[aprssig] Station Capabilities Packet format?

[Lynn W. Deffenbaugh (Mr)]

This is in the aprs101.pdf spec. From Chapter 15:

> A station may define a set of one or more attributes of the station, 
> known as
> Station Capabilities. The station transmits its capabilities in 
> response to an
> IGATE query (see below), using the < Data Type Identifier.
> Each capability is a TOKEN or a TOKEN=VALUE pair. More than one
> capability may be on a line, with each capability separated by a comma.
> Currently defined capabilities include:
> IGATE,MSG_CNT=n,LOC_CNT=n
> where IGATE defines the station as an IGate, MSG_CNT is the number of
> messages transmitted, and LOC_CNT is the number of “local” stations (those
> to which the IGate will pass messages in the local RF network).

In APRSISCE/32, I use the "TOKEN=VALUE" pair and extend it to include 
not only LOC_CNT (local station count) but also RF_CNT (count of all 
stations heard on RF) and DIR_CNT (Direct, no path components marked 
used). To me, the definition of "local" means the count of those 
stations considered recently local for the purposes of -IS to RF gating 
of messages, a station heard on RF with few enough used path components 
(hops) and within some minimum time).

 > is a Status packet, not a Capabilities. It is defined in Chapter 16 - 
Status Reports as:

> A Status Report announces the station’s current mission or any other 
> single
> line status to everyone. The report is contained in the AX.25 Information
> field, and starts with the > APRS Data Type Identifier.

I don't see anything about IGates mentioned in the Status Report 
chapter. These to me are two different things, Status (>) and 
Capabilities (<) where status is free-form text and Capabilities is a 
comma-separated list of TOKENs or TOKEN=value pairs, hardly free-form.

Lynn (D) - KJ4ERJ - Author of APRSISCE for Windows Mobile and Win32


On 4/7/2011 4:52 PM, Bob Bruninga wrote:
> There is an IGATE STATUS packet of the form   "<IGATE,MSG_CNT=n,LOC_CNT=n"
>
> It is Defined on this page:  http://www.aprs-is.net/IGating.aspx
>
> Since this is not part of the original spec, I am not sure if we invented
> the "<" as a new TYPE character in APRS, or if this is a one-of-a-kind
> usage?
>
> Or have we defined other data formats within that "station capabilities"
> definition that begin also with "<" ?
>
> Or is that a typeo, because if it is truly an IGATE status, it should begin
> with ">".
>
> If there are further definitions, please point me to it.
>
> Thanks
> Bob, Wb4APR
>
>
>
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