[aprssig] UnProTo Path for NE FL

[Keith - VE7GDH]

Mathew WA4TKG wrote on August 20, 2005

> It has been suggested to me by someone in the NE FL
> area, that the path of " AA4QI-1 via Wide3-3 " is NOT
> correct/obsolete/...?
> Can someone kindly give this a shot. I have been off of
> APRS (& off the SIG) due to the areas' lack of activity,
> and may be in need of an update.

I'm sure that you are aware that if you use a path starting with AA4QI-1, your beacon won't go anywhere unless that specific digipeater hears you. Including the digi that you are including in your path, that path would give you a four hop path and that is considered excessive these days if there is any amount of activity on the frequency. The consensus is that unless there are exceptional circumstances, a two hop path is considered normal. If you are a fixed station, I would suggest removing the AA4QI-1 from your path and changing to just WIDE2-2. If you are mobile, instead use WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1. This will give you a two hop path if you are heard by a true WIDEn-n digi, and it will also give you a two hop path if you are first heard by a "home fill-in" digi (that has updated their settings and using WIDE1-1 instead of the obsolete RELAY) plus another hop from a true WIDEn-n digi after that.

You could leave AA4QI-1 in your path and use  AA4QI-1,WIDE2-1 if it is the ONLY digi that can hear you, but if that digi ever goes QRT for some reason, your signal won't be digipeated at all. Using a generic WIDE2-2 instead will take advantage of any other digi that might happen to hear you. 

 See http://web.usna.navy.mil/~bruninga/aprs/fix14439.html for info on the suggested changes. RELAY, WIDE, TRACE and TRACEn-n are considered obsolete in North America now. See also the NWAPRS site at www.nwaprs.org. 

Welcome back to APRS!

 73 es cul - Keith VE7GDH
--
"I may be lost, but I know exactly where I am!"