[aprssig] Wow, what a lot of traffic!

[Stephen H. Smith]

Earl Needham wrote:
>     I was in Los Angeles a few days ago, and the amount of packets I saw 
> was simply incredible!  At one point I saw a TFC packet go by on my 
> HamHUD, and it said something like "310 in 10 minutes".  That's 
> something like one packet every 1.9 seconds!  Simply an incredible 
> amount of traffic, and I sure don't see that here in the "sticks".  I 
> think we see something on the order of 50 in 10 minutes here in Clovis, 
> NM, but I haven't checked in some time now, and it could be different.
>
>     Just to let everybody know, when I was in LA, I changed my UNPROTO to 
> WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1, and I also changed the SB parameters to give one packet 
> every TWO miles.  I certainly hope that was sufficient to avoid my 
> causing any problems with congestion on the frequency.
>
>     7 3
>     Earl
>
>   

The massive traffic level is the result of a population of 18 million in 
the greater metro Los Angeles area, in a basin completely rimmed by (and 
criss-crossed by)  mountains of 3000 to 6000 feet above the populated 
areas.  

Adding to the problem is that the Southern Cal coastline,  from Santa 
Barbara (about 90 mi north of LA) to Tijuana, Mexico (about  120 miles 
south of L.A.),  is a concave curve. As a result, any transmitter on any 
mountain within about 20-30 miles of the coast has a minimum-loss path 
across salt water to anywhere else on this 200-mile+ coastline!

L.A. digis are all single hop. Any additional hops are clipped or 
ignored.  The only path needed or that does anything is WIDE2-2 or 
WIDE2-1 alone.  Home fill-in WIDE1-1 digis are highly discouraged around 
here since the true WIDEn-Ns are all on serious mountains .  Users don't 
need low-level  help hitting them.  Ground-level fill-ins just add to 
the "Total APRS Overload" !

[By the way, did you see my Echolink object in Pasadena a.k.a. 
"438.15PAS" on your display?   Located in Pasadena at a "mere" 950 feet 
above sea level at the foot of the 5000' San Gabriel Mtn range.]


--

Stephen H. Smith    wa8lmf (at) aol.com     
EchoLink Node:      14400    [Think bottom of the 2M band]
Home Page:          http://wa8lmf.com  --OR--   http://wa8lmf.net

NEW!   World Digipeater Map
  http://wa8lmf.net/APRSmaps

JavAPRS Filter Port 14580 Guide
  http://wa8lmf.net/aprs/JAVaprsFilters.htm

"APRS 101"  Explanation of APRS Path Selection & Digipeating
  http://wa8lmf.net/DigiPaths

Updated "Rev H" APRS            http://wa8lmf.net/aprs
Symbols Set for UI-View,
UIpoint and APRSplus: