Orange County ARES/RACES/SKYWARN is attempting to acquire D-Star Repeaters from the county. ?We have a very good working relationship with the Office of Emergency Management. ?In the past two weeks we have been scrutinizing the D-Rats software to get a full understanding of how it works, capabilities and limitations. ?In order for us to pitch the idea of utilizing D-Rats to the OEM in support of an emergency activation, we have some questions and concerns that involve its operation which seems kludge at times. ?If someone can help find these workarounds, which we may have missed, it is greatly appreciated. ?This is a list compiled from three operators putting D-Rats through heavy paces. ?We apologize if these functions are available since we may not have discovered it. ?Thank you for your time.
Version 0.3.3b6
1. ?When you first open the program, you have no idea anything is happening unless you are looking at the event log.
2. ?The program should initiate an automatic ping and list all stations at log on and timely thereafter. ?
3. ?I would expect to see my call listed in the right hand column including showing stations logged on. ?I have no idea if I am still connected as the program does not indicate anything other than "Online" in the bottom right. ?May times it says "online" but only to find out I was not. No rhyme or reason. ?My call sign showed up black on another stations screen.
4. ?I would also expect to see the color of the station reflecting whether they are "Online or Unattended" change instantaneously. There seems to be latency.
5. ?I would expect the stations list on the right to be instantaneously updated whenever a station changes it status. (On line or Unattended). ?.
6 ? I would expect the station call sign to disappear when the station is off line or they shut down their computer. ?This only seems to happen if you clear all then re-ping all. ?
7. ?If a station is off line when you try to send a message, the message stays in the outbox and is not sent. ?The program should state that the message was not sent because recipient is not logged on.
8. ?The program seems to "choke" when left running on a Win7 64 bit machine. ?Running it as administrator and not in the x86 pathway.
9. ?Why does the software tell me there is a message for?
"me" when sending email?
10. ?The ability to open a file in the shared folder from the program is not possible.
10. ?The ability to have sub-folders in the shared folder. As is, all files are lumped together in one file. ?This does not lend itself to ease of finding things.
11. ?Be able to move the map with the cursor and not have to use the scroll bars and have to continually re-center.
12. ?The ability to change the map labels font color and background color. ?Map labels are black on Red which makes it difficult to read. ?
13. ?The default message selection is an HICS-260 Patient Evacuation Form. ?Can we change it to default to the email selection?
14. ?What is the legend for the different colors on call signs in the Stations List?
15. ?The stations list seems quirky. ?I usually leave my software running. ?I always have to clear all then re-ping to ?get an updated list. ?The list should refresh automatically and remove any stations that are off line.
16. ?We notice that last update was over two years ago. ?Is this software still supported and will it continue going forward?
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Regards,
Anthony J.
Cioffi (N2KI)
