[aprssig] The best resolution of position from APRS

[Robert Bruninga]

>> Dont think of it that way, think of it as 10,000 APRS
>> users who bought a radio and want to continue to use
>> if for what they bought it for.  It is those users and
>> their continued satisfaction that is driving the spec
>> to keep things working right.

>>> scott at opentrac.org 01/03/06 11:26 PM >>>
>And it's those 10,000 customers that Kenwood should 
>worry about keeping happy.  

They are keeping them happy.  The Kenwood radio still 
does today, exactly what it did when they bought it.
And they have not had to download new firmware every
3 months to keep it current with every whim of every
programmer that wants to dink with the APRS protocol.

>But how many Kenwood firmware updates have there 
>been  in the last 10 years?

None, other than a total recall back in 1999 to fix the
very first model.  Isnt it great that the radio is still
completely compatible with APRS.  Yes, it does not
display positions to one foot, but in sometihng moving
at between 10 to 90 feet per second, one foot precision
is not that important to those users.

But when you start sending objects using a protocol
that they cant understand, then it is not Kenwood 
that is making them unhappy, but the programmers
that insist on using a part of protocol that has been 
depricated and obsolete.  Especially when alternatives
are avaiable to give the same 1 foot resolution that 
WOULD let the kenwood users still see the object.

I'm sorry, we must keep existing systems and users
compatible.  It is counter productive for Xastir and
Opentrack to set out to obsolete those 10,000
radios.  When alternatives exist to give the same
1 foot resolution.

de Wb4APR, Bob

transmitting a
Bob