[aprssig] Why RELAY,WIDE... is so bad....

[AE5PL Lists]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Wes Johnston
> Posted At: Friday, April 01, 2005 9:54 AM
> Subject: Re: [aprssig] Why RELAY,WIDE... is so bad....
> 
> RELAY and W1-1.  Then we could sunset the RELAY.  Also, not 
> that anyone does this today anyway, but we have to re-educate 
> everyone to not run W1-1 after the first position.

Ah but there are.  Here in the DFW area, 3 hops covers the entire
Metroplex and then some which is totally unacceptable for local
operation.  We encourage local users to a maximum of 2 hops which means
that some mobiles on the outer areas today are using RELAY,WIDE1-1 and
home stations may be using digicall,WIDE1-1 (since we are trying to get
rid of WIDE, right?).

The problem with all of this (as stated before by one of our European
friends) is that we are trying to work around bugs in a single TNC's
firmware instead of fixing the problem by moving to a system which isn't
reliant on manufacturer's misinterpretations of how to do things.  Heck,
we still have KPC's here in the DFW area operating as WIDEn-n
digipeaters that are using 8.2 firmware or earlier (which are REALLY
buggy).

Wes, you have always done a good job promoting smart digipeating and I
applaud you for it.  I hope that you take it one step further and
promote using those smart digipeaters to eliminate source routing
completely which is the direction you have been headed anyway.  The
algorithm I put forth allows for home digipeaters to use an alias such
as RELAY so not everyone has to be at the no-source level and it allows
for legacy TNC's such as the KPC's to continue to coexist while crushing
this dupe problem that we are seeing once the packet hits the first
smart digipeater.

I believe that when people see how easy it is to operate APRS on a
relatively quiet channel, we can generate much more local enthusiasm
amongst the local area hams across the country.  As long as this "what
do I set my path to when I..." question continues to go unanswered (as
it will with all of these area specific requirements), I think we
continue to push away people who could greatly benefit from APRS and its
abilities such as ARES and RACES organizations.

73,

Pete Loveall AE5PL
mailto:pete at ae5pl.net