[aprssig] Dupe Checking....

[Keith VE7GDH]

Bob WB4APR wrote...

> Yep, It's the "tragedy of the commons".  The user assumes that
> he should be able to configure for the best track he can get.
> And smart beaconing can give him a posit at every turn and a
> high number or points to give him the best track...  But at the
> expense of everyone else.

Trackers, like guns, nuclear weapons, trombones, etc. can be set up or used 
improperly. When someone is shot by a gun or blown to pieces by a nuclear 
device, or tortured mercilessly by a poorly played trombone, the fault lies 
not with the device, but by who configured or used it.

> ...But he was slow to cut back, because as a newbie, he liked the
> perfect track he was getting (at the expense of everyone else), since
> all his little turns were within a mile of the digi...

There will always be newbies. If you see one with misconfigured settings, do 
your best to contact him if you have the time. If you don't, hopefully 
someone else manages to contact the operator. Blaming the hardware or the 
software when it is operator error just doesn't make any sense at all.

> I have no problem with smart beaconing if somehow it can be set
> to AVERAGE no more than about one packet per minute or less like
> everyone else...

I have no problem with SmartBeaconing either. However, the "if it can 
somehow be set to average no more than one packet per minute" just doesn't 
sit right. It's over-simplistic. Like anything, it needs to be configured 
properly. It needs to have the slow speed, slow transmit rate, fast speed, 
fast transmit rate, and turn angle set properly. Some config programs also 
have a setting for "not more than once every X seconds" that would over-ride 
any other settings. Some also have a "turn time" setting. The manuals for 
each device do a pretty good job of explaining all of the settings. If 
anyone on the APRS SIG, TinyTrak, OpenTracker, Tracker 2, or HamHud lists 
need help, there are many people on each of those lists that actually use 
SmartBeaconing that can offer the newbie some help.

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