Since I have no time to be physically in the shack I decided to install the newest HF APRS messenger software and monitor 30m again this weekend. Checking it out once and a while via Teamviewer with my Iphone. This weekend the software did perform well, I had no problems with W10 locking and the whole system ran for about 50-60 hours without any problems. It was also the first time I actually received stations from USA/Canada. I still think this is interesting software although without many users here in Europe it could be useless. This system is a communication tool that is ment to use with several options to communicate. So far I only used PSK63, MFSK16 and MFSK4 but you can also communicate via APRS-IS which is going over the internet. You can connect the program via a software or hardware TNC to a radio on VHF APRS and it is capable of doing APRS via the AX25 protocol. The last version is 3.54 and now you can monitor all the receivers as you can see in the small screen in the picture right side. In the USA there seems to be a Igate with e-mail capabilities, not shure how this works but it seems you can send short e-mail over HF to the Igate then it sends the message to the given e-mail address. So far over the weekend I only exchanged messages with Ari OH5KUY, I noticed I have a path to him almost the whole day.
Interested? Find the program on the internet. But be prepared that it is experimental. The goal of this software is not to make contact after contact and fill your log. The goal is to exchange messages like SMS or Whatsapp including a beacon that gives your location. Best use for it would be during emergency, when everything fails including the internet. Since there are not many users on the air most of the experimenters are disappointed after trying this software. Remember to test and view it like a experimenter and don't expect reliable contacts or receive anything at all...
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