[aprssig] SCOUTS to RF Broadcast Server???

[AE5PL Lists]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bob Bruninga
> Posted At: Friday, October 05, 2007 10:29 PM
> Subject: Re: [aprssig] SCOUTS to RF Broadcast Server???
> 
> To: SCOUTS   MSG:CQ JOTA, from troop 995 Annapolis Maryland.
>     When you send this message, the server will broadcast
>     this message one-time-only with no ACK to all
>     logged on users of SCOUTS.
> 
> This could work for SATERN, or YOUTH, or any other subset of come-as-
> you are groups that are widely dispersed but may need to contact each
> other from the field.
> 
> Wow, I think this could really be a new dimension for APRS!  Thanks
> Pete...  (or it could be melt-down... depending on usage).  But we can
> throttle it back if it gets out of hand.  But without it, we have no
> way of contacting remote groups through the APRS-IS without apriori
> knowledge.  And APRS was never supposed to be dependent on apriori
> knowledge to facilitate communications?

My original recommendation is to not allow the "broadcast" from any one
station more than once every 30 minutes.  This would limit abuse but get
a message out to the registered users to let them know you are there.
It is not really a conference server but more like a group alert server.
The log out message should probably have the group "call" that you are
registered as allowing you to be registered with more than one group.

The server-generated messages use the originating station's callsign.
This is the primary reason why they must be unnumbered (no ACKs).  It
could cause an issue with some clients seeing ACKs for something they
didn't generate.

Upon looking at the message above, I would recommend something more
like:
To: CQSERV   MSG:SCOUTS CQ JOTA, from troop 995 Annapolis Maryland.

This would allow the server to use its own call to gather all messages
and ACK the message (much simpler interface).  Note that the messages
originated by the registered station are all numbered, receiving ACKs
from the CQSERV.  It would also remove the need to reserve callsigns in
APRS.  Note that there could only be one CQSERV.

73,

Pete Loveall AE5PL
pete at ae5pl.net