Winterfest Hamfest object

[Chip Fetrow]

No, I really don't think it is too strong.  Frankly, I believe I have  
been very reserved over the years.

Like you, I never got the APRS bug.  I sort of understood packet radio  
back when phone data rates were 2400 BAUDS, and Packet was 1200 BAUDS  
or there about, but I also understood the non-commercial issues with  
Packet.

For the most part, I never got APRS.  "Hey, come get my computer, my  
radio and my TNC.  It is in my car at..."

The weather aspect is not so stupid, but why would I put a weather  
station at my home on APRS when I can put it on really HIGH SPEED  
Internet?


None of this is the issue though.


Why in the WORLD should someone send an "un-key" data burst through  
any repeater that does not respond to it in any way?

The reason is he want's to sell the thing that goes between the mic  
and the radio.  There is NO OTHER REASON, since it doesn't work on  
most repeaters!

Bob will offer ON THE AIR to buy a TNC for a repeater ($100), but he  
will not agree OR ACTUALLY RUN AWAY FROM buying the combiner equipment  
($3500 OR MORE) that it costs on a shared repeater site.

Apparently, buying a TNC is enough of a deal to sell his stuff, but  
actually buying the equipment to bring up a wide area repeater is not  
going to give him the return on investment he wants.

Bob is into APRS for his own financial gains.  I find this offensive.

--chip

On Feb 26, 2011, at 3:26 PM, wb4jfi wrote:

> Little strong, Chip?
>
> I've never really gotten the APRS bug myself.  However, AMRAD is  
> about the only place for technical innovation and promoting new  
> technologies. I really don't believe that the DC area needs yet  
> another morning & evening traffic repeater, that is just SO boring,  
> I'm surprised more hams aren't involved in accidents because they  
> fell asleep listening to the local repeater of (non) interest.   
> Maybe Bob's occasional BRRRRR was enough to wake someone up before  
> they hit the beltway guardrail after listening to the umpteenth time  
> how someone was going home to cut their lawn.  Golly, you can't even  
> use the patch to order your pizza anymore!
>
> I've known Bob for MANY years, and yes, he is the "Johnny Appleseed"  
> of APRS, for better or worse.  But, hams appear to be interested in  
> APRS, so he must be onto something better than a egalitarian version  
> of CB for the drive home.  Come on, dress THAT pig up.
>
> Take a chill-pill and relax.  This is the AMRAD tacos (technical?)  
> reflector, not channel 19 (or 91 or 76 or 79 or u-pik-em).  I don't  
> think you will get much sympathy here.
>
> Gee, I didn't even use any of my "bad" words either!
> Back to technical stuff now....
> Terry
>
> On 2/26/2011 12:19 AM, Chip Fetrow wrote:
>> Sadly, Bob Bruninga is constantly selling his products.
>>
>> I used to get angry at him for selling on my repeater.  He would  
>> come up on the repeater with his BRRRRR. and once someone asked  
>> about it, he would SELL them the device.
>>
>> When challenged, he would continue to sell unless his daughter was  
>> in the car and he was embarrassed.
>>
>> He once gave me shit on MY repeater and said he would personally  
>> pay to put his crap on our repeater.  Once I told him, because of  
>> the site, it would cost over $3,500 in combining costs he shut the  
>> heck up and went away.
>>
>> He is an ass.  He is just trying to make money for himself.
>>
>> --chip
>>
>> On Feb 24, 2011, at 11:16 AM, tacos-request at amrad.org wrote:
>>
>>> Message: 4
>>> Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2011 09:54:45 -0500
>>> From: "Bob Bruninga" <bruninga at usna.edu>
>>> To: <tablesales2011 at viennawireless.org>
>>> Cc: tacos at amrad.org, Bob Bruninga <bruninga at usna.edu>
>>> Subject: Winterfest Hamfest object
>>
>>> Some APRS operator in the Vienna Wireless organization needs to be  
>>> putting
>>>>
>>> out a HAMFEST object to alert all APRS mobiles of the hamfest.   
>>> There are
>>> Several things that all hamfest planners should be doing:
>>>
>>> 1) Start beaconing the object on the air starting 2 weeks prior
>>>  a) the object name would be HFEST-26a (shows the date)"a" is the  
>>> first
>>> one this weekend.
>>>  b) The object text contains 146.91 MHz so that mobiles can  
>>> instantly TUNE
>>> to the talk-in by pressing the auto-QSY button on their APRS radios
>>>
>>> 2) Place the GPS coordinates on ALL hamfest flyers and literature
>>>
>>> 3) Plan on having a PC (with internet set to APRS.FI) or a stand- 
>>> alone APRS
>>> laptop at the talk-in operating position.  This way the talk-in  
>>> operator can
>>> SEE what is going on out there, and where everyone is.  This  
>>> tremendously
>>> assists him in helping people.
>>>
>>> 4) Once a day in the week prior, also send out APRS bulletins  
>>> announcing the
>>> event.
>>>
>>> Now that there are a total of 8 fully integrated APRS radios on  
>>> the market,
>>> everyone can see this info on their radio front panels.    BUT  
>>> ONLY IF THE
>>> ORGANIZERS TX IT.
>>>
>>> I'll put a sample object on the air here from Annapolis, but I'll  
>>> be gone
>>> Friday and all weekend, so I cannot maintain it nor assist with  
>>> all the
>>> other APRS details.
>>>
>>> Please have your APRS folks review the APRS HAMFEST web page:
>>>
>>> www.aprs.org/hamfest.html
>>>
>>> Bob, WB4APR
>> _______________________________________________
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>