[aprssig] Too many digi's ?

[William McKeehan]

Over the past couple of years, APRS activity in my area has grown
dramatically. As more stations come on the air, the operators are tempted to
setup digi's and IGates.

I don't think most of them really understand most APRS fundamentals. You'll
hear them say things like "Isn't that great, I can see stations from 600 miles
away" and you will see paths like:
     RELAY,WIDE3-3
     RELAY,WIDE,WIDE2-2 (this is on several stations - one "expert" sharing
his knowledge to others)

In an area approximately 60x60 miles, we have about 11 digi's and IGates (some
stations are both, some only one or the other). Two of these digi's are high
level digi's, one is nearly 3000 HAAT. Some guys are talking about putting up
yet another digi right in the center of this area (<1000 ASL, so basically 0
HAAT in this area).

I know that we are not in a good position now and adding more digi's is a bad
idea, but I do not know how to convey this to some of these users. I want to
discourage any new digi's in the area and suggest that some turn off their
digi's/IGates.

Are there any guidelines (beyond common sense) to setting up digi's published
anywhere on the web that I could point people to as something to back me up?
or am I wrong and more digi's are OK?

Looking for the right words to guide people in the right direction.
-- 
William McKeehan
KI4HDU
Internet: mckeehan at mckeehan.homeip.net
http://mckeehan.homeip.net

Do not go where the path may lead,
go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
     - Ralph Waldo Emerson