APRS is great for tracking your Vehicle. For those on the fence about APRS capable radios

[Romer]

When I leave on a trip I remind my wife she can track me on APRS.fi with my call sign as long as my Radio is on. That helps her feel better. It also provides an avenue if I break down on my own, there is a tracking mechanism to find me. Not like an Inreach where I can phone home. A less capable, but available system

I haven't learned all the other capabilities with APRS like sending texts, tracking other vehicles and I am sure more. This feature alone is enough to justify it.

It doesn't replace a GPS track due to not every Beacon ping hitting and straight lines being drawn in between registered Beacon pings

My week to/from Moab

and a closer view of Moab. Jax Trax on the bottom, 3D on the top left and Fins and Things in the middle right

It will even give you all kinds of info about what you were doing at each beacon point. A zoomed in view of Fins N Things

 

[nuclearlemon]

i used it years ago when coming home from idaho in a snowstorm...i texted treeroot when i had service and told him to watch my tracks and make sure i wasn't stopped for an abnormally long period of time while i tried to find a backway around closed interstates.

 

[Romer]

Dave- if you read my post I didn't at all say to use this for accuracy. My wife or others knowing I am moving and ABOUT were I am is good enough. I also didn't suggest it was real time. I read that "Typical intervals would be every 5 or 10 minuets" . Although I saw one user who recommended 10 minutes and another said he thought longer than 10 minutes in a densely populated area. My Beacon is set to every 5 minutes and I believe that is acceptable as most of what I was doing was in low or no population areas. I also don't typically have my Radio on unless I am on a trip out of town.

I appreciate the technical spiel. I am just trying to SIMPLY relate a feature of APRS. I always appreciate your technical expertise so please don't take that wrong

 

[nakman]

Ken I never once noticed your beacon... clearly it's transmitting to the website, but if I had seen you pop up on my radio I would have noticed, and probably messaged you. I saw @rover67 and @CardinalFJ60 constantly, also @satchel had it on during our run on Friday and we were able to message each other. did you ever see my callsign pop up?

 

[Inukshuk]

My Cruise Moab:

 

[Romer]

Ken I never once noticed your beacon... clearly it's transmitting to the website, but if I had seen you pop up on my radio I would have noticed, and probably messaged you. I saw @rover67 and @CardinalFJ60 constantly, also @satchel had it on during our run on Friday and we were able to message each other. did you ever see my callsign pop up?

Yeah, I need to learn how to set that up. I saw some dialogue in the other thread on doing that. I don't know how to see others on my Radio. It must be possible as I think you have the same 400 unit. I will look into that. Thanks for the reminder.

 

[Romer]

I dug into the Beacon rate a bit and every where I looked it said Home stations and digi repeaters set to 30 minutes

Mobile, or some called it Tracking. For example this site says https://www.jpole-antenna.com/2018/09/25/aprs-ssids-paths-and-beacons/ the faster you are moving the faster your beacon should be

The rational from what I read elsewhere is Home stations and repeaters are not moving so they have no need to update their Beacon as frequently. Moving mobile stations are a different situation.

I am going to leave mine set at 5 minutes. Not disputing what you are saying Dave, just lots of different opinions on the internet. I only have mine on when traveling so not feeling like I am a bandwidth hog

 

[satchel]

I've been leaving mine on smart beaconing so maybe I should set that lower. It does seem to ping a lot for me. @Romer i was able to see your truck moving all over on aprsdroid though I don't recall if I could see you in the list on my radio. I'm guessing my radio may be filtering out non mobile stations as well.

 

[Romer]

I've been leaving mine on smart beaconing so maybe I should set that lower. It does seem to ping a lot for me. @Romer i was able to see your truck moving all over on aprsdroid though I don't recall if I could see you in the list on my radio. I'm guessing my radio may be filtering out non mobile stations as well.

That's cool Trey

You should do what you feel comfortable with. I feel I have done my due diligence researching this and am comfortable with what I have. Dave has a strong opinion and he is entitled to have it. It is an opinion though and I am comfortable with my settings.

 

[nakman]

Yeah, I need to learn how to set that up. I saw some dialogue in the other thread on doing that. I don't know how to see others on my Radio. It must be possible as I think you have the same 400 unit. I will look into that. Thanks for the reminder.

If we have the same 400 unit then it's just a matter of hanging out together to compare settings. I have a constant flow of popups, so often I don't even really hear the beep anymore... which I kind of liked as it reminds me I'm not alone in the world. But I don't see messages when they come in- I did look back and see where Dave messaged me (I wrote you back btw) and Trey had to tell me I had a message, which worked but I had to go look for it. So there must be a better setting somewhere.

I didn't use any aprsdroid or aprs.fi while out there, as most of the time I was out of cell range and/or didn't want to mess with tethering an ipad. I was watching that on the way out while on I-70 a little bit. I think it's cool when folks augment their beacons to include forum handles, vehicle descriptions, etc., just makes this a lot more friendly. I saw a few of those while in Moab, which I recognized. One of the Colo 4x4 recovery guys does that also, for example.