[aprssig] WU2Z's APRS EMAIL

[Robert Bruninga]

>I've also been getting autoanswers(AA:) from XXXX...

Autoanswers are the worst thing for APRS.  They 
absolutely are a waste of air time as a matter of routine.
They were designed for one thing only.

That is, if you were expecting someone to meet you
or to send you some traffic and you had to STEP
away from the APRS station due to some urgent need
and needed to get him info in real time, then that is what
the AUTOanswer was for.

In APRSdos, it is automatically disabled whenever the
operator returns to the console or does anything else.
It was meant for a ONE TIME use.  It CERTAINLY
was never intended to run 24/7/365!!!

It is just wasted air time in *most cases* since an ACK
accomplishes the same thing.  Of course there are good
uses of auto-reply, so one cannot condem them all, but 
ALL SOFTWARE SHOULD:

1)  AUTOreply is disabled on every program restart
2) It may be enabled any time an operator leaves his
    console, but it should be disabled on his return.
    and operator activity is detected.

3) Users need to be educated
4)  If you have someting that needs to get out to 
     everyone, then a Bulletin is more efficient.

Soap-Box OFF.
thanks
de WB4APR, Bob