[aprssig] [RFC] Power Source Data Extension (symbol update)

[Matthew Chambers]

I agree with Bob's assessment, keep that information in the symbol. I
actually wouldn't have my shelters or other tactical assets use anything
other then the plain version of their symbol. I have their power and other
capabilities in another format and that's what I go by as an emergency
manager, not the overlay on their APRS symbol. If their power status
changes, that's what I'd be discussing with them over a voice traffic,
(likely to order them a generator from the state cache). There's so many
different status indicators for something such as a shelter that it just
wouldn't fit in the short tactical nature of APRS (and many I wouldn't want
to be in the public knowledge either) such as are pets or service animals
allowed, are they open, closed or full. Does the shelter have medical
facilities, mental health counseling... the list goes on. I'd just focus my
efforts on APRS for those facilities to light them up when they are open
and give the location, killing the object when the shelter closes. Just my
2-cents

Matthew A. Chambers, NR0Q
Macon County OEM Dep. Director


On Tue, Feb 14, 2017 at 6:39 PM, Kenneth Finnegan <
kennethfinnegan2007 at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Mon, Feb 13, 2017 at 7:43 AM, Robert Bruninga <bruninga at usna.edu> w
> rote:
>
>> To help correct some of the noted gaps in symbol overlays noted below, I
>> just updated the symbol overlay definitions. http://aprs.org/s
>> ymbols/symbols-new.txt
>>
>
> But you literally only added a power source overlay for the one example I
> cited. I'd list all the other symbols which should also get power source
> overlays, but this is twice already I've listed things I don't want added
> to the symbols-new file that you go ahead and add anyways.
>
>
>>  The intent of these symbols are to allow a user to indicate an unusual
>> or relevant facet of his station or mobile at zero added overhead to his
>> packet since the info is contained simply in his symbol.
>>
>
> I don't think it's better to instead rely on a user's cognitive load to
> try and understand the alphabet soup coming out the other end.
>
> It seems like you're driving towards defining a meaning for all 3496
> symbols, but you don't seem to think that's a prohibitive number of letter
> meanings or subtly different icons for users to learn while they're staring
> at a map. What's the expected user experience where this isn't a huge
> problem for new users?
>
>
>>   For houses, there is no need for Utiiltiy or Mains since that is
>> assumed as a default.
>>
>
> Then why are there 60Hz and 50Hz Utility overlays?
>
>
>>
>>
>> I do not object to adding a Power extension, but abhor its suggestion of
>> deprecating the Symbol Overlay indicators.
>>
>
> Then I'm not interested in promoting the PWR extension. I proposed this as
> a way to focus the roll of symbols and get them out of the power source
> business, not to add a second class way to represent the same information
> when you clearly want to keep symbol overlays as the primary method to
> indicate power source. APRS already has plenty of duplicate ways to
> represent the same information; I don't want to add power sources to that
> list.
>
> --
> Kenneth Finnegan, W6KWF
> http://blog.thelifeofkenneth.com/
>
>
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