APRS Bots & Queries
Normalized against the attached APRS-Queries.pdf and folded into a more field-usable format. This now covers not just named bots, but also the wider APRS query family, including station introspection commands, group servers, QRU object lookups, AVRS voice-relay helpers, and legacy UI-View-only oddities.
Starter Set
| Tool / Query | Message Format | Purpose | Notes / Sanity Checks |
|---|---|---|---|
| WXBOT | TODAY
TONIGHT
TOMORROW
12345
EDDL |
Weather by your last known position, ZIP code, or airport ICAO. | The PDF explicitly shows ICAO/METAR-style airport weather via WXBOT on page 9. |
| FIND | CALLSIGN-SSID |
Find when a station or object was last heard. | Good first move before trying to message someone. |
| WHO-IS / WHOIS | CALLSIGN
F CALLSIGN |
Callsign lookup. Basic query returns class/name/country. Full query returns more detail. | The PDF shows both the short WHO-IS lookup and the full `F CALLSIGN` form on page 8. |
| REPEAT | N1
N2 |
Nearby repeater lookup. | This comes from your earlier reference sheet, not the SA7SKY PDF, but it still belongs here. |
| ANSRVR | J GROUP
CQ GROUP your message
U GROUP
L |
Join a group, send to a group, leave a group, or list your groups. | Still one of the highest-utility APRS tools for nets, events, and check-ins. |
Messaging & Gateways
| Tool / Query | Message Format | Purpose | Notes / Sanity Checks |
|---|---|---|---|
| WLNK-1 | H
I
?L
L
R2
Y3
K1
F4 user@example.com
SP address subject
...message text...
/EX
P
SMS CALLSIGN message
A ALIAS=user@example.com
AL
G1 |
Winlink over APRS. Help, list mail, read/reply/delete/forward, compose long mail, send one-line mail, manage aliases, and find RMS gateways. | Pages 7 and 8 of the PDF add a lot more depth than the old table had. |
| SMSGTE | @16135551234 your message |
Send SMS messages through APRS. | The PDF notes SMSGTE is USA/Canada only on page 10. |
| WTSAPP | @+14155552671 your message
#SET me +14155552671
#RM me
follow up message |
WhatsApp gateway. Send messages, create/remove aliases, and continue a conversation for about an hour after destination is set. | Pages 10 and 11 add alias setup and follow-up conversation mode. |
| EMAIL-2 | me user@example.com
me r
me l
me your message |
Email gateway using per-SSID shortcut aliases. | The PDF says old `EMAIL` is decommissioned and to use `EMAIL-2` instead on page 11. |
Info, Position & Diagnostics
| Tool / Query | Message Format | Purpose | Notes / Sanity Checks |
|---|---|---|---|
| WHERE / WHERE-IS | CALLSIGN
where CALLSIGN
dir CALLSIGN
dis CALLSIGN @km
loc CALLSIGN
last CALLSIGN
alert CALLSIGN < 15 km
alert CALLSIGN > 15 km
cancel CALLSIGN
help |
Distance, bearing, position, last report time, proximity alerts, and help for station lookups. | Pages 9 and 10 show this is a surprisingly chunky Swiss-army knife. |
| APRSPH | CALLSIGN |
APRS path analysis. | Useful when you want to see how packets are getting from point A to point B. |
| ECHO | testing |
Loopback message test. | Simple smoke test for message flow. |
| ISS | NEXT
? |
ISS pass or ISS-related info depending on the service. | Your earlier reference sheet uses `NEXT`; the image sheet also shows `ISS ?`. Implementation varies. |
| SATBOT | ISS |
Next satellite passes. | From the K4KHO reference image. |
| APRSFI | CALLSIGN |
Map or track query. | From the K4KHO reference image. |
| AVRS | ?
?CALLSIGN-SSID
CALLSIGN-SSID |
Find nearest Echolink/IRLP/AllStar node to you or another station, or request a voice-call assist message. | Page 6 of the PDF. Neat little APRS-to-voice bridge gremlin. |
| QRZ | OBJECTNAME
OBJECT* |
Short query of an object not older than about 2 hours, with wildcard support. | Page 9 covers QRZ object lookup, which was missing. |
Station / Software Query Family
| Tool / Query | Message Format | Purpose | Notes / Sanity Checks |
|---|---|---|---|
| ?APRS? | ?APRS? |
Ask a station/system what APRS queries it supports. | Page 1. Basically the 'what tricks do you know?' button. |
| ?ABOUT / ?APRSV / ?VER | ?ABOUT
?APRSV
?VER |
Station software version, operating system, and CPU/load style info. | Pages 1 and 2 show these as equivalent or overlapping. |
| ?APRSD | ?APRSD |
Stations heard direct, without digipeater hops. | Page 1. |
| ?APRSH | ?APRSH
?APRSH CALLSIGN-SSID |
Heard stations including packet path stats, or whether a specific station was heard. | Page 1. |
| ?APRSL | ?APRSL |
Stations heard locally in the past 30 minutes, up to 2 hops. | Page 1. |
| ?APRSM | ?APRSM |
Query whether the station has messages queued for you. | Page 1. Depends on station/software support. |
| ?APRSO | ?APRSO |
Request active objects created by the station. | Page 1. |
| ?APRSP | ?APRSP |
Position query. | Page 1. |
| ?APRSS | ?APRSS |
Status query, often showing APRSIS32 port status and counts. | Page 2. |
| ?APRST / ?PING? | ?APRST
?PING? |
Track of station packets to APRS-IS or via radio. | Page 2 treats these as equivalents. |
| ?CPU | ?CPU |
Software/OS/CPU-load style query. | Page 2. |
| ?DX | ?DX |
Farthest received station in the last hour. | Page 2. |
| ?IGATE | ?IGATE |
IGate activity and port info. | Page 2. |
Groups, Objects & Nearby Resources
| Tool / Query | Message Format | Purpose | Notes / Sanity Checks |
|---|---|---|---|
| ANSRVR | ?
? GROUP
D GROUP
L
J GROUP
U GROUP
CQ GROUP message |
List groups, inspect a group, list your groups, join/leave, or send a group message. | Pages 3 and 4 add the discovery and description commands that were missing before. |
| CQSRVR | INFO |
List short-lived activity groups. | Page 4. Similar spirit to ANSRVR but more temporary. |
| QRU | INFO
INFO 250
RP70
AIRP 150
OBJECTGROUP |
Find nearby object categories or pull nearby objects from a category such as repeaters, airports, fuel, hospitals, and more. | Pages 4, 5, and 6 make QRU much richer than the original summary. |
| QRU object groups | AERO
AIRP
AMBU
CLUB
CIVD
ECHO
FIRE
FOOD
FUEL
HELI
HOSP
INFO
LIFEBOAT
POLI
POST
RAIL
RD2M
RD70
RP10
RP23
RP2M
RP6M
RP70
SHOP
SRAIL
STOR
T2SRV
VETE |
Named QRU categories you can request nearby. | Pages 5 and 6 list the available object groups. This is the part that turns QRU into a tiny infrastructure vending machine. |
SOTA / POTA / Events
| Tool / Query | Message Format | Purpose | Notes / Sanity Checks |
|---|---|---|---|
| SOTA | CALLSIGN summit freq mode |
SOTA spotting. | From your existing reference image. |
| SPOT | freq mode |
General-purpose spotting. | From your existing reference image. |
| POTAGATE | CALLSIGN park freq mode |
POTA spotting. | From your existing reference image. |
Additional Utilities
| Tool / Query | Message Format | Purpose | Notes / Sanity Checks |
|---|---|---|---|
| WXSRV | 30303 |
Regional weather summary. | From your existing reference image. |
| NTSGTE | NTS message |
Radiogram to ARRL NTS. | From your existing reference image. |
| APRSTT | DTMF tones |
Touch-tone APRS gateway. | From your existing reference image. |
| DAPNET | CALLSIGN message |
APRS to pager gateway. | Regional availability applies. |
| SATSRV | NOAA |
Satellite telemetry lookup. | From your existing reference image. |
| DPRS | message |
D-STAR to APRS bridge. | From your existing reference image. |
| TEST | Hello world |
Generic gateway ping/test. | From your existing reference image. |
| MPAD | various commands |
Large multi-purpose APRS data bot. | The PDF explicitly punts to MPAD docs on page 10. Better as its own page later. |
Legacy / UI-View Only
| Tool / Query | Message Format | Purpose | Notes / Sanity Checks |
|---|---|---|---|
| !PROGRAMNAME.EXE | !Orbitron.exe |
Remote-command style UI-View action to execute a program in the RCOMMAND folder. | Page 1. Interesting, mildly cursed, definitely legacy. |
| BCN | BCN |
Request position/comment as packet beacon. | Page 3. UI-View only. |
| LGS / LG1 | LGS
LG1 |
Start logging received stations. | Page 3. UI-View only. |
| LGX / LG0 | LGX
LG0 |
Stop logging received stations. | Page 3. UI-View only. |
| QAS | QAS |
All heard stations. | Page 3. UI-View only. |
| QWS | QWS |
Heard weather stations. | Page 3. UI-View only. |