[aprssig] "Emergency!" test convention?

[Bob Snyder]

On Wed, Jul 21, 2004 at 08:48:24AM -0700, Scott Miller wrote:
> While nothing out there uses it yet, OpenTRAC defines a simulated emergency
> flag.  The idea is that you'd configure your client for excercise/simulation
> mode, and it'd respond to the flag as if it were a real emergency (hopefully
> with some visible reminder that you're in simulation mode.)  I don't know if
> there are any more Mic-E status codes available, but that might be one way
> to do it.

And hopefully there isn't a bug that impacts the Emergency mode, and
doesn't impact the simulated Emergency mode. And if used as part of an
emergency setup, hopefully whoever does the testing re-arms it to use
the real Emergency rather the simulated one.

> I think a quiet time is a bad idea.  If you're going to do it, make it only
> one day of the week at a specific UTC time.  Remember, some places have
> half-hour offsets for their local time zones... the locals might know that,
> but once it gets into the APRS-IS, all bets are off.

Defining it based off UTC is what I believe is done for the Emergency
Locator Transmitters used on aircraft. They define that the first 5
minutes of every hour is usable for testing, although with some cavaets
(ideally should be in a shielded room, no more than 3 audible sweeps,
into a dummy load if possible).

Personally, I find holding APRS and similar protocols to a higher
"life-safety" standard than ELTs is a bit silly. A quiet time would
allow for testing without people racting to every such packet, which
will eventually become a "Boy who cries wolf" situation, if it hasn't
already.

Bob N2KGO