[aprssig] APRS Bulletin/Announcement Format?

Thu May 25 10:53:41 EDT 2006

I'm working on a script to do some automated bulletins/
announcements.  The spec specifies a particular format.

Grep'ing for "BLN" out of one of my recent log files found a _bunch_
of them that didn't meet the spec.  Some were missing the initial
':' character, some had text in the 5 required blank spaces, some
had less than/more than 9 chars between the ':' characters, one was
too long.

Out of 35 bulletins, 12 of them had correct formatting.  I didn't
check for dupes though.

So...   It appears that some software out there or perhaps some
hand-crafted bulletins are abusing the format.  People might want to
check that.  Bulletins are supposed to have this format:

    :BLN1     :Bulletin text goes here, up to 67 chars

Announcements are to have this format:

    :BLNA     :Announcement text goes here, up to 67 chars

Notice the five blank spaces before the second colon char.  Since
both should start off with a leading ':', you should see something
like this from the TNC:

    WE7U>APRS::BLN1     :Bulletin text

Notice the three ':' chars.  The first signifies the end of the
packet header.

I just did a quick check through the web-page spec addendums.  I
don't see any changes listed for Bulletins or Announcements.

So:  On to the questions (the answers are very important to my
current project):

*) Even PCSAT has non-space characters in the required 5 blank
spaces.  Is this ok?

*) If we get to use those 5 char spaces, is it ok to use more than 1
digit for the bulletin/announcement ID?  I'll likely run into a
problem if not, due to the number of bulletins or announcements that
could be generated.

To stave off a few of the remarks that this SIG is famous for:  Yes,
these are _very_ important bulletins that most of you _will_ want to
see coming across your screen.  'Nuf said until I get further along
on the project and have something to show for it.

I appended the bulletins I found to the end of this message.  The
packet headers were chopped to make it easier to see the formatting
errors.

--
Curt, WE7U.   APRS Client Comparisons: http://www.eskimo.com/~archer
"Lotto:    A tax on people who are bad at math." -- unknown
"Windows:  Microsoft's tax on computer illiterates." -- WE7U
"The world DOES revolve around me:  I picked the coordinate system!"

GROUP 1, no leading ':' on announcement
---------------------------------------
BLNA     :For info on VK8 send ?list to VK8NSB-1
BLNB     :Info and help on APRS in Darwin at http://vk8.aprs.net.au

GROUP 2, no bulletin or announcement character
----------------------------------------------
:BLN      :Nominativo IF9FI - Attivi in SSB/RTTY/PSK31
:BLN      :Echolink Conf.Lusofona 434.600 T67.0 Alentejo Portalegre
:BLN      :LINKS EM CALDAS 144.550 E 434.550 CONF LUSOFONA lart.com.sapo.pt

GROUP 3, correct formatting
---------------------------
:BLNA     :Info/Help on APRS in Adelaide at http://vk5.aprs.net.au
:BLNC     :See http://vk3.aprs.net.au for information on APRS in Victoria.
:BLN2     :BBS F6CDD-2 et CLUSTER F6CDD-3 Toulousain sur 144.975 et Telnet
:BLNA     :path=WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1 for mobiles --tnx
:BLN2     :((( CX2SA-6 DX CLUSTER ))) HF & telnet://cx2sa.net:9000
:BLN1     :((( CX2SA BBS ))) 7040/14107 KHz & telnet://cx2sa.net:23
:BLN3     :((( CX2SA WEB ))) http://www.cx2sa.net - http://www.cx2sa.org
:BLNA     :NUEVO REPETIDOR EN  EA8  439.000 TU RX  Y 431.400 TU TX TONO 250.3
:BLNB     :PRUEVA EN  EA8  EL (( I R L P ))  FRECUENCIA 439.000RX Y 431.400 TX
:BLNC     :NODO 8628 IRLP Y  ECHO-LINK 1017 Y CONFERENCIA CANARIAS NODO 166409
:BLND     :compro o cambio TNC2 y KAMTRONI tlf 666835364 ea8adh at hotmail.com
:BLN1     :como puedo embiar mensajes de aprs con el PACLEN mas largo ????????

GROUP 4, characters in the 5-char blank area, one is also >67 chars
-------------------------------------------------------------------
:BLN3PCSAT:PSK uplink  on 29.401 takes high power
:BLN54    :Expose modes numeriques 19 mai 2006 20h local RAV Villars le T.
:BLN3-3   :En EA8 repetidor de INTERNET en 145700-600 tono 88.5
:BLNQSL1/3:P43L,P43ARC,
:BLN1-8   :EA8URL desde Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
:BLN2-8   :Visite. www.ea8url.com
:BLN3-8   :Mail EA8URL: ea8url at ea8url.com
:BLN4-8   :A.P.R.S. en Gran Canaria
:BLN2PCSAT:PSK31 Xpondr is enabled. Cnct to PCSAT2 to activate
:BLNPRMail:for TA2MTK TA2MUG TA2NGC TA2NZ TA2UK TA2VB TA5COW TB2MFM TB2MOR
:BLN1-2   :NO MAS ICONOS FARSOS= QUE BIENE EL LOVO QUE BIENE QUE BIENE
:BLNHSAS  :091842z:*** ELEVATED *** USA Homeland Threat Advisory is currently: ELEVATED

GROUP 5, characters in 5-char blank area plus extra blank
---------------------------------------------------------
:BLN1WAX   :JA EXISTEM 170 E-MAILS CADASTRADOS NA DIGI
:BLN2WAX   :PU1WAX-14, CADASTRE O SEU TAMBEM, ENVIANDO
:BLN3WAX   :MENSAGEM PARA *** cavalheiro52 at ig.com.br *
:BLN4WAX   :PARA TESTE EM  PU1WAX-14  DIGITE   ?E-MAIL
:BLN5WAX   :* PU1WAX-14 ** DIGI_NED GIC ** ILHA/RIO **

GROUP 6, too few characters between colons
------------------------------------------
:BLNP :*-> RELAY,WIDE is the Mobile Path used in VK3 <-* (2)