[amsat-bb] To Tweet or Not to Tweet - APRS

[Zach Metzinger]

On 10/09/20 12:40, Robert Bruninga via AMSAT-BB wrote:
> There is one.  called APRS.  And in the early days, my original APRSdos
> could send out a local beacon every 10 minutes showing the satellite names

Hello Bob,

AX.25 is an obsolete, circuit-switched way to route packets.

At the physical layer, lack of FEC, AFSK Bell 202 speeds and 
ALOHA-scheduling leads to massively inefficient utilization of the spectrum.

I'm talking about a cellular-network like organization with downlinks 
and scheduled uplinks. Dedicated terminals using COTS modem chips, at 
both sub-1GHz and 2.4GHz,  would lower the barrier to entry and not tie 
up an analog radio.

I estimate a small data terminal would cost in the neighborhood of $50. 
This small terminal would be the any-hams way to get on the 44.x network 
via RF.

There are many disparate commercial implementations of something like 
this, but nothing cohesive has come of it. We still have a ton of 
amateur traffic relying on Internet links.

--- Zach
N0ZGO