RNG aprs data extension

[ik8...@gmail.com]

Hello,

it seems to me that the RNG aprs extension (pre-calculated radio range) is not handled by aprs.fi.
On the other hand, PHG  sentence works.

I'm involved in some experimental balloon fly at University of Salerno and one radio channel (in UHF range, very low power .. 10mW, experimental antenna... ) is dedicated to amateur radio community.
The amauteur station receive telemetry radio information from balloon (ISM bands not in OM bands)  and sent them to an university server and in turn this sent them (after a processing) to aprs.fi for showing the balloon position to the amatuer radio people..
At the moment this works correctly with some experimental sw developed by some students and OMs.

I would like that aprs.fi could show not only the balloon position but the real radio range as well for the ground amateur radio station; this has to be pre-calculated because we have low power on the balloon,  antenna gain and directivity changing  and so on.This is handled by the server at the university. If aprsf.fi could show the RNG circle, the amateur ground stations on the ground could look at the radio  acquisition circle of the balloon and try to listen to it.

I believe that RNG sentence is right for this use.

The question is: will the RNG sentence handled in the near future by aprs.fi?

Thanks for the attention.

73 from IK8VRQ, Angelo

[Heikki Hannikainen]

Hi,

On Fri, 23 Jun 2017, ik8...@gmail.com wrote:

> it seems to me that the RNG aprs extension (pre-calculated radio range) is not handled by aprs.fi.

Correct.

> server at the university. If aprsf.fi could show the RNG circle, the
> amateur ground stations on the ground could look at the radio 
> acquisition circle of the balloon and try to listen to it.
>
> I believe that RNG sentence is right for this use.
>
> The question is: will the RNG sentence handled in the near future by aprs.fi?

Not likely to support in the near future; it's not a very commonly used
feature of APRS as far as I know. There is a largish set of other things
that I'd need to do with higher priority.

But maybe the radio horizont circles, which are shown by aprs.fi for
flying things having a balloon or aircraft symbol, will work quite fine
for your purpose; they seem to work pretty well at least for the
high-flying low-power APRS balloons. Details:

http://blog.aprs.fi/2012/03/dead-reckoning-and-horizont-circles.html

- Hessu