[aprssig] [amsat-bb] Re: 150 cubesats to provide global WIFI multicasting

[Robert Bruninga]

> for the life of me, I can't think where we could find 70 Mbytes
> of ham radio content.  Not useful content, anyway.

A good example is the way some people stream live tracking data for all
satellites in view plus an update to the DX list of passes over the next 3
hours that is captured and displayed on all APRS radios in the local area.

The APRS radios capture this and display on the front panel the range and
bearing to the satellite, the uplink and downlink freqs and the Doppler.
Everything you needed to know to work the satellite while mobile in real
time.

In addition, if you have the voice module in the radio, the radio will
SPEAK the announcement of the satellite in view and will SPEAK the
elevation angle as "LOW or HIGH" every minute during the pass.

In addition, at any time during the day (or when you arrive in a parking
lot and just before you turn off the radio) one can hit the LIST button on
the radio and bring up the DX list and it will contain the next three hours
of pass times. (useful if there is one only 2 minutes away and worth
waiting for).

This way one never has to refer to a PC for tracking data, but simply watch
(or listen) for satellite alerts on your APRS radio.  In fact it is ideal
to get alerts while you are in the mobile because that is also where you
can work em!  There are many satellites that you can work from a mobile
with an FM rig, why not?

We have had this capability in all Kenwood and now Yaesu APRS radios going
back to 1998.  You can see examples of the front panel displays on the APRS
HT on this web page http://aprs.org/localinfo.html about 90% down the page
under the paragraph heading LOCAL SATELLITE ALERTS.
And this is only a small part of the continuous streaming data on the APRS
channel (useful for the traveler).  You also get the following data in real
time:

* FREQ, and TONE of locally recommended traveler Voice repeaters
(accessible with just a press of the TUNE or QSY button)

* FREQ, and TONE of nearby IRLP, Echolink or Allstar links

* TIMES and days of any local nets on these repeaters

* Times and dates of any local club meetings

*Announcements about upcoming HAMfests or events

* FREQ, location and distance to any other APRS mobile op in voice range

* Actual PING alerts if any other APRS mobile operator is in simplex range.

Too many people simply ignore APRS as a "tracking system" when it never was
intended that way.  It was intended as a mobile data resource, pushing
relevant local content to the front panel about everything going on in HAM
radio in the local area for instant access.  (And that includes satellites
in view) The APRS radios have over 900 pages of data memory that are being
refreshed constantly and are avaialble at any time. (Plus 10 pages of DX
list)  Plus the data can be sorted for display by age, callsign, or
frquency, or distance.

See the above web page for all the content already available.  But like
anything else in Ham radio, if no one is transmitting content in a local
area, then no one is even aware of this powerful Ham radio technique.

While traveling and just watching the data coming in from APRS, I have
stumbled into Hamfests, Pig roasts, club meetings and nets of all kinds to
just drop-in on along the road.

Bob, WB4APR

On Sat, Feb 8, 2014 at 6:15 PM, Gus <gus at 8p6sm.net> wrote:

> On 02/08/2014 09:24 AM, Robert Bruninga wrote:
> > Any ham... to collect this content simply puts his 9600  bd radio
> > listing to that repeaer INPUT to join the net!  An AP runs together
> > building a buffer of that 70 Mbytes of ham radio content per day, which
> > is then instantly accessible at any time with is browser.
> > Again, we have the sites, the atnennas, the freqs and the radios.
>
> But for the life of me, I can't think where we could find 70 megabytes
> of ham radio content.  Not useful content, anyway.
>
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