At its core, CATS is a packet radio standard primarily designed for autonomous position reports, but is versatile enough to support a much wider scope of communication. CATS packets are extremely versatile, consisting of multiple "Whiskers" which make up the packet. Whiskers come in several types. For example, a typical CATS position beacon would likely contain an Identification Whisker, GPS Whisker, and potentially a Comment Whisker and Timestamp Whisker. Different Whiskers can be mixed and matched to allow a wide range of data to be encoded. Detailed information on CATS can be found in the standard, linked below.
CATS is ultimately meant to be a replacement to APRS. Although APRS was magnificent when it was first developed, current technology allows us to do better. APRS also suffers from decades of bloat, making the standard difficult to learn.
At its core, CATS is a packet radio standard primarily designed for autonomous position reports, but is versatile enough to support a much wider scope of communication. CATS packets are extremely versatile, consisting of multiple "Whiskers" which make up the packet. Whiskers come in several types. For example, a typical CATS position beacon would likely contain an Identification Whisker, GPS Whisker, and potentially a Comment Whisker and Timestamp Whisker. Different Whiskers can be mixed and matched to allow a wide range of data to be encoded. Detailed information on CATS can be found in the standard, linked below.
CATS is ultimately meant to be a replacement to APRS. Although APRS was magnificent when it was first developed, current technology allows us to do better. APRS also suffers from decades of bloat, making the standard difficult to learn.
https://cats.radio/ https://github.com/mpbraendli/cats-radio-node https://gitlab.scd31.com/cats/pi-hardware