[aprssig] APRS Videos

John Langner WB2OSZ wb2osz at comcast.net
Sun Mar 1 14:25:47 EST 2020


There is certainly no shortage of information.  Search for "APRS," in
YouTube or Google, and you will be overwhelmed.

The problem is separating the wheat from the chaff.  

It is easy to get the impression that APRS is only putting a tracker in a
car and watching the location on aprs.fi.   It is rare to find much mention
of other useful capabilities.

Most of the information is terribly outdated and doesn't contain any of the
new developments in the past 10 or 20 years.   If you tell people that they
need to spend $600 on a Kenwood radio, or $200 on a relic from the 1980's,
just to get started, they will be scared away.

When people ask me what they should buy to get started with APRS, I tell
them "nothing."  Don't go out and waste a bunch of money on something you
don't understand.   My recommendation is to get started with free software.

After gaining some experience, and understanding, you are then in a better
position to make an informed choice about making purchases where it makes
sense.

Here you will find a Power Point presentation covering the origins of
Amateur Packet Radio and the evolution from 1980's style hardware to open
source software which provides more features and better performance at a
lower cost.  It's not the ultimate Introduction to APRS video you were
looking for but might find it useful.

https://github.com/wb2osz/direwolf-presentation

Why not give a presentation to your local club or other gathering? Use this
slide show as-is or customize it to match your interests and audience.






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