[aprssig] APRS data for Scout Events

[Bob Bruninga]

Remember APRS is not just position reporting.  Here is how we plan on using APRS TH-D7 HTs at the winter camporee to send event data:

Those of us with D7's can enter our station number, troops and scores as an APRS message addressed to the netcontrol at HQ using only the HT's keypad.  I will provide a Tm-D700 mobile rig at the HQ staff tent where they are presently taking voice reports, and these messages will appear on the front panel for the HQ staff to transcribe into their system. 

If I entered STN14 as my MYCALL and then used a format something like: 

T995 47 
T887 56 
T4557 66 

Then that could mean from station #14, the reports for troops 995, 887 and 4557 are 47,56 and 66 respectively. 

The TM-D700 can capture and hold up to 16 of these until the HQ staff looks at them and deletes them to make room for the next round.  The beauty of this is that it offloads these reports from the voice channel and the HQ staff can take them at -their convenience-, not at the demands of the voice channel.   The voice channel is very busy, but the score data comes in bursts when the whistle blows for everyone to change stations.  

This backchannel transmission of scores from D7 users helps mitigate the peak backlog of all the voice reports.

In years past, I had proposed a special ARPS program to take the data directly to a data base, but then never found time to do it, and not enough D7 users to make it worthwhile.  But this method above, and just using a D700 display at the data entry persons operating position means it is trivial to set up and operate and takes no special effort.

There is no risk in this expreiment.  If it is not found advantageous for any reason, the HT holders can still make the normal voice report too. 

I just wish someone would implement my APRS-DTMF program, and then everyone with an HT could key in their data, not just those with D7's.

see http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/aprstt.html

Bob, WB4APR