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Sure, a Kenwood TH-D74A can send messages over APRS. The older ‘72’ could too. So can a Yaesu FT-1DR. Plenty of cheaper devices can too. Now if you look at

by brians 6y ago

Sure, a Kenwood TH-D74A can send messages over APRS. The older ‘72’ could too. So can a Yaesu FT-1DR. Plenty of cheaper devices can too. Now if you look at those, you’ll find some odd ideas—features like a built in 320x240 camera. They’re an odd mix of very young and very old tech ideas, because they’re the products of small engineering teams and weird budgets.

NovemberWhiskey 6y ago
Sadly, all those Kenwoods are now discontinued.
- sobriquet9 6y ago
  AnyTone, TYT, Radioddity, Baofeng and other cheap Chinese radios ate Kenwood's lunch. For example, AnyTone D878UV has built-in GPS and can send APRS messages.
  - wl 6y ago
    The AKM factory fire is a more likely the cause for the D74's discontinuation than competition.
throwaway3neu94 6y ago
I would not recommend analog APRS for reliable text communication, or anything except periodic, unidirectional (radio to internet), fire and forget position/status/etc reports (for which APRS often can't be beat due its to extensive coverage in many regions). Instead, try DMR. Does voice, text and also digital APRS. Motorola and Hytera are probably the leading manufacturers of radios. Works direct and via DMR repeaters. If you have a repeater close by, you get worldwide radio to radio / talkgroup calling. Unfortunately both modes have many, many annoying quirks/constraints.
- rsync 6y ago
  "Instead, try DMR. Does voice, text and also digital APRS." OK, but how do I physically key in the text message from the handheld device ? Is it the old-fashioned pre-qwerty method of pressing a number once or twice or thrice to get the desired alpha character ? Perhaps my initial question was not clear: In the most primitive of ways, how do I actually key in a text message on the handheld device ?
  - throwaway3neu94 6y ago
    Oh. Yes, those DMR radios have T9 keypads. Its awful, but the best we have. For analog APRS, which as I said has questionable reliability (for many reasons), you can use a smartphone app (like APRSDroid) and either an audio cable to the radio (the smartphone acts as a software TNC that will generate the signal, the radio modulates it on the carrier), or a separate hardware TNC which connects to the radio via audio, but to your phone in another way such as bluetooth low energy (like Mobilinkd TNC3). Then you can type on your phone. (In that case, the protocol is still done by the phone, the TNC only generates the signal, the radio modulates it. Which is annoying due to power consumption.) (Analog APRS support which is built in to radios is usually position report only, not messaging.)

by brians 6y ago

NovemberWhiskey 6y ago

Sadly, all those Kenwoods are now discontinued.

sobriquet9 6y ago
AnyTone, TYT, Radioddity, Baofeng and other cheap Chinese radios ate Kenwood's lunch. For example, AnyTone D878UV has built-in GPS and can send APRS messages.
- wl 6y ago
  The AKM factory fire is a more likely the cause for the D74's discontinuation than competition.

throwaway3neu94 6y ago

I would not recommend analog APRS for reliable text communication, or anything except periodic, unidirectional (radio to internet), fire and forget position/status/etc reports (for which APRS often can't be beat due its to extensive coverage in many regions). Instead, try DMR. Does voice, text and also digital APRS. Motorola and Hytera are probably the leading manufacturers of radios. Works direct and via DMR repeaters. If you have a repeater close by, you get worldwide radio to radio / talkgroup calling. Unfortunately both modes have many, many annoying quirks/constraints.

rsync 6y ago
"Instead, try DMR. Does voice, text and also digital APRS." OK, but how do I physically key in the text message from the handheld device ? Is it the old-fashioned pre-qwerty method of pressing a number once or twice or thrice to get the desired alpha character ? Perhaps my initial question was not clear: In the most primitive of ways, how do I actually key in a text message on the handheld device ?
- throwaway3neu94 6y ago
  Oh. Yes, those DMR radios have T9 keypads. Its awful, but the best we have. For analog APRS, which as I said has questionable reliability (for many reasons), you can use a smartphone app (like APRSDroid) and either an audio cable to the radio (the smartphone acts as a software TNC that will generate the signal, the radio modulates it on the carrier), or a separate hardware TNC which connects to the radio via audio, but to your phone in another way such as bluetooth low energy (like Mobilinkd TNC3). Then you can type on your phone. (In that case, the protocol is still done by the phone, the TNC only generates the signal, the radio modulates it. Which is annoying due to power consumption.) (Analog APRS support which is built in to radios is usually position report only, not messaging.)