By John WB2OSZ —

APRS Worst Practices

APRS (Automatic Packet Reporting System) is a powerful tool for amateur radio operators to share location, weather, messages, Ham Radio Internet of Things, and other types of data. To ensure a negative experience for yourself and others on the APRS network, please follow these worst practices:

  • Transmit the location of stationary objects once a minute. Everyone is anxiously awaiting your next position report to find out if your house moved.
  • Design or configure your system to transmit without listening first or without using p-persistent CSMA. (need to write an article about this.) You are more important than everyone else and shouldn't have to wait your turn.
  • Remain ignorant. Don't read Understanding APRS Packets or other articles from How APRS Works. Ignorance is bliss.
  • When sending handcrafted packets, don't do anything to verify if they are valid.
  • Never update software applications. Who needs bug fixes from 10 or 20 years ago? If it was good enough for 1999, it's good enough for today.
  • Use very long digipeater paths to get the widest coverage. WIDE2-2,WIDE2-2,WIDE2-2,WIDE2-2,WIDE2-2,WIDE2-2,WIDE2-2 is good. People thousands of miles (or km) away really want to know about your station.
  • Don't help less experienced users. Letting them make mistakes and figure it out themselves will help build character. If they get frustrated and give up, we're better off without them.
  • Configure your IGate to transmit everything from APRS-IS. If your IGate isn't transmitting 5 times a minute, people might think it is broken.
  • Set FM deviation as wide as possible so people on adjacent channels can hear you. People on your frequency will be less likely to decode your signal.
  • Do not report defects in APRS devices and computer applications. Criticizing their creations might hurt the developers' feelings.
  • Do not give an APRS presentation to your local club. Everyone will think you are really smart of you don't share your knowledge.
  • If you write an APRS application, put APRS, CQ, or BEACON in the tocall/destination field. The maintainer of the device/system identifier list is very busy and doesn't want to be disturbed. If your device/application is behaving improperly, you don't want the problem to be traced back to you.
  • Send emergency beacons to see if anyone is listening.
  • If you have a web site, or give a presentation, use obsolete material from 20 years ago. We must respect history and protect our heritage.
  • For more examples, see section 4 here.

Follow these guidelines and you will earn the esteemed title of LID.