Yeah, seems doable:
Garmin offers a MapShare KML feed that can be accessed from a server and contains the GPS points published by the user. Garmin explicitly documents this mechanism for integrating inReach data into third-party services.
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Same, not very user firendly website.
According to the “official” repeaters list, there is only 1 VHF aprs repeater in the region (F5ZYU).
However, looking at the aprs map, I’m really surprised how far the LoRa repeaters can reach. I thought it was limited to a few kilometers but some well located repeaters show ranges of hundreds of kilometers (some show 600 km contacts !!). It makes me want to try it now 
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I had a digipeater at my QTH for a while, and I was regularly communicating with stations 400km away (using just 100 mW and a 50 cm vertical antenna).
I’ve been doing this for years. It’s logically trivial - just a bit fiddly to do the necessary format conversions. I do it with a long-running Perl script which runs on a Raspberry Pi at home (anything that can run Perl and invoke curl to contact external web sites will do).
My position reports appear as M1MAJ-12. It’s dormant at the moment but will be active again soon as we are off to Scotland next week.
I can make the script available if you want to give it a go.
Martyn M1MAJ
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Here in the US I’ve been in multiple places, on summits as well as down in valleys, where APRS worked, but you didn’t have access to the mobile network (or at least not whatever carrier your phone was subscribed to).
I mainly use APRS from my Kenwood D74 put out SOTA spots if I don’t have cell service. I can message my wife with it, but I’ve only done that as a test.
Chris
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This.
I’m only aware of it because according to aprs.fi, I’ve been decomposing on a hill since January. 
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It looks like the D74 has blueetoth KISS TNC. My goal is to publish an app that you could install in your phone and your wife’s phone and communicate with her via APRS in case you don’t have regular internet.
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It does have KISS TNC. I actually connect my phone to it and use APRSDroid to give me an easier to use interface. Much easier than tapping out messages on a T9 interface. 
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That used to be my opinion with APRS-2m-FM but APRS-70cm-LoRa is dramatically better at detecting and decoding those mobile trackers even in mountainous areas. It’s a ‘nice to have’ for chasers who don’t want to sit by the radio and can safely do other things until the ‘ping’ trail nears the summit. I quite often have 2m chasers tell me they were following my progress to the summit via APRS. There are probably more who did but didn’t bother to tell me.
APRS is only as good as the network of iGates - in G/LD with have excellent LoRa coverage on most summits and even into many steep valleys due to about 14 LoRa iGates around the periphery of the Lake District.
As for messaging whilst hillwalking: I’m usually glad to get away from it for a few hours, although SMS texts seem to arrive even when there appears to be no mobile network coverage in places.
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You can use https://lora.ham-radio-op.net/ which is a map showing only the LoRa devices on the APRS network. Unfortunately it is using some JS from Google, but at least the background map is from OpenStreetMap.
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I keep meaning to update the InReach spotting support to support more of what is available. but it’s one of those things… if I update it to use the MapShare stuff I’d still have to support the old interface for sometime to allow occasional users time to update. It also seems to tick along in the background so the urgency to do anything is lost in the vast number of other things happening.
Too many pies and not enough fingers.
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I don’t think the tracking mechanism we’re discussing here is a natural fit as an extension of your spotting support. The text messages you receive can include coordinates, but that is only when somebody does a spot. For me at least that is very rare, as it is a last resort if all other spotting mechanisms fail. You don’t receive the regular position reports that an InReach can send regularly - typically one every 10 minutes for those on the standard subscription.
Picking up those position reports is done from the API at explore.garmin.com, and unless it has been improved since I last looked it has to be polled. So basically I just pick up the latest position report, and if it has changed, do a number of fiddly format conversions and then push it into an APRS-IS server.
My script just handles a single user. In principle it could do more than one (most easily by forking a process for each) but I’m not sure how much the owners of the respective APIs would like it if a machine went into this wholesale.
This discussion prompted me to reactivate my subscription today, and M1MAJ-12 went on a short excursion this afternoon, if you want to take a look at what the end result looks like at aprs.fi
Martyn M1MAJ
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ISTR the maplink that can be included in the SMS contains all sorts of useful info that the user wouldn’t have to type often on the sub par keyboards. I did some digging and thinking but never developed it further.
You’re right about reactivating subs, I need to redo my Iridium SBD sub again or lots of accumulated bonus credits will timeout on my account.
Hi Alberto,
I did buy one of the LoRa APRS trackers (operating on 439MHz here in the UK), because it was meant to also support SOTA spotting from a phone, which I thought would be handy in areas without mobile phone coverage. Whilst it may be able to do that via an iPhone, it does not work with a Samsung - some sort of Bluetooth compatibility issue. So for me it is a pretty pointless piece of kit based on what I bought it for. I even set up an iGate at home to support its use…
I’ve put the iGate, antenna and LoRa tracker in the box of junk in our garage. I might look at it in the future, maybe if someone finds a way of actually making it function with a Samsung phone.
I use a second SIM in my phone now to help deal with the coverage issues. I think if I were to go somewhere very remote, I’d look at procuring a Garmin InReach.
73, Simon
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Here’s one way of doing it.
Using the KML feed.
I would like to do the opposite, to take out the LoRa devices from the aprs.fi map, and just focus on the vhf network.
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Hi Simon. I also had to look in the junk box to find my LoRa device. I used it for a while. Even developed a LoRa tracker for my dog, she likes to go after deer some times. After I switched to a 4g tracker, the LoRa thing went to the box.
But now I’m looking into it again. I think that a nice messaging tool over APRS is needed, but I was wondering how many people would actually be able to use it. That is why I started this thread.
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Simon,
Can you point me to any documentation explaining the spotting functionality? I also have a Samsung phone and would like to give that a go (and maybe tweak the firmware to make sure it works!)
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I learnt how to use filters in aprs.fi to “filter out” LoRa, or almost.
When I use this filter:
Look how many relay stations there are in France:
Basically:
- Green symbols: digipeaters - they are repeaters, they don’t have Internet access.
- Non green symbols: usually they provide Internet access
If you hover a station and it says "via TCPIP* and not “via WIDE…”, it means it has Internet access.
In conclusion, the VHF APRS network in France seems healthy!
However, this is exactly what I mean when I say that sometimes there are simply too many stations. Each of these stations transmits a beacon periodically, and if those beacons are sent too frequently and then repeated by multiple digipeaters, the network can quickly become saturated with traffic that adds very little useful information. In the end, you are effectively congesting the network with meaningless beacon traffic, which makes absolutely no sense.
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Leandro, send a PM to Stewart G0LGS on here and he can point you at the docs and add you to the users.
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