[aprssig] What is APRS, really? USA Coverage?

[Ev Tupis]

 Cellular coverage maps from carriers are marketing tools, not engineering truths.  I speak from cellular industry engineering experience where I quantitatively mapped coverage by carrier.
Don't believe me?  Look at coverage map for downtown Manhattan and then explain to me why I have no signal inside of an apartment building.  Lol.
Ev, W2EV

    On Friday, October 23, 2020, 01:06:10 PM EDT, Robert Bruninga <bruninga at usna.edu> wrote:  
 
 
Apples and oranges sorta.  The APRS (thin line) map is just a plot of actual position reports actually on the highways, not of "coverage",.  Just widening each dot by 30 miles would still not be a "coverage" map? 
 
 We need the overlapping plot of the PHG circles of all digipeaters.

I bet Lynn could do that. 
Bob  
   [Go to Google Images and try "cell phone coverage maps" to get an idea of just how much cell coverage has blossomed,... Then contrast that with the thinner APRS coverage map at Bob's aprs.org site. That map was 2008 and I can't help but think it's even skimpier now that APRS has shrunk.]

This is not to say APRS is not underutilized along with most other forms of amateur radio, but I'd rather leave the discussion of the reasons that is to others. The concept of APRS is a very, very powerful system. As Bob has been saying for how many years, it just needs to be thought of as something more than just location tracking.
   [Really, it is just location tracking despite the many other uses that Bob has thought of that aren't really used. Think Voice Alert, roadside traffic counting etc ...]
I loved it but its time has passed. Look at the traffic volume trend on this group, for instance.

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