[aprssig] APRS and dstar (why)

[Bob Burns W9RXR]

At 02:29 PM 5/27/2012, Amateur Radio WB8NUT wrote:
>It has GPS built-in, no programming required and every time I 
>transmit, my position goes to the APRS network.

APRS network? No, it goes to the Internet-based DStar network and it 
is eventually gated to the Internet-based APRS-IS server network. 
Your position does not appear on the RF-based APRS network. You could 
be sitting next to me sending your position with your DStar radio, 
but it would never show up on my APRS radio unless some reverse IGate 
in my area chose to start porting DStar position reports from the 
APRS-IS to RF.

I am not anti-DStar because so many of its "cool features" are 
Internet based. But, I am anti-DStar because many communities already 
have perfectly workable APRS RF networks in place. I can see the 
positions of local APRS users on my radio, but I can't see the 
positions of local DStar users.

Bob...