The D-RATS Auto QST Beacon Feature:

1. Overview:

D-RATS has the capability to send periodic beacons containing either static or dynamic information. Beacons could potentially include content such as positional information, information about a forthcoming Hamfest, current weather, latest news or storm warnings.

2. Configuration:

Auto QST Beacons are configured and managed in D-RATS by selecting File > Auto QST Settings.

2.1. Auto QST Beacon Types:

There are a number of different types of Auto QST Beacons that D-RATS supports. As from Version 0.2.7 these beacon types include:

Text: This is a plain text message, such as "Dave in Ballarat, using D-RATS Version 0.2.7".

Exec: This allows an external program to run, with the program output being piped out as a beacon message. An example of this might be the output of a weather station program.

CAP: The Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) allows the specific alerting messages, transmitted across the internet, to be rebroadcast across D-RATS.

File: This allows the contents of a plain text file to be broadcast as a beacon.

GPS: This allows the GPS location coordinates, of the local station, to be broadcast in plain text.

GPS-A: This allows the GPS location coordinates, of the local station, to be broadcast in GPS-A format, suitable for transfer across the D-STAR DPRS (Digital Position Reporting System).

RSS: This allows RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to be broadcast. RSS feeds may comprise alerts from weather systems, or other news sources.

Weather Underground: This allows limited weather information, for a specific location, to be broadcast. The weather data may be collected from an Airport or someone's personal weather station.

Station: This will send the coordinates of any D-STAR station that D-RATS is aware of as a beacon message.

2.2. Auto QST Beacon Interval:

Auto QST Beacons can be configured to be sent in either of two ways, being:

At a specific minute past the hour, or
At XX minutes after the D-RATS applications has been started or a new beacon added.

To set a beacon to be activated at a specific minute past the hour, enter ":XX" in the Interval field. For example, to have a beacon always sent at 43 minutes after the hour, set the Interval as ":43". (Note the colon symbol before the numbers).

To set a beacon to be sent 30 minutes after creation, or every 30 minutes after D-RATS has been started then select 30 from the Interval drop down list. If an unusual time interval is required then type the desired figure in the Interval field.