[Xastir-dev] Re: N/S and E/W bit

[Bob Bruninga]

Ah what the heck.
Here is what I really want to do and I think it would be useful for APRS
and so lets look at it all together:

PROPOSAL:

1) Starting now, new code will accept U/C and L/C for the NS/EW bytes in
all LAT/LONG formats

2) At some time in the future (TBD) we use those bits to implement these
additions to the spec:

ACTIVE BIT:  The presence of lowercase in the N/S byte will imply the
sender is active at his keyboard or mouse in APRS in the last 10 minutes.
If inactive it reverts to U/C.  Programmer note:  a) on change of state
from inactive to active, a fresh position report should be transmitted.
b) Transmitting this ACTIVE bit may be optional to the sending operator.

PRIORITY BIT: The presence of lowercase in the E/W byte will imply the
sender is declaring his packets to be PRIORITY.  Conversly, upper case E/W
means ROUTINE.  Programmer note:  The declaration of PRIORITY is session
dependent, cannot be saved,  and times out after ONE hour.

Implementation of #1 is manditory at some point (tbd)
Implementation of #2 is optional (its a senders option).

How and what you display on receipt is optional as long as you continue to
accept the position report as valid independent of CASE..  How I plan on
using it is as a viewing selection, simply to see who is immediately
active or not, and/or, who is a declared PRIORITY user or not...  These
should be very handy when trying to determine who is a participant in a
special event and who is probably not... etc..

de WB4APR, Bob