[drats_users] not sure on this one

[Nate Duehr]

Ahhh... I see my own personal mis-conception of the delay timer.

What I was attempting to accomplish with it vs. what it really is, were 
at odds.

Here's what I was HOPING it did in English:

"Don't start transmitting again until the channel is clear of ALL 
traffic for X seconds."

What it really does:

"Don't start transmitting again until at least X seconds have passed, 
then send the data to the radio which will not transmit until the 
frequency is clear."

The problem, as I now can tell, is that D-RATS can't tell if the rig is 
receiving voice traffic, only data.

So the best that could be done is:

"Don't start transmitting again until the channel has been clear of any 
DATA traffic for X seconds."

That would require the timer to continually be reset to zero whenever 
the serial port was receiving characters from the rig.

The reason I was hoping for the overall timer, including voice, is that 
on a busy mixed voice/data net -- it would be nice if the data stations 
would "back off" until voice was off-air for 5 seconds.  Then "after" 
the last voice transmission -- the data stations pop back up and 
continue whatever they were doing, still leaving pauses in-between 
transmissions, like the second English scenario above.

But I don't see any way to accomplish that -- in the current rigs, right?

Perhaps if voice stations are also sending GPS data or other low-speed 
data, D-RATS could "see" those characters flying by (even if it's some 
other data application's data D-RATS can't read) and continue to "hold" 
waiting for the channel... but the typical voice transmission doesn't 
send any data at all to D-RATS, does it Dan?

Nate WY0X