3 Hour APRS Packet Capture Snapshot

Recently, I noticed what seemed like a large increase in activity on the Amateur Radio APRS packet frequency (144.390MHz). At the same time, I noticed an increase in my weather station's gated packets, which is odd, because I have not changed the frequency of transmission. Along with an increase in received packets, I noticed that much of the seemingly re-transmitted data was redundant, and a now, a noticeable percentage of packets were not making it through to an Igate.
I decided to take a snapshot of the local APRS network (received from only one digipeater) It appears there is now a new fill in digipeater that is re-transmitting many stations packets, as well as correctly forwarding APRS packet data. In the few hour snapshot, this new station logged an average of over 230 packets an hour. In comparison, my weather station transmits 2 packets an hour, and now there are many collisions because of the constant slew of packets streaming from this station, meaning that perhaps only only 50% of my weather packets will make it out to an Igate.
I'm not sure of the logic behind this approach to re-transmitting other stations packets outside of the usual store and forward protocol. A station selects a beacon rate they feel is responsible and suitable to their station type. There is no need for a third party to come in and decide the to re-transmit another stations packets at seemingly random intervals.
Because of this increase in re-transmissions, this new station is effectively issuing a denial of service (DoS) attack on the APRS network. I don't believe it to be malicious, but we all have just a simplex frequency to share, so we have to be conscientious of other users of the network, and be responsible with its use. We're lucky to have an extensive and very capable APRS network here in Milwaukee, and I'd like to see it continue to work well for everyone, as well as be available in case of emergency use. (11/28/24)

Links

Very Cool Broadcast Band AM Map by NF8M: https://www.nf8m.com/nf8m/us-medium-wave-pattern-references/

Milwaukee Weather Info: http://peernix.com/portal/weather//

Splat: RF Coverage Map Software: https://www.qsl.net/kd2bd/splat.html

Signal Server: Improvements to Splat https://github.com/W9CR/Signal-Server