| |
What is b con?
Web Based Messaging and GPS Location using HF Radio
bcon is a Website which
enables your family, friends, and business associates to
follow your outback travels on the Internet using bcon
Positioning, and keep in
contact with you using bcon Messaging.
bcon Positioning displays locations sent by the traveller, using their HF radio,
on the Website. A Map of Australia displays a complete history of the travellers
trip, while each day's travel can be displayed to give a more detailed account of
the journey. The GPS data for each position lodged is also available from bcon
Positioning and this data can be used in conjunction with other mapping applications
eg OziExplorer, if more precise detail is required.
bcon Messaging enables short text messages of up to 62 characters to be sent between
the HF radio and the website. Messages from a traveller can be sent to individual
family members, friends, and business associates or a single message can be broadcast
to all members of your group.
Members of the group can send short text messages from the bcon Website to your HF
radio.
How does bcon work?
bcon Positioning expects Travellers to manually send their positions to the bcon server
via their HF radio on a regular basis (at least twice a day), depending on the amount
of detail the want to show those tracking their journey. The bcon system will then display
these positions on the bcon Website.
bcon can currently accept position reports in two formats.
Travellers using Codan 9323 or NGT Transceivers with a GPS receiver interfaced, can use
the "Send GPS Position" call to automatically send their current position to the bcon
Base Station.
Travellers using radios which have Telcall capability eg Codan 8528, Barrett 550, 950,
Qmac HF90 etc, can send their position to the bcon Server using a Telcall. By entering
the GPS co-ordinates manually instead of a phone number in the Telcall sequence, bcon
will recognise this as a position report and treat it accordingly.
Automatic processing of "Send GPS Position" calls from Barrett 550 and 950 Transceivers
which have GPS connected is currently under development.
bcon Messages (up to 59 characters) sent from the Website to the Traveller are composed
in the bcon message window. The sender must give bcon the Traveller's approximate
location before sending the message. By pointing and clicking on the state where the
Traveller is located, bcon will know the most likely frequencies on which to deliver
the message.
If bcon can not deliver the message on the first attempt, it will retry every hour
until successful.
If, after 48 hours, the message could not be delivered, the sender will be notified
that the attempt was unsuccessful and the message is removed from the message queue.
bcon Messages sent from the Traveller to a recipient are composed using the Codan NGT
Handset or the 9323 simple text entry. The message can be addressed and sent to an
individual or a group of recipients.
To simplify message management, a messaging application is under development. This
application will enable messages to be composed and sent from a Laptop/PDA to the radio.
|
The bconSystem Hardware
The bcon system currently consists of two computers and a Codan NGT AR HF Base station.
The main computer is the Map/Message Server and Database. This computer hosts the bcon
website. The second computer acts as a radio server and interfaces the bcon HF transceiver
to the Internet. The bcon Map/Message server is located in an air-conditioned office with
easy access for software maintenance purposes, and the Radio Server (Base station) is
located in a rural environment where the absence of electrical interference means a more
ideal HF radio location. Both computers communicate with each other via the internet.
bcon software is currently being expanded to support multiple base stations (radio servers).
This will result in improved coverage over a wider geographical area.
Which HF Radios are supported?
bcon Messaging and bcon Positioning currently supports Codan 9000 series (9323, 9360, and 9390)
and NGT series HF radios.
bcon Positioning will support manual position reports from Telcall compatible radios.
|
|
