[aprssig] APRS Weather hops and rates

[Stephen H. Smith]

Robbie, wa9inf wrote:
> Robert Bruninga wrote:
>> I need to make sure I am best representing the Weather
>> contingent in APRS.
>>
>> Does the following statement best capture the best interests of
>> both the weather guys and all the rest of APRS users combined?
>>
>> "Generally WX stations should transmit weather data once every
>> 10 minutes in the local area only.  A Weather station should
>> transmit using a local path either direct or at most one hop.
>> Under the unusual situation where 2 hops may be required, then
>> the update rate should be reduced to once every 30 minutes.  If
>> two hops are needed just to get to a NWS station or an Igate,
>> then a generic/directed path of WIDE2-1,DIGIX should be used in
>> that one direction."
>>
>
>
> I think weather is more important locally, than mobiles driving to and 
> from work. That said, if I can only see the weather say 15 miles away 
> from me, and there was a fast moving change approaching, what good did 
> that weather station do me? Everyone knows that a fast change in air 
> pressure is the key to all our weather..
>
> With Ui-View, I cursor over all the weather stations on RF around me 
> to see what is going on, and can see from 40-80 miles West and 
> Southwest of me, and at this time of the year, I even watch to the 
> northwest of me, :-)    If those stations were only transmitting every 
> 30 minutes, I think most of that on coming weather would already be 
> past me! I avoid the so called "Sea of Blue" from the CWOPs, and I 
> mean no offense to those valuable Weather Stations at all by filtering..
>

We need something analogous to mobile "smart beaconing" combined with 
"proportional pathing" for weather.    When the station sees a rapid 
change in key variables (wind speed, barometer, temp??), it would 
increase the beacon rate.  After the front passes through and variables 
quit changing rapidly, the beacons could slow down again.  The beacon 
paths would shift to a higher percentage of long-path beacons during 
rapid changes, and revert to a higher percentage of no-path beacons when 
nothing is happening.



--

Stephen H. Smith    wa8lmf (at) aol.com
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