<div dir="ltr">I'd love to see a return to aspects of messaging and bulletins that seem remarkably forgotten in all but the oldest APRS clients. I freely admit I haven't used very many APRS clients in the past few years, so perhaps I'm clueless on that aspect.<div><br></div><div>I think there is an opportunity to create some new and interesting features:</div><div><ul><li>Auto-expiring objects and items (to enforce some ephemerality to those things)</li><li>Location beacons providing multiple position data points in a single beacon</li><li>Bulletins/Announcements being first class features of APRS clients, both easier to create and keep updated</li></ul><div>There are plenty of ideas, obviously. It's a question of who would've approached Bob about any of them in the last few years, when he had very visibly moved on from APRS to solar projects.</div><div><br></div><div>Bob was the custodian. Now we have to figure out how to distribute the machetes to cut new trails through the jungle. It's not all paved-over, not even close.</div><div><br></div><div>--R</div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><i>--</i></div><i><b>Randy AA6RH</b></i><div><i><a href="mailto:aa6rh@socorad.io" target="_blank">aa6rh@socorad.io</a></i></div><div><i>Grid Square: CM88pl</i></div><div><i><a href="https://www.qrz.com/db/aa6rh" target="_blank">QRZ Profile</a><br></i></div><div><i>Sonoma County DMR: <a href="https://brandmeister.network/?page=lh&jsonquery=%7B%22condition%22%3A%22AND%22%2C%22rules%22%3A%5B%7B%22id%22%3A%22DestinationID%22%2C%22field%22%3A%22DestinationID%22%2C%22type%22%3A%22integer%22%2C%22input%22%3A%22text%22%2C%22operator%22%3A%22equal%22%2C%22value%22%3A%2231707%22%7D%5D%7D" target="_blank">BrandMeister 31707</a></i></div></div></div></div><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Feb 9, 2022 at 3:13 PM Weston Bustraan <<a href="mailto:wbustraan@gmail.com">wbustraan@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div>As an author of brand new APRS client software (within the last year), I sure hope it's not going to decline, haha.</div><div><br></div><div>But I do want to challenge those that might say that, because a particular technology is old, or isn't constantly having new features added to it, that it will simply wither and fade away into obscurity. I would direct your attention to the HTTP 1.1 protocol, or the SMTP protocol. The RFC for HTTP 1.1 was released in 1997. To this day, it runs the Internet and sure doesn't show any signs of slowing down. Sure, companies like Google have tried to supplant it with a newer protocol, but they've had pretty limited success. Sometimes things just do the job that they were intended to do and don't need to do more.</div><div><br></div><div>I'm a ham on the younger side of things and I got into APRS because I'm a computer geek and it allowed me to meld computers and ham radio together. My daughter is 12 (and a ham) and she thinks APRS is pretty cool. I've shown a couple kids on her robotics team the APRS map and their response is "wow, that's so cool!". These are kids that have grown up with cell phones and the Internet.</div><div><br></div><div>I still believe in Bob's original vision of APRS. It's a situational awareness tool. Sure, it can be a vehicle tracking system, or a weather reporting system, or a messaging protocol, but it still shines in a) situations where infrastructure is not readily available and b) (believe it or not) interoperability. You're right, position tracking is no longer unique, but have you actually tried to do that with mixed devices? The vendor lock-in is strong, in that world.</div><div><br></div><div>I stand ready, as a developer, to add new, cool features to APRS, but I would ask, what do you want it to do? that it doesn't do right now? I know I've got an idea or two marinating for when I get time to work on them, but those ideas don't require any changes to the spec.</div><div><br></div><div>I am sad that Bob is gone. I only got to meet him very briefly at the last pre-COVID Hamvention. But there was nothing any of us could do about his condition. There is, however, something we can do about his legacy; we can take his inspiration, keep it going, and make it even better.</div><div><br></div><div>73, Wes Bustraan W8WJB</div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Feb 9, 2022 at 12:08 PM R Kirk via aprssig <<a href="mailto:aprssig@lists.tapr.org" target="_blank">aprssig@lists.tapr.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
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<div><span style="font-size:13.3333px">Steve, and all… Maybe this is time to let APRS decline gracefully. Ham radio, along with most of us, are no longer spring chickens either. I don’t see APRS as thriving in the future regardless of its leadership or structure. There are still a few fun niches but small position tracking is no longer unique. Every kid has a cell phone with most APRS capability. I don’t think the marvelous wide networking system you pioneered can go on for long. The question is whether to leave the system going as is, till every one eventually expires, or to pull the plug soon.</span></div>
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<div><span style="font-size:13.3333px">Are manufacturers going to continue to make APRS radios?</span></div>
<div><span style="font-size:13.3333px">Where are all those new hams? (We're getting pretty old & fat)</span></div>
<div><span style="font-size:13.3333px">Are you going to give your source code – to whom?</span></div>
<div><span style="font-size:13.3333px">Are the remaining hosts going to continue to make their servers available?</span></div>
<div><span style="font-size:13.3333px">Are protocols fixed forever?</span></div>
<div><span style="font-size:13.3333px">Is most of APRS just a weather network?</span></div>
<div><span style="font-size:13.3333px">Who’s left to track?</span></div>
<div><span style="font-size:13.3333px">Want to buy a buggy whip?</span></div>
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<div><span style="font-size:13.3333px">Bob Kirk</span></div>
<div><span style="font-size:13.3333px">N3OZB</span></div>
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<div style="font-family:arial,helvetica;font-size:10pt;color:black"><font size="2">-----Original Message-----<br>
From: Steve Dimse <<a href="mailto:steve@dimse.com" target="_blank">steve@dimse.com</a>><br>
To: Ian_Wade_G3NRW via aprssig <<a href="mailto:aprssig@lists.tapr.org" target="_blank">aprssig@lists.tapr.org</a>><br>
Sent: Wed, Feb 9, 2022 10:29 am<br>
Subject: [aprssig] WB4APR SK<br>
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<div dir="ltr">Yes, it is true. Amateur radio has lost a true pioneer in its transition to the digital age. I will certainly miss him. We often argued, but I deeply respected him. I'm glad I had the chance to express that to him unequivocally before his death. When he was diagnosed he was not expected to last 6 months but he made it two years, and it took covid to finish the job. He was tough as well as brilliant.<br>
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<div dir="ltr">Bob did not want to make a big deal of his cancer and did not want sympathy, so he only told a few people. He did drop a few hints over the last two years though. Bob tried to get a group of active programmers in APRS to come together, but no one stepped forward. We talked about it, and I told him I thought it would not happen until he made his diagnosis public and involved the larger community. He did not want to do that, so I agreed to help as I could. I have control of <a href="http://aprs.org" target="_blank">aprs.org</a>, and TAPR has the paperwork to transfer the APRS trademark.<br>
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<div dir="ltr">The APRS community has some choices to make. I am no spring chicken myself, and I have no desire to assume Bob's throne on top of APRS. However I am not going to just hand responsibility to a single person. This needs to be a community effort and not become dependent on a single person. We need to use this sad opportunity to strengthen APRS. I hope people will step forward to form a group to assume the leadership role. I would like to see a non-profit formed with a real board of directors, bylaws, and open membership. But I'm not going to do it - collaboration is not one of my strengths either!<br>
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<div dir="ltr">I am sure TAPR will be willing to help in any way it can, and a real APRS group should be able to secure a grant from ARDC (<a href="http://ampr.org" target="_blank">ampr.org</a>) for funding itself. If you weren't aware ARDC, which has held the <a href="http://44.0.0.0/8" target="_blank">44.0.0.0/8</a> IP allocation since the beginning, sold an unused quarter of the allocation to Amazon for $108 million a couple years back, and has been giving out grants for worthy ham radio projects. <br>
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<div dir="ltr">This can be a beginning of a new era for APRS if a few people are willing to take on a lot of unpaid, under-appreciated effort. If that doesn't happen, I will update the <a href="http://aprs.org" target="_blank">aprs.org</a> pages with new user-defined packet definitions and to-calls. I will not be drawn into discussion about protocol changes, new icons, or other such minutia. Other than housekeeping details, the protocol is not officially changing until an open membership group steps up and takes over. Without the ability to change, people may decide to implement changes unilaterally, which will not be good for the community.<br>
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<div dir="ltr">Bob loved APRS, and he wanted it to thrive after his death. But for all his flashes of brilliance he was never good at creating a collaborative group. We tried to help him by creating the APRS Working Group in the early 2000s but he never did anything with it once we created the protocol and stepped aside. It is time for someone to step into his shoes and lead, or APRS will decline.<br>
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<div dir="ltr">It is in your hands.<br>
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<div dir="ltr">Steve K4HG<br>
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