Setting up APRS for Wheeling n' Stuff

[rover67]

Hi All,

This will be super geeky but I figure if it's in this forum nobody can fault me for it. I have stolen the limelight in others threads for too long and have decided it is time to start my own thread to document my attempt to utilize APRS to my advantage while wheeling and exploring.

Where am I starting from? I am a paper map, make plans in advance, and try to communicate intent up front kinda guy. I like to shoot for places to explore and camp and make it happen. What gets annoying is when I decide to go somewhere and the destination changes.... then people who are trying to meet up with me can't find me. I am stuck standing on truck racks trying to get a signal on my cell and balancing on top of a rig after a few to many around a campfire can be annoying. Also, while HAM (and 2 meter specifically because it's common) work well for last minute changes and comms, sometimes the people I am trying to reach out to don't have it or can't hear me. Lastly, I am really excited about being able to make a sneak attack on an unsuspecting fellow RS'er while they are wheeling in some remote area with their location being broadcast via APRS. Or simply say "I'll find you with your location on APRSdriod" and drive into the darkness by myself knowing i can get to them easily.

What do I want? One single tablet with my maps, locating tools (aprs), messaging tools, and of course all my music and vehicle diagnostic info connected to a OBD2 dongle.

So, here we go.

As far as I can tell APRS is the solution to my location/messaging problems... that along with the tablet for maps. That part has been pretty well documented, so I won't go into it here in depth though am still learning. Music, and diagnostics also simple with a tablet.

Step one, start playing, and of course buy shit.

 

[rover67]

People feel free to chime in here, this is all learning.

So, I read a few threads. Namely ones where Dave (aka RS Elmer) has made some really helpful comments. And i've searched elsewhere online to try and get guidance.

There are several radios on the market (you gotta have a Ham radio to make this work) that do APRS already. I dig that but have discovered that I may like the APRSdroid interface on a tablet to get a nice map with peoples locations on it at a minimum. And, if I am doing that, I should get the ability to message on it also. SO, if I am running a tablet, do I need APRS fully integrated into the vehicle radio? especially if it's hard to work with the radios built in TNC's? The FTM-400 is real sweet for example but maybe if I am gonna message and I use my tablet for that do I need the radio to be able to do that? PLUS i'm gonna have a tablet for maps and music and OBD2 interfacing anyways right?

So, I have chosen to maybe separate the APRS stuff from my main vehicle radio which i haven't bought yet. It seems like there are a few that can pair with external TNC's to transmit/receive data in a relatively intuitive way.

My first step was to start playing with all this, and a cheap way to do that is to buy an external simple TNC (aka modem) that works with most any HAM radio and bluetooth's into a tablet or phone or whatever.

So a few days ago, I gave myself an early Christmas gift and got myself the following to start playing with it all:

Cheapest Tablet I could find, a galaxy tablet a 8" that i proceeded to throw in a 128GB card into with 60 gigs of music on it. Already winning there. $109 can't beat that, and so far it'll run all that I want and does split screen with two apps at a time.

https://www.costco.com/new-samsung-galaxy-8-tab-a-wi-fi-tablet-32gb---black---includes-bonus-32gb-microsd-card.product.100511056.html?langId=-1&krypto=aVx0R99Js32H5cQlAdm9NhkW6SCSgqq3SrrU7pttF9x5Z41kbCrR1X9GJScgzq9hXsH/4Oiw5qh22AvWgv99bY6BDbrcbGh1omAK32D7LOyx8spk4BsN0ftkwWGBPWvaulB4F8UMtFdxSULJIaHFNbqVzdL3OIAUkyvxTLgc87ismeAUHBGHFOFyZ4iY91LzOCou/rr8JJAMZaM2wcqqZH62EPBrj+lXh6UdbfV9lnAT9UXlme0V4CnMTXpTi0h1

I also already put Avenza and Gaia on it and have a source for a nice collection of maps. Thanks anonymous friend.

TNC that will connect to tablet via bluetooth with cables to attach to radio ~$75 for what I needed there:

https://store.mobilinkd.com/products/mobilinkd-tnc2-2

And I have a radio that was taking up space in a drawer already to just play with it, a Baofang UV-3r. I got a new antanna for it to hopefully get some range out of it, we'll see. New chinantenna $15 and the radio I think was like $25 years ago. If it wont work I'll commission my Yaesu VX-7r.

I went online and downloaded APRSdroid per Dave's recommendations as well as downloading colorado-Utah maps per his recommendations also:
https://risingsun4x4club.org/xf/threads/ftm-400xdr-install.27445/page-2#post-330857


OK, now I gotta wait till it all comes in, which sucks because we're out of town for thanksgiving, then I head straight to phoenix for work for a week after that, then two more weeks in Minneapolis after that before Christmas... but hey, gotta pay the bills right? plus I *think* i can travel with all this crap and play with it!

 

[Stuckinthe80s]

OOOOHHHHH, this is going to be SWEET!! Looking forward to how this turns out. You always hook it up with the pic's so that's going to be helpful too!

 

[AimCOTaco]

Nice! I think you're on the right track to happiness here, just get the antenna outside of the truck and you should be good.

 

[rover67]

ultimate setup will be a true dual bander for the truck that can run APRS on the side so I can just have one antenna. I'll loose being able to monitor simplex and a repeater say for example, but I am thinking that matters less to me than the simplicity of one good truck radio. The HT is just a "figure it out" setup for now.

Yeah, I plan to try and document it with photos Once i get proof of concept i'll beef this up some

 

[Inukshuk]

I have been thinking to get a tablet to dedicate for maps. You think that's pretty much a great deal? Seems to be $60 off regular, but the 32GB is of course not enough. 2556GB Micro SD card at Amazon for $37.99 https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-256G...jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

 

[rover67]

I think the best deal is probably a used tablet for sure. And honestly I didn't look that hard for this one but when it popped up in my sale flier for costco, I fell for the marketing and just got it. I mean it was a hundred bucks or so. I spent more than that mounting a fire extinguisher in the damned truck. My favorite part about the non-apple stuff is what you've just said... just get a micro SD card and make the memory whatever you want. I did that on this one, I had a 128GB card with my music half full on it and just tossed it in, it integrated seamlessly. The Tab A can take a 512GB card apparently, I am sure many others can take bigger ones too. That and it has good apps available since it's andriod.

Also, you may want to look into a 10" tablet. I chose the 8" because it was cheaper and i like smaller. you may not.

 

[AimCOTaco]

I got the 8" Samsung Tab A 2019 as well recently.
The good is the cost, processor, size. The display resolution is not great, quite entry level compared to my older 8" Samsung tab.
Totally sufficient but not awesome resolution. I'm using mine for truck duty so a good fit for the price but my older one is better for streaming and pics..
It also has GPS but no compass, not a huge deal but my old one had both.

It's tough to find a high end / small size tablet these days.

 

[DaveInDenver]

Glad this is getting attention, APRS is potentially very useful to us. I've been wanting to do some sort of workshop at Ham & Eggs for a while.

 

[Romer]

I also have the samsung tablet. Have been very happy with it in the truck and also when someplace I dont want to bring or pull out my surface. Works fine for streaming video, email and checking forums.

 

[Mendocino]

I currently have a Kenwood TM D710-GA with built in TNC. I use the APRS constantly and have sent and received messages (mainly to Dave). I run APRS on one side of the radio and either simplex or Colorado Connection on the other. My preference would be a tablet and dedicated APRS radio. I have noted that even at 50 watts sometime the APRS packets are not received by a fixed station and as a result my track on APRS.fi (for example) is incomplete and inaccurate.

I have considered getting an HT for dedicated APRS use but have some concern about my packets "getting out" at 5 watts instead of 50. I would buy another dedicated 50 watt APRS radio and a tablet, but space in the 200 is at an absolute premium and I am not willing to make room for another mobile transceiver at this time. I would ultimately like to have my primary radio do repeaters on one side and simplex on the other and then have a dedicated 50 watt APRS rig.

Also, I really like Gaia, but it has no APRS interface. Maybe Dave's Open Street Maps solution is the way to go? I think I will wait and watch how this plays out with all of you and make a decision / changes in the future. In the mean time I will keep using APRS from my D710 and attempt to optimize my use of the UI and the APRS features.

 

[Stuckinthe80s]

Glad this is getting attention, APRS is potentially very useful to us. I've been wanting to do some sort of workshop at Ham & Eggs for a while.

I like this idea. Maybe at the next Ham and Eggs we can coordinate with a few folks who have their setups running and then walk through the different options with us newbs. 👍

 

[On the RX]

This all sounds amazing and something I would like to look into incorporating into my system. It is also way above my head and I am only getting the gist of what is being said. I think this would be a great topic to touch on at a meeting and maybe get a smaller group of interested parties to meet up at a later date to discuss ideas and educate the laymen like myself. With my bro, friends and I doing different things in the backcountry, this sounds like it would be a great system to keep in touch and make contact when plans go left.

 

[Keith]

I'm running a pretty similar setup through a Bao-Feng. I found one that transmits at 7.5 or 10 watts to give a little boost. Also, it's absolutely key to get one that you can run directly off your 12 volt power. I tried doing it with a normal HT radio battery and plugging it in to charge... It got REALLY hot. The one I have now has a power source that replaces the battery and plugs into 12 volts... Does that make sense? I will try and take pics of the setup soon(ish).

 

[DaveInDenver]

They are usually called battery eliminators.

 

[Mendocino]

I'm on a support request list for Gaia GPS. The specific request is for Gaia to support APRS. This was posted today:

"Just an FYI to everyone here. Back Country Navigator has now rolled out support for APRSdroid integration into their latest BCNavXE. You can now view stations heard on APRSdroid in BCNavXE. "

I may have to switch to Back Country Navigator.

 

[rover67]

I currently have a Kenwood TM D710-GA with built in TNC. I use the APRS constantly and have sent and received messages (mainly to Dave). I run APRS on one side of the radio and either simplex or Colorado Connection on the other. My preference would be a tablet and dedicated APRS radio. I have noted that even at 50 watts sometime the APRS packets are not received by a fixed station and as a result my track on APRS.fi (for example) is incomplete and inaccurate.

I have considered getting an HT for dedicated APRS use but have some concern about my packets "getting out" at 5 watts instead of 50. I would buy another dedicated 50 watt APRS radio and a tablet, but space in the 200 is at an absolute premium and I am not willing to make room for another mobile transceiver at this time. I would ultimately like to have my primary radio do repeaters on one side and simplex on the other and then have a dedicated 50 watt APRS rig.

Also, I really like Gaia, but it has no APRS interface. Maybe Dave's Open Street Maps solution is the way to go? I think I will wait and watch how this plays out with all of you and make a decision / changes in the future. In the mean time I will keep using APRS from my D710 and attempt to optimize my use of the UI and the APRS features.

Jeff,

maybe you could set up a data only radio with an external TNC and stick it all under a seat somewhere and bluetooth it into your tablet?

I'm pretty sure thats what Dave has done here:

https://risingsun4x4club.org/xf/thr...rs-was-yaesu-ft-1xdr.27698/page-3#post-336284

I wonder if there are more powerful data only radios?

 

[rover67]

OK,

Been working on this and it has taken me a surprisingly long time to figure it out. Mainly learning how to work with the android OS I think. I like it. I can do basically whatever on the tablet like move files, create folders, work with the SD card pretty easily, listen to music off the SD card easily. Seems real functional. Resolution on the screen sucks for stuff like youtube, but for a map it seems pretty good so far.

So as mentioned above, I've installed Gaia and Avenza so far to look at maps. That's straightforward and i'll get into it more as i begin to look at station positions with respect to a relevant map of my area.

So my first success has bee to get APRSdroid up and running with a downloaded map.

I went online on my tablet and downloaded the version that works offline with OSM (OpenStreetMaps - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenStreetMap )

APRSdroid - https://www.aprsdroid.org/osm/

In order to log onto it, I needed a password. I went where Romer found to get that and it worked well. I entered my call sign and password and got APRSdroid up and running. You have to have a license and therefore a call sign to do all of this BTW. But you knew that already.

http://apps.magicbug.co.uk/passcode/

After I did that I was able to open the app and play with it. I had locations of stations in a 50km radius to me because thats what it was set to pull in. Everything was on a blank screen.

So.... I was going to use the colorado-utah maps that dave mentioned in romers thread: https://www.openandromaps.org but ran into problems and was travelling (first in DC, then in AZ) and wanted the whole US loaded so i could play in both locations and at connecting airports and on the airplane.....

So I downloaded the whole US map that KS9N put together by getting a bittorrent app and downloading it from the location at the bottom of the APRSdroid web page https://www.aprsdroid.org/osm/

I followed the instructions on the web page and I put the map file, which I renamed to aprsdroid.map, on my SD card in a folder named aprsdroid.map

Now i ended up with the app running on my tablet with a good map and it was pulling data from the web to populate station location and other information on the map.

Boom. Step one done. and if you have a tablet or phone it's free. I did get the app in the store anyways to give them the money for it...

 

[rover67]

OK, now data is moving back and forth via the internet, I get that. Step one is to get this just to work. I feel like I succeeded. I'll get it to work with a radio soon don't worry.

What I couldnt help myself from doing though is trying to text using the app!!!!!!!!!! Does it make me a millenial that my first inclination is to send a message to a cell phone rather than another HAM on APRS?

Anyhow, so here goes.

Googly Moogly and found this thread:

https://www.overlandbound.com/forums/threads/sms-text-and-email-via-aprs-using-aprsdroid.10923/

IT FRIGGIN WORKS! I was able to text myself and allison. What I don't understand is if technically you need a callsign to reply even using your phone if i text you. For me and allison it is fine since we both have our technicians licenses/callsigns. Dave? any input here?

Also the number it sends from apparently should be held close to the vest. don't share it.

Also... you can anonymize the number you are sending to if you follow instructions in that thread. that one is next for me for me and allison.

I blocked out numbers knowing they are public, but whatever..

Hit send message to:

Enter "SMSGTE" as callsign

and @phonenumber followed by message,click send:

Receive message on cell phone magically, I replied to myself:

And here is the message center on the tablet again (with a test to allison a few days ago also):

 

[DaveInDenver]

Not sure it's clear, APRSdroid requires its Mapsforge files to use version 3. This has been depreciated to newer version (5 is current latest). So if you download maps from openandroidmaps you need to specifically find the V3.

Those got compiled about a month ago and they are being eliminated from the website, so early in 2020 they will be removed completely. I opened a support ticket with Georg about pulling in a newer Mapsforge library into the application to support V4/V5 mapsforge but that ability is not currently in the OSM version. He's weighing options on what to do about offline maps going forward and apparently mapsforge in the grand scheme isn't popular.

Also, FWIW, I downloaded the complete set of US and Canada from openandroidmaps.com so if anyone wants the Utah-Colorado (or any other) I can get them to you now or in the future. They'll just slowly fall behind the OSM database with additions and corrections but should be fine for a few years. That's the main problem (other than being 2GB) with the KS9N monster map, it's several years old and will have errors.