[aprssig] Smart beaconing and the tragedy of the commons

[Keith VE7GDH]

Bob WB4APR wrote...

> I have plenty of experience with it. Most any day,  most any
> time. All I have to do in my APRS is hit the SORT by LOAD
> button and see who is hitting out 99 beacons per hour (the max I
> capture), and it invariably is people running smart beaconing.

You do? What device (hardware or softare) are you using that uses 
SmartBeaconing? I'm pretty sure you have at least one D7 and at least one 
D700, but they aren't capable of SmartBeaconing.

You said earlier...

> 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.

If you have plenty of experience with SmartBeaconing, why aren't you 
explaining it to "us" instead of asking for a good definition of settings? 
My experience with SmartBeaconing is that it REDUCES excessive beaconing, 
not increases it. Sure, it comes down to using proper settings, but I put 
more trust in fellow hams using proper settings than you do. When I see 
something that isn't protecting the network (usually beaconing full NMEA 
strings, or beaconing every X seconds or every minute 24 hours a day, or 
using long paths, or combinations of two or three of those examples) I don't 
see any evidence that SmartBeaconing is involved. If I have time to do it, I 
try and contact the user rather than just keep it bottled up and put out a 
periodic "SmartBeaconing is bad" or "UI-View is bad" posting once in a 
while. I actually try and contact the owners of mis-configured APRS 
stations. Most of the time I have had good success. Occasionally I have been 
ignored or told to mind my own business. Probably about 95% of the time when 
I have tried to help someone that was having a negative impact on APRS, I 
have met with success in both contacting them and helping them change to 
more reasonable settings.

I would also have to agree that when Stephen WA8LMF realized he was 
beaconing too often, it was a case of not configuring it properly rather 
than it happening just because he was using SmartBeaconing. SmartBeaconing 
doesn't kill the APRS network. APRS users kill it... if whatever they are 
using isn't configured properly.

73 es cul - Keith VE7GDH
--
"I may be lost, but I know exactly where I am!"