dayton.aprs.net
Live APRS Feed via JavAPRS
APRS (short for "Amateur Position Reporting System") was developed by Bob Bruninga, WB4APR. It's used to graphically display the position of fixed and mobile ham radio stations. Many hams have GPS (global positioning system) receivers hooked to their mobile transmitters, and transmit position reports as they travel. APRS can also provide weather information from automated weather stations and do lots of other neat stuff.
Live APRS Data via the Web
The link below launches a Java applet that displays activity on the amateur ("ham") radio APRS network in Dayton, Ohio. The data is live -- when a station transmits its position via ham radio, the map is updated within a few seconds.Live Dayton APRS Feed
You may also display current APRS activity overlaid on the current NWS radar image from Wilmington, Ohio:
Dayton APRS Feed with NWS Radar
(The java applet and supporting files are over 200kb, so be patient!)
Dayton 1998 Playback
APRS at Dayton Hamvention 1998! -- This is a javAPRS applet that will play back a history file of APRS activity at the 1998 Dayton Hamvention.
Dayton APRS Statistics
For the last two years, we've been maintaining a log of all the APRS activity heard at the W8APR digipeater (a few miles south of downtown Dayton, at 39 40.78N, 084 09.61W). I've written a program to analyze this data, and the results are available as Hamvention '98 APRS Statistics and Hamvention '99 APRS Statistics. In 1998, W8APR copied 353 callsigns, and over 46,000 packets, during Hamvention week; in 1999, the number of calls increased to 419 and the number of packets to 79767. Note: these statistics pages are 200kb+ tables that may take a few minutes to download -- please be patient!How does APRS data get from the ether to the ethernet? Click here for the technical details.
Visit K4HG's javAPRS home page to see maps that have live data from all over the country (including Dayton).
APRS Resources
If you'd like to learn more about APRS, here are a couple of very good places to start.First, Ian Wade, G3NRW, recently wrote an APRS White Paper that is very good -- I recommend it highly for anyone just getting their feet wet in APRS.
It shouldn't be surprising that TAPR has all sorts of APRS stuff. First, there's the main GPS/APRS page which will take you to the software download area, the APRS Special Interest Group, and other related links. The TAPR software library also has a directory full of presentations about APRS. (The one by Wes Johnston, KD4RDB is particularly good.)
Finally, Jeff Brenton, KA9VNV, has put together all sorts of really useful APRS information at his Questionable Web Page.
Copyright 1998 - 2001 by John Ackermann unless otherwise noted above.
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/index.html was last updated Friday, 28-Dec-2001 15:03:35 EST