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Radiograms
NumberNr 2
Station of origin Jared K0TFU
Date filed

Call for Testers

Thank you to everyone who has expressed interest in this idea. This project is no longer a proposal. I’ve started to bring it to life. Here’s a progress update and a request for you to start testing.

What’s built

  • The APRS messaging bot is up and running. It’s connected to APRS-IS and answers messages sent to OTA. You can easily check if you can reach the bot: send it a message containing the word PING and you’ll get one back containing PONG. See the PING page in the handbook for the details.
  • The core APRS messaging flows are all implemented: hosting your own op, chasing an op, and exchanging messages.
  • The handbook has a full reference for every command you can send the OTA bot.
  • There blog has been renamed Radiograms (hey, you’re reading it right now) and it has an RSS feed, so you can easily keep up with what’s happening.

This means you can test out the service right now.

What’s live on the site

The core pages on this site are also built out to show what’s happening as operators send APRS messages.

  • The aprsota.org/now page shows you any ops that are on the air now, and some recently ended ones too.
  • Clicking on an op shows you a timeline of its QSOs, a map of where everyone is located, and a log of every APRS message that was part of it.
  • There’s a QSL card page (and a shareable image) linked from the op’s logbook.
  • If you’ve hosted an op or completed a QSO, you have a page at aprsota.org/{your_callsign} where you can see your activity.

Try it, and tell me what breaks

Everything should work, but it needs a real field test. I’d love for you to try it out and let me know what breaks or what should be improved.

What’s coming next

I need to put some finishing touches on what’s already on the website, and there will surely be some bugs and problems to resolve as people start using it. Once those are sorted out, I plan to wipe the production database, including all the test ops and logged QSOs. So don’t get too excited about your point totals!

Then we’ll host the official first APRS OTA op.

After that, I’ll work through the list of other fun things to add: bonus points for QSOs, like when both parties are on RF, or a DX bonus when they’re in different countries, followed by achievements, links to SOTA and POTA locations, and leaderboards.