There's a good introduction to APRS at http://www.wa8lmf.net/bruninga/aprs.html
At the bottom of that page is a link to join the TAPR APRSSIG email list. It is very active and I'd recommend you join. My other suggestion applies if you would like to have some fun at home right off the bat. Download a copy of UI-View32 from http://www.ui-view.org/ You can start out running this program to watch other position beacons as they are reported through RF digipeaters with IGate capability. That is, you can play with APRS reporting from data on the internet even before you hook up your PC to your radio. You can focus on any location you want, world-wide. My first introduction to APRS, years ago, was when a friend took a vacation and beaconed the whole trip. I could watch in near real time as he navigated across the US. In addition to UI-View32, you can use the findu.com site to lookup APRS info directly on the internet. To focus on your home town of Joplin, MO, using findu.com, I looked for APRS activity near your lat/long as reported on qrz.com for your callsign: http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/near.cgi?lat=37.034415&lon=-94.509317&last=240&distance=200&n=100&rate=1 It shows the activity in your area, and the fact that there's an IGate in Joplin. Next you can connect to your radio and begin to have UI-View32 issue position reports from your home QTH. You can configure UI-View32 with your fixed lat/long info and don't need a GPS for that. Some people who have a home weather station that can connect to their PC will use that to have their home QTH APRS beacons contain the latest temp, wind, etc. If it's still fun, I'd consider the other recommendations you've gotten. As Jeff KE7ACY pointed out "If you want to send out APRS packets so that others can track your movements - all you need is a TinyTrak type device and an HT." That can be fun. One time I was at Dayton for the Hamvention. I typically bring along my HT and a mag mount for the rental car. Hooked up the gps to the HT as I drove around the area. I'd given my wife the findu.com link to track me, and she called me on the cell from back in California and asked why I was on the freeway going 8 miles per hour. I thought that was pretty funny, while I sat there in the traffic jam. As suggested by others, you can go whole hog while mobile and bring along a lap or netbook and hook your gps to that, and to the radio. People do that, but I would first try some of the simpler ideas listed above to get started. Good luck. Jim - K6JM ----- Original Message ----- From: Dan To: digitalradio@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, August 28, 2010 5:18 PM Subject: [digitalradio] New I would like to try APRS, but have no idea where to start. I now have a GPS unit from TomTom. What else do I need and where do I start? Thank you, Dan Walker WD5CND
