[aprssig] Digi Hops to Gate

[Tom Hayward]

On Mon, Dec 23, 2019 at 12:23 PM Matthew Chambers via aprssig <
aprssig at lists.tapr.org> wrote:

> In theory how many hops should a packet with *ideal* coverage and
> digi/igate setups need to find an igate?
>

0 (heard directly)


> I have my tracker set with proportional pathing thinking I'd be helping
> with traffic congestion if that were ever a problem here. But only the
> packets with Wide1-1,Wide2-2 paths ever find an igate and I only know 1 or
> 2 of the hops since it appears that most of the digis here are not
> inserting their callsign into the path along the way. I'm in Central
> Missouri and packets have to go to Louisburg KS or Edwardsville IL before
> they get to an igate which means it looks on APRS.fi like I'm driving as
> the crow flys to the post office and walmart even though i'm certain I made
> some hundred or so turns along the way. I'm contemplating turning off
> proportional pathing to see if that makes a difference, and would more
> igates make a difference?
>

Your expectations of APRS differ a bit from its design intent. The goal of
proportional pathing is to give more frequent updates to stations nearest
to you, since there is likely more tactical advantage in those stations
having your up-to-date position than to a station hundreds of miles away.
In your example, the receiver is multiple states away, so the theory behind
proportional pathing would say that there's not much value in it receiving
frequent position updates from you. Basing your success criteria on what
you see in aprs.fi can be misleading. If you had a buddy with an APRS
receiver a few blocks away, I bet he would have had great position data
from your recent trip compared to what made it to aprs.fi.

If your goal is to log an accurate track for archival purposes, the best
technology for that is a GPS receiver writing track logs to an SD card, not
an igate two states away.

Once you've reconciled your goals with APRS's strengths and weaknesses, the
best action you could take is probably to set up a new igate in your town.

Tom KD7LXL
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.tapr.org/pipermail/aprssig_lists.tapr.org/attachments/20191223/ffd414fc/attachment.html>