Raw Packets Unavailable?

[Rusty Dekema]

Good evening,

It appears to me that the "raw packets" function on aprs.fi has been unavailable since 2016-05-25 17:50:17 EDT (UTC-4). That is to say, I do not see any packets after that time in the "raw packets" view, regardless of whether I am searching globally or searching for a specific callsign.

Notably, if I search for a call that has been transmitting becaons recently, they do show up on the map. But when I go to the "raw packets" view for the station, I see nothing newer than 2016-05-25 17:50:17 EDT.

Cheers,
Rusty D.

[John Baker]

Yes this is still a problem that has not been fixed (contrary to the other post here talking about bits).

Please, the timing on this is really really bad. I can only track my balloon with raw packets (no GPS) but now impossible because of this issue.

[Heikki Hannikainen]

On Sat, 28 May 2016, John Baker wrote:

> Yes this is still a problem that has not been fixed (contrary to the
> other post here talking about bits).

I can confirm this is fixed. Raw APRS packets are again collected and
stored. For example, you can open http://aprs.fi/?c=raw and get recent raw
packets, and click or look up any of those callsigns and get recent raw
packets too. Oughta work just fine. I just checked some raw packets from
my own car and can see them.

> Please, the timing on this is really really bad. I can only track my
> balloon with raw packets (no GPS) but now impossible because of this
> issue.

Can you describe in more detail what is the problem you are experiencing?

Did your balloon already fly while the problem was on and raw packets were
not collected? You did not collect them from the APRS-IS directly for your
purpose? Some other sites (findu.com for example) do not have them either?
What was the callsign? When did it fly?

Maybe this is good time to remind that aprs.fi is a best-effort service,
sometimes (but quite rarely) it might not work. If it breaks, you get to
keep both pieces.

If you need to collect some raw APRS packets and absolutely need to surely
have them, it's may be a good idea to collect them yourself directly from
the source (the APRS-IS) and store them locally. And then use aprs.fi or
some other service as a backup in case your own collection fails.

- Hessu

[Nosey Nick VA3NNW]

On Sunday, May 29, 2016 at 4:40:49 PM UTC-4, John Baker wrote:

Please, the timing on this is really really bad. I can only track my balloon with raw packets (no GPS) but now impossible because of this issue.

Feel free to contact me off-list, let me know what calls + dates you are interested in, and I'll send you a copy of your packets from my own personal archive.
I make the same offer to anyone, not just John, but AGAIN, it's a "best effort", no guarantees, no SLAs, no contracts, no promises.
As Heikki has said, you should not really be relying on any ONE single service, that's not how APRS works.
Heck, when my club ran a near-space mission, I was collecting data DIRECT, not just from aprs.fi, or even APRS-IS.   :-D

Nick VA3NNW