[aprssig] Re: [ca_aprs] Happy New Year from the Tier 2 Network!

[Phillip Pacier]

Chris Arndt
> So what happened with Tier 2 and CWOP since this was posted?

After reading the many posts made by certain folks; after seeing the
propaganda posted all over findU; and after enduring personal attacks for
several years by certain sysops who have certain agendas in mind, it was
agreed upon that it was no longer necessary for Tier 2 to maintain the
four servers that were setup specifically for the purpose of handling the
CWOP data.  All CWOP data can be sent to any server's port 14580.  The
original intentions of the four CWOP servers were not able to come to
fruition due to many factors that are not worth mentioning, and it was no
longer enjoyable for any of us to endure the blasphemy heaped upon us.

Feel free to use any server you feel is best to send your weather data to.
 Nothing has changed other than the four dedicated weather servers were
determined to be unnecessary, and therefore were shut down.

73
Phil - AD6NH
Tier 2 Coordinator

>
> Phillip B. Pacier wrote:
>
>> A year to remember!
>>
>> The APRS-IS, and the APRS community in general continue to grow at a
>> substantial rate. As we enter a new year, we at Tier 2 would like to
>> clarify a few misconceptions about the APRS-IS and to illustrate some
>> interesting facts and truths.
>>
>> We chose to develop a level 2 APRS-IS network for 2 reasons. 1) To take
>> the stress off the legacy system developed by Steve Dimse, K4HG, who
>> promised everyone that the original APRS-IS was adequate to handle the
>> future for APRS users around the world. 2) The necessary redundancy
>> required for better network infrastructure.
>>
>> We created the infrastructure to accomplish the connectivity for an
>> additional
>> thousand or so hams around the world. Not to mention a few thousand
>> non-ham
>> WX stations for the same reasons. We were told that the current
>> APRS-IS could
>> handle the same requirements by simply adding more level 1 core
>> servers over
>> and over. The original plan didn't have the foresight to accommodate
>> 21,000
>> APRS users or the overall growth of Bob Bruninga's master-mind.
>>
>> Our Tier 2 system isn't the defacto standard. It is simply a means to
>> provide
>> additional APRS-IS usage where the Main Core servers failed to provide
>> the
>> future needs of the network. To conclude that Tier 2 is better because
>> it can
>> handle 5 times the clients of level 1 is wrong. It more of a case that
>> people
>> use it because it works for them.
>>
>> Could everyone use the Main Core servers instead of Tier 2? The simple
>> answer is
>> no. The more people that try, the more likely additional stress would
>> occur at
>> the core level. To think otherwise would be far from the truth as
>> level 1 has
>> fell short with the thinking 'I can handle it all'.
>>
>> As Steve has said, "The spirit of the hobby is providing service to
>> others."
>> Tier 2 does that in a superb manner, in the spirit of ham radio and
>> public
>> exposure by creating specific entry points for non-ham Citizen Weather
>> stations
>> around the world.
>>
>> As the volume of APRS users increases, it is more likely that Tier 2
>> will
>> meet the needs of the APRS-IS well into the future. The volunteers
>> that provide
>> individual resources and a positive attitude towards end-users is
>> astounding.
>> They have no moral obligation to provide this service and do so
>> without the
>> God-like attitudes we have seen in the past.
>>
>> End-users should not use level 1 main core servers. That in no way is
>> a personal
>> attack against anyone. Tier 2 currently depends on the level 1 main
>> core servers.
>> That is how the APRS-IS needs to work. A single Tier 2 server provides
>> hundreds
>> of end-users with a compact feed that provide the redundancy dependent
>> on 3
>> main core hubs that can handle less than 600 connects. There are over
>> 21,000
>> APRS users seen on the Internet. An estimated 6000 users rely directly
>> on the
>> APRS Internet service for their IGates, Wx stations, and other
>> operations. Where
>> they connect is a key issue for everything to work smoothly.
>>
>> If ego, or God-like attitudes was our single motivation... The APRS-IS
>> would
>> have failed years ago with all the hype and promises we kept hearing.
>> True,
>> Tier 2 wasn't part of the original plan. But, the reality was the fact
>> that
>> some things simply didn't happen as we were promised. We feel it
>> strange that
>> the nay-sayers and bashers of Tier 2 haven't stepped to the plate with a
>> better plan or solution as the many volunteers who have been involved
>> with
>> the Tier 2 project. To our credit
>>
>> My many thanks to everyone associated with Tier 2. That includes the
>> individual
>> sysops, the coordination team, and the many end-users. Not to mention
>> the overwhelming
>> support offered by Pete Lovell, AE5PL who made it so easy for us to
>> realize our
>> goals with javAPRSSrvr.
>>
>> Happy New Year!
>>
>> Phil Pacier, AD6NH
>> Dick Stanich, KB7ZVA
>> & the rest of the Tier 2 Network
>>
>>
>
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