
1646340	1652500	So this is what a typical putty installation, well not putty, this is what a typical terminal
1652500	1659300	of Direwolf will read out once you're up and running. You'll see traffic coming across from
1660100	1666940	mobiles, handheld units, and in my area definitely a lot of weather stations.
1669120	1672920	So there's a plethora of information here.
1674540	1681500	And we can pick, let's see, let's pick this latest one that came in.
1682260	1687320	So this was an iGate transmit looks like.
1693860	1706260	Okay that was just for that node. So let's go to this one AJ6KW. So AJ6KW with a destination of
1706260	1715060	APTT 4 came in with this path and looks like some GPS coordinates. So he came in with some
1715060	1722620	GPS coordinates positioned with time. He is using a tiny track so that's one of those cool little
1722620	1732100	all-in-one devices and it's spitting out his coordinates, course, and any other information.
1733840	1738920	It's really cool just to see how much traffic you're going to get on these systems
1738920	1745940	and the console. Let's see here's another one coming in. Looks like a jeep on a mobile unit
1745940	1753580	coming in here with some coordinates, course, altitude, and he's monitoring on 146520. So
1755180	1762480	looks like Keith and I can hit him up on that frequency, give him a chat, and
1763400	1768580	that's just really cool. The terminal here isn't necessarily the place you're going to
1768580	1774260	stalk people on APRS. Definitely use the web interface to do your stalking but
1774260	1780860	it's just really cool to see what your radio is hearing directly because again
1782580	1789700	the stuff posted on APRS.FI and APRS Direct, whatever station heard it first
1790740	1795140	is the one that gets to post it there. So you may have heard it but you may have not been the one
1795140	1802400	that reported it to the servers there. So it's definitely something definitely cool to see just
1802400	1810700	the raw data. And see here we go here's just an iGate transmit from Frisco, Frisco Peak,
1810700	1815640	just throwing a beacon out with its position and location and that.
1816640	1826940	This is AL7BX's rig, a good friend of mine. He has helped me a lot with this APRS stuff. We
1826940	1835960	definitely are working together to build out more APRS rigs in our area. So I think we're
1836920	1847340	pretty much up for time on the demo. The wonderful radiogram talk was amazing and
1847340	1855500	pushed us over a tad but no worries. Let's go answer some questions in chat if there are any.
1855500	1863000	I know this was kind of a droned out presentation live demo but let's see if there's any questions
1863580	1873160	either in Discord or in Twitch here. Give it a quick glance and we'll get going here.
1883650	1890710	Okay well definitely an earful. There's definitely more resources for APRS. If you
1890710	1897850	want to get into APRS, you want to carry it along with you or you want to expand the APRS
1897850	1904950	network yourself, go ahead and hit me up in the Ham Radio Village Discord on the Defcon server
1904950	1914330	or our own Ham Radio Village server. I'll throw links in chat. Just go ahead and I will even be
1914330	1922550	able to help you remotely. I've helped people with remote desktop to help set up their rigs so
1922550	1930870	any help I can give I'm just more than happy to expand and contribute to the APRS community.
1930870	1937610	So thank you everybody and we'll see you back for closing comments here in just a little bit.
1937610	1938490	Thank you!