Re: [SAR_APRS] Re: Introduction / intergration question

On Wed, 1 Nov 2006, L Ellis wrote:

> I understand that Xastir uses a connected Garmin Rino to get
> position fixes of other Rinos in the area.
>
> you say
> > plot them on the local screen, and create APRS objects which it
> > transmits out to APRS stations.
>
> I assuming this secondary transmission occurs over HAM and would
> require connecting a second radio in the field to transmit positions
> for public APRS tracking on the web.

Yes. In this configuration you'd probably have one of the cheaper RINO's attached to a pole at base with a longish serial cable connecting to an Xastir box inside. You'd then have a 2-meter radio attached to an antenna and TNC, with the TNC attached to Xastir, but the TNC portion in this case can be software-based (like "soundmodem" for Linux or "AGWPE" for Windows).


> Am I correct or is there a more efficent way of doing this in the
> field other than connecting directly via the internet?

There shouldn't be any internet involved. Just two radios, a TNC, an antenna for the 2-meter (the RINO already has an attached antenna), and a PC or Mac running Xastir.


> Do you have any recommendations on configurations of HAM with Rino
> connections talking to Xastir?

I don't recall whether anyone has gotten GPSMan to work under Windows yet. They might have though. The general configuration I'd recommend would be a Linux box running Xastir, with a hardware TNC attached to the 2-meter.

Any more discussion on this should probably be done over on the Xastir list, as this is probably getting too detailed & specific to be of much use to the general list here.

I don't know what the range is on those RINO's either. If you're running under FRS they don't go far. If you're using GMRS, I'm not sure whether the positioning data goes out at the high-power level with those, it might still be at the low-power FRS transmit level.

So... They might not be of general interest to SAR if you can't get much range out of them.

--
Curt, WE7U. APRS Client Comparisons: http://www.eskimo.com/~archer


--- In SAR_APRS@yahoogroups.com, "Curt, WE7U" wrote:

> I don't recall whether anyone has gotten GPSMan to work under
> Windows yet. They might have though. The general configuration I'd
> recommend would be a Linux box running Xastir, with a hardware TNC
> attached to the 2-meter.

I think the main problem with GPSMan/Xastir on windows was related to he "gpsmanshp" plug-in that allows xastir to download shapefile maps from GPS tracks. This is a shared library that GPSMan uses, and that doesn't play well with Windows.

GPSMan itself is just a TCL/Tk program, and should work fine without the gpsmanshp plugin on Windows/Cygwin. That's all that is needed for the RINO interface, as in this case xastir just reads the .gpstrans file that gpsman produces directly.

You're right, though, that further discussion of that probably belongs on the Xastir list instead.

--
Tom Russo KM5VY SAR502 DM64ux http://www.swcp.com/~russo/
Tijeras, NM QRPL#1592 K2#398 SOC#236 http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?DDTNM

Rino integration w APRS

Re: [SAR_APRS] Introduction / intergration question

On Sat, 28 Oct 2006, Sean Smith wrote:

> Now for my question, this summer while I was off in Ontario chasing
> forest fires the group purchased several Garmin Rinos, is there
> software other then Dmapper that can take both APRS and Rino data
> and display it on a map. Dmapper's limited stations, 6 I believe
> just doesn't cut it.

Xastir can use an attached RINO radio to poll other RINO radios,
plot them on the local screen, and create APRS objects which it
transmits out to APRS stations. There's no limit to the number of
stations it can track. I've had 39,000+ stations being tracked
lately.a

See the links section of this group, one of the SAR wiki page that I
contribute to talks about the SAR features in the various APRS
programs, and the APRS Client Capabilities Chart goes into more
detail.

Garmin Rino Radio w APRS

Garmin RINO Radio/GPS plus Xastir APRS Client
Xastir, combined with GPSMan, can perodically download waypoints from an attached RINO radio. Any waypoint beginning with "APRS" will have that portion of the string stripped, then the waypoint will be turned into an APRS object which will appear on the map and may be retransmitted out over APRS as well. Useful for those SAR missions where some people are equipped with RINO's and others with TH-D7A's or TM-D700A's. The RINO users will see each other, the APRS users will see the other APRS users plus the RINO users. The Xastir screen will show all of them.

Garmin RINO Radio/GPS plus OziAPRS Client
OziAPRS has the capability of decoding Garmin Rhino positions. You must have a Garmin Rino connected to the OziAPRS serial port for this to work. This will allow you to plot the positions of other Rino units on the Oziexplorer map screen, but it won't feed the data to your APRS client. Some SAR units are experimenting with this method rather than using APRS. I don't believe position reports are allowed on GMRS, but they are on FRS.

Reporting My Position

1092 Merle Avenue
San Jose, CA 95125

Longitude , Latitude
-121.89883589744568, 37.309786350394646

Our Rino's APRS Name

HAMCALL>APRS,DIGIPATH:;RINOname*DDHHMMz DDMM.hhN/DDDMM.hhW $CSE/SPD ...

HAMCALL>APRS,DIGIPATH:;EOSELLIS*101010z DDMM.hhN/DDDMM.hhW 19CSE/SPD ...

Where

• HAMCALL is the Amateur Radio APRS station responsible
• DIGIPATH is the path on APRS
• RINOname is the RINO name field (truncated to 9 bytes)
• DDHHMMz is the UTC Day/time stamp
• DDMM.HHN/DDDMM.hhW is the usual APRS position format
• $ is the APRS icon comparable to the RINO icon
• CSE/SPD are the course and speed fields
• ... is up to 34 characters of additinal free field comments

Rino Glossary

Garmin Glossary . GPS Use Manuals . Rino Use Manuals

Bearing
The compass direction from a position to a destination, measured to the nearest degree (also call an azimuth). In a GPS receiver, bearing usually refers to the direction to a waypoint.

Heading
The direction in which a vehicle is moving. For air and sea operations, this may differ from actual Course Over Ground (COG) due to winds, currents, etc.

Learning APRS with our Rino

APRS-RINO SPEC 25 May 2003
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
WB4APR

This spec addresses how information on the position of objects reported by the RINO can be received and integrated into a local APRS tactical display system at an event.

The RINO is the Garmin integrated FRS/GPS combination that is the ultimate in APRS functionality for keeping track of people during local short range events. By placing a RINO/APRS receiver at the center of activty, the RINO's can be integrated into the APRS tactical picture. This documents the specifics of that interface.

CHANNEL: Normally the channel/tone for Amateur Radio applications that use FRS is channel 7 tone 3. This channel, if available, should be used for general operations which are focused on VOICE as the primary means of information transfer. If, however, personnel tracking is the predominant application, then a good channel for that is channel 3 tone 9.

APRS FORMAT: All RINO position reports are integrated into APRS using the APRS OBJECT format. This format contains a time stamp and the Amateur Callsign of the station that is responsible for the RINO data and injecting it into APRS. The OBJECT format follows:

HAMCALL>APRS,DIGIPATH:;RINOname*DDHHMMzDDMM.hhN/DDDMM.hhW$CSE/SPD...

Where HAMCALL is the Amateur Radio APRS station responsible
DIGIPATH is the path on APRS
RINOname is the RINO name field (truncated to 9 bytes)
DDHHMMz is the UTC Day/time stamp
DDMM.HHN/DDDMM.hhW is the usual APRS position format
$ is the APRS icon comparable to the RINO icon
CSE/SPD are the course and speed fields
... is up to 34 characters of additinal free field comments

ACCOUNTABILITY: To avoid any problems, the APRS/RINO interface is intended for specific Amateur Radio applications and the APRS station has some controls over the interface so that only valid RINO participants are injected into APRS. Several methods of manual and automatic identification means are suggested:

1) ALL: Everyone in range is participating in the event.

2) LIST: Using this method, only RINO names that match a list
of participants will be transferred.

3) NAMES: Participation is determined from the RINO user name.

HAM-CALL - If the RINO name is 4, 5 or 6 characters in length
and matchs the standard for HAM radio callsigns
then the station may be automatically transferred.

SSID - If the RINO name contains an SSID, it is accepted

PREFIX - If the RINO name has a prefix such as "AP-" then
it is intended for injection into APRS.

ICONS: The RINO has a number of practically useless "face" ICONS that can be selected. These ICONS have no meaning in the usage that we anticipate for the RINO in support of public service events. THus we have made a one-for-one translation of all of them into the most frequently used APRS ICONS at such an event. No one cares what the ICON looks like on the RINO, what matters is how the RINO appears on APRS. THus, use this table.

It should be noted that for GROUP polling, however, which we anticapte to be a VERY useful feature at such an event, a Group POLL only works with a single ICON at a time. Thus, in many cases it may be better to just have every RINO select the default (APRS PERSON) ICON (or Happy Face in the RINO). THis way, all participants can be polled at once.

Bottom line: Choose the Happy Face ICON to be safe. THen all RINO's can be polled. If you have many-many RINOS at an event, then choose only a few appropriate ICON types so that those types may be polled in groups.

RINO ICON APRS ICON
------------ ----------
1 Happy face /[ Person (corrected 13 Sep 05. Had been /])
2 Boy /b Bike
3 Kid /j Jeep
4 Butch /f Fire Truck
5 Chan /s Boat
6 Afro /U Bus
7 Girl /Y Sail
8 Woman /R RV
9 Lucy /v Van
10 Monkey /> Car
11 Scout /, Boy Scout
12 Karate /u 18 Wheeler
13 Summo /X Helo
14 Pirate /< Motorcycle
15 Dude /k Pickup
16 Alien /O Balloon
17 Bug /' Airplane
18 Cat /a Ambulance
19 Dog /e Horse
20 Pig /P Police Car

PROCESSING:
-----------

The APRS-RINO engine will receive audio by sound card from an FRS radio and decode the RINO NAME, Position, and ICON data, convert to an object and if it passes the accountability rules, will be transmitted as an object on APRS. Other processing options include Polling of all RINOS beginning with "APRS". Software will also listen for successful digitpeat of RINO Object and if not heard, may redundantly transmit the packet a second time on the APRS channel for reliability.

de WB4APR, Bob