Hand Helds with APRS

[OE5JFE]

Important question is if you want to used just position beacons or if you also want messaging (that would be for sending SOTA spots via APRS2SOTA).

So I guess the usual suspects are FT3dr and FT5dr from Yaesu. (I use the FT1xd that is not for sale anymore).

Anytone AT-D878UV Firmware Updates
has the AT-878UVII PLUS (only the PLUS version ! ) with APRS but I recall there was an issue with sending analog ARPS messages. Not sure if this is working in recent firmware versions. (I think via DMR Brandmeister it is working but that will require that you are dialing in to a repeater. Not so trivial on a summit.)
The changelog sound promising for version V2.03
http://www.wouxun.us/Software/AnyTone-Software/Change-Log-D878UVII-v2.05.pdf

ICOM used to have the best APRS user interface but apparently ft’up in their latest ID-52E as investigated by Richard

ICOM ID52 and SOTA

I have an ICOM ID52 here to review from a SOTA perspective. Does anyone know if there is some sort of bridge that allows spots/alerts to be sent from an ID52 using DStar into SOTAWATCH? Also, the ID52 manual states that “when the temperature is around 0C or below…the transceiver disables power selection HIGH, Mid and Low2”. That means that the power drops to 500mW and cannot be overriden. That doesn’t sound very good to me. The near repeater search seems to be limited to 40km? Not great if you…

I probably missed some options like standalone APRS trackers like the PicoAPRS.

73 Joe