[02:20.840 --> 02:29.060]  Okay, it's time for the demo. KG7OOW here with the Ham Radio Village. Let's get going on APRS
[02:29.060 --> 02:36.900]  and a quick walk around on usage of every aspect. So, let's get going.
[02:39.020 --> 02:48.160]  So, APRS, the Automatic Packet Reporting System, is based on the AX25 protocol from the
[02:49.100 --> 02:55.520]  1980s. Pretty old. Another slang term for this protocol you may have heard is packet.
[02:55.820 --> 03:03.540]  Packet is basically another use of this. We're going to dive into more of the APRS route of this
[03:05.700 --> 03:14.020]  and some of the basic usage. So, we'll go from the APRS website, how to see APRS. You won't need
[03:14.300 --> 03:21.720]  a license to do this. We are going to go to the end user, someone transmitting APRS from a
[03:21.720 --> 03:29.040]  handheld mobile. And we'll also take a look at a DigiPeter, vital parts of the APRS network that
[03:29.040 --> 03:37.180]  get your message to other DigiPeters or to an iGate out on the internet to be posted online.
[03:37.180 --> 03:45.460]  So, let's first take a look at where I go. This is where you are going to see APRS traffic live
[03:45.460 --> 03:57.410]  for your area. There's two main websites. Let's dive into the first one. So, this is aprs.fi.
[03:57.850 --> 04:05.130]  For those of you who haven't been here, it's a great resource to see live APRS traffic.
[04:05.130 --> 04:15.630]  We'll zoom out here. Let's go to the Las Vegas area, Defcon Central here, and see what's going
[04:15.630 --> 04:23.090]  on. So, when you come to the site, it'll first probably throw you somewhere in Finland. You'll
[04:23.090 --> 04:29.250]  have to navigate to where you want to go. The right hand side will let you select how much
[04:29.250 --> 04:33.170]  traffic you want to see. Do you want to see traffic for the last hour? Do you want to see
[04:33.170 --> 04:40.810]  the last traffic for the last day there? So, plenty of information to see. We're mainly going
[04:40.810 --> 04:48.550]  to focus on the map here though. So, here's the Vegas metro area. There's all these icons about.
[04:48.930 --> 04:59.210]  We got, looks like an RV icon down here in the middle. Driving around is RV. Broadcasting APRS
[04:59.210 --> 05:09.010]  packets. We have weather stations. We have other objects on the map, such as DSTAR repeaters
[05:09.530 --> 05:18.670]  and things like that. Like N7ARR over here. Zoom is not working great on the video. We'll
[05:19.210 --> 05:26.030]  get some more details later there. And then, here we are outside of Vegas. My favorite mountain,
[05:26.030 --> 05:35.030]  Mount Potosi. This is home to the Vegas DigiPeter and EyeGate. So, it's definitely
[05:35.790 --> 05:40.530]  really cool to see all this on a map. And again, you don't have to be licensed to
[05:40.530 --> 05:52.850]  view this map. It's definitely a great resource. So, this is what I go to when I am looking for
[05:52.850 --> 05:58.810]  who's coming through my area. What are they doing? Are they listening on a frequency that
[05:58.810 --> 06:07.810]  I might want to talk to them on? Mainly for vehicles here. But, if we pan out into the
[06:07.810 --> 06:13.530]  desert, a lot of the times you'll see planes. You'll also see weather balloons and other
[06:13.530 --> 06:18.990]  things like that going across the map. So, definitely keep an eye out for those.
[06:20.450 --> 06:25.970]  Let's perchance see if there's any weather balloons or anything going across right now.
[06:25.970 --> 06:33.250]  I do not see anything up. They typically do launch every couple weekends though
[06:33.250 --> 06:38.370]  out here in the West Desert. So, definitely something to keep an eye out on.
[06:41.110 --> 06:48.010]  Okay, let's look into detail on some traffic. What are these users... what are these objects
[06:48.010 --> 06:55.380]  sending to the APRS network? So, here's a car out in the West Desert going just past...
[06:58.450 --> 07:07.550]  let's see... just past the test site over there. We have K6VFA and he is cruising along the highway.
[07:07.550 --> 07:16.480]  We can see the time stamp of the data. We can see his heading, his speed, his altitude,
[07:16.480 --> 07:24.000]  any GPS metadata that that radio is capable of putting out. He has a little message,
[07:24.000 --> 07:36.080]  MikeENroute, and he is repeated by the Vegas Mount Potosi repeater. If we zoom out here,
[07:36.080 --> 07:44.380]  we'll know... we can kind of visualize how his packets are getting to the internet map here.
[07:44.380 --> 07:54.000]  Oh, come on. It is not wanting to clear. So, if you hover over an object... oh, come on.
[07:55.720 --> 08:06.060]  It is not wanting to work for me here. There we go. Let's get out here. Okay, see? So,
[08:06.060 --> 08:11.440]  I'm hovering over his icon there. You can see it's going through the Vegas DigiPeter
[08:11.440 --> 08:19.520]  up on Mount Potosi down in the bottom middle there and looks like it's going to another eye
[08:19.520 --> 08:26.160]  gate. Maybe the eye gate there at Potosi is down. So, these eye gates that it's going to transmit
[08:26.160 --> 08:31.140]  to can be hundreds of miles away. Looks like that's down in the San Bernardino Valley.
[08:31.460 --> 08:37.020]  So, that's a pretty crazy run for some APRS traffic.
[08:37.980 --> 08:41.000]  And when you get to things like weather balloons, you'll have
[08:42.520 --> 08:47.540]  hundreds of stations picking those up directly. But the first station that picks it up is the
[08:47.540 --> 08:57.160]  one that gets to report it to the system. So, another really cool map to hit up when you're
[08:57.160 --> 09:04.900]  looking for some APRS action is APRS Direct. It's more of a
[09:07.860 --> 09:15.900]  high-end web 2.0 type interface. It's got live updates. The icons will update live. You'll be
[09:15.900 --> 09:22.680]  able to see pings on the map when things happen as they're happening. So, sometimes it's a little
[09:22.680 --> 09:31.780]  easier to see things here. This is kind of a newcomer to APRS maps, which is great. Here,
[09:31.780 --> 09:41.320]  let me throw a link there in chat for you guys, what I'm going through. So,
[09:43.140 --> 09:47.960]  this map, very similar to the last map, it's just a little more interactive.
[09:48.360 --> 09:57.000]  We got the same amount of data. You can see hops that these packets are going through. You can
[09:57.000 --> 10:03.980]  click on an object. There's our same guy we're going to be picking on here, K6VFA. He is
[10:04.600 --> 10:12.820]  cruising along. There's his same path. He's being reported through Vegas.
[10:13.780 --> 10:18.360]  And his timestamp, same information, bearing, heading, things like that.
[10:19.340 --> 10:26.260]  So, this is just a really cool, very awesome way to see what's going on with the APRS network.
[10:26.260 --> 10:35.900]  Now, how do you get traffic to the APRS network? So, this traffic, including weather stations,
[10:35.900 --> 10:44.700]  handheld radios, mobile radios that are APRS capable, or anything else you can think of,
[10:45.450 --> 10:54.120]  they all require a modem-enabled device or just a fully integrated APRS device to get out there.
[10:54.120 --> 11:01.880]  One of the easiest ways to get into it is with an integrated radio. So, let's look at
[11:04.100 --> 11:11.470]  my handy Kenwood THD72. It's a great... here we go...
[11:13.670 --> 11:18.660]  It's a great little radio. Not really little. It's a little bulky.
[11:19.540 --> 11:25.840]  Needs to go on a little diet there, but it's an all-in-one solution to get your packets
[11:25.840 --> 11:32.500]  out to the APRS network. This particular handheld can be used with the built-in GPS
[11:33.300 --> 11:40.520]  with the antenna on the top there. It can also be connected with a cable to a weather station
[11:40.520 --> 11:51.560]  or other KISS-enabled device. So, it's very cool, very fun to hear APRS going on.
[11:52.420 --> 11:55.520]  So, it looks like someone's keyed up on APRS, but
[11:57.300 --> 12:04.220]  sounds like voice data. Someone's got a hot mic. So, the APRS frequency you're going to want to
[12:04.220 --> 12:15.820]  dial to on your all-in-one inclusive device is 144.390 in North America. I haven't gone
[12:15.820 --> 12:22.500]  through APRS on any other countries, so I'm not 100% sure if they're throwing other frequencies
[12:22.500 --> 12:32.420]  around for other regions, but definitely 144.390 for North America. Now, tuning into this frequency,
[12:32.420 --> 12:39.880]  you're going to hear the raw APRS packets. They are going to sound
[12:41.860 --> 12:49.880]  very much like an old classic modem. I don't know... it sounds like I'm getting some
[12:49.880 --> 12:56.980]  interference or someone's hot micing 3.9.0 for me, so I'm not going to be able to decode anything.
[12:59.000 --> 13:07.620]  Yep, just static. So, I'm thinking I got some interference, but with this handheld,
[13:10.240 --> 13:19.840]  I can beacon directly just by hitting beacon here, and it will manually beacon my location
[13:19.840 --> 13:28.520]  based on the GPS to the APRS network. I'm inside, so my GPS likely is not going to get my coordinates
[13:28.520 --> 13:37.280]  and without proper coordinates, I don't think it will show up, but just in case, let's go
[13:38.780 --> 13:46.860]  look for KG7OOW. I am not showing up, so there's definitely some traffic around, though.
[13:47.760 --> 13:54.540]  So, with a handheld like this, we get to configure it. So, out of the box,
[13:54.540 --> 14:01.060]  need to configure your handheld with typically just your call sign. So, I just go to the menu,
[14:01.060 --> 14:07.940]  hit up APRS, and it typically just needs your call sign. So, you throw your call sign in there.
[14:07.940 --> 14:15.820]  Oh, there we go. You'll typically just throw your call sign in, maybe a SSID
[14:17.600 --> 14:22.940]  at the end. See that dash nine at the tail end there? You can do that if you have multiple radios
[14:22.940 --> 14:33.020]  or if you want to have a specific ID for that radio. And then you'll basically just need to
[14:33.020 --> 14:40.220]  tell it how to beacon. So, on this handy can book, we got... here we go...
[14:44.720 --> 14:50.080]  where is it going? You can set your position manually and you have beacon. So, this is how
[14:50.080 --> 14:54.900]  it's going to beacon your information. Typically, on a handheld like this, you can set it to
[14:54.900 --> 15:01.740]  beacon on an interval, or you can have it beacon using what's called smart beaconing,
[15:01.740 --> 15:08.060]  and that will automatically beacon you based on your speed and your heading. So, if you take a
[15:08.060 --> 15:17.440]  turn, you change speeds, it's going to broadcast your APRS data accordingly. So, it's really cool.
[15:17.440 --> 15:25.960]  Little handhelds are great, but definitely on the pricey end. So, this Kenwood THD72,
[15:25.960 --> 15:33.320]  had to look that up there, is... I think I got this around 500 bucks, so it's definitely pricey.
[15:33.700 --> 15:41.600]  It's definitely capable, but there's other options out there. So, let me slide this over
[15:42.020 --> 15:51.480]  and give kind of a cheaper option. So, one other cool option is a standalone unit.
[15:51.480 --> 16:02.700]  I got this handy AVRT5 from Amazing AliExpress. These little things, all inclusive. It's only
[16:02.700 --> 16:10.520]  one watt of power, but you'd be surprised how far you can get out with APRS on one watt of power.
[16:11.240 --> 16:18.860]  This handheld, this Kenwood, I've gone probably 150 miles,
[16:19.440 --> 16:25.940]  is pure line of sight. So, this was definitely to a mountaintop digipeter. I was out in the
[16:25.940 --> 16:31.900]  Nevada desert and was able to get to a digipeter in central Utah. So, that was really cool.
[16:32.920 --> 16:43.300]  But this little one watt Chinese, kind of hard to configure radio, is actually pretty handy.
[16:43.300 --> 16:50.120]  I got hands here that will either throw, just leave it alone, or throw a linear amp on it
[16:50.120 --> 16:54.720]  and get a little bit more distance out of it. But definitely something you can throw into
[16:54.720 --> 17:02.960]  your backpack, hiking, on your bike, in your pocket. So, it's very cool. Very,
[17:04.060 --> 17:07.760]  very nice little slim device here.
[17:09.700 --> 17:16.720]  Another option when you're picking end-user APRS equipment is definitely
[17:17.680 --> 17:26.580]  an app called APRS Droid for Android. So, APRS Droid, I haven't gotten to work on the latest
[17:26.580 --> 17:34.780]  version of Android, but most ham software, you're going to expect that. You can get little,
[17:34.780 --> 17:41.860]  this is called a micro-linked TNC, and it's just a little 3D printed case with basically
[17:42.380 --> 17:51.900]  a Arduino Nano inside. And it connects via a little 3.5 millimeter jack there
[17:53.200 --> 18:00.080]  to an adapter cable to your radio of choice. So, it can be paired with a Baofeng, it can be paired
[18:00.080 --> 18:09.460]  with another radio, anything you want. And it connects via Bluetooth to your phone. So, your
[18:09.460 --> 18:16.520]  phone will be running the APRS Droid app, and very much like the handheld Kenwood, you get to
[18:16.520 --> 18:27.260]  put in your call sign, you can put in icons that you want to put, and any messages that you want
[18:27.260 --> 18:36.960]  to put as your beacon. Another really cool feature about APRS is not just GPS location, but messaging.
[18:36.960 --> 18:44.820]  So, on my little Kenwood handheld here, I can send messages by, you know, using the keypad.
[18:45.460 --> 18:50.660]  Pretty old school, kind of like how you used to have to text back in the day,
[18:51.330 --> 18:57.130]  with the touch pad there. But the advantage of this cool little micro-linked
[18:58.940 --> 19:03.260]  TNC with your APRS Droid enabled phone,
[19:03.260 --> 19:08.440]  you can just use your Android phone, type the message and get it sent. So, it's much easier to
[19:08.440 --> 19:19.140]  use this paired with a phone and a radio than to just use the radio if you're going to go the
[19:19.140 --> 19:26.460]  messaging route. So, definitely something really cool. There's just, I always look on AliExpress
[19:26.460 --> 19:34.080]  or Amazon for new APRS devices, and there's just, every once in a while they'll come out
[19:34.080 --> 19:44.160]  with something really cool. So, that gets us around the end user devices, handhelds,
[19:44.780 --> 19:53.140]  other dedicated units from China that may or may not have reporting capabilities for
[19:54.120 --> 20:02.360]  the government there, to mobile-linked TNCs with your Android phone. But there's another
[20:03.380 --> 20:09.940]  piece to this puzzle, and that's the stations that actually get that data, the packets that
[20:09.940 --> 20:16.340]  these devices put out to other DigiPeters and eventually to the internet. And that's where
[20:17.340 --> 20:27.000]  a DigiPeter comes in. So, this is a basic DigiPeter setup. I got these all over the state
[20:27.000 --> 20:37.000]  here in Utah, and we have definitely increased the... here, let me zoom out here and we'll see
[20:37.000 --> 20:43.180]  if we can... okay, we have definitely increased the APRS coverage in my region and hoping to
[20:43.180 --> 20:56.200]  expand into other parts of Utah. So, this whole setup consists of a 2-meter radio. This particular
[20:56.200 --> 21:04.180]  radio is just one I got off a surplus. It's an EF Johnson RS-5300 here, and all you need is a
[21:04.180 --> 21:14.060]  2-meter radio that has connections on it for push-to-talk and for the audio mic and speaker.
[21:14.060 --> 21:19.160]  Most radios you see out there will have this either through the front port jack here
[21:19.700 --> 21:25.520]  or with a dongle or connection in the back. This one just happens to be done with a DB...
[21:27.140 --> 21:37.540]  what, 15 connector on the back, DB9. And this just plugs in and gives me the breakout for audio,
[21:37.540 --> 21:48.380]  push-to-talk, and that's all we need on the radio side. So, a 2-meter radio. It can also be a
[21:48.380 --> 21:54.360]  handheld. I've seen people use bow fangs for this, so definitely something that can be done a little
[21:54.360 --> 22:05.980]  cheaper. But this is a nice surplus radio. I got it for about $35-$40, so not too bad, not too shabby.
[22:06.020 --> 22:17.420]  So this radio needs to hook up to a device that can decode these APRS packets. To do this decode,
[22:17.420 --> 22:30.140]  I interface my Raspberry Pi with a EasyDigi. These are available on eBay and it comes in a little
[22:30.140 --> 22:36.400]  kit. You have to solder it together, just a little more part of the adventure. All you really have to
[22:36.400 --> 22:46.400]  do is solder two leads for the audio and the connections to your radio for push-to-talk,
[22:46.400 --> 22:55.100]  things like that. So in this particular setup, I am using the GPIO for push-to-talk. You can also
[22:55.100 --> 23:01.940]  just use VOX if you're using a handheld radio or bow fang. This particular 2-meter mobile radio
[23:01.940 --> 23:07.960]  is not capable of VOX, so I definitely have to manually trigger push-to-talk, and that's where
[23:07.960 --> 23:18.380]  GPIO on the Raspberry Pi comes in. So radio goes to your EasyDigi. The EasyDigi is basically just
[23:18.380 --> 23:23.560]  an isolation. You actually don't need the EasyDigi. You can wire things directly. It's just
[23:24.260 --> 23:33.060]  safer. You're not going to ruin your Pi with its low GPIO voltage,
[23:33.060 --> 23:39.360]  and you're not going to screw up your radio, and you'll also get cleaner audio. So definitely go
[23:39.360 --> 23:48.440]  with the EasyDigi. On the Raspberry Pi, it's fitted... since it only has a speaker output,
[23:48.440 --> 23:55.860]  I wish they made this a four-pole connector with a mic input, but hey, you can always go to another
[23:55.860 --> 24:02.380]  Pi variant like the Banana Cream Pi or something for that. I just fit my $35 Raspberry Pi
[24:04.840 --> 24:14.020]  with a $4 or $5 USB audio card. So you can grab these on Amazon. I'll put a link in a little
[24:14.020 --> 24:24.800]  write-up when we post this video. But you just take your microphone, plug it in, and your speaker
[24:26.040 --> 24:35.280]  for your radio. Plug it in there, get it in the Pi, and you're good to go on the hardware side,
[24:35.280 --> 24:44.900]  I guess, other than the GPIO. So GPIO is another step in the setup. The GPIO portion,
[24:44.900 --> 24:50.380]  as well as the software portion, is covered in the documentation of the software I use,
[24:50.380 --> 25:04.040]  we'll get into that right now. Let's go to the good old browser view here. So
[25:06.020 --> 25:12.960]  my choice of APRS software for my Raspberry Pi or any other system is called Direwolf.
[25:13.620 --> 25:20.380]  So we'll hit up Direwolf. I'm just going to use Google here. They have a great
[25:21.280 --> 25:29.500]  set of documentation on GitHub. You can go through any doc on here, but the main thing
[25:29.500 --> 25:38.840]  you need to do is go for the documentation on your system. So they have documentation for Linux,
[25:38.840 --> 25:45.240]  they have documentation for Windows, and they have specific documentation for the Raspberry Pi.
[25:47.620 --> 25:53.100]  So let me look here. So yeah, I'm just going to scroll down here just to
[25:56.080 --> 26:05.280]  make sure I'm speaking the truth here. But there we go. Raspberry Pi for ham radio. So Direwolf is
[26:07.980 --> 26:12.840]  going to be built on top of your Raspberry Pi. So you need to install
[26:13.400 --> 26:22.480]  distro. I just use Raspbian for my Raspberry Pi. Get that installed on your Raspberry Pi and then
[26:22.480 --> 26:31.480]  use the instructions from GitHub here, the documentation repo, to build it for your system.
[26:31.720 --> 26:41.600]  Mostly it is literally just downloading the source and then compiling it. Once you've compiled it,
[26:41.600 --> 26:53.020]  you can start right out and get it running. So let's go to console and see what
[26:54.120 --> 26:59.660]  Direwolf gives us on the Raspberry Pi. What kind of information, what does it look like
[26:59.660 --> 27:04.440]  when you're actually using Direwolf on a Raspberry Pi. I'll go and I'll probably post
[27:05.740 --> 27:09.840]  maybe some quick dirty instructions for actually building a Direwolf kit
[27:09.840 --> 27:17.300]  on the website hamvillage.org. But for now let's go cut to the end results. I think I'm
[27:17.300 --> 27:23.480]  pretty low on time here and we'll go to the console here.
[27:26.340 --> 27:32.500]  So this is what a typical putty installation, well not putty, this is what a typical terminal
[27:32.500 --> 27:39.300]  of Direwolf will read out once you're up and running. You'll see traffic coming across from
[27:40.100 --> 27:46.940]  mobiles, handheld units, and in my area definitely a lot of weather stations.
[27:49.120 --> 27:52.920]  So there's a plethora of information here.
[27:54.540 --> 28:01.500]  And we can pick, let's see, let's pick this latest one that came in.
[28:02.260 --> 28:07.320]  So this was an iGate transmit looks like.
[28:13.860 --> 28:26.260]  Okay that was just for that node. So let's go to this one AJ6KW. So AJ6KW with a destination of
[28:26.260 --> 28:35.060]  APTT 4 came in with this path and looks like some GPS coordinates. So he came in with some
[28:35.060 --> 28:42.620]  GPS coordinates positioned with time. He is using a tiny track so that's one of those cool little
[28:42.620 --> 28:52.100]  all-in-one devices and it's spitting out his coordinates, course, and any other information.
[28:53.840 --> 28:58.920]  It's really cool just to see how much traffic you're going to get on these systems
[28:58.920 --> 29:05.940]  and the console. Let's see here's another one coming in. Looks like a jeep on a mobile unit
[29:05.940 --> 29:13.580]  coming in here with some coordinates, course, altitude, and he's monitoring on 146520. So
[29:15.180 --> 29:22.480]  looks like Keith and I can hit him up on that frequency, give him a chat, and
[29:23.400 --> 29:28.580]  that's just really cool. The terminal here isn't necessarily the place you're going to
[29:28.580 --> 29:34.260]  stalk people on APRS. Definitely use the web interface to do your stalking but
[29:34.260 --> 29:40.860]  it's just really cool to see what your radio is hearing directly because again
[29:42.580 --> 29:49.700]  the stuff posted on APRS.FI and APRS Direct, whatever station heard it first
[29:50.740 --> 29:55.140]  is the one that gets to post it there. So you may have heard it but you may have not been the one
[29:55.140 --> 30:02.400]  that reported it to the servers there. So it's definitely something definitely cool to see just
[30:02.400 --> 30:10.700]  the raw data. And see here we go here's just an iGate transmit from Frisco, Frisco Peak,
[30:10.700 --> 30:15.640]  just throwing a beacon out with its position and location and that.
[30:16.640 --> 30:26.940]  This is AL7BX's rig, a good friend of mine. He has helped me a lot with this APRS stuff. We
[30:26.940 --> 30:35.960]  definitely are working together to build out more APRS rigs in our area. So I think we're
[30:36.920 --> 30:47.340]  pretty much up for time on the demo. The wonderful radiogram talk was amazing and
[30:47.340 --> 30:55.500]  pushed us over a tad but no worries. Let's go answer some questions in chat if there are any.
[30:55.500 --> 31:03.000]  I know this was kind of a droned out presentation live demo but let's see if there's any questions
[31:03.580 --> 31:13.160]  either in Discord or in Twitch here. Give it a quick glance and we'll get going here.
[31:23.650 --> 31:30.710]  Okay well definitely an earful. There's definitely more resources for APRS. If you
[31:30.710 --> 31:37.850]  want to get into APRS, you want to carry it along with you or you want to expand the APRS
[31:37.850 --> 31:44.950]  network yourself, go ahead and hit me up in the Ham Radio Village Discord on the Defcon server
[31:44.950 --> 31:54.330]  or our own Ham Radio Village server. I'll throw links in chat. Just go ahead and I will even be
[31:54.330 --> 32:02.550]  able to help you remotely. I've helped people with remote desktop to help set up their rigs so
[32:02.550 --> 32:10.870]  any help I can give I'm just more than happy to expand and contribute to the APRS community.
[32:10.870 --> 32:17.610]  So thank you everybody and we'll see you back for closing comments here in just a little bit.
[32:17.610 --> 32:18.490]  Thank you!