[aprssig] An amusing aside (Text Pagers)

[Pentti Gronlund]

Stephen H. Smith writes:

> Perhaps 99% of hams have DTMF in North America.   Not true elsewhere.  
> Have you ever looked at the service manuals for Kenwood or Yaesu 
> radios?   They usually have a table breakind down the differences in 
> models shipped to various parts of the world.  These usually deal with 
> differences in frequency coverage (i.e. 144-148 vs 144-146), CTCSS vs 
> tone burst repeater access, 2.5 vs 5 KHz FM deviation, etc   Virtually 
> all the Japanese radios sold in parts of the world outside North America 
> come only with basic mics without tone pads.  (Handhelds may have 
> numeric pads to enter frequencies, program the radio, etc but they don't 
> generate tones.   

This was the way it went in the early 80's. The non-US packages of
mobile radios still don't have a DTMF mike to some extent, but even 
many of them do now. I have understood that BoB's idea of APRStt is 
mainly intended for travellers and field-day operators, and all hand-
helds sold all over the world since the times of FT-470 or IC-32 that 
come with a numeric keypad will also generate DTMF.  

> It's very unlikely APRStt would ever take off as a world standard.

This is something that I can easily agree with. It is far easier for 
me to put my position on APRS with my GPS-equipped Nokia N95 :) Every-
where.

Benjamin OH3BK
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