[FARC] APRS Software Info

[Joseph M. Durnal]

On Fri, May 1, 2009 at 9:43 AM, Kirk Talbott <kirktal7237 at msn.com> wrote:

> ... My
> particular rub is when bureaucratic entities determine, often arbitrarily,
> that one system or method of emergency communication is so much more
> beneficial than any other,  that other methods of emergency communication
> are deemed antiquated and thus excluded.    This is not good....


There seems to be a movement to force hams to adopt winlink for
emergency communications.  Not that winlink is all that bad, and is
probably the best ham radio e-mail implementation out there, its HF
implementation is often abused at the expense of other digital modes,
with one side or the other not listening befor transmitting.  Pactor
is a relentless digital mode that will hammer the band until it gets
its way.  So your PSK31 QSO may just have to wait for someone to send
their e-mail.

The airmail program itself is limited.  On HF it requires a
proprietary pactor modem and there are only a couple of TNCs it works
with on VHF with the biggest problem being that it doesn't work with
software packet engines.  You are also limited to Windows, so Mac &
Linux users are left out.


... On another subject in the thread, some folks don't like to be
tracked, even some that use APRS.  Most APRS clients have position
ambiguity, which basically puts you within the nearest 10th of a
minute or the nearest minute, etc, configurable.  The Xastir client
displays this in a great way, your station with a dotted box around it
indicating that you could be anywhere within that box!

73 de Joseph Durnal NE3R