[drats_users] D-RATS 0.3.2b5 WL2K email

[Dan Smith]

> Yes, RF. And I was also able to chat between the two stations at that
> time. Should I try to close and restart each station to see if that
> frees the messages from the outbox and get them sent?

Well, I suppose.  Like I say, the debug log seems to show that they can
communicate, but large (file-sized) blocks are getting corrupted.  That
could mean that you have a reasonable connection between the two of them
(enough for small chats) but that larger blocks aren't making it.  Are
these machines very close to each other?

> The main thing is to be able to see (maybe in the lower status bar)
> what your call-sign is that you started up D-Rats with (with or without
> any SSIDs that were appended to the callsign field in D-Rats). Seeing
> it, you could then visually see it for confirmation and perhaps better
> remember to change it when changing station operators during an emcomm
> event.

Yep, I understand.  While I was adding it to b6 I was thinking I could
also set the title bar of the application to be "D-RATS: KK7DS" which
would then show up as such in the task bar as well.

> Yes, the connected stations show up but am wondering if there is
> value in a "descriptive" field also being shown in addition to the
> D-Rats call-sign of the station. This goes kind of together with the
> above item in clarifying and confirming who you are and who you are
> talking with. Perhaps only of value in an emcomm event...where there are
> several unknown stations communicating and having this descriptive text
> field would be of value. So rather than having to consult a list that
> would have to be created and distributed of what call-sign is what
> station (e.g. Kc9ORB = Red Cross, W9DBE = Police liaison, and so on) the
> descriptive field could clearly identify who is what...in addition to
> simply the stations call-sign.

Yeah, we've had this discussion in various forms on this list before.
It definitely has value.

The first thing you can do is use any string you want for the callsign
of a station, so you can certainly use "REDCROSS" or "EOC" for the
callsign.  The callsign in your radio keeps you legal and is stamped on
every packet as well.

For more information, you can change the status text (on the bottom
right, under the Online/Unattended box) to whatever you want.  If you
set this to "Operating from the Hillsboro Police Station", then you will
show up as such.  When people mouse over you in their stations list,
they will see that text.  Most people leave this as the default, so you
might not realize what that becomes.

Try setting it on one of your boxes and then ping it from the other.
Then hover your mouse pointer in the stations list and you'll see that text.

-- 
Dan Smith
dsmith#danplanet.com, s/#/@/
www.danplanet.com
KK7DS