It's not a problem, it's another facet of amateur radio. It's an APRS
program, APRS stands for Automatic Position Reporting System. Using a GPS
and a TNC (or TNC-substitute) connected to a 2m radio on 144.390 MHz,
amateurs can beacon their position to other users. Originally developed as
a real-time, tactical system (think of a weather service forecast office
being able to look at a computer display and see the real-time location of a
spotter reporting a tornado), it has evolved into a multi-faceted system in
it's own right. Here is a link to Bob Bruninga's website which explains all
about APRS: http://web.usna.navy.mil/~bruninga/aprs.html Bob - WB4APR, is
the developer/inventor of APRS. It's lots of fun, I personally have relayed
my location signal through the International Space Station and PCSAT, which
is an APRS relay satellite constructed by the midshipmen at the U.S. Naval
Academy and launched into orbit several years ago, a double bounce! Talk
about DX, 5 watts to orbit, through two stations, then back to Earth!

Ui-View is one of the most popular of the Windows-based APRS programs
available, there are other programs that work with any operating system.
Some allow you to bypass the TNC (Terminal Node Controller - a radio
"modem") and use your computer's sound card to control the radio.

Read up on APRS at the link, and follow some of the links Bob gives for
other fun and interesting aspects of APRS.

Mark S.

"Tony VE6MVP" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 20:44:31 GMT, "Andy Pritchard"
wrote:

You can register UI-View32 from the following URL
http://www.apritch.myby.co.uk/uiv32.htm

Stupid question. I'm also a new ham.

What is the purpose of that software? I visited that website and it
had lots of technical details. But nowhere did I see a one paragraph
explanation of what problem it's reason for existence.

Tony