[aprssig] APRStt

[Steve Dimse]

On Jan 23, 2015, at 11:13 AM, Jason KG4WSV <kg4wsv at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Fri, Jan 23, 2015 at 8:31 AM, Robert Bruninga <bruninga at usna.edu> wrote:
>> And we have had that in the wings since 2001.  And it is called APRStt.
> 
> Is this actually in use anywhere?
> ...
> I don't disagree that people _could_ use APRStt.  I just don't think
> they _will_.  open trackers are cheap; IMO if you won't lay down $30
> for a tracker, you won't bother learning how to use APRStt.

Yea, I don't think this is a killer app, and certainly not for what I was talking about, a killer app for ham radio high speed WiFi nets.

As for APRStt, I agree whatever hope it had is pretty much past. What Bob mentioned for $30 is a DTMF decoder add-on to a Tiny Track 4 ($65), and it only handles the DTMF input and converts it to APRS packets, there is no provision for the synthesized voice return channel.

Though ironically enough last week I built a DTMF decoder based on the MT8870 to use with a Raspberry Pi and a voice synthesizer as one control channel for the monitoring and control system I am building for my RV. Though this is something completely different from the APRStt use, with "just some software" it could do both sides of the system; at a cost of $2 for the chip and xtal and $35 for the Pi it is a lot cheaper and more powerful. You'd still need a TNC, but maybe you could rig up the analog and voice outputs to share between speech synthesis and a packet engine driver on the Pi, if unlike me you didn't have 15 or 20 old TNCs lying around!

But anyway, what Bob's so-called killer app needs is its own killer app - some situation where it really would be easier in the field to type something on the keypad rather than a touchpad-connected APRS app. I sure can't think of one...

Steve K4HG