3 ms·

I would not recommend analog APRS for reliable text communication, or anything except periodic, unidirectional (radio to internet), fire and forget position/sta

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.)

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.)