[drats_users] [D-RATS] #73: D-RATS callsign field

[David Tilson]

G'day Nate,

Thanks for your thoughts.  Arnold and I were having a discussion offlist
yesterday about this as well.

> In fact, I'd rather see D-RATS have both a callsign field AND 
> the ability to assign aliases, and have it reply to EITHER 
> ONE... similar to Packet Radio aliases...

No arguments there from me, but if we keep the existing callsign field,
let's clean it up a bit.

A concern I have is that at the moment, anything can be placed in the
callsign field, and if it originates from an internet connection (eg:
ratflector such as on port 9001 and retransmitted across amateur
frequencies) what's to say that it is originating from an amateur
station.  With the current situation if someone is not using an amateur
callsign (in the callsign field), but instead using some form of alias,
you have no idea if it is valid or not, or really any form of mechanism
to attempt to verify that it is from an amateur station.

I think that the callsign field should be specifically for an amateur
callsign, but suggested to Arnold that if an optional Alias field was
added that D-RATS the user could place whatever they like in that field,
provided D-RATS could relate one to the other.

Another one of my thoughts was that if, at some stage, we want to gate
information from D-RATS to other systems, such as APRS-IS, then it will
need callsigns formatted correctly.

So I still think the report is valid (as if nothing else the Stations
List looks messy with so many different ways people are entering info in
the callsign field), but equally support the concept of a new Alias
field being added.

Cheers,

davidt


> -----Original Message-----
> From: drats_users-bounces at lists.danplanet.com 
> [mailto:drats_users-bounces at lists.danplanet.com] On Behalf Of 
> Nate Duehr
> Sent: Saturday, 16 May 2009 4:43 AM
> To: Discussion of D-RATS
> Subject: Re: [drats_users] [D-RATS] #73: D-RATS callsign field
> 
> 
> I disagree with this bug report.
> 
> The "callsign" in D-RATS isn't really a callsign.  It's a 
> D-RATS "node address" if you really think about it.