The following is a message from APRS Connect:
APRS Connect, the messaging-first APRS client that launched on Android in August, is now on the App Store for iPhone (iOS 16.4 or later). It is free to install and use over APRS-IS. Connecting a radio and several advanced features are part of APRS Connect Pro, a subscription with a 7-day free trial.
APRS OTA, the on-the-air activity that runs entirely over APRS, has its own screens in the app, so you tap buttons instead of typing bot commands. Hosts go on the air in one tap. Each chaser’s call arrives with their message, where they are and a Confirm button. A bar across the top shows QSOs, points and time left, with buttons to stay longer or message every chaser at once. A live map shows you and your chasers and adds up how far your contacts have reached. Chasers get the list of hosts on the air, tap one to call, and watch each step through to the host’s QSL. Every op is saved with its map and scores and can be shared as a picture. Chasing works over APRS-IS, free. Hosting needs a radio, as APRS OTA’s rules require.
The other services on APRS get the same treatment, a guided screen instead of a command to memorize: weather, the repeater finder, WHO-IS, the SMS, email and Winlink gateways, and APSPOT and APRS2SOTA self-spotting. #APRSThursday and other ANSRVR groups open as a single net room.
On iPhone the app connects to KISS TNCs over Bluetooth LE or TCP. It can also work through a radio’s speaker and mic, using the built-in AFSK 1200 audio modem with VOX keying. Radios with a Bluetooth LE KISS TNC built in, such as the BTECH UV-Pro, connect directly.
Several things have been added since the app was first covered here:
- The phone can be an IGate. It passes what your radio hears to APRS-IS and, if you choose, sends messages from the internet back out on the air for stations nearby. It can also be a digipeater that stays quiet when another digipeater has already repeated the packet.
- A coverage map shows the places your beacons were picked up by a digipeater.
- Pinned stations, a grid square screen, and the ISS on the map.
- A setting chooses how messages go out: radio first, APRS-IS first, one link only, or every channel at once.
- An optional account keeps messages, pinned stations and settings the same on every device. When two devices share a callsign and SSID, only one of them beacons, acks and digipeats at a time.
- A “Rest of the world” map layer shows stations heard anywhere on APRS-IS, not only the ones your device heard.
- The app is more accessible for operators who use VoiceOver and TalkBack. Every button has a spoken name, and an open conversation reads new messages aloud.
The newest of these are on iPhone now and reach Android with its next Play release.
More at https://aprsconnect.com, and on APRS OTA in the app at https://aprsconnect.com/ota. Download the App: https://aprsconnect.com/get/89x5bv.
Source: APRS Connect