[aprssig] Gating Objects from Internet to RF

[Lynn W. Deffenbaugh (Mr)]

Pete and Bob (and anyone else with comments),

Ok, I think I'm really close now.  I've posted a sample of the objects 
to inject at http://ldeffenb.dnsalias.net/EchoLink.txt  Some things to 
notice as you scroll down through and align the columns with your eyes:

Some stations are 1.2Ghz (1294.780Mhz).  How should I format the 
frequency object for these stations or is the current format going to work?

Some other stations have definitely mis-configured frequencies.  You'll 
see things like 146430.000MHz and 432800.000MHz. These are obviously 
missing decimal points in the EchoLink configuration.  I'm considering 
massaging anything in the 144000-146000 and 430000-440000 range (or 
whatever values are appropriate for 70cm).  What are your thoughts on that?

I just noticed another station at  52.060MHz (EL-102069) and  52.020MHz 
(EL-5535).  Should this frequency be zero-filled?  It is currently 
space-filled on the left.  I don't own any Kenwoods, so I'm not really 
familiar with what they need for that direct frequency access feature.  
There's even a station at   0.000MHz (EL-81308)!

I checked out the WinLink objects and decided that, with the removal of 
the PHG, the Range makes more sense.  But I've enhanced the Rnnm as 
well.  For Omni's, you'll see Rnnm.  For ordinal directions (N, E, S, 
W), you'll see Nnnm, Ennm, Snnm, and Wnnm respectively (that last 
character is an m).  For 45 degree directionality, you'll see NEnn SEnn 
SWnn and NWnn (no trailing m to keep it in 4 characters).

Currently, I'm only thinking to gate non-Offline (Online, Conference, 
Busy) nodes only.  I'll just not transmit any offline nodes allowing the 
normal aging algorithms on the clients to slowly remove them from the 
maps.  I've found the following status values from EchoLink:

F = Offline
N = Online
C = Conference
B = Busy

You will notice a bunch of [offline] comments in the list.  These are 
actually in some on-line state, but have a <location> value (the source 
of the extended comment) that says [offline].  I suspect this is the 
client's way of hiding their real status since most users only ever see 
the location string.  I'm guessing and assuming here, though.

I would like to continue supplying the <location> status string at the 
end of the object.  This may not be visible on some radios, but there 
are a bunch of other APRS (-IS and RF) clients out there that CAN 
display the information.  I'm seeing more and more people adding 
netbooks and laptops to their cars as APRS stations.  If the info is 
there, and we're not sending it every minute, why not include it?

And that's my final question (for now).  How frequently should I be 
updating these objects?  10 minutes or 30 minutes?  I know this is 
written down somewhere, but Bob, you probably know it off the top of 
your head!

Lynn (D) - KJ4ERJ - Anxious to get this in place before Friday!


Pete Loveall AE5PL Lists wrote:
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robert Bruninga
> Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2009 8:08 AM
>
>   
>> I suggest: 
>> HEADER:  KJ4ERJ>APELNK: 
>> POSIT:   ;EL-255256*211554z5125.53NE00604.37E0
>> COMMENT: PHGxxxx438.700MHz T000 off  DB0UD-R
>>
>> This displays on a Kenwood as:
>>
>> EL-123456
>> 438.700MHz
>> Tnnn Off  <== [Off ] is a 4 byte field, 
>> DB0UD-R
>>     
>
>   
>> Has everything the mobiile operator needs to use the node.  On
>> additional screens of the Radio, you also see the range and
>> bearing, the antenna height and gain, and the source of the data
>> KJ4ERJ
>>     
>
> I agree with Bob (surprise).  The format Bob is recommending does everything needed to identify an Echolink RF node to a mobile, quickly identify the node number, identify the Echolink's callsign without "ghosting" that station, and identify the insertion "station".  As far as status meaning, that would best be answered by K1RFD.
>
> Note that since this is insertion into APRS-IS, the insertion station can use any 1 or 2 character SSID, and it does not have to be a callsign.  For instance, EMAIL, EMAIL-2, WHO-IS, CQSRVR, WXSVR, etc. denote specialty servers.  You could use ECHOSVR or ELINK, for instance (callsigns on APRS-IS are limited to a total of 9 characters including SSID).  Do not use E-LINK because LINK is not a valid SSID and E is not a valid callsign (LINK is more than 2 characters, E is only one character where at least 3 are required).
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> 73,
>
> Pete Loveall AE5PL
> pete at ae5pl dot net
>
>
>
>
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