[aprssig] APRS: IoT via Ham Radio

[Steve Dimse]

> On Nov 20, 2019, at 12:08 PM, Brian Webster <info at wirelessmapping.com> wrote:
> 
> Stream gauge/ water levels. Our ARES?RACES group routinely takes manual readings on stream measuring sticks placed on bridges. A calibrated sensor would have to be built to do this.

Xpondr created one called Flood Advisor 15+ years ago. 

http://floodadvisor.com/products.php

At the peak there were 9 or 10 of these on the air. Pretty slick design, ultrasound inside PVC tube, easy to replicate. Ran on 6 volt lantern battery, with 30 minute measurements a battery lasted about 18 months. There are still a couple on the air. findU has full of support for this, you can link it to a tide station with time and heigh offsets and get a differential plot. All the ones transmitting are gathered on a single page:

> http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/floodadvisor.cgi 

Also for anyone interested in other telemetry applications be sure to consider using the user defined APRS protocol which allows anyone to create any data format they need, rather than trying to shoehorn new things into old formats. 

It may not have been called it, but APRS has always been a network of things!

Steve K4HG