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[W2SUQ]

I know what it is, and what it does; but what's it for? What useful purpose does this serve for the average ham.

Why do you want people to know where your car is on the highway, or that your sitting in your living room?

w2suq

[KA0AZS]

Day to Day, keep tabs on the network, get realtime weather observations, casual QSO's (either Keyboard to Keyboard or usin KB-KB to set up a voice frequency)and practice with the software and hardware in preperation for emergency or Public Service use.  Oh, and a primary purpose of amateur radio, it's fun! (at least for me). Basically same as with any other amateur radio mode I play with.

  For public service use: Track tail end charlie in marathons or bike races/tours (obviously equipment is in the "SAG Wagon" not on the participant), put out bulletins to event participants, tactical one liner comms with other APRS stations in the event, all without tying up the voice frequenc(ies) with long winded explanations of location when net control can see it at a glance on their terminal. Receive and transmit weather bulletins and Net status messages (ex: "ARES Net active on 145.11 supporting ice storm recovery")

Emergency Ops:  All of the above, but with more urgency.

[KB9YNB]

.... (following earlier comments)

Advancement of the art (of radio)

More cool toys to play with.

Think of the benefits during a search and rescue!  If a station find something, or gets in trouble, the net operator can see their position. OR, if a station is wandering too far from the search area, the net operator can notice it right away and notify the station.

On HF, you can locate boats at sea, or send short emails home to family.

Conservation of spectrum!! a TON of info is conveyed with APRS, all on one frequency!

And, as stated before, it's FUN!

73 de KB9YNB

[KA0MR]

If one is involved in a search and rescue having a GPS and a small TNC/radio on a back-pack and you found your missing subject and was unable to get him out due to injury you could be transmitting your location with-out having to describe where you were at the moment and probably never being there before you wouldn't be familiar with your surroundings and waste valuable time trying to get the helicopter or whatever there to you.

 Also real handy for triangulating by yourself locating some bonehead that is jamming on  VHF or intruders. It works real good. I've caught several that way.
Sending a message to someone on the road via the internet to their vehical is also a breeze. And best of all it's something to do beside mow the lawn.

Bob KA0MR

[RAD1OMAN]

well, imagine that you are a volunteer to a served agency, and that agency is currently involved in disaster recovery...
example, a flood.
Using a GPS equiped tracker, you can drive to the waters edge, plot that position, drive to the next edge, plot, drive to the next... and so on. Now you have a good idea WHERE the water is. Using that info and cable TV company maps, or the power supplier maps, you have an idea how many homes are affected, you also know from the maps what churches, schools, hospitals are clear of the flood, which are not, what can be used as shelters. Figureing that each home supports about 4 persons, you have a good guess how many people you need to shelter.
If you place trackers in your canteens, you know where they are. If you use a tracker in the delivery trucks, you know where they are and when to expect them to arrive so you know home many workers to have when they get there...
In a tornado, you can direct volunteers to the area where street signs and landmarks used to be, but are now sitting in a corn field two counties away.
In a search, you can use trackers to know what areas were covered and what areas need to be searched.
APRS is also real time keyboard to keyboard messaging.

It is also fun to tell the teen aged daughter that you will know where she is and how long she was there when she goes out on a date

So, what are they for? Still finding uses.

[N2YQT]

I use it mainly to monitor my weather station. I tracked my vehicle for a little. I plan on getting the Kenwood Portable that does APRS in the next week or two. Then I can monitor my weather station form all over, send email if i need to, and allow friends/family to know here I am. This is useful when I go for rides on the four wheeler or snowmobile in case something happens...