[drats_users] Possible Who Is Online feature request

[David Tilson]

G'day Dan,

I'll float this for discussion before we decide if the group think it
would be a useful feature...

Currently, I believe, lists such as the Stations list are only populated
when stations send out a QST beacon, when a Chat message is sent, or
they are specifically pinged across D-RATS.

How about a QRZ type feature, that when activated by a user, would
broadcast a common message causing each D-RATS station to respond, thus
building up everyone's Stations list that is currently monitoring the
frequency, Ratflector, etc.  

Some users may not want their station to auto-respond to such a feature,
so there would probably need to be an option to Opt out of the
auto-response.  Alternately having callsigns colour coded, or some form
of symbol displayed, you could show whether or not stations are
available to Chat (similar to programs such as Skype, etc).  To avoid
collisions of data being sent, there would probably need to be some form
of randomised transmit delay added for each station.  By incorporating a
time limit any stations that don't respond or exceed the nominated time
limit would fall off the current Stations list. 

Regards,

Davidt, VK3UR