[aprssig] Email addresses in APRS

[Drew Baxter]

In my case I put the e-mail address there so people would have an 
easy way to contact me if they notice a problem or if there is 
something I can do to improve the IGATE.  Heck, if they just want to 
get their own station online, I'm happy to help there too.  I do 
admit that many operators are well aware of QRZ.com lookups and could 
find my information there too, but they generally e-mail my address 
in my status line.

GMail is relatively good about spam filtering.  People can always 
just set up a Gmail account just for that if they would like.  It 
isn't a requirement to post an e-mail address.  It's just another 
dimension of accessibility in the ham community.

--Droo, K1XVM

At 12:23 PM 8/10/2008, Gary wrote:
>Why are email addresses needed over APRS anyway? I'm concerned about 
>this seemingly never-ending
>effort in amateur radio to connect more and more radio modes to the 
>World Wide Web. Some
>interconnection is useful but the internet is infrastructure 
>dependent whereas radio (for the most
>part) is not in my view. Winlink, Outpost, Packet, APRS, PSK, and 
>who knows how many other data
>based modes can interconnect wirelessly. I see these modes as each a 
>sort of network parallel to but
>not adversely affected by the internet and its weaknesses. If the 
>internet should it fail locally,
>regionally, or globally then I would hope these modes (and others) 
>could be used by amateurs to
>restore some critical communications to the affected area without 
>having to reprogram or reconfigure
>their gear or the automatic messages they send. Seems to me some may 
>need to reprogram or
>reconfigure their APRS message(s) if they include only internet 
>based email addresses vs. say,
>Winlink or Outpost addresses (as an example). Sending info on a 
>local info/emergency (voice) channel
>that is always monitored would seem more useful than an internet 
>email address especially when there
>are limited bytes available in the APRS message. In my area GMRS 
>enthusiasts are still doing this
>but amateurs here seem to have gotten away from forming a group of 
>control ops who rotate the
>monitoring of key freqs and/or repeaters. I don't have the answers 
>but it just doesn't seem right to
>continue building dependence between amateur wireless networks and 
>the internet.
>Gary
>N6LRV