[aprssig] Satellite positions: FREQUENCY

[Chris Walker]

I also agree that the satellite information should be delivered via
Objects vs messages.

However I see a growing problem, that of a growing number of CLASSES
or CLASSIFICATIONS of objects and no explicit information in the
objects for differentiation.

For example, weather alert objects, have two things in common, the
station that injected them into APRS-IS and the format of the data.

Both are sub-optimal for classification, on one hand if the
originating station is coded as a filter and the station changes, the
method fails, if the station injects other types of objects the
classification fails.

The data format as well is sub optimal, for example I received a ISS
object that looked just like a weather alert down to the Multiline
Object Format superficially looking valid.

Another example are Earthquake Objects, which suffer from the same
problem of hard coding an originating stations or relying on the
symbol information. The symbol information would seem like a good
idea, except any user can use an Earthquake symbol (and in many
applications a user may not even know it is an earthquake symbol,
because there is no text describing the symbol to the user)....there
is at least one user near Austin, TX who is using the earthquake
symbol as a station identifier.

In summary, even though it adds another layer of management, a way to
classify objects of a certain type, i.e. Weather Alerts, Earthquakes,
or Satellite Positions, would be useful. It would allow applications
to simply filter objects that the user is interested in.

The question is how to encode the classification information in an
unobtrusive way as possible. Unfortunately, considering the data
format for weather alert objects, I can't think of a way that is
backward compatible.

Perhaps a way of using the symbol data in an overloaded way is
possible, a classified object could simply use a single bit set to one
to signify that the symbol data can be trusted for classification as
opposed to being a symbol just randomly selected by a user for some
other meaning.

In any case, that's my 2 cents on the matter.

Chris Walker
KD7YAQ