[aprssig] An amusing aside (Text Pagers)

[Keith VE7GDH]

Wes AI4PX wrote...

> With a cellphone, I have an LCD display and can correct my boo boo's...
> If we had a way to see the numbers we've entered...

This won't help owners of other radios, but on the Puxing PX-888, you
can enter DTMF digits ahead of time. You can enter up to 16 digits, with
the last 7 being visible, and you can delete the last digit(s) if needed.
The string is transmitted when you hit the PTT.

I'm not convinced that APRStt will be accepted by a lot of people,
but I wouldn't discourage anyone from developing code for it.
It would be relatively easy to write an IRLP add-on. IRLP nodes
can decode all DTMF digits except for the D key. A script running
on the node could send an APRS object or position report based on
DTMF input. You would just have to avoid 4 digit strings that were
a legitimate node number. Even if the report didn't include the exact
location, it could just include the user's callsign and the IRLP node
number. To be useful for mobile stations, the local IGate could gate
these reports out to RF.

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