Chapter 14
APRS Services
Many useful APRS services are robots that you message: you send a short command and get the answer back as a message. Menu → Radio Tools → APRS Services gathers the common ones on one screen, with forms that build the commands for you and a command reference for each. Choose a service from the chip strip at the top. Answers arrive in Messages as a conversation with the service.
| Service | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ANSRVR | Group announcements. Check in to the weekly APRS Thursday net, join, leave and list groups. | CQ HOTG 73 from G7JJF |
| CQSRVR | Send a CQ to a group (one per 30 minutes). | CQ GROUP message |
| WHO-IS | Look up a callsign (name and location from QRZ.com). | G4ABC or F G4ABC |
| EMAIL-2 | Send a short e-mail; set up aliases. | me@example.com Running late |
| Simple e-mail gateway. | address message | |
| SMSGTE | SMS text messages — USA and Canada numbers only. | +15551234567 message |
| WXBOT | US National Weather Service forecasts and METARs. | IO93md today |
| WXYO | International weather forecast by grid or callsign. | IO93 tomorrow |
| WXNOW | Current conditions at the nearest weather stations. | n 3 |
| JOKE | Jokes, quotes and fortunes from APRSD. | |
| APRS OTA | On-the-air activity: host, chase and QSL activations. | HOST description |
| APSPOT | Self-spot POTA, SOTA and WWFF activations. | ! POTA G-0123 7.144 SSB |
| APRS2SOTA | Spot a SOTA activation on SOTAwatch. Callsign must be registered at sotaspots.co.uk. | G/CE-001 144.320 SSB |
| FIND | Find a station's location. | G4ABC |
| REPEAT | Nearest repeaters to you. | nearest |
| UKRPT | Nearest UK repeaters from the ETCC list, by band, mode, locator or another station's position; one repeater's details. Distances in km or miles (remembered for your callsign). Buttons for 2 m FM, 70 cm FM, DMR, D-STAR, Fusion, MORE and miles/km. | 2M FM, 70CM DMR IO93LC, INFO GB3NF, KM |
| UKNODES | Nearest UK iGates, digipeaters, LoRa and packet nodes heard on APRS-IS in the last day; one node's details. Buttons for All, iGates, Digis, LoRa, LoRa iGates, Packet, 2 m APRS, MORE and miles/km. | ALL, LORA IGATE, PACKET IO93LC, GB7CAM |
| WLNK-1 | Winlink e-mail via APRSLink. | SP to$subject text |
| NWS | Subscribe to NWS alerts by US ZIP code. | |
| MPAD | Worldwide weather by place, grid or your position, plus METAR/TAF, CWOP, satellite passes, repeaters, sun and moon times, DAPNET pager messages and more. | Lincoln; gb tomorrow |
| ISS | Next ISS pass for your last beaconed position — works over RF. | pass? |
| QRX | Mailbox: stores messages sent to you while you were off air and alerts you when you return. Register once with REG. | I, R, RLY ALL |
| APRS2TG | Message a Telegram user (they must have started the gateway's bot). | msg @user text |
| WTSAPP | Message a WhatsApp number. | @+447700900123 text |
| IRC | Chat channels over APRS. | /join #lounge |
| QUIZME | Amateur radio practice questions. | Q |
| ECHOMY | Replies with how many hops your message took and the distance — a path test. | TEST |
Robots come and go: if one stops answering, the service may be off air. ISS and QUIZME in particular could not be confirmed as running when this manual was written.
#APRS2SOTA — spotting from a summit
SOTA (Summits On The Air) activators post spots — summit, frequency and mode — on SOTAwatch so chasers can find them. The APRS2SOTA service sends the spot as an APRS message, so it works from a summit with no phone signal: over RF through any iGate that hears you, or over APRS-IS when you are logged in. Register your callsign once at sotaspots.co.uk; spots from unregistered callsigns are ignored.
- Open Menu → Radio Tools → APRS Services → APRS2SOTA.
- Enter the summit reference (e.g.
G/CE-001), frequency (e.g.144.320or7.032) and mode (SSB, CW, FM, AM, DATA or DV). Add an operator callsign if it is not your own, and a short comment if you like. Everything except the comment is remembered for next time. - Tap Spot me. QRT tells chasers you have gone off air; QSY posts a new frequency.
The gateway acknowledges each spot, and the ack appears under APRS2SOTA in Messages. Keep beaconing on the way up — your positions show on aprs.fi and SOTA mapping sites.