Kenwood TH-D72A/E User Manual page 19

2 HOW YOU ENJOY APRS WITH TH-D72A/E (WRITTEN BY BOB BRUNINGA, WB4APR)
Hamfests
Another very typical object that everyone loves to see is the HAMFEST object. This bright red APRS
symbol stands out smartly on any APRS display including the AvMap GPS display as shown above.
At first glance, this object tells you the most important information: Where it is, and when. The
HFEST-DDn standardized object name includes the DATE in the DD digits. Only the day is shown
(here it is on the 26th), but this allows for 2 weeks notice to everyone in the area and anyone driving
through. The final character "n" is chosen to make the symbol unique in the global APRS system.
This makes for easy sorting of these objects. Simply go to http://aprs.fi/hfest* and see a list of all
active hamfests the world over!. The talk-in frequency is also listed for instant QSY with the
TH-D72A/E TUNE function. I was on a cross-country trip one day on a weekend and just happened
to see one of these objects and was able to detour and spend an hour or two at this favorite ham
radio pastime.
To see how to beacon your local hamfest, refer to the following website: http://aprs.org/hamfest.html
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
Recognizing the huge potential for linking local ham radio over Internet, an added goal of APRS
since 2001 has been to facilitate the use of IRLP, EchoLink, and other VoIP systems. Just like the
Frequency Objects, all ham radio VoIP systems are encouraged to announce their presence on
APRS. Within 10 minutes the node number, frequency, tone and other info are available to all APRS
operators on their radios as shown above. Again, a simple press of the TUNE function will QSY the
radio for instant operation. The long-term goal of this VoIP and Frequency capability has been to
enable APRS to be used for setting up end-to-end global voice contacts. Simply entering a callsign
in a contact-request message will cause the APRS Internet system to handshake with the VoIP
systems to set up the call and send the necessary QSY messages and frequency information for the
radio to instantly tune and complete the call. Think of it as a cellular system for ham radio where you
dial by callsign instead of phone number. Both TM-D710A/E and TH-D72A/E were designed to be
evolved with this capability!
TH-D72A/E 11
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