APRN

By John KB2SCS

[email protected]

APRN An idea by Bob Bruninga WB4APR.

For Bob's description of the Automatic Picture Relay Network see.

Bob's Description

As described above APRN is an idea concived by Bob Bruninga. What I have
done is written software that makes the APRN idea a reality. I call this
software APRN. APRN is a 32 bit Windows program. You need Win95 or higher
to run the software.

The APRN software is FreeWare. No charge for the use of APRN.

How to download the software:
At the bottom of this page you will find a hyper link with the title
APRN. Left click on this link and your browser should start the download.
Note it is recomended that you download APRN to an empty sub directory.
This so that you can delete the APRN setup files after APRN is installed.

How to setup APRN:
Use your Unzipping software to UNzip aprn.zip
After the extraction you will see a Setup.exe Icon.
Double click on the Setup.exe Icon and follow the setup program instructions.

Equipment needed for the Receive station.
PC capable of running Windows 95 or higher. (32 Bit Windows)
PC also has to have a 16 bit sound card. (So you can run your SSTV software)
Transciver.
TNC
"Y" cable so you can feed the receive audio from your transceiver to
     your TNC and Your Sound Card.
     Note if your Transciver is a Kenwood D700 or a Kenwood THD-7 then the
     "Y" cable is not needed. Nor is the TNC needed.
     Just a patch cable to send the receive audio
     to your sound card.

Software needed for Receive station.
OS Windows 95 or Higher (32 bit Windows)
APRN software.
32 bit Windows based APRS software. (WinAPRS,UI-VIEW, APRS-SA to name a few.)
32 bit based SSTV program.

Equipment needed for Sending station.
Mic-E
Or a Kenwood D700 or a Kenwood THD-7
You need a setup that will allow you to send the SSTV picture then send
an APRS position report as a packet burst at the end of the SSTV Transmission.
VHC1 Kenwoods SSTV communicator.
     Note the VHC1 is not mandatory. As long as you have a method of
     sending an SSTV picture with an APRS position report at the end of
     the SSTV transmission.

Software needed for Sending station.
No software is needed for the sending station if one of the Kenwood radios
are being used and the VHC1 is being used. Otherwise the user is left on his
own to come up with a method that allows him or her to send an
SSTV picture with an APRS position packet burst at the end of the SSTV
transmission.

How does the APRN system work?
Glad you asked.
Receive Station:
Non Kenwood radio setup:
Hook up your Transceiver to your TNC.
Hook up your TNC to your PC. For Transceiver audio use a "Y" cable.
Hook up the external speaker jack of your Transceiver to your sound card
     input jack using the same "Y" cable.
     The user is left on his own to set up his TNC for receiving APRS
     packets.
Turn on Transceiver.
Turn on TNC.
Boot PC.
Start up and configure SSTV program to save Pictures automatically to the
     APRN root directory.
     Note also setup SSTV program to save pictures in either .jpg or .gif
     format.
     Minimize your SSTV software.
Start up APRN software.
     Enter the full DOS path to your APRS software.
     Enter the URL of your Web Sites FTP server. This is the URL that
     you use to update your Web Site via FTP.
     Enter User Name. This is the User Name that you use to update your
     Web Site via FTP.
     Enter your PassWord. This is the password that you use to update your
     Web Site via FTP.
     Click on either .JPG or .GIF depending which picture format your
     SSTV program outputs.
     Click on Start.
     APRN will minimize automatically.
     Your APRS software will start up full screen.
     Configure your APRS software to "Track" the station that will be
     sending you pictures. (Those running APRS-SA make the Delorme
     Street Atlas map full screen.)
     Note at no time (while APRN is running) do anything to cause
     your APRS software not to be running Full Screen.

That is it. You are done.
     What APRN does now is, it checks evey 20 sec to see if a SSTV
     Picture has been saved to the APRN root directory. If one has been
     saved then APRN makes a Bitmap of the screen. Since your APRS software
     is running full screen this "Bitmap screen shot" contains your APRS
     software Map. Then APRN executes Convert.exe which was written by
     Andy Jones. Convert.exe takes a Bitmap and converts it to a JPG file.
     You can contact Andy at [email protected] or visit his
     Web Site at http://www.jones230.freeserve.co.uk
     Once these two files (SSTV picture, Screen shot of your APRS
     software) are made then APRN creates one html file.
     aprn.html
     aprn.html contains all the links to the APRS screen shots and
     SSTV Pictures.

     Via FTP APRN up loads the following files.
     aprn.html, dayhourminsec.html, APRS screen shot.jpg and
     SSTV Picture.
     If the FTP process is successfull APRN then deletes
     APRS screen shot.jpg and SSTV Picture from your
     APRN root direcrory.
     Note APRN does not delete aprn.html
     aprn.html once created stays in your APRN root directory forever.
     Every time a new SSTV Picture comes in if aprn.html exists APRN
     appends the new picture link to aprn.html

Note if using one of the Kenwood radios then skip the first five steps above.
     Instead:
     Hook up your Kenwood radio to your pc.
     Hook up the external speaker jack of your Kenwood to your sound card input jack.
     Hook up a serial cable between your Kenwood and your PC.
     Turn on the Kenwood.
     Put the Kenwood into Packet mode. (NOT APRS MODE)
     Then continue with step six above (Boot PC)

Web Site setup:
You have to make a minior change to your Web Site in order for APRN to work
correctly. You have to add a hyper link to your index.html file.
This hyper link gives users access to your APRN pages.
See APRN.txt which is included with the software download for an example of
this hyper link. You can cut and paste the hyper link into your index.html file.

Whats New:
Now aprn.html contains links to the APRS screen shot and picture separately. Clicking on
the Loacation link brings up the APRS screen shot in a new browser window. Clicking on the
Picture link brings up the SSTV picture in a new browser window. The DayHourMinSec.html
is no longer used by aprn.

Those that have used aprn in the past will not have to do anything.
The next time they use aprn a new aprn.html file will be created and uploaded to their
web page. This new aprn.html file will contain all their old links and the new links that
are created will be in the new format.

APRN uses aprn.ini. Now you no longer have to type in your ftp information.
Also you can now have your APRN files up load to a sub directory on your FTP site.

In the FTP Subdiretory field enter the path to the subdirectory on your ftp site.
For example if your FTP subdirectory path is the following sstv/aprn then you would
enter the following: sstv/aprn. If your FTP subdirectory name is aprn then you would enter
aprn

NOTE: It is very IMPORTANT DO NOT CHANGE THE TEXT IN THE FTP SUBDIRECTRY FIELD IF YOU
ARE NOT USING A FTP SUBDIRECTORY.
If you do this APRN will try to upload your files to a non
existent subdirectory.

Enjoy 73 de John,KB2SCS

APRN.ZIP

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