[Xastir] Using time field data in Xastir objects plus trail colour

[Jeff King]

Tim:

Some peoples goals for APRS like systems is a precise and useful tactical system, other people's goals are to become APRS rock stars showered with admiration from the masses. To achieve these goals, in the former case (tactical), you need to lock out non-compliant users, in the later case (rock star), you want as broad a base  as possible. The APRS rock star also needs to appeal to the lowest common denominator (1984 TNC's, deaf trackers,  folks without GPS'es, make up rules as you and of course track homes).

To some degree, OpenTrac evolved from this disconnect. No surprise here that the APRS rock stars where up in arms against OpenTrac when it first hit the scene, and tried their best to squash it.  Not sure of the status of OpenTrac these day. But I do agree with you here, just pointing out that amateur radio is less a technical hobby to many then they would have you believe on APRS-SIG. 

But back to your topic, timestamping packets, with atomic precise GPS time information, is self evident. To quote one of the rock stars, "duh". Yet this precision, and the discipline it would take to achieve it (telling Joe Ham he needs a GPS to send positional data), would reduce the user base. Hence the resistance you see.







On Mon, 31 Jan 2005 11:55:38 -0600, tbaggett at jump.net wrote:
>
>
>From: Gerry Creager N5JXS
>>There's been a lot of anguish about this on the APRS sig and the
>>strong opinions of some of the scions of this aspect of the hobby
>>that, well, thanks to the 'tactical' nature of APRS, timestamping
>>them when received is good enough.
>
>Well, I absolutly disagree with them. Timestamping packets when they
>were received and therefore ignoring the embedded NMEA timestamp has
>caused me a lot of issues in tracking balloons. Every year, the
>balloon trails appear to zig-zag across the US because the APRS
>posits are received out of order. The tracks end up looking more
>like some kind of string art.
>
>If the scions think this is acceptable, then great. One of the big
>advantages of open-source software is that if you disagree with
>them, you have the option to modify the software yourself.
>
>The real curious bit of this whole thing is that our balloons
>transmit every six minutes, and we often see posits that are 12 and
>sometimes 18 minutes old (or older). I suspect their paths are
>relayed too many times.
>
>73, Tim Austin, TX
>
>
>_______________________________________________ Xastir mailing list
>Xastir at xastir.org https://lists.xastir.org/mailman/listinfo/xastir