UI-View Bashing (was Re: APRS RF DX? (Was RE: [aprssig] APRS in Atlanta - flooding the network))

[Wes Johnston]

PHGR is 4 digits, 7 digits if you count the letters PHG before the
numbers.  Pete pointed out that many folks have to tweek their PHGs to
make the circle match the real world coverage... and some users don't
understand we are talking about HAAT and not negative depth relative to
MSL (hihi).

So why don't we kill all these birds with one stone...  why don't we
list PHG as a range in nautical miles?  I can represent 999 miles in
three digits.  We'd need to also include a direction and let's say, a
percentage offset for the circle.  As an example...

R15999  (broken down would be Range 1*45degrees, 0.5*radius, 999 mile
radius) would draw a range circle that was 999 miles radius with it's
center offset NorthEast (1), and offset .5*999 miles.

Wes

Robert Bruninga wrote:
> If someone lives on a farm in Illinois which is flat as a
> pancake with his antenna on a 40 foot silo, but enters
> his antenna height as 300 feet because his GPS says
> his "altitude" is 300 feet, then we need to fix his
> understanding  or radio.  Not dumb down RF radio
> range to simple one-size-fits-all ICONS on a map.