[drats_users] Feature suggestion

[Joe Thielen]

I am also very interested in this type of functionality as well.  Without
the RF portion, D-RATS is basically Internet chat/e-mail to me... of course
I'm simplifying this, only to make a point.  Yeah the Internet is great, and
it's supposedly stable if the connections are done right, but with ham
radio, again to me, it's the RF that matters.  I'm not a Luddite at all, my
background is with computers and the Internet.  But ham radio provides that
vital backup link.  I'll step off my soap box now.

Originally I was thinking like John WB4QDX here that I'd have to use a
radio.  Then I did some experimenting with a dongle and, although testing
with this was not quite 100% successful, it did look hopeful.

I think at the time I was looking into all this (a few months ago), the
explanation as to why this functionality doesn't exist is that the repeater
software just doesn't allow for this type of I/O.  I hope I am proven
wrong.  I know that I can log into the Linux server which powers our local
gateway and I can create a text file with either a short message (which
would appear on the front panel display of a radio) or data (which would
come out through a radio serial port), and it will be sent out via RF.  So
why this same thing can't be done via the D-RATS repeater software I don't
know.  It may be an issue with callsigns and whatnot... if I do the text
file thing to send data, it would come across as from the gateway callsign.
But the functionality is in there somewhere, perhaps it's just not available
with our needs in mind.

Any further information (especially authoritative) on this would be greatly
appreciated by all I think.  At my local club we're possibly looking at
setting up not only a D-Star RF link for our D-RATS ratflector, but also
packet RF since D-RATS seems to support that as well.  Lots of packet
equipment still out there and this is a great EmComm application for it.
Being able to coverge the use of Internet, D-Star RF, and packet over RF
seems to me like a fantastic thing.

Joe KJ0EYT - Toledo, OH

On Tue, Sep 27, 2011 at 3:56 PM, John Davis <JDavis at gtworks.com> wrote:

>  Hi John:****
>
> I don’t think that is going to do what I’m looking for and will be most
> useful.  I want the D-RATS Repeater Proxy (Ratflector) to connect the
> Ratflector to a repeater via the Internet as one leg of its “bridge”
> function.  That would eliminate the need to have a D-STAR radio connected to
> the PC running Proxy and let it bridge from RF to Internet.  Please correct
> me if I missed a function in ircDDB.****
>
> ** **
>
> John WB4QDX****
>
> ** **
>
> *From:* drats_users-bounces at intrepid.danplanet.com [mailto:
> drats_users-bounces at intrepid.danplanet.com] *On Behalf Of *John D. Hays
> *Sent:* Tuesday, September 27, 2011 3:09 PM
> *To:* drats_users at intrepid.danplanet.com
> *Subject:* [drats_users] Feature suggestion****
>
> ** **
>
> John,****
>
> ** **
>
> Without really analyzing what you want to do, you might want to look at
> ircDDBGateway - it has D-RATS from the Internet to Repeater functionality.
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ircDDBGateway  (Files -> Beta section).
> ****
>  ------------------------------
>
> John D. Hays
> K7VE****
>
> PO Box 1223, Edmonds, WA 98020-1223 ****
>
> <http://k7ve.org/blog>  <http://twitter.com/#%21/john_hays> <http://www.facebook.com/john.d.hays>
> ****
>
>
>
> ****
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: John Davis <JDavis at gtworks.com>
> To: "drats_users at intrepid.danplanet.com" <
> drats_users at intrepid.danplanet.com>
> Date: Tue, 27 Sep 2011 03:43:37 +0000
> Subject: [drats_users] Feature suggestion****
>
> Dan:****
>
> There are many groups getting great use from the Repeater Proxy
> (Ratflector) function.  One of the problems for those installing a
> Ratflector in a robust location such as a data center is that it is limited
> to only Internet access by D-RATS clients (if I understand this correctly).
> It seems that if a Ratflector could connect to a repeater via the Internet
> port for data communications (it may be 20001), that could eliminate the
> need for a D-STAR radio and allow Ratflectors in a location that may not
> have radio access to a repeater.  Do you think this could be possible?****
>
>  ****
>
> *John WB4QDX*****
>
>  ****
>
>  ** **
>  ------------------------------
>
> No virus found in this message.
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> ***
>
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