- Today on Ham Radio Q&A,
sending and receiving text messages via APRS,
so please, keep watching for more.
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Hi, I'm Michael, KB9VBR, your host for Ham Radio Q&A.
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Recently, I was up in the northern part of Wisconsin
on Madeline Island in the Chequamegon Bay,
volunteering with the Madeline Island Marathon.
Madeline is part of the Apostle Islands
on the southern edge of Lake Superior.
So, of course, when you volunteer for an event like this,
you're gonna expect perfect the weather.
But that's never the case with Lake Superior
and it can be quite fickle at times,
so during the marathon, we had cold, rain,
and occasional snow flurry for the whole event.
Now, the weather was so bad that on Sunday,
the ferry line put out a travel advisory
expecting gale force winds,
so we had to cut our vacation a day short.
But that little story brings us into
the topic of today's video.
Since I was in northern Wisconsin,
where cell coverage is spotty to nonexistent in places,
I really had no reliable method of communicating
back home to my wife.
Well, enter amateur radio and a service called SMSGTE.
SMSGTE allows you to send and receive short messages
via APRS to any cell phone capable of receiving
SMS text messages.
Now, there's gonna be some limitations to this service
and I'll talk about them in a bit.
But as I've said before, APRS,
or the Automated Position Reporting System,
is a real-time tactical mode that allows you to transmit
your geo location and send and receive
short messages and beacons.
SMSGTE fits nicely into the goals and purposes of APRS,
as it allows you to send and receive text messages
outside of the APRS messaging system.
If you like to spend your time in the backwoods
or into overland adventuring
or you're just outside the cell tower's reach,
this system could be the difference
between getting a message out and not.
I wouldn't rely on it for live or death situations,
but it'll give you that extra layer
of communications redundancy.
So, to send a message,
I'll be using my Yaesu FTM-400 dual band mobile radio.
This service also works with the Kenwood TM-D700
and 710 series radios and the Kenwood and Yaesu handhelds
that have the APRS messaging capabilities.
The SMSGTE website has a full list of compatible radios
that you'll want to check to see if your model is compatible
before going out into the wilderness.
Sending a message involves opening up the messaging feature
of your radio and entering SMSGTE, or S-M-S-G-T-E,
into the callsign field.
No SSID number is required.
Next, in the message text field,
you will enter the @,
the phone number you wish to send to,
and then, the message text.
Press the transmit button and the message will go out.
If the SMSGTE receives the message,
it will send back an acknowledgement packet to your radio.
The receiving party should get the message.
For the receiving party to send a message,
on their phone, they will send a message
starting with the @ and then, your callsign
and SSID, if necessary, and then, the text of the message.
The callsign is necessary, so that the message
can be properly routed back to your radio
via the APRS internet stream.
On the phone side, there will be no acknowledgement
that the message was received, so please be aware of that.
Now, a quick note, the phone number for SMSGTE
is non published, so you will need to send a message first
from your radio to a phone to find out what it is.
Once you have the number, you can then originate messages
from your phone to a radio
without first receiving a message.
But please, don't share or distribute this number,
as it is only set up for SMSGTE messages.
Now, say you don't wanna share your phone number
you're messaging to over the air.
You can set up an alias on the SMSGTE website,
so that the system remembers your phone number.
Go to the SMSGTE website.
The links to the website
are down in the video description below.
And then, create an alias
for however many phone numbers you wish.
Then, when you send a message, you will enter the alias
with that little @ in the beginning and then, your message.
There's other features to SMSGTE
that are available to the users,
like creating shortcut messages,
sending a ping location on a map,
and also, requesting a delivery confirmation.
Now, you can find out more about these features
by reading the SMSGTE user's guide on the website.
So what are the limitations of SMSGTE?
Well, first off, the service only works in the US,
Canada, and a few select countries.
There's an expense and other issues
with sending text messages in other countries,
so the service is limited to regions
where there is financial support.
Second, your APRS packet needs to be heard
by an iGate that offers two way communications.
Some iGates are only one-way receive,
so this is a great reason why an iGate
should allow for two-way traffic.
And third, APRS stations needs to initiate the conversation
by either sending the first message or by being active
on the APRS network, so the SMSGTE can find the station.
If the station isn't active on the network,
the messages are gonna die
without ever leaving the APRS-IS data stream.
But despite these limitations,
the service works as expected and provides an extra level
of communication that would normally not be available.
Add SMSGTE to your arsenal of communications methods
for wilderness use and short range disaster comms.
Finally, while the SMSGTE service is provided at no charge
to amateur radio operators, this isn't a free service.
There is an expense to keeping the service running,
including the cost of sending
and receiving the text messages.
So if you use this on a regular basis,
please donate to the cause.
Links are in the video description below.
Do you have any questions or comments about SMSGTE?
Please leave them in the comment are below.
I'll follow up on them and maybe pull a few out
for my next Your Questions Answered video.
Well, for more articles and information,
be sure to check out my blog at www.jpole-antenna.com.
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Well, thanks for watching.
I'm Michael, KB9VBR, have a great day and 73.
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