The APRS (Automatic Packet Reporting System) is a decades old digital wireless network, run primarily by amateur radio operators, which currently spans the world. While seemingly primitive compared to modern networks, it is surprisingly robust, and highly useful in a variety of applications. This talk will explore the development of the network, and its technological connections to the very early Internet, and related technologies. It will also teach you how to connect to the network yourself. (You might even already be carrying all the hardware you need, right now.) Finally, it will cover the far less known HF (High Frequency) segment of the network, as well as the servers which connect the wireless segments of the network to the Internet.

Mark Lenigan has spent quite a bit of time installing, working with, and hacking on various wireless networking technologies over the past 15 years. His current extracurricular interests are in robust and survivable networks operating in remote or hostile conditions. He holds a General-class FCC amateur radio license, and a physics degree from the University of Michigan. He currently runs his own I.T. and Infosec consulting firm, Technoronin, Inc.

Recorded at BSides Philly 2016