Talk:Automatic Position Reporting System

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article, image, template, or category is part of WikiProject Amateur radio, which is an attempt to better organize and unify articles relating to Amateur radio technology, organizations, and activities. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.

What does APRS stand for? The article seems to indicate that it is merely a derivative of Bob Bruninga's callsign, but I've heard that it stands for Automatic Position Reporting System, or (less frequently) Automatic Packet Reporting System. Are these just backronyms or are they the real name? either way the article should be changed to reflect this. -Lommer 03:54, 10 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Per an email from Bob Bruninga 3/4/05, the idea to name it APRS was derived from his call letters. The idea occurred to him "...in early 1992". The official name is "Automatic Position Reporting System," per Bob's web page at the USNA.

[edit] All three are correct.

While "APRS" was in fact derivative from Bob Bruninga's callsign, in his (Bob's) original documentation he called it "Automatic Position Reporting System". It stayed that way for many years until he decided to "expand the concept" (i.e., muck with it) beyond positioning and AVL (automatic vehicle location) applications. At that time "Automatic Packet Reporting System" started showing-up in his docs. In 2003 (...I think...) several of us cornered Bob and confronted him with the ambiguity this created, and he relented, changing it back to "Position".

[edit] Why is it useful?

After reading this, could someone add to the main page a laymen's explanation of what it is used for?