APRS

This is an on-going repository for the Automatic Positioning Reporting System (APRS) Network This repo includes support for Direwolf, rtl_fm & kissutil

This repo is split into multiple directories with

"Cross-Band Digipeater Support"

"Simplex Digipeater Support"

"RTL-SDR RX Only IGate Support"

"HF Rig RX Only IGate Support"

Installation

You're going to need

"rtl-sdr" https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/rtl-sdr/ (If you plan on using an rtl-sdr)

"direwolf" https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/direwolf (IIRC "kissutil is included in this package)

"telnet" https://archlinux.org/packages/core/x86_64/inetutils/

Usage

Ensure that you clone this repo into your /home/$USER/ directory so that everything can run seamlessly

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To simply run direwolf for your rigs run

Simplex VHF: direwolf -c /home/$USER/aprs/Simplex-Support/direwolf_VHF-APRS.conf

Simplex UHF: direwolf -c /home/$USER/aprs/Simplex-Support/direwolf_UHF-APRS.conf

Simplex 10m: direwolf -c /home/$USER/aprs/Simplex-Support/direwolf_10m-APRS.conf

Cross-Band: direwolf -c /home/$USER/aprs/Cross-Band_Support/direwolf_MultiBands.conf

30m RX Only direwolf -c /home/$USER/aprs/HF-Rig_RX-Only/30m-USB_APRS.conf

Everyone's setup is different, Please ensure you have checked your

PTT method (If you're using an RPi your PTT method will be via the GPIO pins)

You can find the documentation on GPIO PTT here: https://www.marcelpost.com/wiki/index.php/GPIO_pin_on_the_RPi_to_trigger_PTT

ADEVICE (You can find this by running aplay -l and arecord -l

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If you intend on using "RTL-SDR(s)" You're going to want to move aprs-1200b.service and aprs-9600b.service from /systemd-services/ to /etc/system/systemd/

To enable these as services so that they run on /BOOT/ Run these commands in your terminal

sudo systemctl enable --now aprs-1200b.service
sudo systemctl enable --now aprs-9600b.service

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To run the RTL-SDR(s) by themselves and not as a systemd service simply just run

bash 1200b_RTL-SDR_APRS.sh or 1200b-10m_RTL-SDR_APRS.sh or bash 9600b_RTL-SDR_APRS.sh

This should give you a print of whats going on in your terminal window such as packets recieved

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APRS Messaging

This repo also includes a method to send messages to other stations by utilizing the kissutil

In the "APRS-Messaging" directory is a shell script that you will need to edit for your station such as

USER="ab1cde"
PASS="12345" 

Ensure you have this correctly changed for your station

Usage of running the script is very simple

bash aprs-message.sh "callsign you want to send a message to" "your message"

This will telnet into the APRS-IS system with your login details and first send the message over TCPIP

It will secondly send the message over RF over the KISS TNC via WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1,APRS,TCPIP

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

Please make sure to update tests as appropriate.

Credits

A very special thanks goes to Emma/Everett (KX4AT)

for their amazing help putting this some of this config together, for resparking my interest again in Packet Radio and staying up until all hours of the morning/evening answering my stupid questions

"Help! I'm trapped in a digipeater! :C (Direwolf 08.18.23)" -KX4AT-10

Notes

The "direwolf_UHF direwolf_VHF direwolf_10m .conf" 's include an ibeacon to "TOOT" A Mastodon bot that posts your APRS Messages to the Fediverse Social Media platform You can find your posts by navigating to "https://aprs.internaluse.net/@"your callsign" This is maintained by Crossy (VK4XSS/VK3FUR)

If you do not wish for this to occur, Please comment out the "Mastodon Beacon"

#-----------------#
# Mastodon Beacon #
#-----------------#
# https://aprs.internaluse.net/@{Your Callsign Here}/
# Do not attach your SSID "-#" to the end of your Callsign, Simply just your call as is :-)

IBEACON sendto=IG delay=1 every=180 via=TOOT

Further Notes

After further testing sending TOOT 's via IBEACON won't work and need to be an RF ONLY sent packet I'll edit the configurations later on this week (1/2/24) to make sure this is properly fixed

PS: (This (commented out in the configs) was patched 2/4/24 but still can't send Packets over IBEACON ;-; )

FURTHER Further notes (Edited: 2/4/24)

The Mastodon beacon will not accept IBEACON and will only accept RF ONLY (CBEACON) This is something I need to speak to VK4XSS about at some point in time whenever that will occur and have this fixed

MORE NOTES (Why do I keep doing this to myself) (1:31am 2/5/24)

I've now added support for 30 Meter APRS (RX ONLY) and will add more bands to this setup once I get some more time on my hands and have the spoons to do so This is an RX Only I-Gate, If you get in trouble by Digipeating APRS packets over HF, It's not my fault.. You've gone and purposely added that to your config This should only be in emergency situations (As much as I would love to do this as a treat :P)

Way too many notes (12:27PM 2/5/24)

Inside of the HF-Rig_RX-Only directory is a list of HF I-Gates around VK and ZL with their respective frequencies and locations along with APRS.fi links and if they're FULLTIME or OFF-AIR , This is a small list and I'll add further active I-Gates to it if people email me at webmaster[at]whisper[dot]cat

THe original list (Which has since been edited) was pulled from https://www.sarcnet.org/files/GippsTech/7%20APRS%20on%20HF.pdf from VK3SRC (Julie and Joe) presentation at GippsTech 2017

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Notes about HF APRS Functionality on RTL-SDR's

Currently as far as I'm aware there is no easy way to get the RTL-SDR to run at 300 baud on Sideband for HF APRS

Short of using an SDR software such as "gqrx" and piping audio into a loopback device and creating a custom config for decoding HF packets, This is unfortunely a limitation of the RTL-SDR software

Future development

I will try to maintain this repo as best as I can, I'm still working on some stuff in the background so expect changes from time to time

Until next push Meow :3