[aprssig] AO-Echo satellite

[Robert Bruninga]

>>> rrochte at gpacademy.org 06/03/05 11:06 PM >>>
>Does Echo have any role in APRS, either now 
>or planned for the future?

Good question.  The ECHO system is entirely capable
of digipeating APRS 9600 baud packets, and the D7 and
D700 are entirely capable of transmitting 9600 baud APRS
packets (single Menu selection).  Also the 9600 baud
channel on ECHO is not fully loaded.

Thus in my mind, our request to enable APRS digipeating
is furstratingly being ignored.  But their responses over
the years have been along the lines of:

Nobody but Bob has asked for it.
Its not popular
why would anyone want to send their position when you
can look it up on QRZ.com
Maybe someday when we get around to it
there are technical reasons (not elaborated)

And the neat thing about it, is that it can be turned on
full time even in parallel with all other activities at no
expense to any other users...

Very frustrating.
I think I will send an AMSAT email to se what they are
saying this year.

Bob