[aprssig] Broken digis (Ohio to Oklahoma and everywhere inbetween)

[Rick Green]

On Sun, 29 Jul 2007, Stan - N0YXV wrote:

>  To my surprise a lot of people think that WIDEn-N is just a short hand 
> way of writing RELAY, WIDE (or other similar syntax type confusions).

  OK, maybe I'm one of the ones that needs educating.  I thought that the 
'new paradigm' was just getting rid of the myriad of aliases, since most 
digis supported all of them anyway, and replaced them with a simpler 
WIDEn-N, where n is the maximum hops requested, and N is the hops 
remaining.  So RELAY, WIDE becomes WIDE2-2, and RELAY,WIDE,WIDE is WIDE3-3.
   No big deal.  It saves a few bytes of bandwidth.  It also requires 
'smart' digi software, as the hop decrementing isn't implemented in the 
'standard' TNC-2 digipeat firmware.  So it can't be implemented 
everywhere, unless our benevolent dictator of APRS standards is also a 
sugar daddy that wants to buy us all new hardware as well.
   I never understood why some people are talking about 'pre-decrementing' 
the path, and recommending something like WIDE2-1.  Since that only allows 
one more hop, why not save three bytes and just say WIDE?

Better yet, scrap it all, and use a single universal path: APRS.  If 
you're going to require smart digi software, then put some real smarts in 
the digi.  Since each packet includes location info as well as whatever 
other telemetry, let each digi owner define their own 'service area', and 
digipeat if the packet originated in the service area(and is not a dup!), 
drop otherwise.  That would totally prevent the lids from trying to 'CQ DX 
APRS', and give the cross-country travellers a universal path that would 
work in every neighborhood, without ruffling local feathers if they happen 
to wander into a dense neighborhood squawking a path that's perfectly 
suitable to their home on the wide open plains.

-- 
Rick Green, N8BJX

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
                                   -Benjamin Franklin