[aprssig] APRS Coverage in Key West

[Robert Bruninga]

> I'll be traveling down to Key West next month... 
> Looking at the current IS stream I'm not seeing any 
> digipeaters or anything down there.  

I think it has a WIDE,WIDE,WIDE,WIDE system because the TNC's at
remote WX stations are acting as the digis, and to upgrade to
New-N would require new hardware.  If they simply made the old
TNC's WIDE1-1 only, then they would me minimally New-N
compatible, but only for 1 hop.  

Travelers, then, only going one hop will not meet a lot of new
folks.

Their primary mission is to get the WX data to the Hurricane
Center in Miami, so there has not been a lot of incentive to
upgrade.  But for disaster response, I would think that
upgrading to the higher network efficiency of the New-N system
could be justified for incoming first responders with APRS....

Fortunately, running W,W,W,W on a linear string of digis in such
a sparse area does not have the disadvantages of dupe
multiplication that it has in 2dimensional systems elsewhere.
SO maybe try W,W,W once you get south of Miami.  I hope the rest
of Miami northward is New-N, so that a W,W,W mobile doesn't
trash up the Miami area too...

Kibitzing out-of-area and could be sticking foot in mouth..

Bob