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1987-09-20
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FINDER.SYO FINDER/FINDHW System Operation Details Version 2.0
A. OVERVIEW
The FINDER software was written in Turbo Pascal on an IBM PC by WN6I, W.E.
Moerner, and N6KL, Dave Palmer. It requires a TNC with WA8DED firmware,
because host mode is used for communication between the computer and the
TNC. No requirement is placed on the other TNC's connected to the FINDER
database machine, except that they use AX.25 link-layer protocol. The host
mode of the WA8DED firmware has also been used in a packet database program
written by WB6MRQ for the Primavera Bike Tour. The FINDER program utilizes
the Turbo Database Toolbox for management and indexing of its B-plus
structured tree. Briefly, FINDER may be regarded as a specialized multiple
connect BBS with a specific command set tailored to the handling of STATUS
INPUT information and STATUS REQUESTS.
B. GENERAL RULES FOR CURRENT INFORMATION INPUT / STATUS REQUESTS
Enter the various fields, in order, with separators between them. Valid
separators are the comma and the blank. Multiple consecutive separators
are treated as a single separator.
C. SYNTAX FOR CURRENT INFORMATION INPUT: EMERGENCY RESPONDER (ER) MODE
phonenum,aname,sl,orig,time,date<cr>
(<cr> means carriage return)
See the FINDER Data Card for an explanation of the SL field. The
first four fields are required, and the last two are optional.
1. PHONENUM
PHONENUM can have as many embedded dashes as you like; all dashes are
ignored. Two general formats may be used: long or short form. The
long form has the full ten digits for area code and phone number.
The short form has only 8 digits, and uses a single leading digit as
an abbreviation for the full area code. The abbreviation is
determined by the sysop when FINDER is started - it might be the last
digit in the area code, for example, in which case "408" can be
abbreviated "8", and "415" can be abbreviated "5". For more general
situations, the sysop may select NO area code checking when the
FINDER program is started. In this case, all ten digit phone numbers
are allowed, but no eight digit phone numbers.
2. ANAME
ANAME is a 5 character field with a leading letter, signifying the
first 5 letters of the person's first name.
3. SL
SL is the 2-digit code, which is a combination of the "My current
status is" and "I will be at" codes on the input form. The two
digits should be entered one after the other, with no characters in
between. Only the values shown on the input form are allowed.
4. ORIG
ORIG is the 4-character code signifying the point of origin of the
status information, i.e., the "This form filled out at" field on the
input form. The code could be the fire station code where the person
filled out the form. ORIG must start with a letter.
5. TIME
TIME is an optional field. If present, it must be a valid
24 hour time, with no colon. If this field is not present, the
database program inserts the current time. TIME must be entered,
however, if you wish to enter a DATE.
6. DATE
DATE is an optional field. If present, it must be a valid day of the
month. If this field is not present, the database program inserts
the current day of the month.
7. EXAMPLES OF DATA INPUT (ER MODE)
85553195,joe,12,sj34<cr>
415-555-8011 mary 11 a234 1235 3<cr>
All six of these pieces of information are stored in the database as
a record of the status and location of a particular person at a
particular time and date. Further STATUS INPUT packets with the same
PHONENUM and ANAME will supercede old information about that person.
D. SYNTAX FOR STATUS REQUEST (PHONENUM SEARCH, ER MODE)
/phonenum,voiceopid<cr>
or
?phonenum,voiceopid<cr>
This command line instructs the database machine to look in the database for
ALL persons with the same PHONENUM. Status requests begin with the character
"/" or "?" - use whichever is most convenient. The two formats are handled
identically. A status report listing the current information for each person
is sent back to the requesting packet station. The first line gives the
PHONENUM and the routing information. At the end of the report, the line
"FINDER Search done at 1534, nn hits."
is sent, which signifies no more ANAMEs with that PHONENUM, and that
"nn" entries were found in the database.
1. PHONENUM
PHONENUM has the same restrictions as in C.1 above.
2. VOICEOPID
VOICEOPID is a free-form field of any length up to about 180 characters
with no embedded blanks or commas. It is intended to be a reminder
to the packet operator of which one of his/her voice operators
transmitted this status request. It is not stored in the database.
It may be the same as one of the origin codes in C.4 above, or it may
be the call sign of the voice operator, or any other convenient
string of characters.
3. EXAMPLES OF STATUS REQUEST (PHONENUM SEARCH)
/8555-3195,w1aw<cr>
/408-5553456,send-back-to-kit<cr>
/55558011 sj14<cr>
E. SYNTAX FOR ORIGIN SEARCH (ER MODE):
In addition to "/phonenum,routereplyto", the phone number search, ER mode
also supports:
$orig,routereplyto<cr> search by origin code
This produces a status report for all persons with the same origin code.
F. HEALTH AND WELFARE MODE:
If selected at startup by the sysop in a configuration file, FINDER will
utilize a different data input format suited to health and welfare traffic
and patient/victim tracking. The health and welfare mode is abbreviated HW
mode, to distinguish it from the original Emergency Responder (ER) mode.
The HW data input format looks like:
phonenum,lastname,firstname,cloc,message<cr>
where,
a. PHONENUM is an abbreviated 8-digit or a full 10-digit
phone number with syntax identical to that for the ER
mode. It could be the victim's home phone number or
the phone number of next-of-kin.
b. LASTNAME is the last name of the person, up to 10
characters long.
c. FIRSTNAME is the first name of the person, up to 10
characters long.
d. CLOC is a 4-character location code starting with a
letter. It could be a hospital code or a shelter code
defined in advance or in real-time during the inci-
dent. This field is similar to the origin code field
in the ER mode, except that instead of stating the
location where the FINDER data card was filled out,
CLOC is more general.
e. MESSAGE is a free-form field up to 45 characters in
length that can contain embedded blanks. It is in-
tended for additional information about the person,
such as the name of the nearest relative, injuries,
etc., that is determined to be useful during the
incident.
The current time and date are inserted automatically by the
program.
G. SEARCHES AVAILABLE IN HW MODE
/phonenum,routereplyto<cr> produces a list of all entries
with the same phonenum
/lastname,routereplyto<cr> searches by lastname, listing
all with the same lastname
$cloc,routereplyto<cr> searches by cloc. As an ex-
ample, this could give a list-
ing of all persons at the same
shelter
H. CONFERENCE BRIDGE (roundtable - "users" and "tell" commands)
This feature allows any connected station to send messages to other
connected stations or to the sysop.
1. Users command:
The users command in the form "users<cr>" or "u<cr>" returns a list of
the callsigns of currently logged-on packet stations. The response
is of the form:
At WN6I-1: N6KL W6BB-3 AJ6T WB6MRQ-7
2. Tell command:
The Tell command allows connected packet stations to use FINDER as a
conference bridge, or roundtable. The general format is:
tell callsign message<cr> or:
t callsign message<cr>
For example:
tell w6bb-3 We have lots of people here at SJ12<cr>
The message "We have lots of people here at SJ12" is sent to the
connected station W6BB-3 prefaced by a time stamp and the call of the
station originating the tell command. In this case, if the tell
command was sent by AJ6T, W6BB-3 sees:
1230 AJ6T> We have lots of people here at SJ12
It is not necessary to enter the entire callsign - just the suffix or
some other substring will do. If several connected callsigns contain the
substring, each station will get the message. The special callsign
"*" or "all" is used to send a message to all connected stations. The
special callsign "sysop" sends the message to the sysop at the FINDER
database station.
END: FINDER.SYO