[aprssig] Why Not "Gate in Vicinity"

[Pete Loveall AE5PL Lists]

You make the mistaken statement that the APRS-IS is a "network" capable of things like "QoS".  It isn't; there is no underlying network protocol.  It still has one purpose: provide interconnectivity of amateur radio RF APRS networks.  If you want a cell phone locator network, use one of the many commercial networks.  I am sorry to seem so crass but APRS-IS is run by amateur radio operators to support amateur radio use, not cell phone locators or communicators.  You can text more reliably with your cell phone than using APRS and you can use many free locator services if you desire.  It is not the responsibility of the individual amateur radio operators to accommodate misconfigured cell phone users by making their IGates unreliable for amateur radio use.  Any throttling as you describe on a network that has no network level protocol by definition makes it unreliable.  APRS-IS is amateur radio, not public Internet or cell phone services.

Things have not changed; APRS-IS is run by amateur radio operators for amateur radio interconnectivity.  All other uses described are "niceties" but not part of the purpose of APRS-IS.

73,

Pete Loveall AE5PL
pete at ae5pl dot net

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Greg Dolkas
> Sent: Sunday, December 25, 2011 6:22 PM
> 
> I agree with this.  The earlier post that talked about the IS as "just a
> transport" may have been accurate early on, but things have changed.