[amsat-bb] Simple Newbie Q? SGATE?

[Curt Nixon]

Good Day All:

I am a newcomer to Sat Comm and began with APRS activity through ISS.  I 
was successful with my mediocre set-up of J-pole old rg58 TM-241 and 
UISS w/soundcard and Orbitron.  I pretty much understand the digi and 
gate topology and use of the new paradigm WIDEn-N but have a question. 

It is very confusing on proper paths and other issues because al ot of 
information is still online that is quite old and has no date attached. 

On the APRS through ARISS site it is suggested that success into the 
database will be improved by using a path of "via ARISS,SGATE,WIDE" 

I have found other info that says: NEVER NEVER NEVER use GATE in aVHF 
path---

If GATE is used to gate across from VHF to HF  then what exactly is 
SGATE?  I cannot seem to find a description of WHAT it means.  I see 
that ISS uses SGATE on its own announcement messages but I see very few 
uplink messages using it.

Also, if I am only wanting to utilize messages into my current sat 
footprint, is RFONLY a good path statement?

Is there a current listing of all these somewhere?

I was successful on several occasions now using via RS0ISS-4,SGATE,WIDE  
so it works but I don't want to be hogging up resources.

Thanks for your patience,

KU8L 
EN82hi