I’ve often thought that a killer app for amateur radio would be a way to send text messages on the ham bands. Well, I’ve just found out that another ham, Dale Thomas, KN4UAH, shares my enthusiasm. He’s the guy behind HamMessenger, which is:
a portable, battery powered device that runs on a microcontroller and interfaces with an inexpensive ham radio to send and receive text messages and provide position updates using the APRS protocol. Messages and position updates sent via HamMessenger can be viewed on sites such as aprs.fi. HamMessenger messages are NOT encrypted!
It’s still being developed, but you can get the gist of it by looking at the figure below. It uses a low-cost HT to send and receive text messages with some Arduino-based hardware.
The github page also notes:
At the core of the the project is the MicroAPRS modem created by markqvist. The primary controller is an Arduino Mega 2560 with the MicroAPRS Modem running on an Arduino Pro Mini. HamMessenger includes GPS functionality supplied by a Neo-6M GPS radio. For peripherals, an M5Stack CardKB keyboard is used for input and an SSD1106 OLED display for output.
I think this is a cool project. I’ve just emailed Dale to get more info on it and ask how I might be able to help him, perhaps with documentation or by just publicizing it.
Hey tell me how the text messaging over ham is going. I would like to help out to develop this. I’m retired Navy with an associates degree in computer science
KM4SXW
I am looking to message family in another state and wanted to ask about the Ham messenger app. Do I need a Android phone for this to work? I am guessing we can use the keyboard in the drawing but wanted to ask about that.
There’s SMS support in M17, it’s already in the specification:
https://m17-protocol-specification.readthedocs.io/en/latest/application_layer.html#packet-superframes
Im willing to field test this in the great white north aka canada. Let us know how we can help.
I am an old fool here. Discount my views. We were sending text files (.txt) and ICS forms by packet using Outpost software back in the 1990-2010 era. It worked very well on old PCs. To modernize we ditched packet protocols (except for APRS) for cell phones. Is this an attempt to reinvent the wheel with raspbery PI? It seems a bit arcane considering what TAPR achieved decades ago.