[aprssig] APRS System Overriding Fundamentals

[William McKeehan]

Sorry, this was miss-addressed.

On Mon, March 21, 2005 11:00 am, William McKeehan said:
> I was re-reading this note this morning and one statement caught my eye:
>
>   The critical criterion is having non-ham, non-radio, non-technical folk
>   understand what they see because they have used a paper map.
>
> One thing I noticed Saturday what that John was able to look at the map and
> tell where the one vehicle I was tracking was and where he had been/was going.
> That was a nice thing to see.
>
> On Thu, March 10, 2005 1:48 pm, aa8ei said:
>> This image display of assets, situations, and important items is what
>> attracted me the first time I saw APRS.
>>
>> The critical criterion is having non-ham, non-radio, non-technical folk
>> understand what they see because they have used a paper map. Another is a
>> gentle learning curve in order to quickly train inexperienced operators.
>>
>> I need to display unpaved state/federal park roads and have tight control
>> of objects. "Highways" would be county numbered roads. I need to draw lines
>> and symbols and indicate fixed and moving assets, but I also need a variety
>> of symbols and text boxes.
>>
>> I need maps, not vectors, displayed. If you have seen the NationalG's topo
>> maps, you know the kind of detail I am looking for. PM3, SA, other common
>> software doesn't show all the back roads of interest, though they do show
>> much useful material.
>>
>> The basic visual aid without radios and tracking CAN be done with
>> commercial mapping software that shows the necessary details and is
>> operated with an ear to the comm network. Show it with a projector and it
>> makes a good display. It's the ability to send the details to other places,
>> and have categories entered from other places, and the other aspects of
>> APRS software that make desirable a more complete client. The tracking
>> features are just extras since, as has been pointed out, having enough
>> trackers available is not likely anyway.
>>
>> I'm not able to get current APRS software to show what I need and do what I
>> need, as far as I know, at the moment.
>>
>> If APRS could display using NG TOPO I would have the bull by the horns. The
>> display, by computer projector, would be in the command and control center.
>> Being able to use the map software features, overlay the material on APRS,
>> and transmit the result by some medium would be ideal.
>>
>> Another 'image making' problem is the stuff that mapping software lets me
>> do - lines, labels, funky symbols, etc. - and which APRS clients don't. In
>> my application, coloring and sizing sections of the road to indicate
>> various status and use functions is essential. Indicating situations that
>> happen along the route can be as important as showing assets, but I need
>> text boxes and other features to explain what is happening.
>>
>> I live 6 hours or more from the places of interest so I can't drive a
>> route, record it, and then add it to a map. I need to 'draw' the route on
>> the APRS/mapping software image. I need the 'real' looking map to make
>> sense to the officials trying to use the display. All that detail, such as
>> railroads and buildings, is important.
>>
>> I hoped that, in time, the map image problem would be solved, still
>> retaining all the 'radio' (and then internet) capability. I haven't tried
>> UI-View and PM7. I gave up on UI-View some time ago because I couldn't get
>> maps of interest to me. WinAPRS does make great images, but doesn't do the
>> work I need to do. APRSDos would be great for knowledgeable hams, but not
>> much use for anyone else with a lot of explaining.
>>
>> I believe what is needed is a large-scale, volunteer professional, effort
>> such as produced the first TNC boards, cooperatively creating a new,
>> integrated, mainstay APRS client. There are lots of authors with good
>> ideas, but no single effort has a complete product. I'm not sure how to
>> solve the quality map problem, but if we could get a group to concentrate
>> on the real use as Bob defined it, rather than big networks and
>> GPS/tracking technologies, we can have the kind of APRS we have visualized.
>>
>> I believe we need to slip off the concentrated internet networking for a
>> while and concentrate on a useful product which happens to be able to use
>> multiple media to connect to other users; we need to concentrate on
>> fundamental modern client software instead of worrying about network rules
>> and TNC settings.
>>
>> Then, when a really super software with dynamite applications is developed,
>> APRS will no longer appear as a toy, or a solution looking for a problem,
>> and all the networking specs can be subsequently developed and implemented
>> willy-nilly. (I will admit I have no interest in big, fixed, permanent
>> networks. Only temporary, special situation and event use has my
>> attention.) With greater APRS utility, there will be greater interest in
>> spending the capital to implement proper networks among a larger group of
>> hams, greater impetus to cooperate with the 'rules'.
>>
>> I hope so, anyway.
>>
>> I have an application over the 18-19th of March where I could use APRS if I
>> had the client software and the map (Cherokee National Forest and
>> Chattanooga area). Anyone want to help? No GPS or trackers needed, although
>> they could be used if they were available.
>>
>> 73,
>> Tony AA8EI
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>
>
> --
> William McKeehan
> KI4HDU
> Internet: mckeehan at mckeehan.homeip.net
> http://mckeehan.homeip.net
>
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-- 
William McKeehan
KI4HDU
Internet: mckeehan at mckeehan.homeip.net
http://mckeehan.homeip.net