[aprssig] WIDE4-4 comments

[Tom Russo]

On Thu, Nov 08, 2007 at 02:48:09PM -0500, we recorded a bogon-computron collision of the <bruninga at usna.edu> flavor, containing:
> New Mexico APRS:
> 
> I visited Albuquerque for an hour and was pleased to see my HT
> while sitting in the airport fill up with information on the
> surrounding ham radio activities.  I noticed all the digis were
> well programmed to the New-N paradigm and gave me, the visitor,
> all the information I needed.
> 
> One thing I noticed was that all digipeaters listed W4 as the
> recommended hop size.  Since I was only using a D7 HT, and did
> not have a map display, I could only see the last 40 stations
> and could not get a good visualization on the big picture.  So I
> am curious how well this W4 recommendation is working out.

According to your instructions on how to set the comment field at
<http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/aprs/n-n-overlays.txt>
the "Wn" in the comment is supposed to reflect the limit.  When Chuck,
KC5AYV, set up all our digis for New n-N he almost certainly used that page
for guidance.  He did that a couple of years ago.

This is the first time I've ever heard that the "Wn" part of the digi
comment is supposed to be the recommendation.

Many local users in Albuquerque still use 3-hop paths.  I don't really think
it is that wise, as our state does have phenomenal coverage for users in the
central part of the state, and enough users in this area that using wide 3-3 
is probably QRMing all over the place.  I try to stick to 2-hop paths where
possible.

I do think that some of the digis are misconfigured --- it appears that they
have WIDE1-1 set as MYALIASes, so a station using WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1 will cause
the same ping-ponging that RELAY,WIDE2-1 used to cause when in an area that
is covered by more than one digi (such as Albuquerque).  I need to drop a
not to Chuck about that.

-- 
Tom Russo    KM5VY   SAR502   DM64ux          http://www.swcp.com/~russo/
Tijeras, NM  QRPL#1592 K2#398  SOC#236 AHTB#1 http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?DDTNM
"And, isn't sanity really just a one-trick pony anyway? I mean all you get is
 one trick, rational thinking, but when you're good and crazy, oooh, oooh,
 oooh, the sky is the limit!"  --- The Tick