APRS Connect - Radio Messaging

APRS Connect is an APRS client built around messaging. Conversations are threads, not a wall of packets, and everything it puts on the air is visible before it goes. WORKS WITH YOUR RADIO • Bluetooth KISS TNC, such as a Mobilinkd • Bluetooth LE — a TNC4 in LE mode, or a B.B. Link • USB serial — a TNC on a cable • Audio modem — no TNC at all: the phone's own audio works AFSK • KISS over TCP — Direwolf, or a networked TNC • APRS-IS over the internet • Save several named radios, run more than one at once, each beacon picking one MESSAGING • One thread per station, delivery state read off the air: queued, transmitted, digipeated, acked or failed • Digipeat confirmation — proof your packet was repeated, not merely transmitted • Automatic acks, a retry you can stop mid-flight, long messages split and rejoined • Bulletins in their own room; mute, archive and block NETS AND GROUPS • ANSRVR groups become rooms: #APRSThursday, an ARES net, a club group — its traffic in one conversation, not messages from strangers • Join by name, see how many are subscribed, renew before it lapses, and browse the directory in the app APRS OTA • Host an op from anywhere and work the chasers who call in • The countdown is on screen, and each contact you confirm adds time • Confirm a contact with a message the chaser gets, and see what you said back • Chase other ops, the position-report requirement checked for you — including whether RF heard your beacon SERVICES ARE AN API. THIS IS A FRONT END TO IT Each APRS service gets a screen: APRS OTA, the SMS and email gateways, WXBOT, WHO-IS, QRX and more. Choose an action and the app writes the command. Switch on "Show APRS commands" and each one first shows the literal message it will send — nothing hidden, and the syntax is there to learn. Edit, export and import the directory. MAP, AND OFF THE GRID • Vector map with real APRS symbols, station trails, objects and weather • Every tile you look at is kept, to a limit you set, and redraws offline • The whole app runs with no internet — a radio and a TNC is a complete install • Filter by age, and by whether a station came over RF or the internet • Choose how precisely your beacons say where you are STATIONS AND PACKETS • Every station heard, with distance, bearing and how long ago • The radio or software behind each station, from its APRS device id • Weather stations charted, and tracker telemetry plotted the same way • Mic-E decoded, including its emergency states • Every packet decoded field by field, raw frame and hex dump — honest about what it could not parse YOUR DATA IS A FILE YOU CAN READ • Backup is plain JSON — settings, conversations, blocklist — readable before import • Merge or restore, with handset settings kept separate for a phone-to-phone move • The packet log exports as NDJSON, and replays through the parser that recorded it • A station's track leaves as GPX, or as KML for Google Earth MAKE IT YOURS • Several beacon profiles — your station, a second SSID, a fixed object — each with Smart Beaconing or a fixed interval, its own path, symbol and tone • Message templates, a symbol picker, US or metric units, a 12/24 hour clock, dark mode, APRS-IS filter editing • Background receive, so the radio keeps being heard with the screen off YOUR LICENCE, YOUR RESPONSIBILITY An amateur radio licence is required to transmit; receiving needs none. Everything it puts on the air goes out under your callsign and is your responsibility — including beacons on a timer and acks it sends for you. Operating within your national regulator's rules is on you; in the United States that is FCC Part 97. The app does not verify your licence, callsign or privileges. APRS carries no encryption, and encrypting amateur traffic is generally prohibited — treat everything you send as permanently public. Do not rely on it for emergencies: it is best-effort, and messages are lost routinely. APRS is a registered trademark of the APRS Foundation and of Bob Bruninga, WB4APR.