APRS Connect

APRS Connect is an APRS client built around messaging. Conversations are threads rather than a wall of packets, and everything the app puts on the air is visible before it goes.

Works with your radio

• Bluetooth KISS TNC, such as a Mobilinkd
• KISS over TCP — Direwolf, or a networked TNC
• APRS-IS over the internet
• Any combination at once, and each beacon chooses which of them carries it

Messaging

• One thread per station, with delivery state read off the air: queued, transmitted, digipeated, acknowledged or failed
• Digipeat confirmation — proof your packet was actually repeated, not merely transmitted
• Automatic acks, a retry schedule you can stop mid-flight, long messages split and rejoined
• Bulletins in their own room instead of interrupting conversations
• Mute, archive, rename and block

Nets and groups

• ANSRVR groups become rooms. #APRSThursday, an ARES net, a club group — the group's traffic in one conversation instead of messages from strangers
• Join by name, see how many are subscribed, renew before it lapses, and leave
• Browse the ANSRVR directory in the app

APRS OTA

• Host an op from wherever you are and work the chasers who call in
• The countdown is on screen, and every contact you confirm adds time to it
• Confirm a contact with a message the chaser actually receives
• Chase other ops, with the position-report requirement checked for you — including whether your beacon was heard over RF

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, ANSRVR and more. Choose the action and the app writes the command. Switch on "Show APRS commands" and every action first shows the literal message it will send, so nothing is hidden and the syntax is there to learn. The directory is yours to edit, export and import.

Map, and off the grid

• Vector map with real APRS symbols, station trails, objects and weather
• Every tile you look at is kept, up to a limit you set, and redraws offline
• The whole app runs with no internet — a radio and a TNC is a complete install
• Filter by age and by whether a station arrived 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 with their history charted
• Every packet decoded field by field, with the raw frame and a hex dump
• Honest about packets it could not parse, rather than hiding them

Your data is a file you can read

• Backup is plain JSON — settings, conversations and the blocklist — readable and editable before import
• Merge or restore; handset-specific settings stay separate, so a phone-to-phone move does not carry the wrong Bluetooth pairing
• The packet log exports as NDJSON, and imports or replays through the same parser that recorded it

Make it yours

• Several beacon profiles at once: your station, a second SSID, a fixed-position object
• Smart beaconing or a fixed interval, per profile, each with its own path, symbol, comment, frequency and tone
• Message templates, a symbol picker, a 12/24 hour clock, and direct editing of the APRS-IS filter
• 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 this app 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.

Learn more at aprsconnect.com.

APRS is a registered trademark of the APRS Foundation and of Bob Bruninga, WB4APR.