[linux] Re: Take a Stand

[Bob Hansen, N2GDE]

Think of the callsign as a base-36 number.
For 7 places of 36 symbols (0-9, A-Z) you have:
36 to the 7th power or about 78 billion combinations.
To encode this in binary, you need at least 37 bits:
2 to the 37th power is about 137 billion.
This is where Darryl got 37 bits.

Of course, as N4HY suggests, most of those combinations are not valid for
callsigns and an elegant hashing method may be possible.

-Bob H.
N2GDE