Sun Coast Amateur <br>Radio Club Society - blog:2020-08-15https://scarcs.ca/2026-04-28T17:58:04+00:00FeedCreator 1.8picoaprs2020-08-15T14:47:43+00:002020-08-15T14:47:43+00:002020-08-15T14:47:43+00:00https://scarcs.ca/blog/2020-08-15/picoaprsAnonymous
<h1 class="sectionedit1" id="picoaprs">PicoAPRS</h1>
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<a href="https://scarcs.ca/_detail/blog/2020-08-15/picoaprs1.png?id=blog%3A2020-08-15%3Apicoaprs" class="media" title="blog:2020-08-15:picoaprs1.png"><img src="https://scarcs.ca/_media/blog/2020-08-15/picoaprs1.png?w=200&tok=296401" class="mediaright" align="right" loading="lazy" alt="" width="200" /></a>
Described as the “World's smallest APRS Transceiver by DB1NTO”, the <a href="http://www.picoaprs.de/index_en.html" class="urlextern" title="http://www.picoaprs.de/index_en.html" rel="ugc nofollow">PicoAPRS</a> can be used as:
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a tracker that can send position data
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a receiver that can receive APRS messages
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a stand alone APRS digipeater
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a computer connected <abbr title="Terminal Node Controller">TNC</abbr>
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Here are some screenshots:
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<a href="https://scarcs.ca/_detail/blog/2020-08-15/picoaprs2.png?id=blog%3A2020-08-15%3Apicoaprs" class="media" title="blog:2020-08-15:picoaprs2.png"><img src="https://scarcs.ca/_media/blog/2020-08-15/picoaprs2.png" class="mediacenter" loading="lazy" alt="" /></a>
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It outputs 1W and you'll need to buy a separate antenna. The PicoAPRS's antenna port is a female SMA port (so you'll need an antenna with a male SMA connector), so Baofeng antennas won't work.
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<a href="https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/wmo-picoaprs" class="urlextern" title="https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/wmo-picoaprs" rel="ugc nofollow">DX Engineering</a> sells it for $220 and the user comments there are pretty informative: it seems that unless you're in an area with lots of digipeaters, using this unit with a portable antenna and its meagre 1W won't work as a mobile APRS station. However, people have used it as a tracker for drones or even as a drone APRS digipeater.
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It's pretty cool, but I can think of a lot of other things I'd spend $220 on before buying this (unless I had a drone I guess).
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