Wildflower Triathlon - Communications Committee Page

APRS Information

Wildflower 2006

APRS is an important part of the Wildflower Trathlons. It allows people in Dispatch to see where all of the ham vehicles are around the course. Consequently, we require that any vehicle on the race course during the race have working APRS on the vehicle. This allows us up in Dispatch to see where all of our vehicles on the course are.

You must demonstrate your working APRS setup by Friday, April 7th, 2006 to John KG6LHY. Just make sure you are showing up on the internet (on such sites as aprsworld or findu) and send him an email. You can contact him on the forums or email him jcape (at) calpoly.edu

Below are instructions on how to set up a variety of APRS encoders. If you are using a different type of encoder, please send the staffing person instructions and/or a screenshot so it can be incorporated into this webpage.

Kenwood TM-D700

First, download the software, unzip it, and install it. It is Windows only.
Now, hook your radio up to your computer. If you need the cable, ask on the forums or on the Wildflower Mailing List. First thing to do is save your current config so you can restore it after Wildflower. Do this by selecting the Radio Menu, Read, All. Then File, Save, and save. Save it in a place you will remember.
Go to the APRS menu 1 tab, make sure APRS is checked. For "My Callsign" put your tactical call ... Chase 1 will be CHASE-1, Rover 13 will be ROVER-13, etc. Chase motorcycles will use a TX interval of 1 minute, rover units will use a TX interval of 2 minutes. Set the Status TX rate to 1/8 for Chase motorcycles, 1/5 for everybody else.

As for icons, Chase units will use a motorcycle icon, and Rover units will use a pickup truck icon, and Marine units will use a boat icon. Packet TX is auto, UDIGI is blank and digipeater is unchecked. Packet path is "WIDE1-1". Data band ... which side of your radio do you want to be dedicated to APRS? For the left side, I think it's "A", for the right it's "B".
Now go to the APRS menu 2 tab. Doubleclick message number 1. Enter "Wildflower Triathlon [your callsign]". Now write the config and you're done!

OpenTrack

Plug in your OpenTracker to your computer with a null-modem cable. If you are running Windows, load up the otwincfg.exe program, and select the serial port you are using. SAVE your current configuration by clicking on the "Save to file" button at the bottom. This will ensure you can easliy reprogram your tracker after Wildflower.
Enter in your tactical callsign into the Callsign area, and put WIDE1-1 into the Path. Leave the TX Delay the same as before, and enter the appropriate TX Interval in seconds. Pick your appropriate symbol from the table below and enter the values. In the Text field, enter "Wildflower Communications [your callsign here]." Select "Status" every n transmissions, where n is 8 for Chase motorcycles and 4 for all others. Deselect all of the Switch Config settings; we don't want to switch configurations at any time.

TinyTrak

Download the software for the TinyTrak2 or TinyTrak3. Unzip the folder and run the executable. It is a Windows-only program.
Read your configuration and save it so that you can restore it after wildflower.
For "Callsign", use your tactical call. Digi path is "WIDE1-1". Pick your appropriate symbol from the table below and enter the values. "Auto TX Rate" (TT3) or "Transmit Every" (TT2) should be set according to the table at the bottom of the page. Status beacon should be "Wildflower Triathlon [your callsign]", transmit every 4 for rovers/marine units, every 6 for chase units. Disable mic encoding, time slotting and smart beaconing. Make sure to write the configuation and you're set to go!

Kantronics KPC3+

Plug it in and load up your favorite terminal program. Use N,8,1,4800. Type the following commands. Lines preceded by a * are comments, and brackets are for personalized data; see the comments.

INT TERM
MYCALL [tactical] * Tactical call will be CHASE-1 for chase1, etc etc....see above for examples.
ABAUD 4800
BEACON EVERY 10
CONOK OFF
GPSHEAD 1 $GPRMC
GPSTIME VALID RMC
HEADERLN OFF
HID OFF
DIGIPEAT OFF
MONITOR ON
BLT 1 EVERY [timeinterval] * See bottom of the page for time intervals
LTP 1 [vehicle] VIA WIDE1-1 * GPSMT (for motorcycle) or GPSLS (for boat) or GPSLK (for truck)
BTEXT >Wildflower Triathlon [yourhamcall] * Gotta have your actual call put out to be legal
UNPROTO APRSW VIA WIDE1-1

GPSPORT 4800 NORMAL CHECKSUM * If you are using the second serial port for the GPS
INT GPS* Otherwise, if your GPS will be plugged into the DB-25

Timing Information

These are the time intervals that the APRS packets should beacon at. We have selected these timings to reduce collisions. If your hardware does not let you select to-the-second intervals (like for the TM-D700), round to the nearest minute.

Chase 1	00:00:54
Chase 2	00:00:58
Chase 3	00:01:02
Chase 4	00:01:06
Rover 11	00:02:02
Rover 12	00:02:07
Rover 13	00:02:11
Rover 14	00:02:15
Marine 21	00:02:30
Marine 22	00:02:35

APRS Symbols

APRS Symbol information. Use these symbols so that the people in Dispatch have an accurate representation of your vechicle.

Symbol Table	Character	Description
/	<	Motorcycle
/	>	Car
/	k	Truck
/	s	Boat

http://www.w6bhz.org/wildflower/2006/aprs/index.html
Last updated 20 March 2006