[aprssig] APRS in daily use

[djhuff at rockwellcollins.com]

I have a few other uses, mostly echoing what others have said.
1. Weather, here in tornado alley, the NWS has APRS in most of the 
offices.  I have literally been out chasing a tornado for skywarn, and had 
the NWS call me on a voice repeater by callsign.  They asked me what I 
saw, because they observed me on their map 60 miles away. APRS helps when 
you are in rural areas, because all the corn fields start to look the same 
at 60 miles per hour.
2. Weather watches, there is a way you can see NWS watches / warnings, 
flood warnings, spotter activation statements, and other important stuff, 
when the laptop is unavailable, my radio is easy to carry.
3. Event announcements, having someone put a APRS eyeball for the hamfest, 
club meeting, or other special event is good. 
4. Low tech lojack.  I have had to put a portable repeater up for an 
event, so I attached a small tracker to it, to report its known position. 
When the event was over people asked if it was picked up yet, so I went to 
the map, and looked, since it was still beaconing, it was a reminder that 
the stuff was still there.
5. How about tractor rides (http://www.tractorride.com/) or bicycle events 
(http://ragbrai.com/) or other similar long tour type events.  When 
Ragbrai comes to town, your town of 1000 people swells to 50,000, and cell 
service drops. Finding your sag wagon full of clothes after a 50 mile bike 
ride might be important. Finding where grandpa is on his old JD Model 4020 
can be useful too. 

Dave
W0IM




From:   Guido Trentalancia <iz6rdb at trentalancia.com>
To:     aprssig at tapr.org
Date:   02/21/2011 02:54 AM
Subject:        Re: [aprssig] APRS in daily use
Sent by:        aprssig-bounces at tapr.org



Hello William !

On Sun, 20/02/2011 at 20.18 -0500, William McKeehan wrote:
> In East Tennessee, we have found APRS to be very valuable for special 
events,
> but the interest and activity drops off dramatically between those 
events.
> 
> We have a weekly voice net on which we discuss APRS; I'd like to present 
some
> suggestions there about how APRS can bring value to your every day life.
> 
> I'm struggling to identify the things for which APRS is ideal for every 
day
> life, so I turn to this group for ideas.
> 
> Do you use APRS daily? Why? How do you use it and what value do you get 
from it?



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