An interface standard between APRS and MeshCore. MeshPRS defines how amateur station information (positions, messages, telemetry, objects, status) is carried on a MeshCore LoRa mesh, and how gateways move it to and from APRS-IS. The rules make sure the two networks never flood, loop or duplicate each other, and that both sides’ licence conditions are kept. Any gateway can implement it.
The name follows D-PRS, D-STAR’s position reporting into APRS. It stands for Mesh Position Reporting System.
This is the MeshPRS 1.0 Candidate, open for public comment. Read it online: cargobike21.github.io/MeshPRS/MeshPRS-Spec.html.
#meshprs channel.Comments, questions and implementation reports are welcome as issues on github.com/cargobike21/MeshPRS.
| Path | What it is |
|---|---|
| spec/MeshPRS-Spec.md | The standard. Normative, RFC 2119 style (MUST / SHOULD / MAY) |
| spec/decisions/ | One record per decision: the context, the options and the choice made |
| test-vectors/ | Shared JSON vectors (input, then expected output or drop reason). Every implementation must pass them |
| research/ | The facts the spec relies on, with sources. 00-findings.md is the baseline (MeshCore 1.18.0 source, APRS 1.2, aprs-is.net, LIPD 2025) |
| design/ | Informative design notes: airtime and multi-hop delivery (reliability.md), the field trial (test-plan.md), the reference iGate (igate-design.md) |
| OPEN-QUESTIONS.md | Every question raised so far, each with the decision that answered it |
| PLAN.md | Phases and milestones |
A MeshCore station sends a compact binary frame (24-53 bytes on air for most services) as GRP_DATA on the #meshprs channel. It carries an amateur callsign in M17 base-40 encoding and, for anything to be gated, the first 4 bytes of the station’s node key. A gateway gates the frame to APRS-IS only when that callsign is bound to that key in its trust lists, and every gateway renders the same frame to a byte-identical APRS-IS line, so APRS-IS’s own duplicate filter merges copies. APRS-IS traffic reaches the mesh only as messages to stations heard on the mesh, sent direct and never flooded. Nothing crosses from the mesh (LIPD/ISM) to amateur RF in 1.0. Stock phone apps can read and type a human-readable text form (MPRS ...), which stays mesh-only.
To list another implementation, open an issue.
Paths starting kelly-page/ in the research and design notes (for example kelly-page/js/igate.js) refer to Kelly Page’s source code, which is not public. They are cited so each claim can be traced to the code that proved it.