In 2001, I contacted Steve Dimse, K4HG, regarding taking over support of javAPRS as his focus had shifted to findU.com. Steve passed along the source with the agreement that I would not convert the project to open-source. I cleaned up many bugs and added a number of features. javAPRS remains freeware to the Amateur Radio community.

NOTICE: Due to limited bandwidth, do NOT use www.aprs-is.net, www.jfindu.net, or www.ae5pl.net as either the codebase or the APRS-IS feed for your web pages. Upload the necessary .jar, .cab, and map files to YOUR web site and use YOUR web site for the codebase. Select a server (or a rotate.domain.name server name) from the list at http://www.aprs-is.net/APRSServers.aspx for your data feed.

The menu above points to:

The current version is 2.9.2b06. To upload all of the files (including maps), upload javAPRSDirs.zip and unzip it on your server. As of release 2.1, the applet is now signed by Analysis & Management Enterprises Corp. (www.ametx.com). Release 2.1 through 2.8 is released only as a signed archive in Sun/Netscape form (japrs.jar), in Microsoft IE form (japrs.cab), and in Apple Macintosh compatible form (japrsmac.jar). Release 2.9 and later is only available as javAPRS2.jar which is signed using current compilers and requires Java 1.7 or higher to run. It is highly recommended to upgrade all sites to version 2.9 or later.

Why issue it as a signed applet? This allows javAPRS to access remote APRS-IS server! It also eliminates the need for image routing reflectors! In short, it allows javAPRS to play outside of the Java applet "sandbox" which restricts network access. See the Installation tab for more information.

Note that the png and shp jars are no longer included in the javAPRS applet (see below for release 2.8). The classes are included in javAPRS2.jar.

There is also japrspng.cab, japrspng.jar, and japrspngmac.jar. These jars contain support for PNG formatted images. If your map source is PNG type files, follow the instructions for adding the jar to your archive and cabinets list on the PNG map type page. Later versions of Java include PNG support making this special support unnecessary if your users will only be using recent versions of Java.

japrsshp.cab, japrsshp.jar, and japrsshpmac.jar contain support for ShapeFiles (ESRI). If your map source is shape files, follow the instructions for adding the jar to your archive and cabinets list on the shapefile map type page. If your web pages don't use javAPRS to display ShapeFile maps, these files are not needed.

japrsmac.jar, japrspngmac.jar, and japrsshpmac.jar have added Macintosh support. See the Installation tab for more information.

I have very limited bandwidth to my web/server site and cannot support many online connections. Please upload the javAPRS files to your web server and use another APRS server for the feed from APRS-IS. My APRS-IS feed port is read-only and shows posits, objects, items, and weather reports only. A list of available APRS Internet servers is at APRS Servers.

It is not my intent to make javAPRS a robust application similar to the other high quality APRS GUI applications that are available. I am making javAPRS a complete (and accurate) web based application for people to use on their web sites. It has the unique ability to display real-time data via a web browser which is invaluable for demonstration purposes and for use by persons who don't have APRS software on the computer they are accessing the Internet with.

Microsoft JVM Users (mostly on Windows XP and before):
Internet Explorer 8 will not load the JVM due to a memory exception in the Java DLL. You may either disable "memory protection" in the browser's advanced options (NOT recommended) or (preferred) you may install the Oracle JVM from www.java.com.

Click here to join the javAPRS users group.
Click to join the javAPRS users group.