October OVARC Meeting - APRS

The October meeting of the Oro Valley Amateur Radio Club (OVARC) had an informative presentation on APRS by Bob, AF9W.  I began using APRS way back in the 1990's and had a lot of fun using various types of TNC's, GPS units, and displays.  For a while I had a nice weather station that beaconed APRS from my home QTH, and lately I've used it to beacon out my position along my SOTA hikes.

Technology has improved APRS a lot.  For example, many radios now have built-in TNC's and GPS units (like my Yaesu FT-2DR handheld).  Mapping back in the early days used DOS-driven software with rudimentary character-drawn maps, whereas now we have high-resolution mapping, satellite images, and super-fast colorful displays that draw very little power.  Websites like http://www.aprs.fi give near-real time aprs data via the internet.

As usual, the OVARC meeting had other interesting stuff including a demo of his Lindenblad Satellite Antenna project by Ron, W7HD, and a short Handyman's Corner talk by Tom, W8TK on how to build a $5 antenna tuner.