John and the group,You have swerved into something I have tried to warn users about. You can have the same callsign on more than one instance of D-RATS, but please don't turn them on at the same time. As you can see, the chat operation was unpredictable. Just imagine two (or more) stations trying to respond to a mail transfer request - not good. If you need to have more than one station using the same callsign, please use a self-assigned designator. From the rules for Amateur Radio:
§ 97.119 Station identification.
(c) One or more indicators may be included with the call sign. Each indicator must be separated from the call sign by the slant mark (/) or by any suitable word that denotes the slant mark. If an indicator is self-assigned, it must be included before, after, or both before and after, the call sign. No self-assigned indicator may conflict with any other indicator specified by the FCC Rules or with any prefix assigned to another country.
It has become common practice to use a dash followed by a letter or number.
This is sort of a moot point as the radio transmitting the data will identify itself with the MYCALL field. Still, using unique callsigns that conform to the rules is just good practice.
The D-RATS "callsign" can be any eight characters, which allows for tactical callsigns like EOC, Hospital, Shelter or Post 1. This makes it easier on field operators since they won't have to remember which Amateur callsign is at which location.
One thing I ask is PLEEEEEEEEEASE use an Amateur callsign on your D-RATS station unless you have a compelling reason to do so (like a declared emergency).?
Thanks for reading,
Patrick (N3TSZ)
Patrick Connor