[aprssig] Question about APRS-IS and IS->RF igating

[Phil N6TCT]

Thanks Lynn and Pete for your very helpful and prompt responses.  Things make more sense now.

Lynn, re your question:

>> Relatedly, is there any automated, algorithmic way that our igate should be able to spot this and say, nah, we don't want to gate this?
> 
> Actually, that's what I was going to ask.  Is aprsr4 just blindly gating everything received from the APRS-IS feed out to the local RF channel?

Yes, that is exactly what aprs4r appears to be doing.  This is aprs4r 1.0.2.  The current version (1.0.3, as best I can tell) does not appear to have addressed this, at least by looking at the change log.  This is not great but also not as horrible as it might sound because you can add an APRS-IS filter string that will filter out most things you don't care about.  What you're left with is then (1) things you do care about and (2) the remnants of things caused by gating a station from RF to IS and then finding out that the station in question also occasionally sends beacons to IS, which APRS-IS then forwards to you.  I.e., packets described in Pete's email.  That this kind of works is due largely to the intelligence designed into APRS-IS, for which I'm grateful.

> I thought IGates were supposed to have LOCAL intelligence as to which packets to gate from -IS to RF and not just rely on the upstream -IS server to only deliver gate-ready packets.


The "automated, algorithmic way" I was asking about above, i.e., the local intelligence you describe and what you're actually supposed to do, is specified here: http://www.aprs-is.net/IGateDetails.aspx

Thanks again everyone and 73,

Phil


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