Northern Illinois APRS Network

[Bill Diaz]

We have seen a large number of new APRS users using totally incorrect, or improper paths. It seems they are using path's recommended by others without regard to the type of station, local network conditions or the effect on other APRS networks.

For example, many fixed stations are using APRS,RELAY,WIDE when they can hear one or more WIDES direct. This causes all RELAYS near the originating station to digi the packet, and some WIDES are digipeating these packets twice, once as RELAY and again as WIDE. Not unusual to see the same packet digipeated locally 4 or more times. These and other packets may be lost due to collisions as the original packet ping-pongs around the network.

If you can hear one or more WIDES at your fixed station, DO NOT include RELAY in your Unproto path. APRS,WIDE or APRS, WIDE2-2 will reduce the amount of traffic seen in your local area, and increase the reliablity of the network.

Similarly, Digi's should not use APRS,RELAY,WIDE if they can hear other WIDES direct.

See http://www.billdiaz.dynip.com/aprs_info.htm for information on more acceptable paths.

Bill KC9XG

[KC6VVT]

Agree with Bill's recognition of a serious problem of indiscriminate use of WIDE in our paths, and too long a path that results.

All Illinois WIDE digipeating stations should view the WB4APR pages at the U. S. Naval Academy and reduce the vast number of mindless digipeating well past their ALOHA range.

Adopting one of these methods in Illinois to help save APRS as soon as possible.

All Illinois APRS stations using WIDE as an alias are asked to shift to IL as an alias. Do replace WIDE or WIDE2-2 with the new IL or IL2-2 path alias.

See http://www.qsl.net/ares-il/APRS.html soon. Be ready, and get your APRS digipeater ready for the emergency.

very 73 de Pat KC6VVT

[W9GWP]

With the growth of home stations that have put themselves on the air as RELAY digi's.. it is now a bad idea for any fixed station to use RELAY in it's path. If a house can't hit a Widen-N reliably but can be heard by another home, that callsign should be used as a jump off... example:

If W9ABC can be heard by W9XYZ and XYZ can be heard by a Widen-N digi then a path of:
W9XYZ,Wide2-2 will give W9ABC a reliable first jump to the Widen-N and not cause unwanted QRM by firing off other RELAY's that might also hear W9ABC. I've watched the packets go by on some days and have seen cases like this, some homes consistantly being digi's by two to three other homes, ping ponging into the Widen-N's.
This small change can make a great difference in helping our network throughput become more reliable.
73,
George W9GWP

[ka9vnv]

I got some time today and reprogrammed the KA9VNV-15 digi to remove TRACE from its capabilities, and add IL and ILn-n in. I'll update the KD9PK-15 digi when it goes back into service along the state line this spring.

[W9GWP]

Jeff, They still want Widen-N capability for mobiles to use RELAY,WIDE2-2
We have N9IJ-10 set up for

UIF IL,30,ID
UIT wide,30

73,
George

[ka9vnv]

[W9GWP]

Jeff,

yea, with wide on UIT you of course get callsign substitution and decrement, but you don't kill the path of where the beacon originated. Actually, your callsign is TX'd with the packet so that's does in a sense produce a station ID.

The problem with using UIF with ID turned on, is kills the path history ( sometimes a valuable tool for checking the network )

That's why I used UIF for IL .... where it came from is only a hop or two away from a fixed station, so it's path history isn't that critical

73,
George

[ka9vnv]