>> There are 300,000 older DTMF Text Paging >> ham HT's out there from the 90's that >> could be integrated. > > Surely, as these don't have a writeable > alpha numeric display they will be Tx only?
No the FT-51 family and TH-78 all have TEXT DTMF text paging displays too. It's just that hams didn't use the feature, so most people ignored it. THey display 6 characters at a time in messages up to 60 bytes long.. see the web page: www.aprs.org/FT51-TH78.html That 300,000 2-way DTMF text paging HT's is a reasonable number based on some data I had from some of the manufacturers. You are thinking about the 10's of millions of regular HT's that can TX DTMF messages as-is. But they too can RX messages by voice synthesis from the local repeater! That is why we need APRSTouchtone www.aprs.org/aprstt.html so that anyone with any old HT can be seen, can send and receive messages. THey RX messages by VOICE synthesis from the local APRStt engine just like someone hears voice messages on his phone answering machine. >> There are millions of surplus text pagers >> going to the landfills... >> > Most of which would be Rx only. Which is what 98% of any commmunications mode is.... being available for a call. The value of Universal Amateur Radio Text Messaging is to be able to at least CALL any person, anytime, anywhere, using any device using only his callsign, means the callee has to have a receiver, Iphone, Blackberry, pager, APRS, or just his ears monitoring the local APRStt channel. Having a converted $20 text messaging paging receiver on the dashboard of every ham radio mobile would sure make it a lot easier to contact people and call-up when there is a need and distribute local immediate info of value. Once called, then the called party uses whatever HIS available system is to respond. So Text Pagers in amateur radio are just part of the overall two-way communicaitons network, but they fulfill the call-up need very well for those old mobiles that will never upgrade to APRS or Iphone's or whatever... > Texting whilst mobile is extremely dangerous. Life is dangerous and fools are everwyhere. Some people shouldnt get out of bed in the morning, they are a danger to themselves and everyone around them. But glanicing at a head's-up message disply window properly mounted in a vehicle can be done safely. > Surely you mean to make it available to > "out of shack" operators. Yes, we are amateur radio communicators, and being accessible for a call is important. The one lesson from Katrina (New Orleans Hurricane) was that we had thousands of hams in the area and in the response effort, and we had 6000 amateur radio frequencies from HF to UHF, yet most of our effort was just trying to find people... Not just in the lat/long domain, but in the Frequency domain too. THe goal of the Universal Text Messaging Initiative is to provide a fundamental capability that anyone with any device on any system, anywhere can send and receive a call. THis has been the goal of APRS for over 16 years on its national channel, but now with the proliferation of compatible text messaging devices, we just need to keep everything talking to everything so we can communicate independent of system. There was an initiative a few years ago to convert pagers, but because it was not tied into APRS, Email and the internet, it was again, just another of the dozens of isolated only-talk-to-same-devices narrow-application dead-end projects. I'd love to carry a text pager (or other device) that would: 1) receive messages to my callsign 2) list nearby mobiles and operators 3) alert me to satellites in view and freqs 4) alert me to freq of nearby EchoLink/IRLP node 5) alert me to nearby nets in progress 6) Alert me to ham radio bulletins in the area announcing any other ham radio activity. APRS does that now, but other systems can also... Tying together all the text messaging capabilities and chat modes in Amateur Radio is something we need as a national priority. Hope that helps Bob, WB4aPR _______________________________________________ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
