[aprssig] APRS-IS and metadata

[Bob Poortinga]

Nothing prevents you from using the free text comment section of an APRS
position report, object, or status packet for your own needs. Create a
software parsable format that is distinct (e.g. starting the comment with
"&&") and stuff your meta data there.

Bob W9IZ


On Thu, Aug 17, 2023, 4:14 AM Borja Marcos <ea2ekh at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I am new to the list, I hope this is the right place to discuss this
> issue. This is not a complete proposal, of course,
> just a “weather balloon” ;)
>
> As many members will be aware, there is an effort underway to use LoRa
> modulation on 433 MHz for
> APRS. There are several open source projects which, as a plus, are based
> on dirt cheap and easy to obtain
> hardware,
>
> https://github.com/richonguzman/LoRa_APRS_Tracker
> https://github.com/dl9sau/TTGO-T-Beam-LoRa-APRS
> https://github.com/lora-aprs/LoRa_APRS_iGate
>
> There is also one commercial product available, picoAPRS LoRa. It is more
> pricey, but, well, all of us know
> that developing and supporting an actual product is hard.
>
> http://www.db1nto.de/index_en.php
>
> All of it is a bit ad-hoc now with no agreed standards (as far as I know).
> While some of the developers have
> agree informally to use APL?? device IDs for LoRa based equipment, not
> every developer is following that
> rule,
>
> As far as I know there are also other modems/phys used with APRS. For
> example VARA on HF.
>
> I think it would be great to add some metadata to the databses used by the
> APRS mapping applications including,
> as a minimum, a modem/phy identification (and frequency, which could be
> useful for HF) so that they can be
> more useful to study/check certain kinds of APRS activity.
>
> Right now, for example, there are dashboards relying just on APL??? device
> IDs.
>
> http://lora.ham-radio-op.net/?center=43.3508,-3.0499&zoom=12
>
> Another interesting possibility offered by a more flexible database model
> could be adding some metadata specific
> to certain modems. As an example, LoRa chips can provide RSSI and SNR data
> which could prove valuable for
> propagation/coverage studies.
>
> What do you think?
>
>
> 73,
>
>
> Borja Marcos / EA2EKH
>
>
>
>
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>
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