[aprssig] APRS TouchTone

[Bob Bruninga]

>> 9) In APRStt (APRS Touchtone) any APRS message 
>> that was sent to APRStt would be SPOKEN onto 
>> the APRStt channel.  Remember, APRStt was a 
>> DTMF-to-APRS-to-VOICE system so that anyone with 
>> just any  mobile radio or HT, could fully 
>> participate in all aspects of APRS.  That is, 
>> their data could be input from their DTMF keypads  
>> including messages, and they could get voice 
>> response that verbally "painted" the APRS picture 
>> (all of this on the separate local  APRStt channel).

> Very cool, but does it not require remembering 
> quite a lot extra information.  

The beauty of the design was simplicity.  To QUERY nearest station was DTMF "QN".  To Query station N4XY was DTMF "QS N4XY".  Really nothing much to remember.

> I think anyone 'that' interested in the first 
> place, would already have a TH-D7.

That is exactly the probelm. Volunteers for special event come as they are.  In my club we still have some that show up with IC-2AT's, an 1970's HT.  They will never adopt APRS.  But with APRStt, they can monitor the APRStt voice-back channel where they can hear APRS information.  They can query for the location of anything, and hear the movements of the key things being tracked.

> I am disappointed that no one picked up and made 
> a windows version of APRStt.  In my opinion, it 
> would have revolutionized APRS by allowing 100% 
> participation by ALL ham radio operators at an 
> event or local situation, instead of just the 5% 
> that have APRS.  Imagine the automated APRStt
> voice resposne channel saying things like: 
>
> "W3XYZ, please call checkpoint 13 on 446.5" 
>
> "LEAD is 3 point 5 miles northeast of START" 
>
> "TAIL is 6 miles west of FINISH" 
>
> "W5ABC is 1 point 3 miles east of the REPEATER" 
>
> "W5ABC is .3 miles west of W7ABC" 
>
> All positions are reported as RANGE and 
> BEARing from a known reference point.  
> APRStt users can QUERY the location of ANY 
> object from their DTMF.  In addition, any 
> APRStt users can change the reference point 
> to any other station/object in the system 
> from their DTMF too.  As in the last example above. 
>
> They can also query for NEAREST.  So the report 
> can be made to the nearest other APRS object.  
> Or what other object is NEAREST to you. 
>
> And unlike the APRSdos implementation of APRStt, 
> which required an external DTMF chip on the 
> parallel port, a good windows programmer 
> would need NO hardware!  Just use the sound card, 
> for the DTMF decoding, and for the VOICE encoding!  
> Done! 
>
> Here is the link to the APRStt system: 
> http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/aprstt.html 
>
> Bob, WB4APR