Everyone:
APRS is the Automatic Position Reporting System, an open-standard radio-modem data telemetry protocol.
From
http://eng.usna.navy.mil/~bruninga/aprs.html :
"The Automatic Packet Reporting System was designed to support rapid, reliable exchange of information for local, tactical real-time events or nets. The concept is that each station with new information transmits his new data to everyone in the net and every station captures that information for consistent and standard display to all participants. Since the primary objective is consistent exchange of information between everyone, [APRS] also establishes guidelines for display so that users of different systems will still see the same consistent information displayed in a consistent manner (independent of the particular maping system in use). "
In practical terms, this means that with an Amateur Radio (HAM), a GPS, a radio modem, and the interface between these, data from the GPS can be sent over the radio to a receiving station, a laptop connected to a radio modem and a recieving radio. There are several retail mapping softwares that are already set up to process recieved APRS data, which effectively allows the mapping software to display real-time position data overlaid on the map image.
An example of how this works with Google Earth can be viewed at GoogleAPRS.com .
I have spoken with a local (Mesa, AZ) Wilderness Search and Rescue volunteer group, and they would love to see something like this integrated into a mapping software as useful and as affordable as TopoFusion. If there is any way that this could be done, we would love to help get the ball rolling.
Many thanks,
HammerDown
