[aprssig] APRS in Atlanta - flooding the network

[Bill Vodall]

> If you’re sending GPS messages getting to the IGate and maybe one or two Digis
> is the only thing that's important. If you’re trying to send messages from
> point A to point B the IGates already know how to get the message to the other
> party. Why would you want to plug up a 1200 baud RF network when you can use a
> high speed internet backbone? The internet is not only faster it's (normally)
> more reliable. While the RF network can have packet collisions the internet
> side normally won't.
> 
> Please don't take this the wrong way I'm merely trying to get more information.
> But name one connection where you NEED to use RF instead of letting the
> internet help the packet along. Now assuming there are NO IGates near you then
> you might have a valid reason to flood several Digi's with your signal.

For normal day to day use, yes - using a two hop path and letting the IGates
do their magic for our APRS communication is a good thing.

But this is about radio and the special things we can do with it.  If
needed, we can reach out and communicate over extended ranges.  The
new paradigm has the backdoor paths that make this possible.  As such,
it's a good thing to test and exercise it so we the operators have an
idea of what's possible and how to do it.

As so many operators have gone to Video Game Mode, I'm going to continue
doing more manual operation focused on RF.  It's fun and at times
very useful.

This is the year 2005.  The 21st century and all that.   The era of HDTV
and downloading movies from the net.   If a couple manually entered one
line text messages are going to flood the network and mess up the
neighboring systems, then it's time to quit wasting time, turn off
the system and get back to downloading season 2 of B5.

73
Bill - WA7NWP