[aprssig] WIDE4-4 possible confusion

[Robert Bruninga]

> I doubt that many users are actually running Wide4-4.  
> I don't see that much stuff from far away.

Good.  One thing about paths, is what one see's can often be
missleading about local paths.  If a person is in the middle of
a state and sees no QRM from out of area, it is not because of
the prudent path choice of locals, but the considerate path
choice of those in surrounding states.

Now that I think about it, maybe some legacy documentation is
part of the problem.  We encourage all digipeaters to indicate
the number of hops that they receommend in an area in the first
two bytes of their beacon text.  So when a digi has "W2,SSn-N"
in its beacon, this was supposed to mean that "W2" means that
WIDE2-2 is generally recommended in the area.

It could be that some of my early documentation had defined
"W2,SSn-N" to mean that all paths above W2 would be trapped.
The ability to have the digipeaters limit out-of-area QRM was
initally what got us going on the New-N paradigm. 

Maybe some areas are using the digipeater's BEACON text "W#,..."
entry as the RECOMMENDATION, and maybe some are using it as the
TRUNCATION LIMIT.

For consistency, as the New-N paradigm evolved, we tended
towards using that first two bytes in every DIGI Beacon to mean
RECEOMMENDED path. Can we all take a look and see if that is the
way that local digis have implemented it?
Maybe New Mexico is showing W4 to indicate that everything above
W4-4 is being trapped?   (or are they saying that W4-4 is
recommended?)

Bob, WB4APR





  From my own 
> experience, I can almost always reach an IGate from my mobile 
> with Wide1-1, Wide2-1, although, if I am going into 
> unfamiliar territory, I'll bump it up to Wide-1-1,Wide2-2.
> --
> J. Gary Bender, WS5N
> Fence Lake, New Mexico  USA
> (far west central NM)
> 
> 
> On Thu, 8 Nov 2007 13:02:45 -0700, James wrote:
> > In a few weeks I will be making a cross country trip, I 
> will be running a
> > TT2, I need to reconfigure the tracker anyway, and I have a 
> switch for both
> > settings, I could run 4-4 while I cruise thru the state and 
> just switch it
> > back when I cross the border.
> >
> > kb7tbt
> >
> >
> >> Since the New-N paradigm worked so well at reducing dupes 
> and QRM on the
> >> channel, maybe after operating at W3-3 for a while, the 
> locals found that
> >> they could go up to 4-4 and still have a working network 
> without spill
> >> over into adjacent cities?  I know NM is unique in its 
> spare population
> >> density, and has one of the best APRS networks in the 
> world..  Anyway,
> >> has anyone kept an eye on this and can comment on how well 
> the channel is
> >> working out there?
> >>
> >>
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> 
> 
> 
> 
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