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Ham Radio and APRS

APRS ("Automated Position Reporting System") is a system that uses GPS and ham radio technology to let you track a moving vehicle like a car, truck, or motorcycle from another APRS-equipped radio base station or on the Internet via gateways. APRS does other things too, including remote-sensing weather reports. But mobile tracking is what I wanted to use it for.

To learn more about APRS, you can go to the APRS Wiki.

In the first half of 2006, I got my ham radio license and a radio so I could use APRS to track my motorcycle when I went on trips. I did this in the name of Domestic Tranquility: the idea was that my wife at home could check to see that I was still moving, and she could tell the cops my last known position if I didn't report in. I ultimately gave up on this technology because I found it was not reliable enough: it required too much checking and fiddling to keep it working, and I never did manage to put an antenna on my motorcycle that could get a signal out reliably at freeway speeds.

In the end, I found that APRS was not the solution for me, and I sold my complete rig to another ham. You can read about the rig I had and sold on this page.

While I was studying APRS, I downloaded some data for January to March of 2006 and made some maps of the areas where APRS works and where it doesn't in the American West.