What's the deal with WIDEN-n?
 

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[This message was reposted from eHam.net's APRS forum by the author]

I'm writing an APRS client in Ruby, so I've spent a lot of time
staring at packets. I think I understand how RELAY works -- whatever
station repeats RELAY packets replaces RELAY with their callsign. WIDE
works the same way, but what about WIDEN-n? I've collected some
packets with my AEA TNC to demonstrate my confusion.

KE6STHW6CX-3*WIDESWRRSR:'1PQ!68k/]"4%}Sione
KE6STHW6CX-3W6CO-5*SWRRSR:'1PQ!68k/]"4%}Sione

In this case, WIDE is being replaced with W6CO-5 when that station
repeats the packet. That makes perfect sense.

K6HG-9*WIDE2-1S7RURP:'2]1l sk/]"3q}
K6HG-9WIDE2*S7RURP:'2]1l sk/]"3q}

What station is repeating this packet? I can't tell. What's supposed
to happen here?

KE6TIP-3*WIDE4-3APRS:!3757.24NN12218.40W#PHG4268/A=3D000850/SanPabloRidge=
,Richmond
KE6TIP-3*WIDE4-2APRS:!3757.24NN12218.40W#PHG4268/A=3D000850/SanPabloRidge=
,Richmond

This fascinates me. Why does the same station -- the originating
station even -- repeat a packet and decrement the counter?

Help!
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Jack Twilley
jmt at twilley dot org
http colon slash slash www dot twilley dot org slash tilde jmt slash
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