[aprssig] WinLink and the APRS-IS

[Spider]

Folks!

Something fairly exciting is getting ready to happen.  Near Real-Time 
reporting of Winlink Telpac nodes are going to start to appear on the 
APRS-IS.  They have been and are currently being tested on FireNet, however, 
the powers that be want the objects on the APRS-IS...which does not 
personally bother me one way or the other.  I think that a primary purpose 
of APRS and any IS is to have data available to gate to RF that will be of 
use to A. Public Service and B. the Amateur community.  As Steve has 
said....many times...that was the idea behind the APRS-IS.


Each Telpac node will have the ability to send their own Winlink Object to 
the APRS server of their choice.  Of Course, these will always be welcome on 
FireNet which are the default servers.  However, if they choose to have them 
on the APRS-IS, then they can pick the server of their choice to do so.

Some APRS-IS server operators might not like this....and it is their choice 
to lock them out or suggest to those users to seek another server that will 
accept them...there are a bunch.  Of Course, in the spirit of Amateur Radio, 
FireNet support Experimentation.

Some APRS-IS users will not like them....and now they can minus them out 
with the new JavaFilter settings.

It is hoped that the Amateur Community and the APRS Igates will take 
advantage of this data and reasonably gate these
objects to RF.

I am currently gating the beta data using the DESTINATION CALLSIGN and my 
JavaFilter on the APRS-IS.
My range filter is set somewhere close to 90Km around my station.  I gate 
the Destination call of APWL2K using my UI-View Igate by adding the 
following to my Igate.ini file under the  Inet to RF section.....

APWL2K=DEST,WIDE2-1

That gives me a 1-hop path around my station.

So, with all that said, I am geared up to help those Igates that would like 
to support this project.  All others....well, you do not want to hear my 
other comments here! ;-O

The packets will something like the following on RF;

WA6OFT-15>APWL2K,TCPIP,WA6OFT-1,WA7RAT-10,WIDE2* <UI>:
;WA6OFT-15*120102z3408.75NW11417.50WaPHG6170 145.550,1200b,Telpac 
www.winlink.or

There may or may not be changes to this but with UI-View, using the 
Destination callsign works well for gating Winlink objects within a range 
filter.  There are also other ways to gate these packets, so if you need 
help...feel free to ask.

This the near past, there has been communications in regards to the current 
WinLink nodes showing up on APRS.
These packets had a SOURCE of WNLK-3 and that will not be the case with the 
new objects.  Each new Telpac node object will have a amateur callsign 
attached to it and that operator will be the one gating them....and only 
when it's online!

I hope this project does not upset the majority of APRS users.

With Kind Regards,

Jim, WA6OFT