[aprssig] ATV on APRS

[Bob Bruninga]

My first love before APRS was ATV...
Although APRS has distracted me for 17 years now, tongiht I noticed that our local ATV group is still alive and well with DOZENS of stations ont he air.

Why can't I see them on APRS?  That was the idea with the ATV symbol!  If an ATV station is transmitting, then he should also be beaconing on APRS so that everyone can SEE the loacation and activity of everyone on the ATV net.

So, maybe it is time to go light a fire over there and get them all to hook up some "trackers" to their PTT line so that when they are on the air, then their ATV symbol also shows up on APRS.  A quick press of the "only-ATV symbols" button will instantly reveal an APRS map of the ATV acitivity in progress.

I went looking for cheap "trackers"..  The tinytrack3 and opentrack+ look good for this task.  ANy others? that are innexpensive I shoudl suggest?  Of course any old TNC will do also, since we only need a fixed position beacon:

!DDMM.mmN/DDDMM.mmWV439.250MHz ATV on air, Bob

Via ONE HOP only...

For example would be the format of such a beacon sent once every 5 minutes while the ATV station is transmitting.

Where can we promote this in the ATV circles?
Bob, WB4APR