[aprssig] Where is the D710 UNPROTO parameter...

[Bob Bruninga]

>> "=" on the end of the D710 mic-e packets 
>> to be able to distinguish the D710 from 
>> other D700's.  
>
> Argh!  That is another non-orthogonal approach 
> to protocol design. And kind of defeats the 
> whole idea of MIC-E - to be as short as  
> possible, or am I missing something?  

Well, we wanted the D710 to be backwards compatible to the tens of thousands of existing D7 and D700's out there.  And since they were produced from 8 to 10 years ago before the D710 was even conceived, then there was no way to go back and change all those existing radios to make them recognize the new D710. 

So we had the D710 use the same Mic-E TYPE character as the D700, and then added "=" on the end to be able to identify it.  Adding one byte to a 57 byte packet did not seem to be much of a penalty... 

Bob, Wb4APR