[aprssig] Why Should a Digi Use a Path?

[Jason Winningham]

On Jul 27, 2007, at 7:20 AM, Ken Patterson wrote:

> Can anyone give a clear & concise reason why the majority of APRS  
> digis
> should transmit it's own position, wx or telemetry report with a path?

That's three different  questions in one.

First telemetry: it depends entirely on the telemetry.  Can't give an  
answer without knowing what the telemetry means and the intended  
audience.

WX: should use a path to give similar coverage to other WX stations  
in the area.  There's no major difference in this and other WX  
stations in the area, other than it's coming out of the digi.  If  
it's a well sited digi, it should probably use one hop less than  
recommended, since it's got it's first hop to the digi by living in  
the same box as the digi.

As for its own position, I cannot have a clear picture of what _my_  
packet will do if I do not have a clear picture of the infrastructure  
in my area. I need to know about the network, and digis are the  
network infrastructure.

Not all of us play the internet game.  findu is a great tool, but  
honestly if findu and the whole APRS-IS disappeared from the planet  
completely, my use of APRS would change very little.

All of this is just my opinion, of course.  YMMV.

-Jason
kg4wsv