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Hi folks,<br>
<br>
Over at <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://bit.ly/IOP667">http://bit.ly/IOP667</a> you can see some raw packets. (Note: I
will disable that redirect in a few days; my point is not to "name
names" here, but to get some advice.)<br>
<br>
There are a few things happening there:<br>
<br>
<ul>
<li>Roughly every 10 minutes, 24/7 every day, sending a message to
BLN0</li>
<li>Same thing, also roughly every 10 minutes, sending a message
to BLN1</li>
<li>Not necessarily visible in this list, but also it is sending a
"Welcome to [cityname]" message to anyone that sends them a
message. Or possibly anyone that comes in range? I'm not
clear.</li>
<li>All of the above is happening on RF.<br>
</li>
</ul>
The first two items are the ones that bug me. They pop up with an
audible alert on a lot of APRS devices and software, including my
TH-D72A and Xastir. I also see evidence of people that are confused
by it, thinking the message was sent specifically to them. (Replies
back to the station sending the BLNs saying "OK" or "no thanks" or
something - which then causes them to get "Welcome...")<br>
<br>
I would like to kindly help the person running this do so in a more
ham-friendly manner -- perhaps redirecting what is some enthusiasm
into a better path. Does anyone here have feedback on the best way
to go about doing that, without coming off in a way that will make
the person defensive and dig in their heels? I do not know the
email address for the person, incidentally, and am not sure if I
could get onto any repeater that the person also uses.<br>
<br>
If the person needs configuration help with the software, where is a
good place to send them? According to aprs.fi, the software is
APRSIS32 version 08. I am a Linux person and although I am quite
familiar with the entire AX.25 stack on Linux, I have never used it
on Windows at all, and as the person is about an hour's drive away
would probably be giving suggestions over the air or phone - so if
there is an APRSIS32 resource somewhere I could point them at,
that'd be great.<br>
<br>
On an unrelated note, I also noticed a huge volume of APRS traffic
on RF in the local area today. There appears to be a cell phone
running APRSDroid dropping packets onto APRS-IS every 18s, and
somebody is gating them onto RF putting WIDE2-2 on the via path. It
is not entirely clear to me what station is doing that. I have a
couple of candidates and have dropped a friendly email to them.<br>
<br>
Thank you,<br>
<br>
John<br>
KR0L<br>
<br>
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