[aprssig] Object Definition vs third-party traffic?

[Lynn W. Deffenbaugh (Mr)]

Greeting group,

I just discovered that my APRS-IS parser is considering the following 
packet as having been relayed by WX4MLB-3.

WX4MLB-3>BEACON:}146.52>APOBJ:!2806.  N/08039.  WrPHG7260 NWS MELBOURNE

I do believe that is a correct interpretation of the } third-party 
traffic designator.  This packet tells me that 146.52 originated a 
position without timestamp (!) packet with a destination of APOBJ.  
WX4MLB-3 picked up this packet and relayed it to RF as a third-party (}) 
packet with a generic destination of BEACON.

Is this an accepted (and possibly common) method of defining objects on 
RF?  Or would it be better defined as an Item (')') or Object (;) 
defined directly by WX4MLB-3?  I suspect it was done as third-party 
traffic to avoid the unique naming issue for objects, but I'm not really 
sure.

I'm just trying to learn what I can so I can make recommendations 
when/if asked about such things.

Lynn (D) - KJ4ERJ