Tag: aprs

  • What I Look For In A Ham Radio HT

    The exact checklist I run every handheld radio through before it earns a spot in my lineup, plus a full comparison table covering ham, GMRS, and commercial HTs.

  • Grab and Go Box: 2m/70cm Family and Emergency Comms Kit

    Part of our Emergency Communications and Preparedness Why I Built This Box I wanted one box I could grab on the way out the door that would let my whole family stay in contact no matter what’s going on. Not a bug out bag, not a full station buildout. Just a self contained kit that…

  • Ham Radio Apps for APRS Tracking on Your Phone

    Part of our Getting On The Air guide. You do not need a radio with a built-in TNC to get onto APRS. A collection of solid phone apps lets you track, message, and monitor the APRS network directly from a device you already carry everywhere. How Phone-Based APRS Actually Works Most APRS phone apps connect…

  • LoRa APRS: A Different Take on Long-Range Tracking

    Part of our Getting On The Air guide. LoRa APRS blends two technologies that most hams already know separately, traditional APRS and LoRa radio hardware, into something that behaves a bit differently from either one on its own. How It Differs From Traditional APRS Standard APRS runs on 144.390 MHz in the US using AFSK-modulated…

  • Yaesu FT5D Review: Fusion’s Flagship Handheld

    Part of our Handheld Radios (HTs) guide. The FT5D sits at the top of Yaesu’s Fusion handheld lineup, and it is built to showcase everything System Fusion and Wires-X can do rather than just check the digital voice box the way a budget dual-mode radio does. GPS and APRS Integration Built-in GPS feeds directly into…

  • Nexus: One Free Program Trying to Replace Your Whole Digital Shack

    Nexus is a free, open-source program from KD9TAW that tries to fold your decoder, logger, mapper, alerter, and panadapter into one app. Here is what I found after digging into it.

  • What Is ATAK (CivTAK)? Tactical Mapping and Team Awareness Explained for Hams

    Part of our Emergency Communications and Preparedness guide. If you’ve spent any time in EmComm, SAR, or preparedness circles lately, you’ve probably seen the acronym ATAK thrown around next to phrases like “situational awareness” and “common operating picture.” It sounds military because it is military, but the civilian version has quietly become one of the…

  • Radio Field Cards: Quick-Reference Programming Guides

    Part of our Handheld Radios (HTs) guide. I keep pulling up the same four questions on every new radio that lands on the bench: how do I program a repeater, how do I get into VFO mode, how do I adjust power, and how do I scan. Every radio buries these in a different menu…

  • Setting Up APRS on the AnyTone AT-D578UV III Plus

    The 578 shares its APRS architecture with the 878, which makes sense since AnyTone builds the CPS around the same feature set across the mobile and handheld lines. The setup steps are nearly identical, but a mobile radio adds a couple of wrinkles worth calling out, starting with the GPS antenna itself. Mount the GPS…

  • Configuring APRS on the AnyTone AT-D878UV II Plus

    The 878 will do APRS, both analog and DMR-APRS through the GPS revert channel, but it is not a one-button affair like the Kenwood. Almost everything worth setting has to happen in the CPS software first, then you fine tune on the radio itself. Here is the setup I actually use. Enable APRS and GPS…

  • APRS on the VGC VR-N76: Bluetooth KISS TNC Setup

    The VR-N76 does APRS completely differently than anything else in my lineup. Instead of an all-in-radio APRS engine like the Kenwood or AnyTone radios, it works as a Bluetooth KISS TNC that bridges to your phone or a laptop, where the actual APRS application lives. That is a real strength for flexibility, but it also…

  • Setting Up APRS on the Kenwood TH-D75A

    The TH-D75A is the easiest APRS setup in my whole lineup, and it is not close. Built-in GPS, a dedicated APRS mode button, dual-band RX so you can watch a data frequency and talk on another, and a real screen to read packets on. No Digirig, no laptop, no companion app required. Here is how…

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