[drats_users] D-RATS questions, suggestions

[Brian Mileshosky]

Dan --

I'm beginning to use D-RATS and am trying to generate interest 
throughout New Mexico for its use as well.  Some questions and 
suggestions for improvement:

1) It would be VERY helpful if the "Stations" screen on the right side 
of the Chat tab reflected stations on a particular Chat channel ONLY 
(when viewing a Channel tab).  That is, if I create a channel called 
"NM", and I click on its tab, then the callsigns on the right side of 
the screen should only show those on the NM channel.  If I want to see 
EVERYONE on a given ratflector, then I can click on the default "Main" 
chat tab.  This way, if during an emergency event that requires a number 
of tactical "chat nets" via chat channels (i.e. a channel where the EOC 
is found, another for where shelters are found, etc), I can see exactly 
(and only) who is on each channel, and not have to wonder who is on one 
channel and who is not.  Right now, when I set up a channel I have no 
idea who is on it since the list is cluttered with callsigns of people 
who are NOT on that channel as well.

2) In the log screen, when filtering for file transfers, it would be 
nice if a file transfer log listing also included the callsign of 
whoever grabbed a file from my "Shared" folder.  This way, if I ask a 
station to grab a file from me, I have record that they in fact did, so 
I don't need to consume additional time following up with them and 
asking. Right now all I can see is that a file was transferred at a 
certain time, but I have no clue who transferred it.

3) Is there any reason why transferring files via internet can't occur 
at internet speeds?  It would be nice if D-RATS knew the method of 
transfer based on whether it's connected to the internet, or via RF 
(even if a future release made each message user selectable via a radio 
button or pull-down menu): Internet would occur at internet speeds, but 
if via radio it would automatically throttle the speed settings for that 
particular medium accordingly.  If the internet is up in an emergency, I 
say leverage it as fully as possible to unburden the limited RF 
channels.  Somehow this should be seamless (based on the software 
detecting the medium across which a file or message is to be sent) and 
not require the user to change blocksize when sending via the internet 
vs RF.

4) I noticed, when sending multiple NTS forms in version 0.3.3, that 
after I click on "Send" within the message screen, the message(s) isn't 
actually sent.  I have to secondarily click "Send/Receive" on the main 
program screen before the message actually gets sent.  Additionally, if 
I have multiple messages queued up for sending, I need to click 
"Send/Receive" for each message in the queue before each is sent 
individually.  It would seem that the "Send" within the message screen 
would be sufficient, and that multiple messages in the queue would be 
sent on their way automatically.

5) We recently set up a ratflector here in New Mexico and our initial 
testing revealed that, if a ratflector went down temporarily, then any 
D-RATS user out there who was connected to it would manually have to 
reconnect to it.  I can see a situation where a user, perhaps in an ARES 
tactical net, might not be aware that his connection was lost and might 
consequently miss out on important action.  Is there not a way for the 
D-RATS application to sense that a connection has been lost and 
automatically reconnect?  It could be as simple as, when D-RATS hasn't 
seen data from a ratflector for n-minutes, the D-RATS application sends 
a ping or keep-alive message to the ratflector.  If no response from the 
ratflector, it assumes it went down and automatically tries to 
re-establish connection with it.  If the ratflector is down for a long 
duration, D-RATS would attempt a reconnect every n-minutes until a 
connection is re-established or until the user switches to a new 
ratflector.

If you wouldn't mind sharing your thoughts I'd appreciate it.  Thanks 
for an excellent software application!

73,
Brian N5ZGT