[aprssig] Part 3/3: Updating APRS Clients (Consumer Needs)

[Jason KG4WSV]

On Jan 14, 2008 8:22 PM, Ev Tupis <w2ev at yahoo.com> wrote:

>
> The DCC article itself addresses one need tactically and was offered to be
> sent to anyone who had an interest (offer still good).


OK, I'd like a copy, but I will say again: if you want to discuss a
particular shortcoming on the list, please tell us what it is!

They care about emergency ration locations (fuel, food, shelter), location
> of ambulances and fire trucks, environmental conditions (WX, Atmospheric
> Opacity, Floodwater Levels, etc.), traffic speed within incident areas (tied
> to fixed location radar guns), electrical service delivery status, etc.


Why do you say in one paragraph they don't care about weather symbols, but
in the next they do care about weather?  Is this apparent contradiction an
indication that there is something wrong with the way APRS clients display
WX data?

There are APRS symbols for fuel, food, water, ambulance, fire trucks, police
cars, a flood symbol - the only thing I see missing is a specific
"atmospheric opacity" symbol, but I would think the "haze" symbol would do
in a pinch. There are even objects that correspond to lines and polygons -
developed and used by WX folks, but certainly not restricted to their use.

Are the symbols simply ugly? unintuitive? are there already symbols familiar
to these folks that we should use instead?

One thing is how to get this data into APRS.  Who has the data?  does it
exist, but isn't integrated?

Who needs the data, and why can't they get it if they don't have it (i.e.,
where do APRS and hams come in)?

Are there commercial applications that meet these needs?  If so, is there
anything APRS can learn from them?  For that matter, if they exist why
aren't they already deployed?


simply trying to understand the problem,
-Jason
kg4wsv
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