[aprssig] EchoLink APRS-IS Ojbects Mothballed

[Robert Bruninga]

> Could you come up with a stand alone program 
> that given a lat/long would return info on 
> the N nearest active echolink nodes?
> Given that,  it will be fairly simple to 
> tie it into the query or 'trk' functions
> of Digi_ned so those of us who are interested 
> and would actually use it on RF could have a 
> solution.

Yes, DIGI_NED, INFO-KIOSK and the original APRSdata engines can
all provide this kind of local info.  But in a dozen years,
people simply are not pushing this data out there.  And if they
are, they are usually SPAMING their local region with 2-hop
objects.

Hence our recent initiative to try to originate these
centrally...  But for this to work through the APRS-IS, we have
to have mobile's that can display an item-in-message.  This
allows objects to be pushed through the APRS-IS and into a local
Igate for devliery to a requesting mobile.  Being able to Query
central data bases for localinfo is one of the driving needs for
this function.

This item-in-message has been on the requested-features list of
APRS1.2 for about a year now..  It is the only reliable way to
get a random remote OBJECT back through an Igate into a specific
area.  www.aprs.org/aprs12.html

Bob, WB4APR