SN / APRS APRS Question

Mike Wills

Mike Wills

EF0
Mar 18, 2018
18
5
1
South Central MN
mikewills.me
How often do you poll APRS data? I transmit every 10 minutes, but it seems you are polling every hour or more? It's working, it just seems slow. Do you poll faster if I am moving? I am trying to figure out the best method for tracking when I'm chasing/spotting.
 
Mark Drees

Mark Drees

EF2
Feb 20, 2018
114
25
6
Temple, Texas
That’s a very good point and question indeed. However, as it has been pointed out...data is flowing in, but there seems to be a break in it being distributed to current products (i.e. place files, RadarScope, etc).
 
Mike Wills

Mike Wills

EF0
Mar 18, 2018
18
5
1
South Central MN
mikewills.me
Mark Drees said:
That’s a very good point and question indeed. However, as it has been pointed out...data is flowing in, but there seems to be a break in it being distributed to current products (i.e. place files, RadarScope, etc).
Click to expand...
That was more along my thought. Bringing data in is typically not hard and Google Maps should not be an issue. It's probably a problem with the data. It could be as simple as a bad character that someone has in their string that the program wasn't designed to handle. So instead of failing elegantly, it just stops until that bad data is gone then it's back to working again.

The more I think about it, the more I think that's the issue.
 
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Joe Cameron

EF1
Jan 6, 2019
86
36
6
Tyler
APRS : There was a post, think on QRZed sometime back, about the network being overloaded.
That's what i think the problem is and my reason for not using it. Just clutter it up more.
 
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Mike Wills

Mike Wills

EF0
Mar 18, 2018
18
5
1
South Central MN
mikewills.me
APRS? I know Spotter Network has complained about their networks being overloaded and RadarScope users don't normally turn off their tracking (I'm guilty myself). That is why I was trying something different so tracking is only on when I am really spotting or at least watching the weather.
 

Joe Cameron

EF1
Jan 6, 2019
86
36
6
Tyler
Mike Wills said:
APRS? I know Spotter Network has complained about their networks being overloaded and RadarScope users don't normally turn off their tracking (I'm guilty myself). That is why I was trying something different so tracking is only on when I am really spotting or at least watching the weather.
Click to expand...
I am also guilty of that on RS, have started with not running RS that does report and run the one on my laptop that does not report postion.
At least i can still see what is going on. If needed i will run the tablet that does report.

There is just so much about APRS that no one really pays attention to.
meaning too many iGates within 30 miles of each other, reporting the same freaking thing.
I was running an iGate and found another igate down the street, so shut mine down.
Then we have all the mobile units just reporting there position (not related to any weather), along with stationary weather stations reporting also.

I can think of what needs to be done, but it will not go over too well. not saying shut others down.. maybe another reporting freq and server for storm chasers.
 
Mark Drees

Mark Drees

EF2
Feb 20, 2018
114
25
6
Temple, Texas
Overloading wouldn’t be an underlying cause, otherwise the entire SN structure would be overloaded every time a rain shower pops up in a metropolitan area and suffer faults. 😉
 
Mike Wills

Mike Wills

EF0
Mar 18, 2018
18
5
1
South Central MN
mikewills.me
It could be. I would imagine there are multiple servers running this service. So the website remains up while the underlying services are getting slammed. I can't talk much smarter about this unless I see how they are operating, so I'm cutting it off here.
 
Mark Drees

Mark Drees

EF2
Feb 20, 2018
114
25
6
Temple, Texas
With nothing new to report, I believe this to be a dead issue/topic. As John has said previously in other threads, the issue isn't parsing data as they can see the data flowing. It's just not communicating/transferring over to the various SN feeds (place files, radar apps, etc.). It may just be time to end support of this option and remove it from the site itself.
 
John Wetter

John Wetter

SN President
Staff member
Dec 11, 2005
948
115
11
Maple Grove, MN
www.WxChaser.com
We are getting the data in a supported manner, the data feed just isn't consistent enough. For example Mark, we see your data just stop showing up in the feed while apparently in motion so there seem to be several wildcards at play here that without reliable real-time reporting we just can't resolve.
 
Mark Drees

Mark Drees

EF2
Feb 20, 2018
114
25
6
Temple, Texas
John Wetter said:
We are getting the data in a supported manner, the data feed just isn't consistent enough. For example Mark, we see your data just stop showing up in the feed while apparently in motion so there seem to be several wildcards at play here that without reliable real-time reporting we just can't resolve.
Click to expand...
Some things to consider as well:

APRS beacon/location data is only be updated once every thirty minutes if the user's location is stationary. APRS dot IS truncates the info if the beacon isn't moving.
Lapses in APRS coverage maybe caused by coverage issues. I know there are holes along I-35 south of the DFW metro and then south of San Antonio as well (i.e. you can see this by hovering the cursor over the dots where the beacon was received). Google Maps APRS
 
Mark Drees

Mark Drees

EF2
Feb 20, 2018
114
25
6
Temple, Texas
John Wetter said:
We are getting the data in a supported manner, the data feed just isn't consistent enough. For example Mark, we see your data just stop showing up in the feed while apparently in motion so there seem to be several wildcards at play here that without reliable real-time reporting we just can't resolve.
Click to expand...
Hey John, is there any way to push this out to the placefiles/RS so those that actively use APRS can give feedback?
 
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