Review Update: New PicoAPRS Model(s) & Firmware Update

Lately it seems the only attention APRS has been getting is if and how it is implemented on new DMR radios.

This is not fair, so let us look at some dedicated APRS only devices compared to some radios that offer location and message sharing capability.

PicoAPRS product is the smallest
APRS transceiver on the market

Location Finding: Different devices for different people

Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) is a technology 20+ years in the making that lets amateur radio operators use low speed data over narrow channels to share location and basic text status updates in a few formats.

Cool Thing:  It is also possible to use APRS for telemetry data, such as weather information or malfunctioning equipment status updates. APRS can also be used to track things, like a rocket or a balloon. This is the Amateur Radio version of "Internet of Things" before that was even a term.

Ham equipment vendors Yaesu (Fusion), Kenwood and Icom (D-Star) all offer different digital voice mode radios and none are DMR products which is the most popular digital voice mode today.

Pictured Left to Right - Kenwood TH-D74, Xiaomi Mijia,
TYT MD-UV380, Alinco MD-5TGP, Mobilinkd TNC2, PicoAPRS

Vendors such as Anytone, TYT, Retevis and Alinco support the ability to send GPS data that can appear on the APRS.fi website, but this is not really APRS in the traditional sense, but some call it D-APRS.

Hot Stuff: A good comparison of APRS to another form of location sharing was done from a hot air balloon this summer.

Location Battleground:  Get ready!!

Beyond amateur radio which is a licensed radio service globally, there are now unlicensed radios such as the GoTenna, Xiaomi Mijia and Motorola T800 that allows users to share location data with one another, but are far from as robust as what is possible via amateur radio at any level thanks to APRS but come close and are slightly easier to use as discovered a recent hamfest.

Non-Voice Capable APRS Devices

Two of the smallest and full featured APRS devices that are not voice transmission capable are the PicoAPRS v2 and MobileLinkd TNC2 which have been reviewed in the past on HVDN Review Lens.

The Mobilinkd device is more of an accessory gadget that physically plugs into most any two way radio with appropriate cable.

THe Mobilink TNC2 also requires a smartphone paired over bluetooth that runs an application to send, receive and view location of users or send messages based on the GPS built in to the smartphone. This is sort of messy but is an elegant solution....

APRSdroid application found on Google Play store

The PicoAPRS however is a totally self contained device that is a GPS, data radio and user interface in one even smaller package.

Taner, DB1NTO has made many improvements in his PicoAPRS product since its introduction and that is what we will explore. No smartphone needed or other radio needed!


What is the difference between the PicoAPRS v2 and v3?

For something already really small, Taner made it even smaller in the latest version while retaining every feature and even adding a few things such as a modular battery and even better precision GPS/GLONASS reception.

Can I connect the PicoAPRS to a computer?

Everything can be configured with the two buttons on the PicoAPRS.

If you want to customize a beacon comment, such as "Please call me on 146.520MHz or DMR TG 31630", that takes many button presses.

It is possible to do this instead via a terminal program such as TeraTerm. The otherwise very good PicoAPRS manual is somewhat lite on detail about this, so here are some simple steps for those that are not computer experts.

--------

Connect PicoAPRS to computer:  On the PicoAPRS, navigate to the menu called  "USB Mode" and change it to "Config". Then connect the PicoAPRS to your PC and it should install USB drivers automatically in many cases. If not, this is what you need from Silicon Labs.  

Configure a few things on your computer:  In "Control Panel" and "Device Manager" in Microsoft Windows, you can now see which COM port your PicoAPRS will use.

Now you need to configure TeraTerm by selecting the serial port connection that matches your PicoAPRS.

Next, open up the menu titled "Setup" and go to "Terminal" and configure to be CR+LF and check mark the "Echo" box.  This lets you see what commands you send to the PicoAPRS.

Finally, open up "Setup" again and go to "Serial Port..."  You need to select the same COM port your PicoAPRS is using and set the speed to 115200.  No other setting will work.  It needs to be 115200!!

Now, you are ready.  Press any key or the ? and you should get the below message returned to you which shows what you can configure from the computer with your PicoAPRS

To change the beacon message, just type *C* with your own text after it and press enter

Sidenote on other computer things:  On the PicoAPRS, you can also change the USB settings to give you GPS NMEA data. Go ahead and try it while still connected to TeraTerm. Changing to that mode will let you see something like this:

There are also many other applications that will let you use the KISS-TNC mode for even more advanced things. Some of these include PinPoint APRS and WinLink plus of course the old standby of APRSISCE32 but is not part of this review.

There is also a new "Serial USB" data mode too which has a lot of interesting potential if you want a total stealth data radio to go with you anywhere with your laptop.

Get to the point!!!  All I am trying to say is that the PicoAPRS does a lot more than look like a cute little ham radio toy.

New Feature In PicoAPRS Firmware v10 

While v9 software is the most current as of December 3rd 2018, v10 is not far away and will add a status message function in addition to beacon messaging.  This gives you two different types of status updates sent at different intervals from the PicoAPRS.

The new firmware will be available around Christmas time 2018 along with a new and even smaller product from Tanner called PicoAPRS Lite which is designed for use with airborne payloads.

Please keep an eye on his website for more detail at http://www.db1nto.de/ for the new firmware, details on the v3 and the upcoming new PicoAPRS Lite product.

Look Up! 2 Different Amateur Location Technolologies

Flying in a hot air balloon was a first for Steve K2GOG and proved a great opportunity to test out location positioning using both low power APRS as well as DMR GPS with two different pieces of equipment:

• The PicoAPRS device for APRS testing
• The TYT MD-UV380 radio for DMR GPS testing

A Kenwood TH-D74 was also taken along for the ride too as a backup in case the PicoAPRS had an issue, but it performed flawlessly.

Instead, the APRS enabled Kenwood radio would serve as a voice only radio to make local contacts on the ground using analog FM. The TYT MD-UV380 was used to make digital voice contacts on the ground and over the internet.

Early morning and early evening is the best time for hot air balloon flights due to
 more predictable wind patterns and thermal conditions

The hot air balloon Steve was a passenger on was the 2nd to launch early Saturday morning from the Dutchess County Fairgrounds of New York as part of Balloon Fest 2018 sponsored by the Dutchess County Chamber of Commerce and area businesses and organizations.

Those looking to taking a balloon ride were asked to arrive at 5:00 AM and launches would happen on a first come first serve basis.  Steve was fortunate to have arrived early and was the third passenger for the second to launch balloon.

There were maybe seven or eight other balloons still getting ready for launch after the "Autumn Above" balloon he was on took to the air, piloted by Scott Griswold of Above All Balloon Rides.

Most balloons were inflated in under five minutes

After what seemed like an ahead of schedule launch just past 6:00 AM, the first set of trees was cleared as the balloon made western ascent which would last about 45 minutes before landing in a  near by field. The maximum altitude turned out to be a somewhat disappointing 260 feet.

During the entire ride, Steve shared his position over two modern location enabled applications for amateur  radio in real time to show that "ham radio" is not just old retired engineers in a basement sending Morse code late at night who enjoy this hobby also.

Propane powered heaters are used to inflate the balloon and control ascent. 
Vents let out hot air to provide descent of the balloon

APRS

Automated Positioning Reporting System or APRS for short has been around for over 20 years since its invention by Bob Bruninga WB4APR and today uses a common frequency of 144.39 MHz in the United States for users to share short text messages, automated weather reports and location data.

Across the United States are countless amateur radio operators who operate digipeaters that repeat received signals from local users to increase the range of these signals in order to reach a wider audience.  There are also iGateways that take these APRS signals and share them across the internet for anyone to view on websites such as aprs.fi

Balloons & APRS

Steve K2GOG utilized a PicoAPRS device to share his location on 144.39 MHz and his signal was picked up by a number of local area digipeaters and iGateways. This particular radio has a function called smart beaconing which allows more frequent transmissions based on speed and altitude. Steve had also set his radio to include the "-11" prefix which is to recognize it as an  aircraft based use of APRS.

This is also known as an SSID and there are many numerical values to identify different types of users. For the balloon trip, Steve operated as N2HVD-11 which is the official call sign of the Hudson Valley Digital Network Club along with the appropriate SSID suffix of 11.

Its normal for balloons to not go much higher than trees.
A few were hit along the way of the flight

The PicoAPRS radio was also set up to only send signals to the closest receivers instead of its normal configuration which is for ground based use.

Because the balloon was going to be above ground at an unknown altitude during the flight, it was appropriate to do this because it would provide less congestion on the frequency since the higher a signal is - the further it would travel.

Since the US only has one APRS frequency, it needs to be shared with many users so this setup while less robust or redundant it was more courteous as a best practice of amateur radio.

N2HVD-11 was used for APRS reporting with picoAPRS
 radio.

Balloons & DMR GPS

Using a digital voice radio such as the DMR based TYT MD-UV380 is a bit different compared to the data only APRS enabled PicoAPRS device or a voice and data APRS radio like the Kenwood TH-D74.  There is no common frequency for sharing location data for DMR yet but there is a common talk group which is 310999 in the United States that can be used for this type of application.

 A talk group is like a "virtual frequency" in that as long as your radio attempts to share location data on this talk group, it will find its way to where it needs to go regardless of frequency. A talk group can get congested just like a single frequency such as the 144.39 MHz frequency for APRS though, but is not subject to as many collisions with other users so could be more efficient for more users.

The TYT MD-UV380 was set up to share its location with a portable digital hotspot operating on 427.505 MHz. The frequency chosen is one of many being explored for part of a uniform channel plan for users of DMR to bring some standard operating practices to this emerging mode of operation.

Since there were no repeaters in the area that permit the use of sending data only transmissions or nearby hotspots on the ground set up within range of the balloons flight path, the hot spot device was connected to the internet over a smart phone enabled Wi-Fi access point.

Here is a basic block diagram of how the signal from Steve's TYT MD-UV380 made its way to the aprs.fi website to see his location.

Simple flow chart of how GPS and DMR work together 

Compared to APRS which is more mature with its network of digipeaters and iGateways, sharing location data from a DMR radio may not seem as mature, but in many ways, its much more advanced.

In the above block diagram, starting at right (TYT MD-UV380), the GPS location data is encoded along with transmissions sent over talk group 310999 on 427.505 MHz. This is then received along with time slot, color code and user ID information to identify the transmission or "payload" at the hot spot device.

Note D represents that data is only able to flow one way towards the network, but it is possible to receive location information on the radio but is outside the scope of this article.

Not all balloon pilots were as experienced as ours, so some were following us.

Once the UHF 427.505 MHz signal is received on the hotspot device which translates an actual amateur radio transmission to get it ready to make its way to the internet, first the data is transformed from the hotspot to Wi-Fi which is how the hotspot and Samsung smart phone communicate.  Communication of data between the smartphone and hotspot as noted by Note C are two way in nature to ensure security and integrity of the signal.

The smartphone then communicates over spectrum that is licensed by the mobile operator network thanks to local cellular towers per note B.  It is after the data communication leaves the local cellular network does it make its way to the internet as shown by note A.

K2GOG-11 was used for GPS DMR location reporting. 

Sharing location data over a DMR radio is not yet as advanced like APRS since there is no smart beaconing function.  Location "breadcrumbs" are only shared at a preset interval or each time the user transmits manually.

Comparing DMR GPS & APRS

As illustrated in the screen captures of the flight path above using two different methods of location tracking, there is much that can be done with amateur radio today.

While APRS is a very robust tool, it only allows the user to send data over one uniform frequency.  DMR on the other hand with its advanced routing could allow simultaneous voice and data transmissions on the same frequency.  This is done by using one of the two time slots with different talk groups as covered in a few past HVDN articles on GPS, APRS and DMR you can find in the word cloud on the HVDN Notebook.

A few more balloons were waiting to take off after we returned to the Dutchess County Fairgrounds

Since APRS has laid a solid ground work for spectrum management, coordination, applications and integrations of various technology since its inception, DMR is a fertile field for additional development for location sharing enabled applications.

Here is the raw packet data for both stations during the flight:

• N2HVD-11
• K2GOG-11

 Visualized Data

After landing, we were treated to a champagne toast at 7:00 AM. Plus, we each got a
keepsake plastic cup.  Basically, its now a $250 cup with a free balloon flight!

Upcoming HVDN MMDVM Hot Spot Project

Here is a preview of an upcoming HVDN project involving a full duplex multi mode digital hot spot for use in the car or in person demonstration.

Subscribe for HVDN Notebook updates only 

Join HVDN as a member and get much more!

A National DMR Location Services Proposal

On the way back today from the Southern Berkshire Amateur Radio Club’s hamfest at the Goshen Fairgrounds of Connecticut proved a good opportunity to try out mobile location enablement via DMR.

Here is what was involved to make this work:

• TYT MD-380G radio
• JumboSpot Hotspot device
• Mobile hotspot for internet via smartphone
• Correctly programmed radio and Brandmeister account setup.

Some Lessons Learned

Compared to using APRS, which uses 144.39 MHz as a common national US frequency and a network of stations to ingest users packet transmissions directly or via digipeaters and igateways that can route data from "over the air" and onto the internet. Using DMR and “APRS like” functionality is different in how that same function is accomplished since it does not use AX.25 1200 baud packet..

The only way to get user reported location or messages to the aprs.fi website and back to other radios  is via your own DMR hotspot or a local repeater that is set up to allow private data calls to be passed through to the internet.

Smart Beaconing & Power Savings

APRS and much of the equipment available today supports a feature called “smart beaconing” which allows a user’s radio to transmit location data more often while traveling at higher speed compared to sitting stationary. The number of "beacon transmissions" are reduced thanks to smart beaconing to create less congestion on the dedicated national APRS frequency. More about smart beaconing can be found here and its other benefits.

The current implementation of location services on GPS enabled DMR radios such as the TYT MD-380G do not support smart beaconing, but can be user programmed to always beacon at preset intervals.  Smart beaconing provides the major benefit of better battery life and better route accuracy for APRS. 

Wish List Item #1: Location enabled DMR needs this same capability, especially for portable/handheld radios.

GPS location is only sent at a present interval or during PTT on a DMR radio, so there is no "smart" capability at present time.  Accurate travel routes can thus only be created based on how frequent the user transmits which explains the rather strange route shown on aprs.fi for this experiment. Not having smart beaconing makes DMR location enablement to be less accurate for route tracking and efficient spectrum management.

Routing & Prediction

The second lesson learned is that the APRS.fi website does not fill in better predicted routes if DMR location enabled transmissions are missed. In the case of the route 199 in New York, there is horrible mobile phone connectivity and my mobile phone did not have internet access the whole time, which prevented any GPS transmissions sent from the MD-380 to the JumboSpot from being reported.  Since there are no repeaters that cover this particular area or offer private data calls, the only way to use location enabled DMR is via a mobile hotspot. 

Wish List Item #2:  More capable repeaters are needed to fully realize DMR benefits.

Even when entering back into better mobile coverage areas on parts of routes 199 and 308, it was not safe and appropriate to continue pressing the PTT to send location packets to better report accurate “breadcrumbs” on the route since it would congest the frequency I was using with my hotspot.

Even during a discussion with another DMR user via TG 310, my  DMR radio only transmits the location data at the start of transmission. Having 30-45 seconds of my own transmit speech and then listening to a reply for as long a period spreads out the rate of GPS transmissions, which inhibits quicker location reporting via TG 310999.

National Proposal on using DMR and GPS

Some ideas to aid in adoption of using GPS via DMR  includes:

• Add functions at the radio level that support smart beaconing rather than just setting a high rate of transmission or just via PTT. 

• Have the radio acknowledge when its transmissions are not confirmed as being sent to the internet and to “buffer” them for later transmission to fill in gaps on possible routing.  This involves saving GPS locations with speed of travel and altitude which is available on the radio. This solves the gap issue and is not far different how many automotive GPS's work when loss of sky coverage happens. 

• Create a network of receive only gateways on VHF or UHF to listen for data packets on common frequencies for the purpose of location messaging that will only pass traffic on a certain time slot (TS2) and destination talk group (TG 262993). 

• Adding on transmit capability for a repeater that will broadcast private data calls to users that will not impact voice users at the same time.

• Challenge repeater owners to add an additional equipment to support this function and make use of great siting available at repeater sites. Many repeater sites already host APRS digipeaters and have internet access so this should be easy to add and expand value offered by DMR.

• Decide on two national frequencies for GPS messaging and reporting use for VHF and UHF.

Why do this with DMR rather than just use APRS?

APRS does many things well and is fairly simple which makes it appealing, but its age is starting to  show.

A shortcoming of APRS is the inability to easily deliver an actual street address level of resolution to a radio. All APRS radios can only show coordinates, bearing and distance to another user which is limiting at times.

Location enabled DMR provides the ability to match coordinates to a physical street address and see that on the screen of the radio.  This works simply by addressing a private message to TG 262993 by sending "gps" as a message.  The reply message takes your radio GPS coordinates, matches it against mapping API's via Google Maps or Open Street Mapping project where it finds the street address and then sends that back to your radio.

Other commands summarized in a previous article also allows you to see distance, bearing and street address closest to another location enabled DMR user.

Location enabled DMR also lets the user request weather conditions the same way by messaging to "wx gps". The resulting reply matches up the GPS enabled DMR radio with closest weather conditions found on the internet. Temperature, humidity and barometric pressure is than easily viewed on relatively inexpensive DMR radios. 

If using an APRS radio, the user needs to spend much more money to see this level of detail or sacrifice some level of portability if not using some of the advanced APRS handhelds currently available. 

Weather and location are just two easy examples of how to use location data as a source for value added information.  Sending email, local frequency information for voice communication and other data are easily routed or sent from a DMR radio.

These are some modern ways in which ham radio can remain relevant in a world of smart phone dominated but mobile network dependent messaging.

Wish List Item #3: Adding functions like this are what ham radio is all about, so perhaps more DMR repeater owners will start considering adding a simple weather station, offline mapping database and secondary receivers to support some of this functionality. 

Here is some further related reading on HVDN if this sounds of interest:

• Location based weather on your DMR radio
• Easy DMR GPS with an MD-380G
• DMR for local communication

Location Based Weather on your DMR Radio

If you have a GPS enabled DMR radio, have you used that feature for anything?

How about getting real time weather conditions based on your location?

Over on the Hamdigitaal.nl website, there are some decent capability and functions discussed on what you can do relating to weather and location with your GPS enabled DMR radio.  Here is a portion of what you can do.  HVDN will share more detail on how to actually set your radio and hotspot to actually work.

The Brandmeister network has some functions to request information via SMS messages. To access these functions specific keywords are to be sent to DMR ID 262993. Then the system responds as well via SMS on these requests. Below you’ll find an overview of these commands with some explanation. The commands are not case sensitive.

Command Explanation
help Shows an overview of the available functions
echo Sends immediately a response to test the SMS function
wx Weather at the repeater site
wx help Overview of all available weather commands
wx Town Weather in the city ‘Town’
wx zip Town Weather in the area ‘zip’ in the city ‘Town’
wx zip, cc Weather in the area ‘zip’ in country ‘cc’
wx Town, cc Weather in the city ‘Town’ in country ‘cc’
wx zip Town, cc Weather in area ‘zip’ in city ‘Town’ in country ‘cc’
wx gps Weather at the actual position of the DMR user according to the radio’s GPS
metar xxxx METAR message at the airport identified by ICAO code ‘xxxx’
gps help Overview of all GPS commands
gps Shows actual GPS position including the name of the location (street, city) of the DMR radio. Also direction and distance in relation to the actual repeater are provided
gps set Stores the actual position as ‘Home’ location
gps home Shows distance and direction of the actual position in relation to the previously stored ‘Home’ position
gps callsign Shows distance and direction in relation to DMR user identified by ‘callsign’

Getting Things to Work

Would it be easy to share a code plug to show how this works? YES!

Will that help 100% understand the minutia of it? NO!

Here are some steps you will need to focus on and decide to make a code plug from scratch or add this to your existing code plug.

Advance Warning(s)

Regarding Radios:  I have only tried this on the TYT MD-380G (VHF and UHF versions) as well as the TYT MD-2017.  Other radios like the GPS enabled versions of the Anytone 868,  Retevis RT-82, Auilence HD1 and others may need to be tweaked slightly.   The new MD-UV380 dual band HT has not yet arrived at HVDN, but this will be one of the first things we will dig into to make sure its compatible with other radios.  Many GPS enabled DMR radios from different brands do not seem to work together which is annoying!

Regarding Hotspots:  This all works fine with the JumboSpot, OpenSpot and the latest full duplex hotspot devices. Derivatives that run Pi-Star should have no issue.

Regarding Repeater Use:  Please check with your local repeater owner if they permit private data calls on either time slot of a repeater. Many repeater trustees or operators wish to NOT allow private or data calls. Beyond checking with a repeater owner, there should be no reason for this to not work though. I have used a Micro Node TEENSY 3.6 based home made repeater and Pi-Star running on the host device and it worked fine.

Setting Up Your Radio

First thing you will want to do is experiment with adding GPS to your code plug and ensure you can get a signal lock. This will make your life much easier before progressing. Have a look HERE for more detail about getting the GPS "sort of" working.

Next, you will want to ADD A PRIVATE CONTACT to your radio.  Make sure its "Private Call" and not "Group Call".  The talk group you will send messages to is 262993.

Experiment with sending commands such as just "help" or "wx gps" or just "gps"

For the "wx gps" command to work, you need to make sure you are actually receiving a GPS signal and your radio should have the globe icon. If it has a red cross through it, it will not work.

Some thoughts you may want to consider when putting things related to sending text message include:

• Spending time in the CPS program to set quick keys, short message shortcuts and other related things you may see a need for. 

• Setting up a text message only zone or dedicated channels for use with your hot spot.  Not only can you now send text messages to get weather information, you can also set up a home GPS location to see a bearing and distance from anywhere by using the "gps set" and "gps home" commands. 

• Creating channels that have GPS enabled or disabled depending on what you want to do and to conserve battery life. 

Setting Up Your Hot Spot & Brandmeister

The already linked to article already goes into getting Brandmeister set up for use, so please have another look. 

One thing I discovered also is that it may be good to create a few GPS systems in your CPS for different use cases. Most radios allow multiple GPS profiles to be created and linked to different channels with different frequency and talk group destinations. 

There was a reason the noise in the video sounded like a train station. I was actually at the
Croton-Harmon Amtrak/MNRR station waiting for a train! 

What good is GPS anyway on the radio?

If you are a ham involved in EMCOMM related activities or have experimented with APRS, you may know that the different radios like the Icom ID-51, Kenwood TH-D72, TH-D74 and Yaesu FT-1 and 2 radios have built in GPS. All can give you distance and bearing to other stations also using APRS. 

What a GPS enabled DMR radio allows is the ability to translate your coordinates into the closest by physical address. This works by sending your GPS coordinates to the server that makes this all work and compare that to Google maps. Having the real life address sent back to your radio can be very helpful.  This is what happens when sending just "gps" to TG 262993.

Wrapping it up...

A lot more can be said about this, but what fun is reading even more.  Go play with that radio and talk about it with your fellow ham radio operators on appropriate nets, talk groups and in person.

Some favorites of more "tech forward hams" includes:

• Different organized nets found on the HVDN Activity calendar

• Talk group 31368 (Mid-Hudson Valley), 31428 (RF-IT) and many others...