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ZL3AI > APRDIG 22.05.04 01:44l 297 Lines 10806 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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From: ZL3AI@ZL3VML.#80.NZL.OC
To : APRDIG@WW
TAPR APRS Special Interest Group Digest for Thursday, May 13, 2004.
1. was: Re: laptop now: PCMCIA
2. Re: How do you read these ID's?
3. Re: laptop
4. RE: How do you read these ID's?
5. Re: PocketAPRS
6. Re: laptop
7. Possible portable APRS box?
8. ping
9. Re: laptop
10. Re: laptop
11. Anyone going to Dayton...
12. Re: laptop
13. Re: laptop
14. Re: laptop
15. USB interface standard Was: Re: laptop
16. Re: USB interface standard
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Subject: was: Re: laptop now: PCMCIA
From: "Hurt, Jay" <hurt@adcom911.org>
Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 23:19:21 -0600
X-Message-Number: 1
I'm sure this has come up at some point, but is there anyone that is making
a PCMCIA flavor TNC? My wish list would include TNC-2 compatability,
flash-able ROM (UIDIGI anyone?), KISS mode and RJ45 connector for
interfacing to a radio.
Nearly every laptop can take a type I/II card and there are now PCI
adapters accepting them for your desktop systems.
---
Jay Hurt
Adams County 911
Lead Dispatcher
N0XVB
DM79ox
"If you think dogs can't count, try putting three dog biscuits in your
pocket and then giving Fido only two of them."
-Phil Pastoret
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Subject: Re: How do you read these ID's?
From: "Doug Younker" <dougy@ruraltel.net>
Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 01:02:41 -0500
X-Message-Number: 2
Maybe not as life threatening, but perhaps useful information for someone
driving on the streets at the bottom of the big city canyons.--73
Doug, N0LKK
dougy@ruraltel.net
----- Original Message -----
From: "KC2MMi" <kc2mmi@verizon.net>
To: "TAPR APRS Special Interest Group" <aprssig@lists.tapr.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2004 1:46 PM
Subject: [aprssig] How do you read these ID's?
: I often see ID's that are not call signs, presumably they are NWS spotters.
: Sometimes they are outright hilarious, like flash flood warnings in the
: heart of NYC, where "flash flooding" is not at all the same life-threatening
: issue that it might be in an arroyo out west.
:
: PHISVR>APRS,qAO,WXSVR:
: ;PHIS1826z*121845z4038.40NS07408.40WWCenter of MaxConcern
:
: is one of the statements I've seen today. Also
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Subject: Re: laptop
From: "Keith - VE7GDH" <ve7gdh@rac.ca>
Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 00:44:51 -0700
X-Message-Number: 3
>>Virtually ALL current models! Classic serial ports (and DOS support)
>>are history. You are going to have to search in the second hand or
>>discontinued models clearance market for one with a real serial port.
It is true that RS-232 ports are becoming pretty rare on notebooks, but
the Dell 600M still has one.
73 es cul - Keith VE7GDH
--
"I may be lost but I know exactly where I am"
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Subject: RE: How do you read these ID's?
From: "Ken Brown" <W2KB@comcast.net>
Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 06:17:15 -0400
X-Message-Number: 4
There are instances of people drowning in flash flood in New York City and
other large cities. Some of the roads or streets at underpasses dip down
several feet below regular street level and, particularly if the drainage
sewers are clogged, can rapidly fill with enough water to cover a car. Not
as hazardous as a drywash in the west, but a hazard none the less.
73, ---Ken W2KB
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Subject: Re: PocketAPRS
From: "Dakota Summerhawk" <dakotas@dotorg.org>
Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 07:10:04 -0600
X-Message-Number: 5
Palm has just as many problems as CE. I have had a palm and had just as
many problems as the CE device so there is no trade off between the two.
ANY device is prone to failure.
Dakota
-----Original Message-----
At 12:32 PM 5/12/04, you wrote:
>On Wed, 12 May 2004, Dakota Summerhawk wrote:
>
>>One advantage to CE that palm does NOT have is the ability to run
>>multiple apps at the same time palm does not have that.
And you have all the problems associated with Windows, but in a smaller
form factor..hi..hi.
>Which is why you instead go to a Sharp Zaurus, which runs Linux
>natively... ;-)
>
>I run a Handspring Visor Deluxe (PalmOS), but my next PDA purchase will
>probably be a Zaurus.
>
>--
>Curt, WE7U archer at eskimo dot com
Good luck.
73,
Gary - W6GVS
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Subject: Re: laptop
From: "KC2MMi" <kc2mmi@verizon.net>
Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 11:22:59 -0400
X-Message-Number: 6
Wes-
As others have said, serial ports are being dropped, it will be hard to
find one on a new system. I wouldn't chose the new system solely because of
a serial port though, because the systems which have newer/better/faster
etcetera with new system designs are simply unlikely to have them any more.
The solution is to buy an "MS certified logo compliant" USB-to-serial
adapter. MS maintains the Hardware Certification List (HCL) online, and
vendors pay to have their equipment tested. If the equipment has been
submitted (not free) and works with a particular OS, MS certifies it and
lists it.
There are only two makers of USB-to-serial adapters that have been
certified, IBM and Keyspan. Both readily available online. (And IBM
conveniently makes good laptops to go with it.<G>)
An unlisted device may simply not have been submitted to the program, to
save money. Or it may have failed, there's no way to know.
As a long-time NT user (XP is just NT5.1) I won't run hardware or software
that is not certified as long as I have the option to buy the certified
products. I don't want to be a test site, or know why a vendor couldn't /vs/
didn't get certification. Life's too short to bother with that, and a lot of
uncertified USB devices simply have not worked with GPS devices &
applications.
The other option is a PC Card that provides serial ports. That real serial
ports, not emulation or conversion, so those generally work with or without
the logo. Although, again, I'd rather buy with the logo certifying someone
else tested it.<G>
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Subject: Possible portable APRS box?
From: "James S. Dalton" <n8hqy@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 12:40:45
X-Message-Number: 7
Found these units mentioned at mini-itx.com (apologies if they've been
mentioned before):
http://www.ministrymobile.com/
http://www.viatech.com.tw/en/VInternet/eve.jsp
They're designed to be a PC game unit, running WinXP Embedded, but can
accept keyboards and mice via USB. They don't have a serial port, though.
Funky form factor, but that's mainly the gaming controller; the display/CPU
can be removed for other uses. Very interesting. Something to keep an eye
on.
(I have no affiliation with this company, BTW)
Jim, N8HQY in Cincinnati
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Subject: ping
From: wes@johnston.net
Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 14:51:38 -0400 (EDT)
X-Message-Number: 8
ping
ham callsign: kd4rdb
find me: http://wesvan.zapto.org
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Subject: Re: laptop
From: "Mike Yetsko" <myetsko@insydesw.com>
Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 16:47:05 -0400
X-Message-Number: 9
> The other option is a PC Card that provides serial ports. That real serial
>ports, not emulation or conversion, so those generally work with or without
>the logo.
Unfortunately, this can work AGAINST you, not for you.
The problem is not the serial port, or the serial port emulation. It's the
brain dead software that uses the serial port. And the fact that the
software is limited to how it can interface with serial ports.
For example. MOST laptop chipsets had 2 serial ports built in. One for
serial, one for IR. And in most configurations that mean COM1 at 3F8 and
IRQ4, and the IR at COM2, 2F8 and IRQ3.
At BEST, the PC card on insert had to use a 'kludge' for COM3, 3E8 and
IRQ... OK, WHAT IRQ? Thing is, there IS no standard for the IRQ for COM3.
Well, OK, on a LOT of systems, COM1 and COM3 'shared' IRQ4, but only one of
the serial ports could be active at a time.
And, if you configured you laptop so it was COM1 and COM3 and shared IRQ4
(what are the chances you'd be using IR and the serial port at the same
time? (rule out modem links and IR printing!)) so this 'sorta' worked.
(This trick, by the way, can also work with USB. If you can get your
'hardware' com ports out of the way so the USB-Serial port can virtualize
in there as COM1 or COM2, I'd bet it would work. At least, I've seen some
applications work that were sticklers about touching hardware.)
Then with WIN95 came the ability to 'share' interrupts. Well, sometimes.
Unless you had the IBM ThinkPads with a certain CardWorks enhancement ( and
knew how to go into the registry and set the shareable flags...) you
couldn't share interrupts unless they were ALL PCI interrupts. And even
then, the braindamaged DOS only applications wouldn't know how to use them
anyway, even WITH the PCMCIA cards set up right.
Then with WIN98 and USB support, the USB is pretty good with it's support
for com ports.
I've written a couple of apps now with Delphi 2.0 and later, and I can tell
you first hand the com ports work on USB. I can number them almost any way
I choose. As long as it's clean and legal, I haven't had an issue.
Well, ok, one. Since USB is 'hot swappable', there is an issue if the port
isn't the same each time you plug it in. To solve that, I always make sure
that I start my USB com ports with a 'gap' after the last physical com
port, just in case I have something like a network card or something in the
PC slot doing something weird.
But then, that's the SAME kind of 'logical' issues I ran into with drives
and PC cards. (And now with USB drives too!) Although it was further
irritated by the idiots who set networks up so that network drives always
'attached' at drive letters immediately after your last physical drive.
What moron of a network administrator sets networks up like that? Heck, I
had 11 drives at one point on my machine, not counting the CD, and I had to
deal with some company software that was 'hardcoded' to only work on
"drive F:"
Bottom line is this whole USB to Serial issue is because of brain dead
programmers in the first place. But then, don't ENTIRELY blame the
programmers. That was the technology at the time. Just realize that what
we have now is MUCH better. You just gotta stop relying on that buggy whip
and realize there's a sleek new horseless carriage out there you can use,
but you gotta learn to use it.
Mike
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