PayloadTracker v0.9 Relased! Go grab it in the downloads section!

PayloadTracker is a .NET based application that allows anyone with a sound card to track APRS based payloads. While still in heavy development I feel like it's time to get some outside feed back on the project. I started this four months ago when my hobbyist group (Hackerbot Labs) began working on High-Altitude Balloons and we found existing APRS tracking software archaic and outdated so I set out to build something better.

Main features:

• Fully open source under GPLv3
• No TNC required, just plug in your radio into the microphone jack.
• Uses OpenStreetMap for maps.
• Can precache maps for offline / chase vehicle use
• 99.9% .NET (couple unmanaged winmm.dll calls for polling sound card)

Things to come soon:

• Wider APRS format support (right now its just APRS Plaintext)
• Landing site projections.
• VOR information for FAA reporting.
• Verification of digipeter relaying.

Things to come much later:

• Turn by turn directions to projected landing site.

I'd really appreciate feedback / suggestions / bug reports / patches especially from anyone with DSP experience. Mailing lists are available on the right. There isn't much as far as documentation goes so far but to get up and running what you need to do is as follows:

Quick Starts

1 Add a new flight

Goto File->Add New Flight input the callsign you want to track on the map.

2 Select the provider

Under the APRS Providers drop down box select 'New' In the new dialog box select "Soundcard Modem" for that functionality. Select the appropriate audio capture device (0 is the default which is usually the microphone input) Click OK on both dialog boxes to close.

3 Begin tracking

Goto Tracking->Begin Tracking