[aprssig] APRS on Android

[Stephen H. Smith]

On 1/25/2011 6:02 AM, Eric Lorenz K9LGE wrote:
> Actually, maybe I wasn't clear after all..what I am looking for is to be able 
> to use my APRSDroid app for beaconing, and to be seen in the local APRS 
> environment just the same as those using RF, via RF. So, anyone viewing APRS 
> via RF on a map would see me (via reverse IS-to RF igating) along with anyone 
> else out there...locally to where I am. Anyone else who is not local to where 
> *I* am can just go on aprs.fi and see my path/position.
>
> Example...I am in Madison, WI- I want my beacons to be seen by anyone 
> watching APRS via RF as if I was beaconing directly via radio.
>
> Is that any clearer?
>
> Eric K9LGE
>


It's perfectly clear what you WANT .      It's should also be clear that it's 
not PRACTICAL given the current architecture of APRS and state of APRS 
applications.

Gating an itinerant Internet mobile into every community it passes through 
would be vastly more complex than just gating it to RF in it's home community 
so the stay-at-homes can watch on RF.  Countless individual igates would have 
to white-list enable your IS-to-RF reverse-gating passage when you are in their 
neighborhood, and then disable it again when you move on.  Else your 
Internet-originated transmissions could be spewing out of hundreds of igates 
all over the country simultaneously.



Theoretically, an application on an igate could compare the coordinates of 
Internet-stream mobiles with the igate's own location,  and gate them to RF,  
if they are say within 10 miles of the igate.   Since every igate is 
independent, this would mean getting THOUSANDS of different igate operators to 
update/replace their software individually.

However APRS, like many large software environments, suffers from what IBM once 
called "the tyranny of the installed base" -- that once you have a sufficiently 
large number of existing installations, it becomes nearly impossible to make 
major changes. Too many parties have an interest in the status quo, can't be 
bothered to make changes, don't want to spend the money on new software or 
hardware, etc.

> On 01/25/2011 02:52 AM, Stephen H. Smith wrote:
>>
>>>
>>
>> NOTHING!    This isn't about MESSAGING -- that happens routinely and 
>> automatically if the RF station involved has been heard recently and locally 
>> to your igate.
>>
>> The "arrangements" referred to are to forward POSITION reports (i.e. normal 
>> beacons) heard on the Internet data stream from distant locations back to RF 
>> a.k.a. "reverse gating".    For example, one might do this to allow the 
>> posits and status beacons from a local that is out of town on a 
>> cross-country trip (and is hitting igates three states away) to be seen on 
>> RF by the stay-at-home locals.
>
> -- 
> Eric Lorenz K9LGE
> Communications Trailer Coordinator
> Disaster Services Technology
> American Red Cross of Greater Chicago
> 630-430-2421 cell
>
>
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