A split image showing an APRS radio tracker mounted in a vehicle on the left, and an Amazon Echo device with a speech bubble saying 'Daddy's truck is almost home!' on the right, connected by a dotted line path over a simple map.

I put APRS-capable mobile HAM rigs in my car and truck (K4DIZ-8 and K4DIZ-9 for the fellow hams out there).

APRS — Automatic Packet Reporting System — broadcasts my vehicle's GPS position over 144.39 MHz. Any APRS receiver or internet gateway can pick up the signal and plot my position on a map.

But I wanted more than a map dot. I wanted my house to know I'm coming home.

A Python script on my Dell R710 server polls the aprs.fi API with adaptive timing — every 30 minutes when I'm home, every 2 minutes when I'm within 15 miles and heading inbound, every 30 seconds when I'm close. When I cross the 4-mile geofence around our farm, every Alexa in the house announces: "Daddy's truck is almost home!"

Over the summer break...My daughters (9 and 6) hear it and immediately start "cleaning up." My wife gets a heads-up. The house knows I'm coming before I turn onto our road.

It's amateur radio doing home automation — no cellular, no WiFi, no internet dependency for the tracking part. Pure RF to internet gateway to geofence script to smart home. The way technology should work: invisible, useful, and slightly magical.

##HamRadio ##APRS ##SmartHome ##HomeLab ##K4DIZ

— Continue reading at https://dizydiz.com/blog/my-ham-radio-tells-alexa-when-i-m-almost-home.html