[aprssig] Ham Radio, Use it or Lose it!

[Tom Russo]

On Fri, May 23, 2008 at 01:18:19PM -0400, we recorded a bogon-computron collision of the <cgreenhalgh at studentaffairs.osu.edu> flavor, containing:
> Then...the internet. As its use gain momentum, I watched as more and
> more APRS stations where disappearing. Now, over the years, I see a lot
> of the stationary APRS stations abandoning RF, to inserting their
> location/weather data via the internet. 

This is my peeve du jour.  All of the weather stations in my area have
gone this route, injecting their weather directly to the internet, and they
no longer have RF stations attached.

We had an Igate briefly that would gate them back to RF, but it went away 
due to equipment problems.  Even then it was not complete, because many of 
these direct-to-internet "ham" WX stations are connecting to APRS-IS without 
authenticating, and therefore have TCPXX in their paths prohibiting their 
being gated.

Now, there is NO local APRS weather station data making it to RF, and that means
that when I'm mobile there's no way to get at that data.  Very sad.  

-- 
Tom Russo    KM5VY   SAR502   DM64ux          http://www.swcp.com/~russo/
Tijeras, NM  QRPL#1592 K2#398  SOC#236 AHTB#1 http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?DDTNM
 "It's so simple to be wise: just think of something stupid to say and
  then don't say it."  --- Sam Levinson