[aprssig] Is WXSVR Permanently Defunct???

[Phil - AD6NH]

I don't think my original comment was viewed carefully by the readers of
this list.  While I may have used a poor choice of words, I did acknowledge
the years of service of WXSVR, and then I expressed a concern over seeing
services that people have come to depend on (yes, mostly for free, thank you
again Dale) disappear with no contingency plan.  I expressed a possibility
that software creators might want to consider this dependency when creating
free services, and some of you disagree.  That is fine, but then perhaps we
as users need to consider contingencies to the free services if not the
software creators.  It's a staple of ham radio, is it not?  How can we get
the information from point A to point B when the "normal" means of routing
are unavailable?  Case in point - I have helped a few folks in the local
mountains of Southern California get setup with UI-View and UI-NWS (thank
you Roger, Bill, Dale, et al.) to receive their storm warnings because they
were not able to pick up the local NOAA weather radio service.  We could
stretch that if we wanted into a potential life/death situation, but the
point is that we as a ham/APRS community should have learned by now 10+
years on that when we create something and make it available, some people
may indeed come to depend on it.  Is this a fault of the people for
attempting to depend on the ham radio service>  Remember, many of us are
literally pounding Ham Radio and its usefulness into the public on a daily
basis (and even now with a bill in Congress).  When dependable services
disappear, it makes it much more difficult to plead our case.

In conclusion, let there be no mistake - I have the utmost respect for all
who have created software, services, scripts, and programs to benefit APRS
and Ham Radio.  And who am I to dictate who does what with their software?
Nobody!  And I have not once done such a thing, nor do I advocate such
behavior.  My concern was simple, and perhaps I should have stated it
simply: how can we eliminate the single point of failure (or existence) of
services on which we have come to depend?

I look forward to continuing to work with everyone involved to grow and
maintain the network!

73
Phil - AD6NH
www.aprsca.net
www.aprs2.net
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