Re: [sarex] ISS Unproto Destination Address

[Bob Bruninga <bruninga@xxxxxxxx>]

> 1) Make the TOCALL begin with CQxxxx  that gives you 4 custom chars

OOPS!  I was wrong.  the CQ is not wildcarded at the end.  Only APxxxx is
wildcarded.  AND the "_" does not work on receive in some TNC's.
THus I just prepared the following new recommendation:
------------------------------------------------------------------------

1) Make your UNPROTO like this: UNPROTO CQ VIA NOCALL,GG##GG,NAME
2) Begin each typed message packet with a ">"

Here is the background behind this recommendation:

1) The Kenwood all-in-one APRS radios and APRS in general only accept
packets transmitted to everyone on the net, not to individuals.  Thus
hundreds of people monitoring the downlink may not see your packets unless
they contain the TOCALL of CQ, QST, BEACON, ID, APxxxx, etc.
Thus, CQ seems a good choice for this purpose.

2) The APRS format for a STATUS packet begins with a ">".  If your text
begins with ">" then it will be captured and displayed on the front panel
of the Kenwood radios and also captured as a STATUS message in all APRS
software.

BOTTOM LINE for KENWOOD RADIOS:  (thousands of them)

1) If you do not use "CQ" (or other group call) then your packets are
ignored completely by these radios and by APRS in general.

2) If you do use "CQ" but not ">", then they will see your CALL...

+------------+  Will flash for 10 seconds after each packet but
| WB4APR ??  |  nothing will be captured, since there was no ">"
| ---------- |  format character telling it what to do with it.
| ---------- |
+------------+

3) If you do both CQ and ">" in front of your text then...

+------------+  Will flash for 10 seconds after the packet
| WB4APR     |  AND will be captured to the STATION list
|  Using HT  |  for redisplay at any time by hitting the
|  for demo  |  STATION LIST key.
+------------+

4) If you really want to get fancy and send up to a 45 character message
to a Kenwood Radio HT or 64 char msg to a mobile, the ARISS web page, or
all of APRSdom, then begin your message with either of these two constructs:

:BLN1keybd:Hi everyone, this is a bulletin to all APRS
:W3XYZ    :THis is a private message to only W3XYZ.

Notice that the BULLETIN must begin with BLN# and both examples must have
exactly 9 characters between the beginning and ending
":"s.  These APRS Messages will be captured to the radio's MESSAGE list
and will BEEP the radio and TURN ON the BACKLIGHT and will flash the
mesasge 10 times.  THink of it as a text pager...

I hope these formats will help everyone enjoy the UI digipeaters in space
and will let everyone see everyone, especially those folks using nothing
but an HT in their pocket to capture the downlink.

de WB4APR, Bob


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