[aprssig] Time for APRS second generation? Naw!

[dick at kb7zva.com]

At 06:26 AM 1/6/2005, Robert Bruninga wrote:
>Jason,
>
>By the way, Iam not at all opposed to  you sugggestions
>for a smarter infrastructure.  Dont get me wrong.
>I am all for a 9600 baud RF backbone system say
>with a state (or ARRL section) that makes a great
>LAN boundary)...

>Bob, I think we need to shoot higher, or else a few years down the 
>road we'll be right back at this same place we are now with 1200.
>         Earl

I think we can analyze the situation to death. As Bob pointed out,
shooting higher isn't the problem. We haven't demonstrated we can
shoot higher. Sweeping the existing problems under a rug, isn't a
good basis to move on.

We've identified the problems. Heard all the complex issues why
Bob's plan will or won't work... but yet, who is willing to step
up and make changes? SoCal has a coordination issue. The same people
have the same problems they did years ago. Keep doing what your doing,
and you'll keep getting what you got. That obviously is not the
answer. What's so difficult about turning off a few high digipeaters
or removing WIDEn-N? Not all digis have to be configured the same exact
way... is that so hard to understand? 

It has been pointed out that digis in SoCal have saturated themselves
because they are on top of each other.

The problem is metro high level digis clobbering us hundreds of miles
away. 4 digipeaters were changed on the fringe of LA. The first thing
we did was drop WIDEn-N and TRACEn-N. Our RF heard lists instantly went
from 190 RF stations heard to 50-60. Any other changes we make depend
on changes made in these metro areas. Especially, with the interstate
xxLNKn-N's and state xxn-N's (AZn-N or CAn-N's). 

One thing that bugs me is that I have disclosed how my digis are set
up... where Greg's group in SoCal haven't. How is it possible
to educate end-users when they have no idea how the digi network is set up?

They guess... and as Greg mentioned, they got lucky with some improvement.
Not because of education but through trial and error. Mobiles running
RELAY,WIDE and fixed base stations running WIDE only, in SoCal, get their
packets into the system with a high success rate. RELAY,WIDE will work
everywhere for mobiles, from San Diego to San Fransisco. 

Please don't tell us of all the problems and reasons why RELAY or single
WIDE's didn't work in LA <g>. Look at how many digis there are... so, why
couldn't it be the most efficient system is the country. 

Dick, KB7ZVA
APRSWest
Yuma, Arizona DM22SQ ;)