[aprssig] APRStt 4 digit grid squares...justification

[Dave B]

Hi All.

I've been following this trying to get my faded grey cell arround, just "why" we 
need yet another incompatible (and incomplete) locator specification, for use via 
APRS...

Why?   Doesn't APRS report one's position anyway if needed?

If the GPS isn't working (or you don't have one) you can program the location 
into the gadget with mk1 finger and key.  Lat/Long, or Maidenhead locator.  
Accurate enough for most people.

Most (all?) modern hand held radios, and many mobiles have fist mic's with 
keypads, that now sport the telephone sytle alpha numeric format, that allow full 
(however many digits you want) Maidenhead locator (or old QRA square if you 
need) as well as Lat/Long.

Sorry again Bob, but I can't help wondering what happened to the KISS 
principle.

As for touch tones, again why?   When you can send alpha/numeric text 
messages via APRS?

Also, considering the range of VHF APRS, and the "self imposed limits" on the 
number of hop's, why do we need another (and again incomplete) locator system 
that fail to cover huge areas of the globe, 

I'm obviously missing something, a frontal labotomy perhaps.

There are far more pressing things that need sorting with APRS, the archaic snail 
pace data rate for one.   Look at what the East Europeans have done with 
advanced modulation systems for high speed microwave or optical data 
backbone links, also out in the Western US with relatively standard 9k6 
packet/APRS.

And the need for inteligent routing for messaging, rather than spewing it out 
omnidirectionall like.   (First one goes out omni' as usual, after an ack or reply, 
subsiquent packets attempt to route "inteligently" between endpoints.)

73.

Dave G0WBX.
(In the words of a famous song, "and it makes me wonder"...)

~~~