The only trackers that implemented it were Argentdata trackers. APRS-IS can't handle the packets but your average digipeaters can. I used to run a dual-protocol tracker in my Jeep that would do both APRS and Opentrac packets every posit and it worked well. I don't have that in my later Argentdata trackers though.
Unless Scott starts putting it into his trackers again it's unlikely anyone will be using it. It's definitely a nice protocol though! On Sun, Apr 7, 2019 at 9:01 PM David Ranch <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hello Tom, > > Thanks for working on this. To be honest, I've never even heard of > OpenTrac protocol before and I consider myself somewhat knowledgeable on > APRS. Guess not! Anyway, as I've learned from the hobby, the APRS > protocol is very capable but also buried in a huge amount of legacy > "debt". It's shift away from RELAY, it's multiple addendum and what not > really make it difficult to implement a clean solution. I don't know > why OpenTrac didn't catch on but maybe embedded solutions can't support > both protocols simultaneously on the same frequency? Maybe there isn't > enough real benefit over APRS to deploy it more widely? It also doesn't > help that TNC vendors like Kantronics, Timewave, etc. have essentially > abandoned their firmware work. > > If something modern like say Direwolf added Opentrac support, would that > help? I see that YACC supports it already as well. > > --David > KI6ZHD > > > On 04/07/2019 02:01 PM, Tom Russo wrote: > > So, I have been going through Xastir very slowly trying to clean up the > many, > > many warnings that are emitted by modern compilers. GCC 8 is especially > noisy, > > and warns about many things that are not in fact errors in Xastir, but > it is > > also finding a bunch of potential problems that need cleaning up. > > > > A bunch of these potential problems are showing up in the various > functions > > to handle OpenTrac protocol packets. Some of these are potential buffer > > overruns, others are just noise. > > > > I discussed with Curt how to clean these up, and we could do one of two > things: > > - work hard to work out exactly how to fix things so the code > actually works > > OR > > - just remove OpenTrac support, since it's basically dead > > > > The latter is probably the right thing to do, as there are probably very > few > > people out there who even remember what OpenTrac was, and even fewer who > still > > use it. It was meant to be a more carefully designed protocol than APRS > > (which grew more-or-less organically, and randomly), but never really > > caught on. I do not believe there are any currently-available trackers > or > > software that supports transmitting it. > > > > So, is anyone at all using the OpenTrac decoding in Xastir, and would > they > > be upset if it were removed? > > > > _______________________________________________ > Xastir mailing list > [email protected] > http://xastir.org/mailman/listinfo/xastir > -- Curt, WE7U http://we7u.wetnet.net http://www.sarguydigital.com _______________________________________________ Xastir mailing list [email protected] http://xastir.org/mailman/listinfo/xastir
