[Xastir] Question: Should I be an igate or not?

[James Washer]

I'm fairly new to APRS. I've done a fair amount of googling, etc.. and still have a few questions about igates.

Q1)Should I be an igate? With what crireria should I make this decision. Here's what I'd did to make my decision. I used xastir to put out an ?igate? query and received no responses. Further, looked at those few packets from my mobile tracker that made it to findu, and went searching for the igate. ~200 miles away from here.. So, I decided this was sufficient evidence to support my decision to run as an igate. Do you agree, or is there some better method? Or does it matter how many igates there are?

Q2)How do I choose the right internet site ( whatever they are called ) for the 'net' connection. Again, with much hunting around, I located a site.. but is it the 'right' site?


Q3)Is there any documentation that explains what occurs on the net(tcpip) side of this whole system. i.e. Is there some master site? Many peer site? etc etc.