[aprssig] Email addresses in APRS

[Herb Gerhardt]

I have been sending out my email address on every digi and station I
control.  Yes there are a number of them and I have been doing that for well
over 10 years.  So far I do not believe anyone has spammed me because of
sending out my email address on APRS.  Hopefully no one will now try to Spam
me because of this message.  Hi, hi...

I encourage people to send an email address out periodically from their APRS
station/digi and don't see any need to disguise it.  It is very useful
information since you can now contact the owner directly and very easily if
you have things you want to relay to that station.  I use that method when I
notice people not using correct paths, etc.  This is especially useful for
new digi operators who don't yet understand their local network.  No one has
ever chastised me for doing that since it is done in a very encouraging
teaching way.  I offer to help them set up their TNC's and stations.  There
are lots of new folks who still have problems setting up their stations.
We, the old timers can recognize old out dated information in the internet
and in print, but a newcomer has no idea what is old or what is current and
they try to follow the programming of what they read.

So, I do encourage all APRS users to include their email in the text they
send out with their station on a periodic basis.  Let's not get paranoid
about SPAM.  The Spamers will find you if they want to and probably not
because of our Ham Radio hobby.  The delete key has always served me well in
getting rid of message that have subject lines of no interest to me.

Herb, KB7UVC
NW APRS Group, West Sound Coordinator
Our WEB Site:  http://www.nwaprs.info

-----Original Message-----
From: aprssig-bounces at lists.tapr.org
[mailto:aprssig-bounces at lists.tapr.org]On Behalf Of Bob Bruninga
Sent: Sunday, August 10, 2008 8:36 AM
To: aprssig at lists.tapr.org
Subject: [aprssig] Email addresses in APRS


Many are hesitant to include their Email address in their APRS packets for
fear of SPAM.

Maybe we need a unique ham radio equvalent for "@".
Actually, we do.  It is "de"...

In other words... wb4apr de amsat.org which only wastes 3 extra bytes...

Or wb4apr(d)amsat.org which wastes two but makes it one word...  we need an
ARRL standard for ham radio.

Bob, WB4APR