The purpose of this article was to use theexample of the Naval Academy AX.25 packet radionetwork to show the value and capabilities of asystem Which includes position locationinformation in packet beacons. The extension ofthis capability into the amateur radio networkcould have many benefits. A previous article onthe subject of position and status reporting inthe amateur packet network appeared in the~.b 91 issue of Cateway. I intended to evolvethe PPDS software from the Naval Academysoftware, but by the end of this summer'sintensive use, there were enough lessons learnedto require a total re-write before the systemcould be extended to world wide use. TheLatitude and Longitude fields need to be extendedfor whole Earth coverage, and the time fieldsneed to be extended beyond 24 hours to includethe day as well. Also, provision needs to beincluded for other position reporting formats assuggested in the earlier Gatoway article. Irepeat, that the PPDS software is NOT yetwritten. As I re-organize the formats of theAcademy System for next summer, however, thenecessary changes will be included for a moregeneral application such as for the amateurpacket network.
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