[aprssig] The new D710 and Smart Beaconing?

[Robert Bruninga]

> I wish Kenwood saw this product important enough, 
> to talk to a panel of amateurs with APRS interest.

They introduced the concept at the TAPR Digitial Communications
Conference last September and handed out questionares for
everyone to list their most important features.  I believe there
may also have been a web site?  Anyway, the solicitation of
comments was well published here and elsewhere.

> Smart Beaconing

I would like to see a good definition of settings.  Almost every
instance of smart beaconing that I have seen on the air are
noteworthy due to their excessive beaconing.  Here is an example
that is burned into a typical tracker:

SPEED:  (format is MPH=period in minutes)
ModeA:  >3=4, >7=2,   >15=1,   >31=.5, >62=.3, >94=.2
ModeB:  >3=5, >7=2.6, >15=1.3, >31=.7, >62=.5, >94=.3

This means everyone cruising down the highway above 60 is
generating packets every 20 or 30 seconds.  This is *not*
acceptible for routine operations. 

On the other hand, if the settings have to be changed for every
situation, then past experience shows that we can guarantee that
-most- will be at the -wrong- settings -most- of the time.

DIRECTION:
Get some guy driving around in the parking lots and malls while
doing lots of honey-doos and shopping, it kills the frequency
with 10+ second beacons for hours.  Again, this is *not*
acceptible for routine operations, and past experience shows
that we can guarantee that -most- will be at the -wrong-
settings -most- of the time.

About the only way I would recommend smart beaconing would be if
it defaults to OFF after 4 hours and on every power cycle.  It
could be enabled by the users, but it would be OFF unless there
was a specific reason to be on.  My philosophy is to protect the
network as the first priority, but allow users to do what they
need for special cases, while providing provisions to drop back
to defaults when forgotten.

What are the optimum settings for smart beaconing?... It
depends.  And that is the problem.  Most QRM is generated by
set-and-forget settings.  Maybe we can define settings for a few
standard modes:
- CRUISE
- Local Event
- High/Low for each of the above

But for cruise, some say they want HIGH rates to get lots of
detail, but on the other hand, somem say you want LOW rates at
HIGH speeds on interstates becasuse where they are going is well
defined.

Bob
WB4APR