[aprssig] Generic Smartphone APRS aps!

[Wes Johnston, AI4PX]

Bob.... if people here in a America don't know distance and don't know what
a mile is, that is WONDERFUL.  Ve kan now svitch to kilometers.  Ze drem haz
kom tvue.

lol.

Wes
---
Wondering why the heck we are still using imperial units.

On Tue, Jan 25, 2011 at 16:33, Bob Bruninga <bruninga at usna.edu> wrote:

> > Without a mapping application,
> > APRS is virtually useless.
>
> Well, that sentiment is what pervades Amateur Radio and is why we are still
> just a small minority of map voyeurs instead of communicators.  The APRS
> channel cannot provide the map tracking continuity that map tracking
> voyeurs
> expect.  Promoting APRS as just a tracking system is a self-defeating dead
> end. (and is why we are stuck where we are today with hardly anyone
> communicating while mobile anymore because all the repeaters are PL'ed and
> there is no easy on-the-fly way to make a contact.
>
> Of course, maps are GREAT to see where all the net participants are
> currently located in the VHF RF domain and special events and all kinds of
> uses,...  But to fulfill the basic needs of a single national network
> channel for establishing immediate communications between users, the map is
> not as important as some think.  I assume that most tactical aware hams can
> visualize where someone reported as 3.5 miles NW is located relative to the
> area.  Same goes if they are 35 miles west, or wherever.
>
> But in my non-ham radio dealings, I guess I have seen a whole lot of folks
> who are just basically clueless about spatial awareness and couldn't tell
> someone which way is north, or how to get to the nearest Radio shack
> without
> a map.  Asked how far away the Home Depot is, I am amazed that many people
> (who know where it is) cannot estimate the distance even within a factor of
> 2!  Is it a mile away?  Is it 10 miles away?  They just look stunned as if
> they have never heard of a "mile" as a unit of distance. "Just go that way
> to the McDonalds and turn left."
>
> My earlier list of priorities for implementing APRS was in no way meant to
> diminish the value of maps.  But it was to show that the most important and
> easiest aspects of APRS as a communications and information distribution
> network do not necessarily require maps.
>
> Get the communications built-in first, then add the maps as the icing on
> the
> cake.
>
> Bob, Wb4APR
>
>
>
>
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