APRS Connect

Groups and nets

ANSRVR is the APRS group-messaging service: subscribe to a group and it relays every member's traffic to you. The app turns each group you join into a net room, which is one conversation with everyone in it instead of a separate thread for every operator who checks in.

The group directory

Groups & Nets lives on the Services tab: every group on ANSRVR, what each is for, and the ones you are in. You can fetch the full directory from ANSRVR itself. The app warns you first that ANSRVR answers with about 35 messages over a minute or two, and the list fills in as they arrive. The directory is searchable and sortable (A–Z or busiest first, with your groups first), and each entry shows its subscriber count with the date it was fetched, since counts change over time.

You can also ask ANSRVR which groups your callsign is currently subscribed to, and join a group by name. If the group does not exist yet, it is created with you as its owner.

Joining a group

Joining sends J <group> to ANSRVR and opens the room. Subscriptions lapse after 12 hours. That is ANSRVR's rule, not the app's, so staying in a net across a day means renewing.

A group as a room

Once joined, the group appears on the Messages tab as a room: everyone's relayed traffic collected into one conversation, in order, with each post attributed to the operator who sent it. Your check-in status and time remaining are shown at the top, as "Checked in" with how long is left, or "Not checked in yet", or "Subscription lapsed". The strip is honest about uncertainty: a renewal the app has sent but ANSRVR has not yet confirmed says so rather than showing a countdown it cannot stand behind.

A roster shows the operators heard in the net and how many posts each has made. It covers the current check-in only. A weekly net runs into the same room every week, so a roster that accumulated would answer "who was here at some point". The useful question is who is here now, and checking in again starts the list over.

The same strip carries how many operators are subscribed to the group, with how long ago that figure was true. On a busy net it climbs all evening, so a count with no age on it would be misleading. ANSRVR only volunteers the number when it relays one of your posts, so Update asks for a fresh one directly: it sends L, the roll call, which answers with the current count for every group you are in. One packet, nothing goes to the room, and your 12 hours are not affected either way. The button appears only while you are checked in, because L can only report on groups you belong to.

From the same screen you can:

  • Check in drafts a check-in post ("Checking in via APRSConnect.com") and opens the composer, so you can add your name and location before it goes out rather than sending the bare draft.
  • Renew sends K <group> to hold your subscription another 12 hours. The room warns you when your subscription is nearly up.
  • Post sends anything you write to the whole group. The exact packet is shown above the composer as you type, because the addressing prefix uses part of the 67-character limit and the preview shows how much is left.
  • Leave sends U <group>. Net traffic stops arriving; the conversation stays on your phone.

Posts carry the same delivery states as any other message (see Messaging), and renew and leave show their own send status, because APRS gives no guarantee a command arrived.

Tap a post to see its delivery detail. Press and hold it for the same menu a message has: stop, retransmit, copy or delete. A post still queued on your phone does not check you in. It counts once it has gone out.

#APRSThursday, the weekly net

#APRSThursday is the busiest net on ANSRVR by a wide margin, and the app wires it in as the weekly event it is. The room's header knows the schedule. The net runs Thursday UTC, and the banner says "Net is live" with when it closes, or "Net is closed" with when it next opens.

The net keeps a published log through APRSPH, the #APRSThursday logger, which is also in the service directory. When APRSPH confirms your check-in, the room shows "Logged on the net list" with the logger's own UTC timestamp, the same figure you will find beside your callsign on the published list. The two confirmations answer different questions: ANSRVR says the net heard you, APRSPH says the net recorded you.

APRSPH also supports logging a check-in without relaying it to the whole group: a message sent directly to the logger reaches the log without every subscriber in the group receiving a packet. The service screen is clear that the logger does not reply to it, so a quiet check-in does not read as a failed one.

Remind me when the net is on

Every net's page under Nets has Remind me, for any net with a session to come. Press it and the app notifies you when that net is on. Press Turn off to stop. Each net has its own switch, so you are reminded of the nets you chose and no others.

When the reminder arrives depends on how long the net runs:

  • A net that runs for a few hours: the moment it opens.
  • A net that runs most of a day, #APRSThursday among them: at a time of day you choose, on your own clock rather than UTC, so a net that opens at midnight UTC does not wake you. Press the time beside the reminder to change it. One time serves every such net.

For #APRSThursday the same switch is in Settings › Services › #APRSThursday, with the time and a note on which local day it will land on. You do not have to have joined the net to find it there, which is the point: a reminder is most use to someone who is not already thinking about the net.

The date beside the reminder is worth reading, because it will often surprise you. The net runs Thursday 0000–2359 UTC, which is not Thursday where you are: in the Americas most of the net happens on Wednesday evening local time. So a 7pm reminder in Atlanta lands on Wednesday, and a 7pm reminder in Sydney lands on Thursday. The app works out which local day your chosen time falls inside the net and tells you the answer rather than making you do the arithmetic.

Reminders are scheduled with your phone's operating system, so they arrive whether or not the app is running. #APRSThursday's keep coming for a couple of months without the app being opened. Every other net's come from the sessions aprsnets.com lists, up to six ahead for each net, and the app adds the later ones whenever it is opened: for a net that meets every day that is under a week, so open the app now and then to keep them coming. They carry their own notification channel on Android, so you can silence net reminders in Android's settings without silencing your messages.

Nets from aprsnets.com

Nets in the menu lists every net on aprsnets.com: the nets that are on now, with how many have checked in and when each closes, then the others in the order they next open, in your own time. The list needs an internet connection. The last one is kept, and is shown with its age when a new one cannot be fetched.

A net you are already counted on for the session that is on carries a green tick at the right of its card, Checked in, and sits at the end of On now, so what is left at the top is what you have not checked in to yet. The tick goes when that session closes. The net's own page carries the same tick at the top.

Tap a net to open its page:

  • Whether it is on, when it closes or next opens, what the net is and who runs it.

  • Remind me, described above.

  • View net opens the net's own page on aprsnets.com, with its maps and past sessions. A net on an ANSRVR group has Open the room beside it, which is the room described above.

  • Check in, while the net is on. The app writes the check-in the way that net takes it, so you do not need to know which callsign it goes to or what it starts with. Add your own words and send. Turn on CMD at the top to see the packet before it goes. The box opens on the words you last sent that net. A net that is not on offers no check-in. Until a net opens, its page shows the last session that met.

  • Your check-in, once you have checked in. Whether aprsnets.com counted it:

    • Counted, with the time it was heard, on your own clock.
    • Heard, not counted, with the reason in that site's own words.
    • Not listed yet, when the app has seen your check-in delivered and the site does not have it yet. The site can be behind the air; the page keeps asking for ten minutes.

    The page asks by itself, at once and a few times in the next half minute, so the answer appears without a refresh. What the net said back (a bot's "QSL", for instance) is shown under it, as well as in Messages. Once you are counted for the session that is on, the check-in card is put away, and Check in again brings it back. On a net that is closed, Counted last session says you were counted the last time it met.

  • The net in numbers: operators, check-ins, countries and the share by radio for the session, and how many operators came to each past session. Tap a bar for that session's date and numbers.

  • Who checked in, newest first.

How a check-in is sent

A net can count only the check-ins that arrived by radio. The app is told each net's rule, and the Check in button on the net's page sends to match:

  • A net that counts radio only: by radio and nowhere else. With no radio connected, the button is off and the page says why.
  • Any other net: the way your messages are always sent, by the route you chose under Settings, Messages.

This is for the Check in button only. A check-in you type yourself in Messages, or post in the net's room, is sent like any other message, by your own route. A net that counts radio only may then not count it, so use the button for those nets.

Notifications

Net rooms alert like any other conversation. The room suppresses notifications while you are looking at it, and the strip under its header carries a switch to quiet it, Alerts on or Quiet. A muted room stops notifying but still shows its unread count in the Messages list.

The same strip says when the net is on or next opens, in your own time, for a net that aprsnets.com lists, and Net page opens that net's page under Nets: who checked in, its numbers and its reminder.

A net's reminder is separate from all of that: it says the net is on, it is not an alert about traffic, and quieting the room does not switch it off.

Last updated 6 October 2026

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