[aprssig] Text Messaging Radios (a simple use)

[Greg D.]

> From: bruninga at usna.edu
> To: aprssig at tapr.org
> Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2009 08:40:00 -0500
> Subject: [aprssig] Text Messaging Radios (a simple use)
> 

> The 999 is the group call for this function.  The ABC is the users numeric suffix callsign ID (APR for example is 277) and the EMR, PRI and RTN are the 3 letter abbreviations for the urgency.
> 

Hi Bob,

I liked the proposal until I got to the call sign part.  If "277" shows up on my screen, I would need to look at a cheat-sheet to figure out who it is.  There are 27 different call suffixes that map to that 3 digit number, and the prefix letters and 0-9 group aren't included at all.  If I have a lot of operators, the chances are pretty high that two or more will map to the same 3 digits (we often have family members participate, and if they got their tickets at the same test, their calls are often sequential).  Then what?  And the FCC wouldn't recognize these as callsigns for ID purposes.  They'd still need to ID (in voice, presumably).  

Perhaps you'd be better off just assigning ordinal (tactical?) numbers to the operators (maybe even have the number on their jersey, athlete-style, so you could locate them quickly), or figure out a way to map letters to multiple digits (pairs) so that they can be displayed and read.  Do any of the radios have an alphanumeric display capability?

If they don't have anything built-in, you'd need a DTMF decoder plugged into Net Control's rig.  Laptop PC, or maybe one of those gizmos made by the MFJ's of the world?  Once it's decoded back into digital form, then you can do interesting things - alerts, status displays, logging, etc...  Then things get interesting.

Greg  KO6TH


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