Stetryczały SzydercaJan 12

Edit: Text below is a voice of SQ2CPA, not main, sorry for misleading.

We need to talk about the direction in which our hobby is heading. Let's look back at the words of the father of APRS, Bob Bruninga, WB4APR (SK) 🕯️ He famously and repeatedly said:
"APRS is not a vehicle tracking system"
"APRS is a LOCAL RF network"

However, when we look at the current state of #LoRaAPRS globally, it seems we are drifting away from these core principles. 🌍
Instead of building a robust local network for information exchange, LoRa APRS is increasingly becoming exactly what Bob warned against: a system focused purely on vehicle tracking and generating dots on a map 📍🚗
The Technical Reality Check: #LoRa #APRS should be an incredible Physical Layer (PHY) - a carrier for standard APRS data. Instead, we are seeing the implementation of "invented wonders" and custom features that often have little to do with the original, well-designed APRS network architecture.

Are we building a communication network, or just a long-range GPS tracker? It is worth remembering the roots of the system we use every day. Let's focus on building a Network, not just a map display 📶

🤝 Let's Build It Right - Together

I am announcing the creation of a new Telegram Group dedicated to bringing LoRa APRS back to its true purpose. If you want to move beyond simple tracking and build real networks, join the discussion!

📲 Join the Telegram group here: 👉 https://t.me/aprs_lora

💻 Ready to set up your gear? If you are setting up your true LoRa APRS devices, you can easily flash them using web flasher here: 👉 https://flasher.lora-aprs.pl/ #hamradio

Show threadKonrad Roeder (WA4OSH)Mar 13

@Aegewsh
100% AX.25 Packet radio was invented in 1978's after I got my HAM license 50 years ago.

It was a point-to point network with digipeaters in the middle. The first TNCs were designed by #TAPR in 1983.

Bob Bruninga took AX.25 packet and confined it to mostly a weather station and GPS tracker protocol (on the left).

#LoRaAPRS was the initial work of Peter Buchegger OE5BPA, Bernd Gasser OE1ACM, Christoph Gasser OE1CGC and Christian Johan Bauer OE3CJB. That's the vision on the right.

Show threadStetryczały Szyderca

@WA4OSH
The fact is, Bob WB4APR’s APRS was intentionally designed and developed; it has come a long way since 1983. However, that progress was always about evolving core principles and expanding the standard. With all due respect to the colleagues from Austria and their work, they weren’t really developing APRS—they simply wanted to physically port APRS using LoRaWAN standards, without much of a vision for what came next. It was, frankly, like children playing in a sandbox.

I’ve been involved in the LoRa APRS project since the very early versions of the SQ9MDD firmware (which, admittedly, was based on OE5BPA's early work—he released the first version in November 2020, and we followed in March 2021). Together with my colleagues from Poland (SP), and contrary to the approach taken by the OE team, we implemented AX.25 and KISS fundamentals from the start because we had a clear vision of what LoRa APRS should look like: full compatibility with legacy APRS.

Since then, LoRa APRS development has split into two branches:

The Austrian approach: focusing solely on the LoRa protocol itself, disregarding backward compatibility.

Our approach: prioritizing the global APRS ecosystem.

Years later, it turns out we were right, but the consequences of their "sandbox play" still haunt us today. The primary legacy left by the OE branch includes:

One-way traffic dominance: Most devices still operate on a "Tracker > IGate > APRS-IS" basis only.

Lack of standards: Even within LoRa APRS, it’s still a free-for-all—whatever someone dreams up gets shoved into the firmware.

Compatibility issues: This often makes meaningful LoRa/2m AFSK cross-digipeating impossible, as 2m hardware cannot process these non-standard packets.

I am all for the evolution of APRS, but let’s do it intelligently, with a sensible plan and established standards, while never forgetting Bob’s heritage.

By the way C U on Telegram group :)

Mar 14 at 9:11amWeb
Show threadKonrad Roeder (WA4OSH)Mar 14

@Aegewsh
I was on packet radio using @AX25 on a TAPR TNC and an ADDS Video Terminal in the early 1980's before Bob Bruninga came along. #APRS created many one-way devices such as the tracker that I had for a long time. It just transmitted. Many of the devices that came along were incompaticle with the very intent of the AX.25 protocol.

Yes, I used to be very active on many LoRa projects, incuding Peter Buchegger's telegram group in German.

Show threadKonrad Roeder (WA4OSH)Mar 14

@Aegewsh
Regarding the evolution of #APRS, I agree that the AX.25 over-the-air protocol impose constraints on both AfskAPRS and LoRaAPRS. And, yes, this involves digipeating as you point out.

However, those constraints don't impose anything in the APRS-IS network core. iGate are part of the APRS-IS network. SSIDs on APRS-IS are just a dash and a string appended to a callsign — they don't have to be numeric at all, let alone 0–15