[aprssig] vx-8 mic-e type code & ui-view32

[Heikki Hannikainen]

Hi,

It's quite likely that this has been discussed before, but I'm not 
sure.

UI-View32 strips spaces from the end of a packet before passing it to the 
APRS-IS. VX-8 sends mic-e packets with a space in the end, thanks to the 
mic-e type code allocation of "`......_b" (b = SPACE). When the packet is 
heard by an UI-View32 and another igate which isn't broken, APRS-IS gets 
two different packets, and doesn't filter the duplicate. For example, 
see this: http://aprs.fi/?c=raw&call=KB3TBX-7&limit=50&view=hex

There are often two packets, just 1 second apart, the only difference 
being the trailing space in the other packet.

Bob: Would it be possible to allocate a new type code for the VX-8 and 
request Yaesu to use it in the following software upgrades, if there are 
any?

Would it be possible to add a note in 
http://www.aprs.org/aprs12/mic-e-types.txt that there should be no more 
new type code allocations made with a space in the end, as it causes a lot 
of duplicate rubbish packets on the APRS-IS?

Also, it should be noted in the document that the "`....._ " is actually 
received on the APRS-IS as "`...._" if an UI-View32 is involved, which 
needs to be handled when parsing.

   - Hessu


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Heikki Hannikainen <hessu at hes.iki.fi>
To: aprs.fi <aprsfi at googlegroups.com>
Date: Tue, 5 Apr 2011 08:22:14 +0300 (EEST)
Subject: Re: [aprsfi] dupes?

On Mon, 4 Apr 2011, Jim Alles wrote:

> For some reason, just now stumbled on this group and joined.
> 
> I am running WIDE2-1, W3YA-1 as my UNPROTO PATH.

This is probably not causing the duplicates, but - is there some specific 
reason why you're naming W3YA-1 in the path? Things would probably work better 
and more dynamically if you used a simple WIDE2-2 as the path.

> Please see the raw packets for KB3TBX-7 to see regular packet
> duplication.
> 
> W3YA-1 is the local high elevation digi, and KB3TBX & K3CWP-1 are two
> igates in the valley.

Please switch to the 'hex' mode in the packet display, and you'll notice that 
some of the packets show a space character in the end of the packet:

0x40 } g r e e t i n g s   o n   1 4 6 . 8 5   _
      7d6772656574696e6773206f6e203134362e3835205f20

and the duplicate version of the same packet doesn't have the space (0x20):

0x40 g r e e t i n g s   o n   1 4 6 . 8 5   _
      6772656574696e6773206f6e203134362e3835205f

The above won't be so readable with a proportional font, it's better in the 
packets display: http://aprs.fi/?c=raw&call=KB3TBX-7&limit=50&view=hex

I believe that your packets are simply received by two igates. Your vx-8's 
mic-e type code (device identification code which allows aprs.fi to figure out 
it's a vx-8, see http://www.aprs.org/aprs12/mic-e-types.txt) is "` .... _ " - a 
` in the beginning of the comment and "_ " in the end.

Now, one of your igates WA3UFN-1 running UI-View32, has a bug - it removes 
space characters from the end of the packet before passing it to the APRS-IS. 
The packet is modified, so the APRS-IS doesn't filter the duplicate any more, 
since it looks like new and different packet. This is a known bug of UI-View32.

WA3UFN-1 could possibly switch to some other igate software (such as Lynn's 
APRSIS32) which doesn't have the bug and gets other fixes done too. Or maybe 
Bob Bruninga could assign a different type code to the vx-8 which doesn't have 
a space in the end to avoid the UI-View bug and Yaesu could provide a firmware 
upgrade for the rig.

   - Hessu