[aprssig] New n-N Paradigm Bulletins

[Brad [VE3BSM]]

Many thanks. And of course that's exactly how it worked for me. And I got
some positive feedback fairly quickly. Not sure if anybody has changed yet,
but we only have a small handful of "offenders" in this area.

I sent the announcements all afternoon and overnight, but I'm giving them a
rest for a day or two. Then I'll re-activate. Actually, I'm waiting for a
certain mobile running WIDE7-7 to pop up, then I'll relaunch them. :->

I'm also working on a seriously watered down "local users" web page to
summarize what they should do in just a few lines. The fix14439 page
contains great info, but can be a bit daunting to read. I'm trying the
"'cause we said so" justification first, with a pointer to Bob's page for
those who really want to know. :-)

Brad.
VE3BSM 

-----Original Message-----
From: aprssig-bounces at lists.tapr.org [mailto:aprssig-bounces at lists.tapr.org]
On Behalf Of A.J. Farmer (AJ3U)
Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2005 11:10 AM
To: 'TAPR APRS Mailing List'
Subject: RE: [aprssig] New n-N Paradigm Bulletins

Okay, here it is straight from the UI-View Documentation so we can put this
one to bed. ;-)  So, technically these are "announcements" according to the
APRS specs. ;-)

~~~
APRS supports both bulletins and announcements, to quote the draft APRS
protocol specification:-

General bulletins are messages where the addressee consists of the letters
BLN followed by a single-digit bulletin identifier, followed by 5 filler
spaces. General bulletins are generally transmitted a few times an hour for
a few hours, and typically contain time sensitive information (such as
weather status).

Announcements are similar to general bulletins, except that the letters BLN
are followed by a single upper-case letter announcement identifier.
Announcements are transmitted much less frequently than bulletins (but
perhaps for several days), and although possibly timely in nature they are
usually not time critical.

Sending a bulletin or announcement is exactly the same as sending a normal
message, but you address it to BLN1, BLN2, BLNA, BLNB, etc, and the APRS box
must be checked. If your message spreads over several lines, then UI-View32
will automatically increment the last letter/digit of the address.

Bulletins are transmitted when they are first written, then the transmission
period decays as follows (the values are minutes) 2, 5, 10, 20, and remains
at 20 until you delete the bulletin from your Sent message list.

Announcements are transmitted when they are first written, then the
transmission period decays as follows (the values are minutes) 2, 5, 10, 20,
30, 60, and remains at 60 until you delete the bulletin from your Sent
message list.

NOTE - that you have to delete bulletins and announcements from the list to
stop them being sent.

If you want to save bulletins and announcements that you send between
program sessions, so they carry on being transmitted when you restart
UI-View32, then you should check "Save Bulletins" on the message screen
"Options" menu.
~~~ 

73!

A.J. Farmer, AJ3U
http://www.aj3u.com