APRS
app_rpt can post position reports to the APRS™ network. APRS is an acronym for Automatic Packet Reporting System. APRS is the registered trademark of Bob Bruninga, WB4APR (SK). app_gps supports standard position reports and APRStt (touchtone).
For fixed position nodes, like repeaters, reporting your node's position allows visiting operators to easily see the nodes/repeaters in the area. Some radios allow operators to use the position reports to automatically tune their radios to the node's frequency.
You can see a map of APRS unit locations at https://aprs.to or https://aprs.fi.
An external GPS device can be configured to receive GPS position information. This is needed for mobile nodes to post their live position. Fixed stations do not require a GPS device. app_gps can be configured with a default latitude, longitude, and elevation.
app_gps posts position report to the global APRS-IS servers. An Internet connection is required.
Configuration
Enable app_gps
To enable app_gps, edit /etc/asterisk/modules.conf
and change
noload => app_gps.so
to load => app_gps.so
Edit gps.conf
The gps.conf
file now uses Asterisk templates. See Templates
for more information.
Edit /etc/asterisk/gps.conf
with your favorite editor. The
configuration file is filled with comments to assist you with
the configuration.
If you will be using a GPS device, set the comport
and baudrate
for
your connected device. If you don't have a GPS device, comport
should not have a value.
Update call
with the node's callsign and SSID. For example:
WB6NIL-1
. Additional information on the callsign/SSID format
can be found at https://www.aprs-is.net/Connecting.aspx.
Update password
with your APRS-IS password. This password is
a computed number based on the callsign.
You can generate the password on-line at https://n5dux.com/ham/aprs-passcode.
Note: This password must be correct for app_gps to log into the APRS-IS server.
The gps.conf
contains a number of settings that configure
how your node is displayed on APRS maps. The comments in the
configuration file will help you configure your node.
The comment
field can be used to describe your node and/or
provide information about your local radio club. See the
configuration file for more information.
You can configure the map symbol used for your node by changing
the icontable
and icon
values. To display an "R" inside a diamond, set
icontable = R
and icon = &
. See http://www.aprs.org/symbols.html
for more information.
Note: app_gps supports multiple nodes. To add additional nodes, add another section to the configuration file. For example [1998](general).
Restart Asterisk
After making these initial changes to modules.conf
and gps.conf
, restart
Asterisk at the command line type:
systemctl restart asterisk
Changes made to gps.conf
in the future do not require restarting Asterisk.
After making changes to the configuration file, you can enter these
commands in the Asterisk CLI.
module unload app_gps
module load app_gps
Monitoring the GPS device
You can get the status of the connected GPS device by typing the following command in the Asterisk CLI.
gps show status
This command will tell you if the GPS device is locked on the satellite signal and the current position. If you are not using a GPS device, it will show the default latitude, longitude, and elevation.
APRStt (touchtone)
APRStt allows operators with analog radios to report to the APRS system. Specially crafted DTMF sequences can be sent to app_rpt to generate APRS position reports.
To enable this feature, edit /etc/asterisk/rpt.conf
and
add or enable aprstt = general
for your node. The value after
'aprstt' is the section in gps.conf
to use for APRStt. This value
can be different for each node. It does require a matching
section in gps.conf
.
Callsigns received by APRStt are reported as objects to APRS using the
'-12'
SSID.
To send WB4APR using APRStt, you would send the DTMF sequence,
A9A2B42A7A7C91#
. app_rpt will translate the DTMF sequence and
send it to app_gps for processing.
For more information on the APRStt DTMF format and how to construct DTMF sequences, see http://www.aprs.org/aprstt/aprstt-user.txt.
Note: Some radios natively support APRStt.
Note: At the time of this writing, app_rpt only supports the APRStt A format.