[aprssig] Uiview NET-Sked add-on?

[Bob Bruninga]

This topic was kicked off the UIview list and considred more appropriate on the APRSSIG:

>> With all due respect... APRS is what the 
>> users in an area make it not what YOU 
>> proclaim that it MUST be.  Sorry Bob, 
>> some of us use the Vehicle tracking for 
>> just that.  We use it to show where 
>> vehicles are while doing public service 
>> events, during severe weather ...

Sorry, of course vehicle tracking at events is an outstanding use of APRS and UIview. But when that is all that local hams ever see of APRS, there is little incentive for them to get involved.  THey are missing the point of what APRS was really designed to do.  That is, facilitate info exchange and communications between the ham radio operator community by maximizing local situational awareness of surrounding ham radio activities.

>> We use UI-VIEW to see those vehicles in 
>> our vehicles, at home, in EOC's and other 
>> places.

My concern is that the hams generally are communicating less and less, because there are fewer and fewer of them spread out over our hundreds of frequencies.  APRS was supposed to help bring us back together as a group by providing a single clearing-house comm/info channel to alert everyone in an area to anything going on in ham radio around them, to help us keep together as a group.  To make instant contact by callsign alone possible no matter what else the operator was doing.  Trackers are deaf.  There are few one-way applications in ham radio, and APRS was not supposed to be one of them.

IN areas where... APRS is only viewed as a vehicle tracking system and when an "event" is not in progress, then there is usually nothing on the UIview display in that community, because frankly, no one really cares where any one is generally. THus, other hams see no routine application for it.  As Jan pointed out, 99% do not use it mobile, thus operators are not generally reachable nor aware of all the rest of the applications and general connectivity in ham radio that APRS is supposed to provide.

Here are the initiatives in APRS to get people back to ham radio situational awareness and communicating:

www.aprs.org/aprs-messaging.html
www.aprs.org/localinfo.html
www.aprs.org/cqsrvr.html

Spread the word.  APRS is not just a vehicle tracking system and there are lots of opportunities for code writers and future improvements.

Bob, Wb4APR