The original application for APRS, as developed in the early 90's, was to keep track of US Naval Academy boats, for health and safety reasons, by reporting their position automatically on a regular basis.

APRS can be used for the positioning of most devices on the move and was used extensively during the Sydney Olympics for tracking the support vehicles during the bike rides and marathons.

As at February 2002, there are approximately 120 people throughout Victoria using APRS to transmit positional information on a regular basis.