APRS Collar

The benefits of using Automatic Position Reporting System (APRS) and its existing network to track wildlife cost effectively.


Acquisitions of data in relation to wildlife movements throughout habitats are fundamental to understanding relationships between ecosystems and behavior. Hindrances to this type of data collection is the result of expense as in satellite tracking collars and the inability to obtain any valuable data due to primitive radio collars. We investigating the affordability and portability of technology available to the amateur radio community to resolve the issues present in the most widely used tracking methods. The concept is to adapt the currently existing protocols and nation-wide network of digipeaters used in the Automatic Position Reporting System (APRS) to track telemetry of subject wildlife through the used of a custom designed tracking collar. This collar would utilize a GPS receiver to obtain a current set of telemetry data and transmit that data over a specified nation-wide frequency which would make it’s way to a digipeater IGATE, thus providing a bridge to facilitate a means of obtaining the telemetry using an ordinary internet connection. Previously established concepts and devices can be applied to such studies as wildlife migration and rehabilitation progress, with comparatively little expenditures and manpower. By combining a solar panel, 9V batteries, GPS receiver, VHF transmitter and antenna, we have created a device that can transmit accurate data points, indefinitely (with available light) to the APRS network, which then can be logged and used for analysis. The future application of this existing technology will allow any small study to reach its goal of tracking subjects and contribute continual information to multiple studies, thanks to the help of the amateur radio community.