TAPR is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization of amateur radio (“ham”) operators who are interested in advancing the state of the radio art. The initials stand for “Tucson Amateur Packet Radio” but today the organization is much broader than that: we long ago became an international organization, and while we still support packet radio our areas of interest have expanded to include software defined radio, advanced digital modulation methods, and precise time and frequency measurement.
TAPR’s main activities are education and knowledge sharing through conferences, publications, and Internet resources; and research, development, and sales of unique products that assist amateurs and other experimenters. TAPR strongly endorses technology sharing, and in 2007 released one of the first licenses designed for open hardware projects, the TAPR Open Hardware License. With rare exceptions, all hardware and software developed with TAPR support is licensed under open source or open hardware terms.
You can learn about our nearly 40 year history and our organizational structure under the “Organizational” tab above, and if you’d like to join TAPR, click on the “Membership” tab. Our products are available via the Store tab. Information about the annual Digital Communications Conference cosponsored by TAPR and ARRL, and TAPR’s presence at the Dayton Hamvention and other events, is available under the Conferences tab.
For many years, TAPR ran a number of mailing lists for Special Interest Groups such as HF, Networking, and APRS. We are transitioning those to a bulletin board system that you can access under the “Forums” tab.
If you’d like further information about TAPR, or have questions, the Contact tab will show you how to reach us.
