Bill Daniels wrote:


I do have a question. In the APRS map displays I have looked at, the
symbols all contained the Ham license call sign. That's a little cryptic
for non-hams. Is there a way to display an "N" number or other identifier
instead?

Bill Daniels



Yes. The majority of folks use their ham call sign as the
"identifier".. but that is but part of the packet's message. You can use
whatever you want to be your screen-name/identifier.

The catch: you must identify your station using your licensed call sign
every 10 minutes or at the conclusion of your conversation.

When I do motorcycle escort, my identifier is MSMOT-# or whatever our
group decides. I beacon every 3 minutes. Every third beacon (9 mins) I
have a status message broadcast that includes my amatuer call sign. The
reason for the standardized call signs allows someone (our control
point) with a computer to filter out NON event traffic and watch only us.

This is peculiarity of my radio, which has the TNC/packet feature built
in. If you were to use TinyTrack, you could program all sorts of
variables, based on speed, course change, etc as to when your beacon
goes off. As long as your licensed call sign is in a message somewhere
every 10 mins, you are golden.