[aprssig] APRS Text to Speech?

[Keith VE7GDH]

Bob WB4APR wrote...

> APRS has provision for clients to SPEAK APRS text, comments
> and messages and bulletins....

> Basically the idea was that text that begins with % wouild be
> spoken (if possible)...

My only experience is with UI-View. New message alerts (a WAV file) can 
be played after every line or after a pause. For "speak messages" you 
must have MS Agent installed. It can read out either messages to me 
starting with %, or all messages to me. It can also speak bulletins, 
independent of the "message to me" options. There is an option to bring 
the message window to the foreground when a message is received, so if 
you temporarily have sound disabled, or the sound card us muted, a new 
message should still be apparent.

For outgoing messages, there is an intelligent algorithm, but not the 
same as your decay rate. The user can set the retry interval, how many 
times to try, whether to "retry on heard" and whether there is an expire 
time if not ACKed. The "retry interval" must be at least double the 
number of retries. My usual settings are to retry 3 times with a 10 
second interval, retry "on heard" and with no expire time. If a previous 
message to a station is unACKed, subsequent messages to the same station 
are held until the first message is ACKed. This can be over-ridden.

UI-View can also say the callsign of stations heard using pre-recorded 
WAV files (Roger's voice unless you replace the WAV files) to read out 
the callsign if sound is enabled, and can announce them every time or 
just the first time that they are heard, along with a WAV file for 
"alert when digi'd for your own beacons. I have replaced the WAV file 
with a recording of my voice saying "digipeated".

I also run Vicinity Alarm to alert me when stations come closer than 
certain distance.

UI-View also has a movement alarm. It can alert me if a station I have 
added to the list moves more than X metres.

For stations that I'm tracking, I use UI-Height Track. It plays a WAV 
file when a station that I'm tracking is heard. I replace the (loud) WAV 
file with a recording of my voice saying "tracking".

73 es cul - Keith VE7GDH
--
"I may be lost, but I know exactly where I am!"