[aprssig] Where to from here for APRS ?

[Brian B. Riley]

  I recently did a presentation to our local club about the history  
and current status of packet radio. I brought up the seemingly  
constant criticism that we are 'still communicating at 1200 baud" a  
said to them, in essence, what AJ said here below. Just about any ham  
2/440 talkie can be rigged to pass data (maybe not perfectly tuned,  
but still very workable). Almost every ham has a computer and a vhf/ 
uhf rig using the sound card software they can get a digital station  
on the air for almost no additional expense except an interface cable  
the price of which is trivial by comparison.

Specifically in APRS, the hardware aspect aside, at the higher speeds  
being talked about the TxD will take far more time than the short  
APRS data payload offsetting most of the speed gain.



---
cheers ... 73 de brian  riley,  n1bq , underhill center, vermont
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On Oct 29, 2006, at 10:25 PM, A.J. Farmer (AJ3U) wrote:

> So many people want APRS to be something it's not and they seem
> embarrassed to tell people that we pass data on a "slow" 1200 baud
> network.  The fact is 1200 baud equipment is cheap, it is reliable,
> and upgrading to higher bandwidth just doesn't make sense for many
> reasons.  I agree, higher bandwidth applications are out there, but
> they don't need to be shoe-horned onto the APRS network.  These
> applications can *co-exist* with APRS and complement it - they don't
> have to be *part of* APRS.