2000 - Palomar Amateur Radio Club

least 60 seconds.
If you were dialing a BOX number,
the computer knows it is a BOX number,
looks up what phone number is in the
box you specify, then dumps the phone
number into step number 2 above.
Even though all operations done are
programmed on an old 286 (which is not
Y2K compliant) using QBASIC, the en·
tire operation is fairly rapid with most of
the time being spent dialing. After the
system is working for awhile, we will try
to shorten up the time needed for the
dialing sequence and possibly use the old
286 for some control operations.
But as we add more and more data to
the computer, it is bound to slow down
and take longer to dial than it now does
as the computer looks through all the box
numbers for your box and the number
stored in it. This takes time.
(At present WB6FMT and W9FQN are planning
on leaving the country ifwe have any more
problems -Ed)
The OLD patch system was really
quite technically involved and required a
lot of construction by WB6FMT while
the NEW system required only a few new
items but they (old and new) raised their
ugly heads and bit us at every tum. It
was the old equipment that caused us the
most serious problems since it effectively
disguised some problems in the new sys·
tem. W9FQN had to adjust his computer
dialing so that all digits fell in the OLD
windows ofthe OLD system.
Many thanks to WB6lQSJohn for
helping with the repair of one of the
transmitters and for his suggestions on
several ofour technical problems.
The equipment is now in working
order as this is being written BUT .
it should be noted that the computer can
make mistakes. W9FQN used the current
phone book for prefixes in each AREA
Code.
Any new prefixes added after that
programming will not be "allowed" until
you call his attention to problems in
dialing the new number. These new pre w
fixes need to be added to the allow
DATA tables in the computer.
Cell pbone numbers are not included
in the DATA stored. The emergency 911
and tbe 411 numbers are not allowed.
Pager and cell pbone numbers are not
allowed at this time.
The P ARC Board will have to decide
if any of this "policy" needs to be
changed and of course, your input is
always welcome.
Remembered that the phone book
does not list cell phone numbers.
Patch DATA
(in _,torage)
The new autopatch program has the
following DATA counts:
170 ofthe 760 AREA code
170 ofthe 760 patch designators
170 ofthe 760 dialing instructions
272 ofthe 858 AREA code
272 ofthe 858 patch designators
272 ofthe 858 dialing instructions
406 ofthe 619 AREA code
406 ofthe 619 patch designators
406 ofthe 619 dialing instructions
133 PIN numbers
133 caUsigns
133 membership dates
133 member's names
55 boxes with AREA PREFIX and
HOUSE number
55 PINS used with boxes
55 BOX numbers
=====
3,241 Total individual typed entries
So far only a few "typos" have been
found and corrected but with such a
large amount of data typed into the
computer there are bound to be some
typos lurking out there to "snag" someone.
These typos will be fixed as they are
called to our attention . .if not before!
We cannot fix something we are not
aware of so PLEASE use the patch and
any BOX numbers you might have so
that we can see ifthe prefixes we picked
up via the phone book are describing the
world that we live in!
This DATA count does not take into
account the 12 pages of QBASIC computer
code that really runs the patch
SYSTEM.
As time goes by and we get more
BOX telephone numbers (up to 4ea for
each member), the 286 might start to get
a little slow. Only time will tell us how
slow.
!! NO 911 !!
Because of crank calls to 911, the
club instal1ed 911 protectors on all three
patches. The new system will not allow
911 so these protectors are not needed
'-.,.,
at each site (they go berserk sometimes -Ed).
Since we have installed BOX numbers
for members to use, the next step is
to look into providing some boxes for
emergency numbers that members can
access.
While we don't promise anything,
we would like to look into the possibility
of adding emergency numbers.
Do you have any suggestions of
what numbers to include (we need
phone numbers)?
Semi-Emergency
report phone outage
AAA (auto club)
Emergency
police and fire
coast guard
Sheriff
If we had BOXes for police or sheriff,
we really would need numbers in
760 (No. Co.), 858 (Mid Co.), and 619
(So. Co.) since the police sometimes can
see the telephone number you are calling
from which, of course, is really the
auto patch number you are using in one
ofthe three areas of San Diego Co.
One would not want to report a fire
or police problem in south county to a
760 North Co. police or sheriff station.
This whole idea of emergency numbers
might tum out to be so complicated
and difficult to use that we might have
to abandon the idea completely but we
would like to hear your comments and
suggestions. (I like e-mail-Ed)
AnaIysis(more than U wanted to know)
While the equipment and technical
problems were being solved on the new
autopatch system, a second program
has been started which takes all the data
collected by the System Dialing prOw
gram that is saved on disk and it does an
analysis ofthe data collected:
how many calls to each patch
how many seconds for each call
how many failed calls