THE HISTORY OF APRS


The Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) software has evolved over the
last 18 years of my involvement in amateur packet radio.  For years, I
was on the AMRAD board of directors, the Amateur Radio  Reasearch and
Development group that was instrumental in the original specification for
AX.25 written by my friend Terry Fox, WB4JFI and published by AMRAD in
1984.  In 1978 I had built the first digital on the air automatic message
system which became a dual port phone and packet radio BBS for the AMRAD
group when ASCII first became legal in the late 70s [1].  Isolated without
packet in Japan in 1982, I wrote my first data maping program, which took NAVY
HF position reports off the air and displayed them on an APPLE-II computer.
From the beginning, I was always making packet maps of the growing packet
network [3,5,6].  In 1983, I wrote a gateway/BBS program on my VIC-20
computer to permit simultaneous operation of both HF and VHF ports for
exchange of packet messages and pioneered the use of 200 Hz shift for packet
on HF with cross-county links to W0RPK, W9TD, and K7PYK [2].  We used 10.149
MHz.  To my knowledge, this was the first amateur HF BBS/GATEWAY; and it
remained on the air 'round the clock for 5 years through 1989 under the FCC
STA for automatic packet HF operations.

     My APRS connectionless protocol idea was first used in a VIC-20 program
for reporting the position and status of horses in a 100 mile cross country 
endurence run for AMRAD [4].  I spent two years improving the idea for 
amateur packet radio support of the National Disaster Medical System 
exercises sponsored by FEMA [7,8,9].  During this time frame I called it 
the Connectionless Emergency Traffic System (CETS).  At the end of the 
second national exercise dropped the C-64 and began to port CETS to the
new IBM PC.  I also began to integrate packet mapping into the program.

     During 1990 I got tired of trying to find a public domain set of maps
and began to digitize the East Coast myself with a TEXT format so that any 
HAM could draw a map for any local packet application using only a text 
editor.  Once that maping decision was made, APRS evolved nightly as I 
began to play with it on the air, and realized its potential.  For four 
years now, APRS has consumed thousands of hours of evenings and weekends 
as I tweaked the program and drew maps. 

    Finally, I am not doing this to make money on amateur radio!  The
registration contribution helps defray the mailing hassles and the
psychological burden of having hundreds of HAMS all across the country call
me at home at all times of the evening with repititious and continuous
questions.  I learned this lesson the hard way by releasing my C-64 BBS
source code to the HAM community in 1984 for free.  Now, 11 years later, I
still get phone calls, letters without SASE's, and registered letters from
third world countries (requiring a trip to the post office) asking questions
about this obsolete software!  


The following is a bibliography chronicling the development of APRS:

[1] MULTI-USER DATA NETWORK OVER VHF RADIO, Bruninga, AMRAD Newsletter, 
Mar 1978.

[2] HF PACKETS, MODEMS and GATEWAYS, Bruninga, Third ARRL computer Networking
Conference pg 6-7, 15 Apr 84. (HF packet specification for 200 HZ shift)

[3] EASTNET - AN EAST COAST PACKET RADIO NETWORK, Bruninga, p 9-11, Third
ARRL  Computer Networking Conference. 15 Apr 84. (MD,NJ & NY packet map)

[4] THE RACING PROBLEM: A PACKET SOLUTION, Bruninga, p 12-15, Third ARRL
Computer Networking Conference, 15 Apr 84. (A connectionless protocol for
reporting the location and status of Horses on a 100 mile endurence run.
*(the original APRS concept)

[5] EASTNET - A YEAR LATER, Bruninga p 15-24, Fourth ARRL Computer Networking
Conference, 30 Mar 85. (More East Coast maps and the first USA HF map)

[6] LINKING PERSONAL COMPUTERS BY PACKET RADIO, Bruninga, Proceedings, IEEE
COMPCON 84 16 Sept 84, (Published the USA packet map, and amateur HF packet
standards)

[7] CONNECTIONLESS EMERGENCY TRAFFIC SYSTEM, Bruninga, Packet Radio 
Magazine, pg 4-5, July 86. (details the design of the connectionless 
position and status reporting system)

[8] AN UPDATE ON THE CONNECTIONLESS EMERGENCY TRAFFIC SYSTEM, Bruninga,
Packet Radio Magazine, Aug 86. (more of the same)

[9] CONNECTIONLESS PROTOCOL for the NDMS, Bruninga, p 19, Packet Radio
Magazine, Nov 86. (using the connectionless protocol for emergency comms)

[10] PACKET RADIO AT THE WRECK OF THE AMTRACK COLONIAL, Bruninga, P 13 
Packet Radio Magazine Jan 87. (using portable packet for disaster comms)

[11] LANS and WANS, Bruninga, 7th ARRL Computer Networking Conference,
1 Oct 88 (First DC/BALTIMORE area packet maps with APRS symbols)

[12] A WORLDWIDE PACKET RADIO NETWORK, Bruninga, Signal Magazine, June 88,
(shows HF map of 10.149 MHz activity.

[13] PACKETRADIO IM NOTFUNKEINSATZ BEI EINEM ZUNGUNGLUCK, RTTY magazine
18 Jan 87. (translation of article on APRS at the AMTRACK train wreck)


CURRENT:

[14] AUTOMATIC PACKET LOCATION SYSTEM (APLS), Bruninga, ARRL Gateway/QEX,
Feb 1991. (early specification for position and status reporting formats)

[15] GROUND STATION TRACKING VIA PACKET RADIO, Bruninga, AMSAT Journal, 
Pg 1 May/June 93

[16] TRACKIT RADIO, Stan Horzepa, p 92, QST, July 93

[17] UPFRONT IN QST, p 11, QST, August 93. (excellent pictures)

[18] A DESCRIPTION OF APRS by WB4APR, AND MORE!, PACKET USERS NOTEBOOK, 
Buck Rogers, CQ Magazine, Dec 93

[19] INTERFACING GPS/LORAN DEVICES TO PACKET RADIO, Bruninga, pg 9-14, 
QEX, Feb 94

[20] HOMING IN, Radio Direction Finding, by Joe Moell, page 56-59, 
October 94 issue of 73 Magazine.

[21] HOMING IN, by Joe Moell, Jan 95 issue of 73 magazine.

[22] Ads by PacComm, AEA and KANTRONICS touting GPS packet.  April 95 QST

[23] Buck Rogers Column, Packet Notes. CQ magazine May 95 issue.

[24] QST Compares: GPS Compatible TNC's, Steve Ford WB8IMY, QST Oct 1995

[25] Availability of Seventy 9600 Baud Packet CHannels on Two Meters, 
14th ARRL Digital Communications Conference, Arlington, TX 8-10 Sept 1995

[26] APRtrak, A Program for Determining the Locations of Ground Stations
and Spacecraft, Proceedings of the AMSAT-NA 13th Space Symposium Oct 6-8
1995, Orlando, FL

[28] APRS in Balloons and HOMING-IN column Nov 95 issue of "73" Magazine

[29] The MIM Module, Mobile Radio Technology, May 1996