This is the first time that I'm hearing of the hailing channel concept. I really like the idea, I had thought up an adjacent idea. Something along the lines of using APRS to negotiate channel information potentially if you had a frequency agile transceiver. I think that would be neat. APRS offers that fixed known point with which to do either discovery or initial negotiation.
Kenwood APRS radios starting with the TM-D710 can send the settings for the "other band" radio, using the specification outlined by Bob. AFAIK only Kenwood radios will QSY to it. In my part of the world not enough people bought Kenwood radios to make it work (and those who did usually just set and forget the beacon settings).
As has been discussed before in Zero Retries, the APRS.org website and related specs are an unfortunate mess. But in my opinion it’s worth taking a few minutes to glance through the entire main page at this link, where APRS developer Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, SK describes the hailing channel concept multiple times. He talks about APRS as being intended to provide situational awareness of local ham radio assets. It’s a bit of a slog but there are several good paragraphs on this page. https://www.aprs.org/
Craig, Thanks, so I was aware of Bob's desire for APRS to 'provide situational awareness' in a geographic area within the hobby. I just wasn't aware of this "hailing channel" concept. I appreciate you pointing this out, and I'll take a read. Thanks sir
Unfortunately I wasn't able to find anything on aprs.org that was more specific about Hailing Channel type technology, other than, as you note, that Bob intended APRS to promote "situational awareness". Bryan's promotion of Hailing Channel seemed new to WB4APR when Bryan originally proposed it. My take on Hailing Channel is that it needs to be something like a superset of APRS protocol, hopefully remaining compatible, but being able to signal new types of capabilities that weren't originally envisioned in APRS.
"TRANSMITTING YOUR MOBILE FREQUENCY: The D72, D710 and FTM350 can automatically insert your voice band frequency into the STATUS text of your position packets. In the D710, it is always inserted in STATUS #5, so users are encouraged to always use STATUS #5 while mobile. In the D72 and FTM350, you can turn Frequency-in-status on and off in any of the 5 available STATUS locations."
About halfway down the page the section "FORMATS FOR FREQUENCY OBJECTS FROM DIGIPEATERS" gives a recommended format when creating your own messages to specify frequency (and offset and tone if referencing a local repeater rather than simplex).
The D710 has a "Tune" button associated with the APRS display. One button push tunes your VFO to the frequency listed in a received APRS packet so you can talk to the person beaconing the simplex frequency they're monitoring. (See the section "ADDING FREQUENCY TO YOUR MOBILE OR FIXED STATION".)
Anyway, it's great that Bryan is promoting the Hailing Channel concept, since it seems that this stuff has been lost to time.
It would have been a nice September activity to be there.
The topics from ZR 2025 conference discussed in ZR220 interest me. I do hope that “eventually” I can receive, digest, and do something technical with them.
HC hailing (Star Trek), AREDN with 802.11ah, cross mode through repeaters, etc.
Congratulations to Steve, Tina and Meredith for "birthing that baby". I've been to older TAPR Digital Conferences, and the in-person aspect (spontaneous conversations, seeing the faces that went with email (and USENET Newsgroup) threads, etc.) was one of the reasons that Steve had aspired to have the Zero-Retries conference (as he mentioned in the keynote.
Steve, I think that goal was met. I< personally, started having conversations and meeting people even as Registration was setting up. Coffee was ready, the rooms were ready, and people began to mingle. Some sate at the lunchroom tables, with enough seats that it invited us to meet new faces in the room.
I look forward to the videos, because a few speakers had so much to share that they spoke faster than I could take notes. I look forward to being able to replay some portions (a few I may need to hear a few times...) to understand some of what they shared.
I won an Explorer QEZ-1 radio (that came with the NA6D All In One Cable, to make that a Digital Radio), and it's working well enough that I'm going to order another for home use. I haven't used the AIOC as a soundcard (yet), but I was able to CHIRP the radio. I'll share that experience later. But, if you do get an AIOC, we found that the 3D printed case won't let the USB-C cable seat far enough into the connector. Without the case, you still need to really shove the cable into the connector until you hear a solid CLICK, and only then will it appear as a comm and audio device. Hat tip to KU7PDX for finding that first, and sharing the clue with me.
David - Thanks for the kind words for Tina, Merideth and I on ZRDC 2025. It was... a project! Yeah, I really like the QRZ-1 and will get a few for my personal experimentation here in N8GNJ / Zero Retries Labs. I'll pass your user feedback about the NA6D AIOC case onto NA6D.
This is the first time that I'm hearing of the hailing channel concept. I really like the idea, I had thought up an adjacent idea. Something along the lines of using APRS to negotiate channel information potentially if you had a frequency agile transceiver. I think that would be neat. APRS offers that fixed known point with which to do either discovery or initial negotiation.
Kenwood APRS radios starting with the TM-D710 can send the settings for the "other band" radio, using the specification outlined by Bob. AFAIK only Kenwood radios will QSY to it. In my part of the world not enough people bought Kenwood radios to make it work (and those who did usually just set and forget the beacon settings).
Eric - Yeah, the "Kenwood protocol" never quite took off beyond clusters of TM-D710 owners who were rabid about using that capability.
John - I think the Hailing Channel has a lot of potential, which is why I asked Bryan to reprise his presentation on the subject at ZRDC 2025.
As has been discussed before in Zero Retries, the APRS.org website and related specs are an unfortunate mess. But in my opinion it’s worth taking a few minutes to glance through the entire main page at this link, where APRS developer Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, SK describes the hailing channel concept multiple times. He talks about APRS as being intended to provide situational awareness of local ham radio assets. It’s a bit of a slog but there are several good paragraphs on this page. https://www.aprs.org/
Craig, Thanks, so I was aware of Bob's desire for APRS to 'provide situational awareness' in a geographic area within the hobby. I just wasn't aware of this "hailing channel" concept. I appreciate you pointing this out, and I'll take a read. Thanks sir
Unfortunately I wasn't able to find anything on aprs.org that was more specific about Hailing Channel type technology, other than, as you note, that Bob intended APRS to promote "situational awareness". Bryan's promotion of Hailing Channel seemed new to WB4APR when Bryan originally proposed it. My take on Hailing Channel is that it needs to be something like a superset of APRS protocol, hopefully remaining compatible, but being able to signal new types of capabilities that weren't originally envisioned in APRS.
Here's some information from this page: https://www.aprs.org/localinfo.html
"TRANSMITTING YOUR MOBILE FREQUENCY: The D72, D710 and FTM350 can automatically insert your voice band frequency into the STATUS text of your position packets. In the D710, it is always inserted in STATUS #5, so users are encouraged to always use STATUS #5 while mobile. In the D72 and FTM350, you can turn Frequency-in-status on and off in any of the 5 available STATUS locations."
About halfway down the page the section "FORMATS FOR FREQUENCY OBJECTS FROM DIGIPEATERS" gives a recommended format when creating your own messages to specify frequency (and offset and tone if referencing a local repeater rather than simplex).
The D710 has a "Tune" button associated with the APRS display. One button push tunes your VFO to the frequency listed in a received APRS packet so you can talk to the person beaconing the simplex frequency they're monitoring. (See the section "ADDING FREQUENCY TO YOUR MOBILE OR FIXED STATION".)
Anyway, it's great that Bryan is promoting the Hailing Channel concept, since it seems that this stuff has been lost to time.
It would have been a nice September activity to be there.
The topics from ZR 2025 conference discussed in ZR220 interest me. I do hope that “eventually” I can receive, digest, and do something technical with them.
HC hailing (Star Trek), AREDN with 802.11ah, cross mode through repeaters, etc.
GOOD STUFF!
Douglas - Thanks! Yeah, it was a lot to absorb in one sitting.
Congratulations to Steve, Tina and Meredith for "birthing that baby". I've been to older TAPR Digital Conferences, and the in-person aspect (spontaneous conversations, seeing the faces that went with email (and USENET Newsgroup) threads, etc.) was one of the reasons that Steve had aspired to have the Zero-Retries conference (as he mentioned in the keynote.
Steve, I think that goal was met. I< personally, started having conversations and meeting people even as Registration was setting up. Coffee was ready, the rooms were ready, and people began to mingle. Some sate at the lunchroom tables, with enough seats that it invited us to meet new faces in the room.
I look forward to the videos, because a few speakers had so much to share that they spoke faster than I could take notes. I look forward to being able to replay some portions (a few I may need to hear a few times...) to understand some of what they shared.
I won an Explorer QEZ-1 radio (that came with the NA6D All In One Cable, to make that a Digital Radio), and it's working well enough that I'm going to order another for home use. I haven't used the AIOC as a soundcard (yet), but I was able to CHIRP the radio. I'll share that experience later. But, if you do get an AIOC, we found that the 3D printed case won't let the USB-C cable seat far enough into the connector. Without the case, you still need to really shove the cable into the connector until you hear a solid CLICK, and only then will it appear as a comm and audio device. Hat tip to KU7PDX for finding that first, and sharing the clue with me.
David - Thanks for the kind words for Tina, Merideth and I on ZRDC 2025. It was... a project! Yeah, I really like the QRZ-1 and will get a few for my personal experimentation here in N8GNJ / Zero Retries Labs. I'll pass your user feedback about the NA6D AIOC case onto NA6D.
Sounds like a great conference. I'm looking forward to the videos whenever they are ready.