Below is my response to Marks POCSAG Paging - Ideas (KC8GRQ)
That can be found here:
Paging Ideas
I couldn't get his "CAPTCHA" system - I am a real person I promise!
Mark
I do like the idea of the hy-bird system, connected and unconnected systems -> but I think that will just lead to problems, the more I think about it...the more I wonder how you would get the page information to the non-connected systems without some sort of RX/TX combination....which leads to the PL tone, which leads to the (well...you know)...
A hy-bird system may sound like a good idea...but I am not so sure it will work the way we want it to.
I admit, my idea needs some work, it's was a rough idea this morning....but it still makes since to me...it really does.
I think we also need a fall down patern -> IE:
APRS (lat/lon), (Foursquare, Geoloqi, other Lat/Lon services), Dstar (last repeater connected to via RF), Allstarlink/echolink (???) I don't think we can really use IRLP (It is VoIP, but it doesn't contain a call sign - so no way to really know who is connected unless we are listening to it)
Your right, the TX site wouldn't need to add anything to the pager - since the server system would know where it's going to send the message it can just add that information right at the start. And that makes since... having the TX stations CW id makes since too. (The software would need to be smart enough to not transmit while it's CWing like you hear on some repeaters)
I was thinking about the cap codes as well...this would be a nationwide system, but if we did something like just "push" the page to the right TX site, cap codes become less of an issue, since only 1 TX would get it...you'd just need to make sure that people in your area are not using the same cap-code
IF you do travel a lot or a little, you'll just be aware you could get a message meant for someone else...for the most part none of this is truly private - think about messages on APRS, anyone who knows where to look can get those messages. So they are not private at all.
But you do want to try and avoid using a cap code over and over and over again as well...So a published list of codes should probably be on the website someplace.
The idea being that if you know a ham has a pager - all you need is his/her call sign to get them a message of course.
I would have to check again, but I think to stay legal we need to also be able to store the messages that are sent, and where they were/who sent to.
But that should be easy to do in a mysql database.
I don't know lots to think about still...and honestly I don't know which system will be better, the RX/TX combination or the closest TX site
As I said both have the good and both have the bad. I know it would take some work to get a database of the locations, but I am pretty sure we want to do that anyway.
Getting the APRS data is easy (lat/lon) and the calculations to figure out how far something is from something else is easy I've got the code to do that.
So yes, some work needed, but nothing that would be overly hard to do.
Personally (and it's a personal thing) I know how lazy I am - the last thing I want to do if I'm going to go somewhere is log on to a site and tell the site where I will be and when...I would rather just have the site "follow" me automatic
I do see a problem with that, now we aren't putting a load on the RF side of things but could be putting a load on the computer site of things....
SO, maybe if we made something like...send a email to the system to tell it to follow you...or log-on the system and put it in "Travel" mode...then it would only follow you if you told it to.
I don't know - lots to still work out...I just don't think you want people to say where they are or will be...things happen (and if you don't have access to the net you'll not be able to update the site yourself) if the site follows it will know where/when you are someplace. (Within reason)
Just some more of my thoughts on the subject. I don't know which would be the best...My thought money wise it would be cheaper for the end user to setup a TX point then a RX/TX point - less hardware needed (assumes you already have a computer you can use - but if you don't have a computer why would you build an encoder LOL)
Ok, just my 2cents.
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