=  NOW 40 WPM  =

THE APRSTT ENGINE TRANSMITTED A CONFIRMATION VIA SYNTHESIZED FM
VOICE ON AN ALTERNATE CHANNEL WITH THE LOGGED INFORMATION.  IF THE
APRSTT PACKET WAS SUCCESSFULLY CREATED, THE MESSAGE WAS UPLOADED VIA
IGATE TO THE APRS IS SERVER.  FROM THERE, IT WAS VIEWABLE ON THE
WEB, WHERE VOLUNTEERS, RACE OFFICIALS, AND SPECTATORS COULD WATCH
THE RACE UPDATE IN REAL TIME.  EQUIPMENT AND CONFIGURATION RADIO
VOLUNTEERS EVERY RADIO VOLUNTEER CARRIED A CLIPBOARD WITH THE PACKET
FRAME AND A A CASE FOR TOUCH TONE APRSTT AT THE WEST POINT TRIATHLON
A FEATURE OF THE AUTOMATIC PACKET REPORTING SYSTEM APRS ALLOWS FOR
REAL TIME POSITION UPDATES AND OBJECT TRACKING WITHOUT THE NEED FOR
GPS OR TNC ENABLED EQUIPMENT.  NOLAN PEARCE, N2WU THE AUTOMATIC
PACKET REPORTING SYSTEM APRS IS AN AMATEUR DATA SYSTEM THAT UTILIZES
THE AXR25 COMMUNICATIONS PROTOCOL TO RELAY LOCAL INFORMATION ACROSS
A RADIO NETWORK.  INVENTED BY BOB BRUNINGA, WB4APR SK, IN 1992, ITS
PRIMARY GOAL HAS BEEN RAPIDLY EXCHANGING DIGITAL DATA OF IMMEDIATE
VALUE TO OPERATIONS, ACCORDING TO WWW.  APRS.  ORG.  APRS HAS ITS
SHORTCOMINGS, AS DOES ANY NETWORK.  IT REQUIRES A TERMINAL NODE
CONTROLLER TNC ALONG WITH AN INTERFACE TO A STANDARD RADIO.  TNCS
AND COMPATIBLE RADIOS CAN BE EXPENSIVE OR DIFFICULT TO HOMEBREW.
ADDITIONALLY, THE EXTRA HARDWARE MEANS APRS SETUPS ARE OFTEN
LOCATION CONSTRAINED, WHICH SEVERELY LIMITS THE PROTOCOLS DYNAMIC
GPS ABILITY.  HOWEVER, SEVERAL SOLUTIONS WWW. MOBILINKD. COM AND
WWW.  APRSDROID. ORG EXIST TO CIRCUMVENT THE COST AND TECHNOLOGY
BARRIER.  ONE SOLUTION, APRS TOUCH TONE APRSTT, WAS CREATED BY BOB
BRUNINGA TO LET 100 OF HAM RADIO USERS CHECK IN TO THE GLOBAL APRS
SYSTEM AND FACILITATE END TO END CONTACT BETWEEN OPERATORS.   THIS
ALLOWS ANY HAM WITH DUAL TONE MULTI FREQUENCY DTMF CAPABILITY TO
UTILIZE THE REAL TIME TACTICAL NETWORK FEATURES OF APRS.  TRIATHLON
COMPETITION THE USMA AMATEUR RADIO CLUB, W2KGY, WAS ASKED TO HANDLE
COMMUNICATIONS DURING THE 2021 WEST POINT TRIATHLON.  THEY HAD TO
SIMULTANEOUSLY TRACK THE FOLLOWING IDENTIFICATION OF AN ATHLETE WITH
A FOUR DIGIT BIB NUMBER LOCATION OF THE ATHLETE ON THE ROUGHLY 12
MILE COURSE WHETHER THE ATHLETE WAS SWIMMING, BIKING, OR RUNNING
WHETHER ANY ATHLETES REQUIRED SPECIAL ATTENTION, SUCH AS FOR AN
INJURY OR BICYCLE MALFUNCTION POSITION AND STATUS OF RACE OFFICIALS,
VOLUNTEERS, AND SERVICE EQUIPMENT FOR THE RACE TO FACILITATE A FAST,
DIGITAL FLOW OF RACE INFORMATION, THE USMA AMATEUR RADIO CLUB AND
THE HUDSON VALLEY DIGITAL NETWORK HVDN, N2HVD, USED APRSTT.  APRSTT
EXPLAINED TOUCH TONE IN THE EARLY DAYS OF RADIO, DTMF TONES ALLOWED
USERS TO ENTER DIGITAL INFORMATION OVER THE RADIO.  THIS PROTOCOL IS
CALLED TOUCH TONE BECAUSE OF THE SHRILL TONE IT MAKES AS A
COMBINATION OF TWO NON HARMONIC AUDIO SIGNALS.  EACH SIGNAL USUALLY
CORRESPONDS TO A DIFFERENT CHARACTER ON A STANDARD KEYPAD 0 THROUGH
9, POUND, OR ASTERISK.  APRSTT SYSTEM APRSTT USES COMBINATIONS OF
THESE TONES TO ENTER DATA IN THE APRS PACKET FORMAT.  IT IS LIKE
TEXTING ON AN OLD
=  END OF 40 WPM TEXT  =  QST DE W1AW  <