From stanzepa@mail2.nai.net Fri Mar 06 18:33:32 1998 Received: from usa.nai.net (usa.nai.net [204.71.21.10]) by tapr.org (8.7.5/8.7.3/1.9) with ESMTP id SAA28857 for ; Fri, 6 Mar 1998 18:33:30 -0600 (CST) Received: from 208.133.162.20 (Bridgeport-Usr1-11.nai.net [208.133.162.20]) by usa.nai.net (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id TAA09666 for ; Fri, 6 Mar 1998 19:27:33 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199803070027.TAA09666@usa.nai.net> X-Mailer: Microsoft Internet Mail & News for Macintosh - 3.0c (405) Date: Fri, 06 Mar 1998 19:35:09 +0000 Subject: 10 March APRS/MIR test From: Stan Horzepa To: "aprsnews@tapr.org" Mime-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Sender: Bob Bruninga Subject: 10 March APRS/MIR test Apologies for the dual post, but this is very short fuze: As an experiment to provide improved visibility during school tracking of MIR, the MIREX team has authorized a nationwide APRS experiment on two orbits only between 1455z to 1651z on 10 March, 1998. Anyone with a 2 meter FM radio on 145.985 and a packet TNC may participate. To allow the maximum number of successful stations the objective is for every station to successfully digipeat only ONE brief position packet per pass. Stations running APRS will see all such station Icons on their maps instantly. Stations without APRS can have students plot the positions on a paper map or wall plot. Stations with internet access can see EVERY packet live at the URL: http://www.aprs.net/mirex.html. (See javAPRS section below) FORMATS: Although there are many APRS position formats, the shorter the packet, the greater the chance of success. DO NOT connect to MIR. Transmit packets as BEACONS or UI frames only without acknowledgement. If you see your own packet digipeated by MIR, then you were successful and should cease transmission during that pass. In addition to your posit and Symbol character, you may want to include a brief comment. Maybe your name or school. Here are three format examples using the Icon symbol "-" and the comment field to send the name Bob: UNPROTO GGGGGG VIA R0MIR BTEXT ]-[Bob {Grid-in-to format} UNPROTO APRS VIA R0MIR BTEXT !LATITUDE/LONGITUDE-Bobs House {Lat/Long format} UNPROTO APRS VIA R0MIR BTEXT @DDHHMMzLATITUDE/LONGITUDE>CSE/SPD/Bob {Mobile format} Where GGGGGG is your 6 character Gridsquare. Make up the last two letters if you dont know them. The LAT/LONG format is in degrees and decimal minutes to Hundredths exactly as follows: DDMM.HHN/DDDMM.HHW (shown for North and West) The Course and Speed (CSE and SPD) are exactly 3 bytes each with CSE in degrees and SPD is in knots. "-" represents your ICON symbol character from the following list: - House QTH + Red Cross v VAN ^ Aircraft (large) ; Campground < Motorcycle = RAILROAD Train ` Dish Antenna > CAR H HOTEL K School s Ship (boat) M MacAPRS N NTS Station O BALLOON R RECREATIONAL VEHICLE U BUS V ATV X HELO Y YACHT (sailboat) Z WinAPRS b BIKE e HORSE (equestrian) h HOSPITAL i IOTA (island) j JEEP k Pickup Truck o EOC r ANTENNA tower u TRUCK (18 wheels) GENERAL SETUP: Everyone should make sure their TXDelay is a minimum for their rig. The default of 33 in most TNCs adds almost 25% of overhead to every packet. Many rigs will work with less. SETUP WITHOUT APRS: Set the UNPROTO and BTEXT as shown above for your chosen format. Set BEACON EVERY 0 to prevent your station from transmitting until MIR is in view. Once MIR comes in view, activate your BText by setting BEACON EVERY 6. This will cause your station to transmit once a minute (6 * 10 secs) for the duration of the pass. (If you are using KANTRONICS TNC, then your minmum setting is BEACON EVERY 1 for once a minute. As SOON as you see your packet digipeated you can be sure that everyone else saw you also, and immediately set BEACON EVERY back to 0 to stop transmitting. SETUP WITH APRSdos: APRSdos will plot all packets automatically. Move the cursor to your location and hit INPUT-MY-POS command to enter your posit and brief position comment. When MIR comes in view, hit the XMIT-POS key once every minute to force a position report packet. Set CONTROLS-FILTERS-FADE to 0 so that GRID packets will not fade to dark gray. Watch packets raw on the V-SCREEN, or on the map by hitting the SPACE bar. SETUP WITH Mac/WIN APRS: Mac/Win will plot all packets automatically. To shorten your transmissions, enter a minimum comment field and turn off your status beacon. SETUP FOR APRSa4: APRSa4 will plot all LAT/LONG packets and the very latest version v0.8.21 will also plot the grid-in-to format. To minimize packet length, minimize the Posit Text on the Main tab of Setup. Force a Posit packet once a minute with Ctrl-P. javAPRS: If you have a java capable browser you can watch the event live or get more info by pointing to http://www.aprs.net/mirex.html. If you cannot be near a radio and you have Mac/Win/APRSa4 or APRSnet.exe then you can also telnet (TCPIP) to www.aprs.net port 23 and you will also see all packets live. Another alternate site is the main APRS page at http://web.usna.navy.mil/~bruninga/aprs.html and look for the LIVE pages. TESTING: TO test prior to the event, DO NOT DIGIPEAT VIA MIR! Choose a local digipeater and substitute its callsign instead of R0MIR. Have a friend verify that he sees your position on his map. Here are the exact letter-for-letter example packets above for the position of 38 deg 59.11 Mins North 76 deg 29.12 Mins West WB4APR>FM18SX,R0MIR*:]-[Bob WB4APR>APRS,R0MIR*:!3859.11N/07629.11W-Bobs House WB4APR>APRS,R0MIR*:@101459z3859.11N/07629.11W>123/055/Bob's car Notice that the Icon Symbol must be surrounded with backward Brackets in the grid-in-to format to tell APRS to look for the posit in the TO field, and I changed the symbol to a ">" or CAR in the moving report. MOBILES: Remember that APRS mobiles have an equal chance as everyone else since mobiles have short cable runs with low loss. But they also have nulls overhead. If you will try to work MIR mobile, place your magmount horizontal for maximum signal straight up or wherever MIR is relative to you. UNATTENDED: If you cannot man your station, your APRS will still capture everything it hears. Be sure APRSdos CONTROLS-LOG is toggled ON. Your station may still transmit, but at only 1 packet every 20 to 30 minutes it will not cause significant QRM. Be sure to remove all outgoing messages and bulletins to minimize packets to only your POSIT. Be sure to QSY back off of 145.985 after the test. DOWNLOADS: Get the latest APRS programs from TAPR as follows: APRSdos: ftp://ftp.tapr.org/tapr/SIG/aprssig/files/dosstuff/APRSdos WinAPRS: ftp://ftp.tapr.org/tapr/SIG/aprssig/files/winstuff/WinAPRS APRSa4: ftp://ftp.tapr.org/tapr/SIG/aprssig/files/winstuff/APRSa4 MacAPRS: ftp://aprs.rutgers.edu/pub/hamradio/APRS/ de Bob, WB4APR From stanzepa@mail2.nai.net Fri Mar 27 21:44:08 1998 Received: from usa.nai.net (usa.nai.net [204.71.21.10]) by tapr.org (8.7.5/8.7.3/1.9) with ESMTP id VAA07242 for ; Fri, 27 Mar 1998 21:44:07 -0600 (CST) Received: from 208.133.162.131 (Bridgeport-Usr3-26.nai.net [208.133.162.131]) by usa.nai.net (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id WAA12428 for ; Fri, 27 Mar 1998 22:38:15 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199803280338.WAA12428@usa.nai.net> X-Mailer: Microsoft Internet Mail & News for Macintosh - 3.0c (405) Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 22:44:25 -0500 Subject: WinAPRS 2.1.7 From: Stan Horzepa To: "aprsnews@tapr.org" Mime-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit From: Mark Sproul To: aprssig@tapr.org Subject: [APRSSIG:22547] WinAPRS 2.1.7 Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1998 10:23:53 -0600 (CST) As promised the fix for the IGate Message acking is now up on the normal places. Nac version will be up tonight. ALSO, SPACE mode has been added for the MIR testing. Windows Version Rutgers site at ftp://aprs.rutgers.edu/pub/hamradio/APRS/WinAPRS/ TAPR site at ftp://ftp.tapr.org/tapr/SIG/aprssig/files/winstuff/WinAPRS/ Mac Version Rutgers site at ftp://aprs.rutgers.edu/pub/hamradio/APRS/MacAPRS/ TAPR site at ftp://ftp.tapr.org/tapr/SIG/aprssig/files/macstuff/MacAPRS/ MacAPRS Version 3.1.7 - March 26, 1998 WinAPRS Version 2.1.7 Fixed bug in acking messages thru an IGate Added Space Mode for MIR testing Minor weather improvements __________________________________________________________________________ Mark Sproul |Amateur Radio: KB2ICI Software Engineer @ Assoc Press | sproul@ap.org |Work: 609-860-7120 North Brunswick, NJ |Fax: 609-860-7129 http://msproul.rutgers.edu/ __________________________________________________________________________ From stanzepa@mail2.nai.net Fri Mar 27 21:45:58 1998 Received: from usa.nai.net (usa.nai.net [204.71.21.10]) by tapr.org (8.7.5/8.7.3/1.9) with ESMTP id VAA07304 for ; Fri, 27 Mar 1998 21:45:57 -0600 (CST) Received: from 208.133.162.131 (Bridgeport-Usr3-26.nai.net [208.133.162.131]) by usa.nai.net (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id WAA12450 for ; Fri, 27 Mar 1998 22:40:06 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199803280340.WAA12450@usa.nai.net> X-Mailer: Microsoft Internet Mail & News for Macintosh - 3.0c (405) Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 22:46:33 -0500 Subject: MacAPRS 3.1.7 is up From: Stan Horzepa To: "aprsnews@tapr.org" Mime-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit From: Keith Sproul To: aprssig@tapr.org Subject: [APRSSIG:22596] MacAPRS 3.1.7 is up Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 15:55:56 -0600 (CST) MacAPRS 3.1.7 is up on the APRS site and will be on TAPR soon.. There are now THREE main files MacAPRS 3.1.7.sit.hqx Which is EVERYTHING. This includes the MAPS, Data files, docs And BOTH 68K and PPC versions (This includes ALL of the files listed below) MacAPRS 68K update 3.1.7.sit.hqx This includes the 68k program, updated DOCs file the APRSSERV.txt file the altpath.txt file the Serial Tool and TTY tool for Comm toolbox MacAPRS PPC update 3.1.7.sit.hqx Same as above except for the PPC Keith Sproul Ham Radio: WU2Z Student Housing Network Coordinator ksproul@noc.rutgers.edu Rutgers University Computing Services 732 445-3695 Work 732 445-2968 Fax http://dorm.rutgers.edu/~ksproul/ 732 821-4828 Home From stanzepa@mail2.nai.net Mon Mar 30 09:09:49 1998 Received: from usa.nai.net (usa.nai.net [204.71.21.10]) by tapr.org (8.7.5/8.7.3/1.9) with ESMTP id JAA01371 for ; Mon, 30 Mar 1998 09:09:47 -0600 (CST) Received: from 208.133.162.11 (Bridgeport-Usr1-2.nai.net [208.133.162.11]) by usa.nai.net (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id SAA27784 for ; Sun, 29 Mar 1998 18:31:28 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199803292331.SAA27784@usa.nai.net> X-Mailer: Microsoft Internet Mail & News for Macintosh - 3.0c (405) Date: Sun, 29 Mar 1998 18:37:56 -0500 Subject: California TIGER maps From: Stan Horzepa To: "aprsnews@tapr.org" Mime-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit From: Keith Sproul To: aprssig@tapr.org Subject: [APRSSIG:22597] California TIGER maps Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 17:13:35 -0600 (CST) I am (as I type) putting the California TIGER maps up on the APRS ftp site. ftp://aprs.rutgers.edu/pub/hamradio/APRS/maps/maps1 There are THREE files ca-1.zip ca-2.zip ca-3.zip There are a few (aprox 3) counties NOT done yet because the SOURCE data files were just to HUGE to be run on the comptuer my assistant was trying to use.. Keith Sproul ksproul@rci.rutgers.edu WU2Z Student Housing Network Coordinator 732 445-3695 W Rutgers University Computing Services 732 821-4828 H From stanzepa@mail2.nai.net Mon Mar 30 09:09:50 1998 Received: from usa.nai.net (usa.nai.net [204.71.21.10]) by tapr.org (8.7.5/8.7.3/1.9) with ESMTP id JAA01373 for ; Mon, 30 Mar 1998 09:09:48 -0600 (CST) Received: from 208.133.162.11 (Bridgeport-Usr1-2.nai.net [208.133.162.11]) by usa.nai.net (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id SAA27802 for ; Sun, 29 Mar 1998 18:32:00 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199803292332.SAA27802@usa.nai.net> X-Mailer: Microsoft Internet Mail & News for Macintosh - 3.0c (405) Date: Sun, 29 Mar 1998 18:38:21 -0500 Subject: Internet Linked AMSAT Ground Stations From: Stan Horzepa To: "aprsnews@tapr.org" Mime-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit From: Bob Bruninga To: aprssig@tapr.org Subject: [APRSSIG:22578] Internet Linked AMSAT Ground Stations Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 09:06:27 -0600 (CST) We are building a network of linked ground stations to provide almost continuous coverage for some of the Amateur Satellites. The idea is that these stations use only OMNI antennas and operate unattended 24 hours a day worldwide and are linked by the internet so that any packets heard by ANY station are all merged together into a single internet stream of raw packets for everyone. This allows the satellite operators to manage their satellites by monitoring their downlink even when they are out of range of their own station. It also lets hams on one continent see how the same satellite is used over the other continents. The internet side of this capability written by K4HG is working fine and has been on line for more than a year. It has demonstrated being able to handle over 2 dozen simultaneous 1200 baud packet feeds and at least 150 simultaneous users without even a slow down. This example system is the worldwide APRS server. To see its raw packets, TELNET to 199.227.86.221 port 23. Steve is now building another system JUST for Amateur satellites. It is temporarily on 199.227.86.221 port 10001. Here is what we need: * Good dedicated and knowledgable stations with dedicated 24 hour internet access. One per footprint, per band, per satellite. All you need is a mimimum dumb-terminal TELNET access and any DOS machine or, any TCPIP Internet service and WIndows or Mac. * Dialup access is OK if you want to bother with having to man-up for every pass. THis is fine for special SAREX events, etc. At this early stage, we do have one site on the USA east coast (The Naval Academy) that is feeding MIR packets to its own WEB page and to the Miami server. Its WEB page captures the last days worth of packets from each pass of MIR. (OOPS, last night we did not have MCOM on, so it only captured UI frames and not all the other CONNECT-REQUEST/BUSY packets) http://web.usna.navy.mil/~bruninga/mirex.html SAREX and MIREX are the easiest. Next would be DOVE when it comes back to life. The 1200 baud pacsats are IDEAL but require automatic control software to aquire unattended. This is where we really need the AMSAT expertise. We will have to gradually ease into the 9600 baud pacsats, however, due to their verbosity... A few stations have already responded and are looking into setting up stations in Mexico, Chicago, Taiwan, and Madrid. If you are interested in setting up such a ground station, please check out the web page and/or the raw TNC stream. You may feel that omni antennas are not sufficient, but remember, each station does not need to see all packets horizon to horizon. It is not important that each station hear every packet, what counts is that at least ONE station out of the SUM of all stations heard the packet at least once. Then EVERYONE gets it via the internet link. Steve's central server removes all dupes. This greatly simplifies the demands on each station individually. No complex antenna tracking and wear and tear on mechanical systems. Using only OMNI antennas cuts the usable footprint per station in about half (6 dB), but all that means is that we need 6 stations in the whole USA instead of just 2. Still quite easy to do... Lots of potential here folks... de WB4APR (bob) and K4HG (steve) From stanzepa@mail2.nai.net Mon Mar 30 21:05:23 1998 Received: from usa.nai.net (usa.nai.net [204.71.21.10]) by tapr.org (8.7.5/8.7.3/1.9) with ESMTP id VAA05095 for ; Mon, 30 Mar 1998 21:05:22 -0600 (CST) Received: from 208.133.162.91 (Bridgeport-Usr2-34.nai.net [208.133.162.91]) by usa.nai.net (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id VAA08517 for ; Mon, 30 Mar 1998 21:59:39 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199803310259.VAA08517@usa.nai.net> X-Mailer: Microsoft Internet Mail & News for Macintosh - 3.0c (405) Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 22:03:22 +0000 Subject: APRS814 From: Stan Horzepa To: "aprsnews@tapr.org" Mime-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Sender: Bob Bruninga Subject: APRS814 1) The latest APRSdos 814 has been posted at the usual ftp from tapr.org in the following directory: tapr/SIG/aprssig/files/dosstuff/APRSdos Changes include colored map labels, improved SPACE mode for the upcoming APRS/MIR/SCHOOL test in Late April, and a "JUST-XXXX" command for searching just about anything on the digipeater path page... Useful for seeing who is on TCPIP... etc. 2) ALSO i now have a MIR WEB page that shows you LIVE mir passes and also retains the last 8 passes for your review... at any time... LIVE MIR web PAGE: http://web.usna.navy.mil/~bruninga/mirex.html 3) We are looking for others with good TELNET connectivity to set up MIR and other satellite receivers to join our worldwide real-time AMSAT tracking network. 4) As noted above, next APRS/MIR/SCHOOL test may be 27 April... But uplink will be limited to ANY schools with APRS. If you can associate with a school, start makeing plans! Over 100 stations were successful (Out of 104 that tried) during the last test... de WB4APR