[MiQP-Mail] APRS ?

[Randy Love]

-----Original Message-----
>From: Tim Mitchell <k9tm at buckeye-express.com>
>Subject: Re: [MiQP-Mail] APRS ?
>
>ARPS does have promise for fixed stations who don't really enjoy chasing mobiles as it gives one an idea of where a mobile is at a snapshot in time and when they may be in the next county.  It is an operating aid no matter how you look at it.
>

Operating aid, yes. 
But so is CW skimmer. 
Or a voice keyer. 
Or logging software. 
Or logging software that predicts when the mobile will be in his next county.

My opinion is this: if the freq/band and mode aren't part of the APRS beacons, then it isn't self-spotting. Regardless of what his location is on an APRS display, I still have to copy what is sent by the mobile, and he has to copy me for it to be a legal Q. If my map shows him in BARRy, but he sends BERRien, well, I guess I better log BERRien!

Does using APRS displays give any one station an unfair advantage? I don't think so. 
Does a mobile running an APRS beacon without freq/band/mode info? Not necessarily.
Does a mobile running APRS with freq/band/mode in the beacon have an unfair advantage? Maybe a little, but not anywhere near what it would be if he were injecting directly to the DX cluster network.

I understand it is too late for this year's run and accept that it's not considered kosher, but I would really like to see a rule change to make it much less taboo. I think we could gain some exposure for the MiQP if we had mobiles running around with 'MiQP mobile' in their APRS status texts. :)

Randy
WF5X