[aprssig] Open Source/Commercial Use acceptable APRS Alternative?

[Charles Gallo (KG2V)]

On 2023-08-17 10:39, Steve Dimse wrote:
>> On Aug 16, 2023, at 6:55 PM, Gregg Wonderly <gregg at wonderly.org> 
>> wrote:
<snip>

> The second issue is compatibility. Bob felt strongly that nothing other 
> than APRS (as he defined it) should use the APRS infrastructure. To 
> him, APRS was a functional system used by tens of thousands and 
> occasionally depended upon in important situations. <snip>

> Bob said OpenTrac is not APRS, it is different and incompatible ham 
> radio protocol. But today there is nothing to stop anyone from doing 
> anything regarding APRS.
> 
> Steve K4HG





(I forget if this is a top post list or bottom)


The problem with this is "Do we let backwards compatibility kill 
innovation"?

What if, as a bunch of hams, make something that uses the APRS 
infrastructure (most of which was never actually owned by Bob), and then 
extends on it, and maybe even breaks a lot of it.   No one owns a 
frequency, and these days, there seems to be a lot of open frequencies 
anyway

So someone comes up with "NGPRS" (Next Generation Packet Reporting 
System) that say, runs on UHF (or even say on the licensed part of the 
Wifi Band - Humm, even allow non hams in maybe?) that is compatible with 
the best parts of APRS, drops all the backwards kludges - maybe the 
stuff that is the old KPC (not KPC+) stuff  or whatever

"OK, it isn't APRS" - You are right.  But when was the last time you saw 
a Gopher Server vs HTTP?  Eventually, APRS "Goes away" - sort of.  If 
everyone has moved on, there will be some diehards left behind (Heck, 
they even dropped mandatory support for Group 1 fax eventually).  We 
might even use different modulation etc.  Ham radio is SUPPOSED to be 
about innovation, so let's innovate - Go with Bob's vision (maybe) 
expanded for the 21st century, starting say with a clean slate



-- 
73 de KG2V
Charles Gallo
http://www.kg2v.com