Aprs Moving Hams On Radio And The Internet

Rating:
Summary: Short on Content
Review: I would like to say that they book was a major disappointment. I was very much looking for a handbook that would take a lot of the information, from the web, and would boil it down to a comprehensive guide that could be taken with me.

I will start with the fact that 47 of the hundred or so pages were dedicated to commands to the various software and radios. All of which is provided either in help files or in downloadable format from the manufacturers websites. This seemed clearly a filler to make the book larger than a pamphlet. (NOTE: there was just a mere 83 pages, with much white space, that were not dedicated to Appendix information)

On the non-filler content provided, I found it of little use and really doesn't help someone new to APRS at all. These are areas that I think should have been covered:

1) A better history. This was very brief and didn't go into much detail at all. It was 6 short pages with a lot of white space.
2) The protocol used in APRS. How do you form a packet?
3) A better explanation of digipeaters and their use
4) What is a path (The book didn't even explain what paths are, how they are used, and why. A simple diagram on how things are repeated would have been very helpful). All that was explained was a particular path to use but never told you why or what it actually did.
5) More explanation of weather stations and their use. This is an area that I have found of great interest to APRS users. What does a weather packet look like. How are they used to bring information to central databases. How could you setup your own digipeter to repeat your own remote weather station?
6) What makes up a packet (by using the explanation of the protocol in #2 an explanation of the different uses of APRS is easy to explain: messages, sending location information, sending weather information,etc.)

The things that were a complete waste of space in this book were:

1) The commands section. A simple URL to websites with the commands would have been sufficient
2) How to install software. By the time this book was published, many of this software has probably already been changed
3) Stay away from specific hardware setups - this also changes. Just point to locations on the web
4) Fill out your chapters more. This book fell short of even an introductory book.

I think that this could have been a 200+ page book if the author really wanted it to be. I am sorry that it was a waste of my money and I turned to the Web for my answers. I found much more information on the web. I am sure the Author had something bigger in mind but at $17.95 for nothing much more than a pamphlet, I think it really fell short.