[aprssig] [APRS] APRStt and AVRS Initiative

[Robert Bruninga]

> I've read over APRStt, several times, the page at
>  http://www.aprs.org/aprstt.html ,
> but am probably missing something obvious.
>  What, exactly is missing, underdeveloped, or not yet working for
APRStt?

There has been APRSspeak by Doug Quagliana, but I'm not sure if he has a
released version yet.

This year Byonics has implement it in a daughter board for the Byonics
TinyTrack 4.  And it works perfectly.  I used it for a local marathon.
But it has one serious shortcoming for practical use.  It does not send
any audible feedback to the DTMF sender that his data was received.
Sothey are in the blind unless they are watching APRS someonther way to
see that they are getting in.

I solved it for my marathon by adding an external PIC processor to send
back some Roger-Beeps and tones to give the sender some feedback. (bright
idea.. maybe I just need to tie the PTT of the packet radio side over to
the 146.58 DTMF channel so the packet is heard over there too.  This lets
the DTMF user know his data was decoded!  Yep Ill do that instead of my
added PIC processor).

> "What is available now to help me put together
> a small public service event using APRStt as the primary reporting
tool."

That is it, the Byonices DTMF daughter board for the TT4.  But He only
made a few for alpha testing.  He said he will have a few more at Dayton?

> At a minimum, it seems that all I might need is
>  something like a D700/D710 and a bunch of DTMF
>  capable HTs.  Toss is a bit of operator training, and
>  I'm all set.  But I fear I'm missing something important, as I'm an
extremely naive about APRS.

> What infrastructure needed... to meet the basic goals of APRStt?

The TT4, the APRStt daughter board, and any FM radio.

  Is there ongoing, active, development of the necessary software?  And
how can I maybe help?

73 de Daniel KB3MUN