[Xastir-dev] Position accuracy

[Gerry Creager N5JXS]

Add to the list:  With a 1xRTT card, I use xastir when I travel, and use 
the Tiger maps to give me high quality street-level data.  I don't have 
a Windows computer to put DeLorme s/w on... and I've not investigated 
using WINE to do so either.  Hmm.  Maybe I should?

Jack Twilley wrote:
> WARNING: Unsanitized content follows.
> WARNING: Unsanitized content follows.
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
> 
> 
>>>>>>"Curt" == Curt Mills <Curt> writes:
> 
> 
> [...]
> 
> Curt> So... If you have a more precise position than what you can send
> Curt> over the air, of what use is it?
> 
> A quote from Benjamin Franklin comes to mind, when he was asked a
> similar question in 1873 about the use of balloons:
> 
> "Of what use is a newborn babe?"
> 
> Prepare for a shock:  there are people who use xastir for more than
> just sending and receiving positions via APRS. 
> 
> We currently have the ability to use maps with a finer level of detail
> than thousandths of a minute.  There are GPSes that transmit their
> positions with a higher precision than thousandths of a minute.  There
> are portable computers with color displays, xastir-friendly operating
> systems, and storage to hold lots of maps.
> 
> With xastir, a good GPS and the right maps, the possibilities are
> endless:
> 
>  * acts of orienteering can be committed
>    - geocaching
>    - confluence hunting
>    - highpointing
>  * urban trips become survivable
>    - traverse Boston's Freedom Trail
>    - play tourist in Manhattan from Battery Park to Broadway
>    - visit San Francisco's ethnic environments
>  * retrace famous paths
>    - run the Boston (or NYC, or ...) marathon off-season
>    - go where Lewis and Clark went way back then
>    - ride the old Route 66
> 
> Not a single one of these uses necessitates amateur radio.  Sure, ham
> radio can come along for any and all of those adventures, but it's not
> a requirement.  
> 
> Curt> The compressed positions give you an accuracy of 1 foot
> Curt> world-wide as I recall.  I can't imaging needing anything better
> Curt> than that for any APRS use.
> 
> It's my not-so-humble opinion that restricting xastir to the limits
> currently imposed by APRS is short-sighted.
> 
> Jack.
> - -- 
> Jack Twilley
> jmt at twilley dot org
> http colon slash slash www dot twilley dot org slash tilde jmt slash
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> Version: GnuPG v1.2.3 (FreeBSD)
> 
> iD8DBQE/0tRmGPFSfAB/ezgRAuedAKCW1e0OyCGk0nZScFduPOJfkUue6ACePmJH
> 70PDwY6F5tzT96kL8SEnj7Q=
> =o7VN
> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
> _______________________________________________
> Xastir-dev mailing list
> Xastir-dev at xastir.org
> http://krypton.hscs.virginia.edu/mailman/listinfo/xastir-dev

-- 
Gerry Creager -- gerry.creager at tamu.edu
Network Engineering -- AATLT, Texas A&M University	
Cell: 979.229.5301 Office: 979.458.4020 FAX: 979.847.8578
Page: 979.228.0173
Office: 903A Eller Bldg, TAMU, College Station, TX 77843