[aprssig] Pirates on APRS IS

[Samúel Úlfr Þór Guðjónsson]

Hi all, I'm new to this post list.

I have not been very worried of "pirates" using APRS IS, but today I
noticed one locally on aprs.fi using iAPRS for Apple's IOS.
As it is only on Internet I'm not that worried, however, there is a
possibility that this information could go to a TX Igate which would
broadcast the information, being either positon or messages, as position is
always gated after a message. That'd make the operator of the TX igate
responsable for illegal use of the amateur frequency. Over here this is a
great concern, as connecting internet and RF is on a very gray zone,
legally speaking.

The "pirate":
http://aprs.fi/info/a/STEBBI-9

Now what can be done about this?
I suppose doing modification on all the TX igates to do some verification
of the sender of the message, but it could be quite painful.


Not very familiar with iAPRS, it seems that it's just a frontend for
OpenAPRS, and it seems to me that it does not do any passcode verification.
Anyone correct me if I'm wrong. Now I know that passcode verification is
not really that much of a verification, but having a bad verification is
the better of worse.

I'm quite sure that there are other countries than Iceland who are running
on gray zone concerning RF to IS and vica versa traffic. Apperantly France
has the same concerns, and pirates on APRS-IS is not helping.

So, what should I do? Try to implement blacklisting on all the TX Igates
over here? (Thankfully, they are not that many at the moment) or just stop
all the TX IGates? That would kind of ruin one of a very great usable
feature in APRS.

Sorry if this post sounds abit confusing, I'm a little puzzled about this
matter.

73 de TF2SUT - Samúel
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