[aprssig] Why Not "Gate in Vicinity"

Greg Dolkas ko6th.greg at gmail.com
Mon Dec 26 02:50:28 EST 2011


Hi Pete,

I have no disagreement with you on how APRS-IS is run.  It is there because
a set of dedicated people have tangibly contributed time and money to build
an awesome piece of infrastructure that we Hams use and appreciate.

My point is that an interconnect is a piece of a network, whether there is
a standards-based "protocol" driving it or not. I guess I'm attaching a
looser meaning to "network" than you.  Whatever you call it, there are a
set of interfaces and procedures that are used to communicate, and as the
uses of APRS and IS (separately and together) grow, it is my opinion that
we should consider putting in some controls to protect the flow of
information.  That way, a mis-configured radio or slightly buggy
application can't prevent the intended communication from taking place.

I asked a while ago (year or so?) what an appropriate Beacon rate would be
for a cell-based IS application would be.  This was in regard to a
mis-configured cell phone that was driving up the local freeway, submitting
its location every few seconds.  I contacted the owner, and had him change
the setting, but was unable to get a specific recommendation for him from
this list.  And, in this latest exchange, I still haven't seen one.  Can we
start there?

Greg  KO6TH


On Sun, Dec 25, 2011 at 8:43 PM, Pete Loveall AE5PL Lists <
hamlists at ametx.com> wrote:

> 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.
> _______________________________________________
> aprssig mailing list
> aprssig at tapr.org
> https://www.tapr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/aprssig
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.tapr.org/pipermail/aprssig_lists.tapr.org/attachments/20111225/87800102/attachment.html>


More information about the aprssig mailing list