[aprssig] APRStt at Dayton

[Bob Bruninga]

>>>> This year you can use your DTMF HT to 
>>>> report where you are hanging out at 
>>>> the Hamvention to about 120 feet just 
>>>> by sending two digits for your XY coordinate.

Well, maybe Dayton was not the best place to introduce this "special event" capability <grin>...  Even at the 0.25 mile scale, of the 290+ stations heard in Dayton, at least 190 of them were all within the square city block of the Hamvention fences. That-is, Wall to wall stations on the map so cluttered you couldnt find anyone unless you used a search function to find their call on the map! .  So position reporting was not the best application.

In this case the best application was not sending POSITION, but would be sending FREQUENCY.  This way, you dont need to know where they were (or find them on the map), but just look at their data and CALL them by voice.

Again, APRS was not designed just for "tracking", but as a common national data channel for exchanging valuable information in the surrounding area.  Exchanging operating frequency is just as important in Ham radio as position in many cases.  The objective is facilitating communications.

Thanks
Bob, WB4APR