A Response to APRS - Tool or Toy?
>A handy talkie/cell phone/land line, some training and two eyes looking at the
>sky are the minimum requirements for SKYWARN spotting. A combination of transceiver,
>laptop PC, TNC and GPS can cost $1,000 to $2,000 and will be slaved to
>only satisfying APRS hardware and communications requirements and provide no
>voice communications.
This is a new spotting item to me, though it makes sense that it exists. The price is definitely a concern and is an
intrinsic problem for the system. One would have to consider the number of spotters needed, provided they all had the
required equipment, and someone to make it work.
>Can someone in their car or home managing an APRS station really keep there
>attention on the weather spotting or just dealing with the protocol of APRS?
Probably not, though especially *NOT* when a tornado appears!
>For $100 to $150 a LCD mini television will give me a live Doppler radar from
>commercial TV stations, in real-time, in my car, during significant weather
>events without tying up any of my communications resources. A $39 pocket
>weather alert radio can INSTANTLY alert me to watches and warnings. Can APRS
>do this?
If WWIN continues, you might be able get it for *FREE*. Granted I'm still attempting to learn more about WWIN, of course
it does require a computer. Though I have to agree about the weather alert, April 26, 1991, that was the only piece of
equipment my chase group had as we sat about 1/2 mile west of what would be called a F2. About 30 minutes later, the one
mile wide Red Rock, OK tornado came into existence.
>Let this not be a condemnation of APRS, but the start of a serious discourse
>of weather spotting priorities and the evolution of APRS to further the
>goals of severe weather identification, evaluation, and reporting.
IMHO or not so humble, I think that a system would work if the following criteria were met:
Central location with the APRS computer. (EOC/Net Control)
Spotters have GPS equipment. (another expensive item)
Someone at the EOC/Net Control that understands the system and can input data as needed. At this point, use manual entry
until security issues can be resolved. (Not so automatic in this form)
Putnam Reiter, KC5GVD, Team OS/2
putnam@mesnet.mesonet.uoknor.edu
