Forwarded on our local ham radio groups:

April 11th (Friday) is the last day to submit comments to the FCC. Help us protect the bands!
Under a new deregulation mandate, the FCC is soliciting public input on rules that may be deemed outdated or unnecessary. If amateur radio frequencies are seen as underutilized or commercially valuable, they could be auctioned off to corporate interests, permanently limiting our ability to operate.
Please visit the website to sign our petition and make a comment directly to the FCC about protecting our airwaves.
https://hamadvocate.org/

The Threat: FCC Deregulation
Under a new deregulation mandate, the FCC is soliciting public input on rules that may be deemed outdated or unnecessary. If amateur radio frequencies are seen as underutilized or commercially valuable, they could be auctioned off to corporate interests, permanently limiting our ability to operate.

(continued) #hamradio #fcc

Happy Birthday, APRSdroid! I'm 15 years old now!

https://op-co.de/blog/posts/15_years_of_aprsdroid/

#aprs #aprsdroid #hamradio

Very close to having solid #BluetoothLE support in @aprsdroid. SQ2CPA did the heavy lifting. I'm making a few changes to get it working reliably with TNC3/TNC4 and hopefully other dual-mode devices. #hamradio #aprs

#uvk6 #uvk5 mods for #hamradio digital modes -- both hardware and firmware -- are now documented here: https://github.com/mobilinkd/uv-k6-digital-mod/blob/master/UV-K6.ipynb

Roaming around FrOSCon today, ask me anything about @aprsdroid or @yaxim

#FrOSCon

@M0PWX @ARISS_Intl
Because of your toots, I just tried #APRS myself on a low #ISS pass too with just a handled radio and #aprsdroid .
I believe I messed up the message I should have sent. :thaenkin:
Will try again on next pass.
#satelite #hamradio #amsat

Trying to run aprs.fi with the OSM public tile service now. It seems to meet the requirements on the current policy; if it hits them too hard, it's easy to switch back.

Much quicker rendering from their large servers & mostly cached on their Fastly CDN frontend, and much more details. I couldn't load all the details in my database, it was way too slow to render from there.

WH6AZ has posted a great how-to video and updated code for the B.B. Link, a gadget you can build to bridge the BLE/Bluetooth gap between the iPhone and the Kenwood D74 & D75! Works for the aprs.fi app too. #hamradio https://github.com/islandmagic/bb-link/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLze6qDOLww

Saying hello to the #xmpp community at #FOSDEM building K, where you can send #POCSAG messages from your xmpp client! 😍

Will be hanging out at #FOSDEM for the afternoon, #aprs follow DO1GL-5 for free user support 😁

Hi everyone! I'll start publishing news and announcements about aprs.fi, and related #aprs news, here. Support questions shall be answered too. As the iPhone/iPad app is paid, it's admittedly slightly of commercial nature at times, but the server admin kindly permitted this. Hessu, @oh7lzb is behind this profile. #introduction

Had to double check that my code is working with the help of @aprsdroid . Scandic letters and emojis are still fine!

@M0YNG
I'm not opposed to an fdroid release, but the build isn't trivial and I don't have the time to stuff it into the fdroid tooling. It's already challenging enough to build a scala app as is, unfortunately. I might set up an fdroid repository with the official builds one day if somebody explains it in easy steps 😉

Minor update of #APRSdroid - version 1.6.3a to support Android 13 (so that Google doesn't prevent app installation on modern devices). No functional changes.

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.aprsdroid.app

Direct APK download: https://aprsdroid.org/download/APRSdroid-1.6.3a.apk

Next up (no ETA): replacing the mapsforge renderer with GPU-accelerated vector tile map renderer (screenshot attached)

#APRS #hamradio #amateurfunk

I can run #aprsdroid on my old android head unit for the car. Along with the #Lanchonlh #HGUV98
I might be able to #APRS #messages but responding while driving would be bad.

#hamradio #radio #ham

Operating #APRS (not message capable) while hiking in Forest Park this morning. I’m the lightning bolt on the map.

#HamRadio #AmateurRadio

If you have a Baofeng handheld and an Android phone or tablet, it's fairly easy to make an #APRS audio cable. I made one like this. It works, but I wish I had a good solution for strain relief.

The @aprsdroid app is really easy to use! I actually managed to transmit before receiving. I held the PTT button manually at first and saw my beacon on https://aprs.fi/ . Cool!

The cable was glitchy so thats's why I didn't receive any packets. I tested the cable by recording the "mic" input while I put the radio on broadcast FM listening mode. I then also discovered that the top pixel line in APRSdroid is a signal level meter. Very useful! #aprs

If you want to dive into how APRS and AX.25 works, I highly recommend that you check out @kwf's paper "Examining Ambiguities in the Automatic Packet Reporting System". I now know the historical contexts for the various quirks in the standards and I feel I have a much better grip on how the protocols are actually used. The paper really helps me to know which details matter and explains many things much clearer (and puts them in their proper OSI layer) when the protocol specs are confusing.

Link to the paper: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2449&context=theses

#aprs #hamradio #amateurradio

I have successfully sent a toot from my #HamRadio (pictured below) using @xssfox ’s excellent APRS to Fediverse gateway.

I typed and sent it from my radio at Montgomery Park and it reached the internet via what’s called an I-Gate in Vancouver. I’m the king of the nerds on shift tonight.

#AmateurRadio

Quoting @kf7azy:

https://aprs.internaluse.net/@kf7azy/posts/204677194906936432/