[aprssig] Ping the APRS-IS

[Tom Hayward]

> Is there any system or process to 'ping' the APRS-IS?    There are
> some times when I'm running in an unconventional APRS environment and
> it would be handy to know if I'm reaching the local igate or not?

If you have cell service, you could email aprs at tomh.us with your
callsign as the message and it will reply with you last position,
time, and status.

Maybe I should write an app to run on my Tier2 server and respond to
any message addressed to PING...

> Taking this a step further, it would be useful if the ping response
> contained the last few iGates that actually uploaded packets.

... I could just send an ack, or I could send an ack, then a message
with the igate list.

Last igate is easy to get from db.aprsworld.net. I'm not sure what the
best way to query the last few igates is--the query I tried just now
took 16 seconds, not very nice on the database.

Tom KD7LXL