[aprssig] APRS Email from Space! (ET Phone Home)

[Steve Dimse]

> On Jun 29, 2019, at 8:58 PM, Pete Loveall AE5PL Lists via aprssig <aprssig at lists.tapr.org> wrote:
> 
> Pity you wouldn't listen that those servers are -communications- servers which rely on the bidirectional aspects of APRS messaging and you are trying to brute force an email being -broadcast- from a satellite with no benefit other than making you feel good that you are breaking your own protocol.
> 
> There is nothing exciting about demoing SPAM generation from an inanimate computer in space.  There is plenty of that done right hear on earth every day.
> 
> There are a large number of hams, however, that use the email/APRS servers to benefit amateur radio by providing communications between their stations and recipients on the Internet.  That is exciting and has been in place for many, many years.
> 
This seems awfully harsh, and to a large extent factually incorrect. SPAM is email to a recipient that does not want it, so clearly that term does not apply here. It also implies a bulk quality that one email to one recipient per 24 hours hardly approaches.

Also, if one looks at the messages to email over the last few weeks

http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/msg.cgi?call=email

one sees no evidence of "exciting" communications, it is about 99% "test" messages - the most exciting is a "happy valentines day" on June 22 (really???) So what if one a day is from a satellite?

That said, it does seem rather senseless, since all the packets are caught by IGates and appear on the APRS IS and the various database web sites, including the telemetry which carries far more info than the email. 

I'm not shy about calling Bob out when he does something damaging, but this just isn't one of those times...

Steve K4HG