What is APRS

Automatic Position Reporting System, or APRS is a multifaceted system for use with packet radio by Hams, it allows the monitoring of real time geographical information such as the position of vehicles, the status of weather, radio direction finding and much much more.

It involves mapping, GPS tracking, packet radio, etc. It is a VERY interesting facet of packet radio and has much to offer most everyone including non-hams that just want to watch over the internet.

New Zealand APRS-IS (Internet Servers)

We now have two APRS-IS servers operating in New Zealand. These are at first.aprs.net.nz and second.aprs.net.nz. You can view a status page of each, and list the available ports for you to select the type of data at:

• first.aprs.net.ns:14501
• second.aprs.net.nz:14501

Some good links about APRS:
ZL1AMW site
Crisflo APRS site

Live data from New Zealand:

You can view live data from your callsign via the web site aprs.fi

New ZL Symbols

When the previous issue (Rev G) was issued in January 2005 it added a number of new symbols, plus changed the ARRL/RSGB symbol to a diamond, ready for an overlay letter. New Zealand operators have used this symbol as an NZART club station icon, which creates a conflict. To allow the use of the red diamond for things such as IRLP and Echolink nodes, we inserted a new NZART symbol in a spare position, (the alternate table 'q', position 80). We picked up all of the new symbols from the Rev G set circulated by WA8LMF, but retained the G4IDE icons for most items.

Rev H adds a new tractor symbol, so Ian ZL1VFO has inserted this into the ZL symbol set for us. The new Rev H ZL symbol set provided below therefore contains the NZART symbol and all of the internationally agreed symbols to Rev H.

The Concept Of Symbols (also sometimes called icons)

A station includes in its beacon information one or more characters that identify the type of station. A station receiving the beacon uses that information to decide what graphic to use to represent the station.

The symbols are made up from three files - SYMBOLS.TXT, SYMBOLS.BMP and SYMBOLS2.BMP. Comments in SYMBOLS.TXT explain how it works.
The symbols are fully compatible with APRS.