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.

FREE OVER APRS-IS. PRO ADDS THE RADIOS
Free to use over APRS-IS. APRS Connect Pro, a subscription, adds radio channels, offline map downloads, the radar layer, track export, extra beacon profiles, capture replay and retry when heard. Lapse and nothing is deleted or goes off the air.

WORKS WITH YOUR RADIO (PRO)
• 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
• 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, 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
• 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" to see the literal message before it goes. 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; whole regions download with Pro
• Filter by age, and by whether a station came over RF or the internet

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, with raw frame and hex dump

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
• Beacon profiles — your station, and with Pro a second SSID or 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.