Position reports from Winlink and Yotreps

[Eric Christensen]

Users of Winlink and Yotreps can transmit their positions via these services to a common database that is used by several websites (findU and ShipTrak come to mind) to show their positions and status messages.  These are generally maritime mobile stations that are away from the pier making a passage or are otherwise traveling around.  Would it be possible to have aprs.fi tie into this database and pull the data?

An example of this data would be WD0ETL in North Carolina.

73,
Eric W4OTN

[Heikki Hannikainen]

On Tue, 8 May 2012, Eric Christensen wrote:

> Users of Winlink and Yotreps can transmit their positions via these services to a
> common database that is used by several websites (findU and ShipTrak come to mind) to
> show their positions and status messages.  These are generally maritime mobile stations
> that are away from the pier making a passage or are otherwise traveling around.  Would
> it be possible to have aprs.fi tie into this database and pull the data?

Probably yes, given some work by me and some support from the maintainers
of such database. However,

There are plenty of Winlink stations already being gatewayed to the
APRS-IS (http://aprs.fi/?c=raw&call=winlink&limit=50&view=normal) and
subsequently being shown on aprs.fi. I thought they all were. What's up
with that?

I browsed around the winlink site a bit just now and could not find any
information about the common database you mention. I just woke up so I
might have just missed it. Can you give any specific information on it's
location, administrators, protocols, or something?

- Hessu

[Eric Christensen]

On Wednesday, May 9, 2012 12:12:21 AM UTC-4, Heikki Hannikainen wrote:

On Tue, 8 May 2012, Eric Christensen wrote:

> Users of Winlink and Yotreps can transmit their positions via these services to a
> common database that is used by several websites (findU and ShipTrak come to mind) to
> show their positions and status messages.  These are generally maritime mobile stations
> that are away from the pier making a passage or are otherwise traveling around.  Would
> it be possible to have aprs.fi tie into this database and pull the data?

 
...

 

There are plenty of Winlink stations already being gatewayed to the
APRS-IS (http://aprs.fi/?c=raw&call=winlink&limit=50&view=normal) and
subsequently being shown on aprs.fi. I thought they all were. What's up
with that?

Those stations appear to be gateway stations and not users.

I browsed around the winlink site a bit just now and could not find any
information about the common database you mention. I just woke up so I
might have just missed it. Can you give any specific information on it's
location, administrators, protocols, or something?

Let me see if I can find details for you.

73,
Eric W4OTN

 

[Eric Christensen]

I finally found the proper person (Lee Inman) to talk to about this.  Instead of giving aprs.fi access to the database, which would have required code changes on both sides, he started posting the position reports directly to the APRS-IS which makes it easier for all users.  The are posted as objects from "Winlink" and show up as a diamond with a 'P' overlay.

73,
Eric W4OTN

[Heikki Hannikainen]

On Sat, 19 May 2012, Eric Christensen wrote:

> I finally found the proper person (Lee Inman) to talk to about this.  Instead of giving aprs.fi
> access to the database, which would have required code changes on both sides, he started posting the
> position reports directly to the APRS-IS which makes it easier for all users.  The are posted as
> objects from "Winlink" and show up as a diamond with a 'P' overlay.

That's the right way to do it, the position data of Winlink stations
convert quite nicely to APRS and they're Amateur stations, so they fit
well on the amateur APRS network.

- Hessu