[aprssig] APRS Email (better way)?

Fri Sep 7 18:15:59 EDT 2012

All of your comments appear to be from the perspective of a clairvoyant
APRS internet user and are overlooking what others who are not so
clairvoyant see when they receive an APRS message via EMAIL.  All they see
is an email with about a half a line of sender's text with no other
context.  Sure, if they are APRS savvy, they know how it got there and
why.

But if they are APRS savy, they could have been messaged DIRECTLY via APRS
MESSAGE and would not need to get an email.  Please look at it from the
perspective of someone receiving these emails that has no clue about APRS
and then you would see what I am talking about.

That is, our APRS Email servers can do a LOT more about making the
received APRS email message make more sense to the general recepient.  My
wife for example would make no sense whatsoever out of this current way
the EMAIL servers handle it.  Look at these two examples:  First, how it
works now:

> Subject: KJ4ERJ-AP: Test via EMAIL-2
>
> From: KJ4ERJ-AP
> Test via EMAIL-2
>
> DO NOT REPLY
>
> Find KJ4ERJ-AP athttp://www.jfindu.net/find/KJ4ERJ-AP
> Track KJ4ERJ-AP athttp://www.jfindu.net/track/KJ4ERJ-AP
>
> Received from KJ4ERJ-AP via APRS by EMAIL-2
> More info athttp://www.aprs-is.net/email.aspx

To the average reader it is almost all gobbledygook and the actual TEXT is
buried with nothing to highlight it!  Whereas I am saying an APRS email
engine can easily do better like this:

-------------------------------------------
> Subject: KJ4ERJ-AP: Test via EMAIL-2
>
> This is an APRS message received from a ham radio operator: KJ4ERJ-AP
> with the name of Lynn Deffenbaugh (according to the FCC data base)
> who has sent you the following one-line of TEXT:
>
> TEXT:  Test via EMAIL-2
>
> DO NOT REPLY,  This email is only a forwarding service.
> His transmitter was last located 14 miles SE of Denver at 2130z 7 Sept
2012.
> His signal was heard via Amateur Radio Station W3XYZ which is 12 miles
north of denver.
>
> See map of KJ4ERJ-AP athttp://www.jfindu.net/find/KJ4ERJ-AP
> See Track of KJ4ERJ-AP athttp://www.jfindu.net/track/KJ4ERJ-AP
> See map of the relay station W3XYZ http:...............
>
> This email was Received from KJ4ERJ-AP and processed via the APRS
EMAIL-2 server
> More info athttp://www.aprs-is.net/email.aspx
--------------------------------------------------

Something like that.  Remember, if you are sending to another APRS
operator, it is FAR FAR more efficient to just send the APRS message to
his callsign.  The EMAIL server is for sending to ANYONE and since
99.9999% of the rest of the people on the planet do not have a clue about
APRS, then I think the email engines can do a much better job of making
sense of the message.

If any of the data items are NOT KNOWN, then "-not-known-" can be
inserted, though the syntax remains.

Bob, WB4APR

-----Original Message-----
From: aprssig-bounces at tapr.org [mailto:aprssig-bounces at tapr.org] On Behalf
Of Lynn W. Deffenbaugh (Mr)
Sent: Friday, September 07, 2012 4:56 PM
To: TAPR APRS Mailing List
Subject: Re: [aprssig] APRS Email (better way)?

Oh yeah, I had a "duh" moment just as I hit send.  Since APRS messages
don't contain any position information, in order to do any of the fancy
stuff, the e-mail servers would need to buffer the most recent position
for every station on the planet just in case they send an e-mail through
the server.  Either that, or they'd have to hold off the e-mail hoping
that a posit comes through to complete the information in the body.

Sites like aprs.fi make it easy to forget that they represent a
composite, time-accumulated view of APRS backed by a full planetary feed
and a database of APRS-supplied information for every station.  Like I
suggested below, a simple, robust, single-function e-mail server would
be my preference.  If someone wants more data, they can click a link or
access the information elsewhere.

Lynn (D) - KJ4ERJ - Author of APRSISCE for Windows Mobile and Win32

On 9/7/2012 4:52 PM, Lynn W. Deffenbaugh (Mr) wrote:
> On 9/7/2012 4:27 PM, Robert Bruninga wrote:
>> I sent an Email via the APRS system today.
>>
>> Here is how it comes into my email box.  Notice there is lots of other
>> useful APRS information that could have also been included such as:
>>
>> --------------------------------------
>> >From Bob Bruninga [from the FCC data base]
>
> APRS, and the EMAIL servers, are used by a whole lot of licensed
> amateur operators that aren't registered in the FCC database.  QRZ has
> more, but even that doesn't have everyone.  And to provide such a
> lookup means that the data being queried has to be refreshed
> periodically.
>
>> Located 1 mile E of Annapolis [Based on WB4APR-3 position]
>> Heard via WA5VHU-1 located 2 miles west of Glen Burnie [based on
>> WA5VHU-1
>> position]
>
> I realize that some of the APRS web sites show such information, but
> reverse geocoding doesn't always come free.   For that matter, I'd
> just as soon see an embedded map showing the location of the sender in
> context (not really, see my simplicity comment below). Something like
> the image at:
>
> http://aprs.fi/static/?call=WB4APR-3&z=13
>
>> And if RS0ISS-4* is in the digi path, it could have taken that special
>> case and said "Via APRS on the International Space Station".
>
> The e-mail servers are just that, e-mail servers.  They're "set and
> forget" and I'd suggest they not try to keep up with every special
> detection that's out there.  If someone wants to know they made it
> through the ISS, there's plenty of ways to find that out via APRS-IS
> and the various web sites like http://www.ariss.net/
>
> I didn't write nor do I maintain the APRS e-mail servers, but simple
> is, in many cases, better, especially for servers designed to run
> robustly and unattended.
>
> At least the EMAIL-2 server puts some helpful links in the body for
> people that may want to know more.  Here's what I received from that
> server:
>
> Subject: KJ4ERJ-AP: Test via EMAIL-2
>
> From: KJ4ERJ-AP
> Test via EMAIL-2
>
> DO NOT REPLY
>
> Find KJ4ERJ-AP athttp://www.jfindu.net/find/KJ4ERJ-AP
> Track KJ4ERJ-AP athttp://www.jfindu.net/track/KJ4ERJ-AP
>
> Received from KJ4ERJ-AP via APRS by EMAIL-2
> More info athttp://www.aprs-is.net/email.aspx
>
> And there are instructions at the bottom of that last link that
> describe how to set up the system so that short responses can be sent
> via e-mail which will then be delivered to the originator via an APRS
> message.
>
> Lynn (D) - KJ4ERJ - Author of APRSISCE for Windows Mobile and Win32
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> aprssig mailing list
> aprssig at tapr.org
> https://www.tapr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/aprssig
>

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