Autoresponder for IRLP

 Overview

Ever have a text message that you wanted people connected to the repeater to hear? How about weather warnings and forecasts? The autoresponder for IRLP does that and more.

Weather, Yellow Pages and Node Identification

The IRLP Autoresponder is a DTMF driven collection of add-ons which provide useful value added functionality to your IRLP node. The autoresponder is able to provide node users with uptodate, on demand weather. Also, it permits users to lookup nodes using city name as the key. It also integrates other features which simplify life for the node administrator.

Weather

Current conditions and 24hour forecasts are made available using DTMF. The numeric codes xx are site specific identifiers which indicate the city/region/airport for which you want to hear the weather. In this way, each node can provide a selection of weather stations which might represent the repeater footprint coverage area. (This feature is available whenever the node is not connected to the IRLP network.)

Node Directory

Ideal for the mobile and portable users, up to date node directories are available using DTMF. The codes represent the city name spelled out using DTMF. Reasonable abbreviations and wildcards are supported. A zero 0, represents space. A one 1, represents a single character wildcard. An asterisk * in the city name represents a multicharacter wildcard. As every cell phone user knows, you should pull over to the side of the road when keying in DTMF sequences. (This feature is available whenever the node is not connected to the IRLP network.)

Node Identification

The node administrator uses this feature at system startup time, to send morse based station identification as required by law. The node identification software is easily configurable and can use an external sccw program, or use the internal morse program.

Dependencies

The autoresponder depends on a properly configured IRLP node. In addition to the standard Linux software, it requires festival for text to speech. Optionally, it can make use of a properly tested and configured sccw.

Versions of Linux

Most versions of Linux that I've tested work fine. Currently it is running on the Red Hat 9 and the Fedora Core 5 IRLP releases.

Canadian Release

Currently the IRLP Autoresponder code has been tested at selected sites in Canada. If you are Linux savvy and want this software for your node in Canada, then send mail to the address that appears at the bottom of this page. [Note to self: make this link available for download ]

Other Countries

A USA version has been prototyped.

This could be extended to most other countries, theoretically. What is required is some customization of awk scripts.

Future Functionality

Message of the day.

Simplex node support. (Current version targets repeaters.)

Fedora 7 testing

va3xto@rac.ca
Copyright © E. J. Ritzmann.
Last Change $Date: 2007/08/06$