In article ,
says...

APRS was developed as a packet radio "killer application" by folks
associated with TAPR in the US.

The idea is to kill any interest in packet by eliminating its most
interesting and useful features, substituting a pointless internet-dependent
activity sure to put just about anyone to sleep.

snippety

Thank you for sharing your opinion.

I'm sorry you feel as you do.

I disagree most strongly.

There, now, wasn't that simple?

Oh, one more thing... *PLONK!*


--
Dr. Anton T. Squeegee, Director, Dutch Surrealist Plumbing Institute.
(Known to some as Bruce Lane, ARS KC7GR,
kyrrin (a/t) bluefeathertech[d=o=t]calm -- www.bluefeathertech.com
"If Salvador Dali had owned a computer, would it have been equipped
with surreal ports?"

I have to agree some what.. It's funny around here 90% of the APRS activity
is saying the house hasn't moved in the last few minuets. While APRS has
some interesting applications, I think it's suppose to be for tracking
moving objects. So unless you think you live near the yellow brick road, why
keep telling everyone where you live?

Just me, I'm sure..

Joe AG4QC

"Charles Brabham" wrote in message
news
APRS was developed as a packet radio "killer application" by folks
associated with TAPR in the US.

The idea is to kill any interest in packet by eliminating its most
interesting and useful features, substituting a pointless
internet-dependent
activity sure to put just about anyone to sleep.

APRS fits TAPR's ideal of a "killer application" perfectly - It kills off
all interest in the hobby. The more TNC's they can talk hams into tying up
so they can report thier house's position on the internet, the less will
be
used for communicating as hams or doing anything else that may be
interesting or useful.

In the US, tying up equipment to do APRS has taken the place of astrology,
numerology, or socialism a quick ( lack of ) intelligence test.

Charles, N5PVL

Charles Brabham wrote:

APRS was developed as a packet radio "killer application" by folks
associated with TAPR in the US.

The idea is to kill any interest in packet by eliminating its most
interesting and useful features, substituting a pointless internet-dependent
activity sure to put just about anyone to sleep.

APRS fits TAPR's ideal of a "killer application" perfectly - It kills off
all interest in the hobby. The more TNC's they can talk hams into tying up
so they can report thier house's position on the internet, the less will be
used for communicating as hams or doing anything else that may be
interesting or useful.

In the US, tying up equipment to do APRS has taken the place of astrology,
numerology, or socialism a quick ( lack of ) intelligence test.

Charles, N5PVL



Are you high?

Well, these folks are. Sorta. From 2003:
http://www.arrl-al.org/balloon_chase2.htm

We had another successful launch last week. The balloon reached
94,000ft. It transmitted aprs, id, position, altitude, and other data on
2 meters. It transmitted video at 434.000MHz from a downward-facing
mini-camera. We chased it from Huntsalulu to the AL-GA border north of
Mentone, monitoring *direct* APRS signals at 144.39 and 144.34. Also
used an ad hoc rolling network of chase cars at 146.52 and other simplex
frequencies. In short, this activity used just about every vhf trick in
the bag 'cept weak signal techniques.

It was a blast. Even the farmer who was bushhogging when it came down on
his pasture was ultra cool. He gave us a ride to the recovery site and
acted like things fall on his farm from near space every day. Ho hum.

Oh, and the only internet activity was back at the launch site, where we
were tracked on a map on a internet-connected laptop.

http://www.unclaimedmysteries.net/uah_balloon.php

73 Corry K4DOH
--
It Came From C. L. Smith's Unclaimed Mysteries.
http://www.unclaimedmysteries.net

T. Boozer wrote in rolltidefan.net: "That dude that took the picture,
Corry Smith, is a bigtime aubie. Notice he named the pic
'BRIANDENNEHYstadium' Screw him!"

"Charles Brabham" wrote

APRS fits TAPR's ideal of a "killer application" perfectly - It
kills off
all interest in the hobby. The more TNC's they can talk hams into
tying up
so they can report thier house's position on the internet, the less
will be
used for communicating as hams or doing anything else that may be
interesting or useful.

Charles, that may be to case in the US, but here in England, it was
the RSGB that killed off packet radio.

The Radio Society of GB had this odd idea that reducing the channel
spacing was needed because the commercial radio used closer channel
spacing than ham radio.

So now instead of 77 (of 80) channels mostly unused we have 158 (of
160) channels mostly unused.

Because a narrow channel requires less deviation, we all had to reduce
our deviation. This reduced the range of signals, such that the one
to one live activity that we enjoyed stopped within a very short time
as our signals could not be heard.

At least APRS has increased activity on VHF here. However I agree
that internet connections would appear to be more important for some
folk.

Reg, G4ENS

Charles Brabham wrote:

APRS was developed as a packet radio "killer application" by folks
associated with TAPR in the US.

The idea is to kill any interest in packet by eliminating its most
interesting and useful features, substituting a pointless
internet-dependent activity sure to put just about anyone to sleep....

I don't see why one person's dislike for a particular use of a couple
frequencies should be grounds for such an attack. Hams do lots of different
things, which is one of the attractions of the hobby. I have no real
interest in APRS, but if others find it amusing to hook three or more
different kinds of technology together to do something, why not? It is no
more pointless than DX or moonbounce or QRP or dozens of other ham
activities. If some people are having fun and learning a few things, more
power to them, except the QRP crowd, of of course. N5PVL needs to get
himself a hobby.

John, WA9FCH

"Charles Brabham" wrote in message:

APRS was developed as a packet radio "killer application" by folks
associated with TAPR in the US.

Hi Charles:

I don't believe that is true. If you'll check early issues of Gateway
(I think around 1993) you'll see APRS was initially developed to track
sailboats out of the U.S. Naval academy in Annapolis, MD. So if you
want to go pointing fingers, point it at the U.S. Navy.

Now, if your claiming TAPR shameless tried to ride the coattails of
APRS, then I will agree with you. Their only real contribution to APRS
was to form the APRS working group, which they quickly cut and run
from leaving a adminstrative FUBAR'ed mess behind.


The idea is to kill any interest in packet by eliminating its most
interesting and useful features, substituting a pointless internet-dependent
activity sure to put just about anyone to sleep.

Have you even run APRS? Up until about 1998 it didn't even use the
internet, and the way it uses the internet is as a giant data
collector. APRS is firmly in the RF domain, even if some people use it
to track their homes ;-(

APRS fits TAPR's ideal of a "killer application" perfectly - It kills off
all interest in the hobby.

TAPR bashing aside, APRS has generated quite a bit of interest in the
hobby, and a strong case could be made it has prolonged interest in RF
based packet radio.

The more TNC's they can talk hams into tying up
so they can report thier house's position on the internet, the less will be
used for communicating as hams or doing anything else that may be
interesting or useful.

Ahh.... now that is the rub, isn't it? "anything interesting or
useful"

What do you suggest? The only other popular packet application on the
horizon I see is WinLink. You may not like that, but those are the
facts. And oh, did I mention, WinLink has a form of APRS position
reporting in it as well.

Charles, you interest in some of streaming protocols is well placed.
This could be a killer application if further developed and refined.
If your that concerned, I suggest putting efforts into that.

Thanks for showing everyone you lack a real understanding of APRS.
Ignorance is bliss.

Charles Brabham wrote:
APRS was developed as a packet radio "killer application" by folks
associated with TAPR in the US.

The idea is to kill any interest in packet by eliminating its most
interesting and useful features, substituting a pointless internet-dependent
activity sure to put just about anyone to sleep.

APRS fits TAPR's ideal of a "killer application" perfectly - It kills off
all interest in the hobby. The more TNC's they can talk hams into tying up
so they can report thier house's position on the internet, the less will be
used for communicating as hams or doing anything else that may be
interesting or useful.

In the US, tying up equipment to do APRS has taken the place of astrology,
numerology, or socialism a quick ( lack of ) intelligence test.

Charles, N5PVL