[aprssig] Digis everywhere

[Robert Bruninga]

Regarding putting low power DIGI's in Airports:

On Mon, 3 Jul 2006, Dave Baxter wrote:
>Not much gained, for very few people...

Well, I disagree.  Our local airport served 20 million last year.
That is 54,000 per day.  And since the Ham population is
0.2% of the USA population, that is about 770 Hams per
week pass through that airport.  Lets say half of them
are not local, that is a pretty good sized CAPTIVE audience
that has no ham radio means to communicate if he doesnt
know the frequency of the local repeater or the local
IRLP or ECHO node, or if he cannot get his Email or APRS
message out.

A guy sitting in his basement shack doesnt much need APRS
to give him local info.  But the APRS user passing through
an airport does. AND:

*** It is a very high density short range focal point.  AN ideal
location for a DIRECT packet giving the traveler all he needs 
to know.  And being short range, it has a guaranteed chance
at updating his HT, and similarly it has an extremely small
impact on the surrouiding APRS infrastructure.

Its a cheap kill.

But only if you believe that Ham radio has any future at all.
If one thinks that "why bother" they all have cell phones,
then surely this hobby is on a dead end course to extinction!

Bob, WB4APR