ZBasic Forum

I have an idea for an application that would gather data then send the data to a remote location as a text message to a cell phone. The text length would be on the order of 2-3kb. This application would be used mainly in the US, but might also migrate to Europe. In fact it was a European friend who suggested it to me. The transmitter and the receiver would be within a few miles of each other.

I have never dealt with doing this sort of thing and I would like to get some advice as to how to begin educating myself. What are the major issues I will have to deal with and what off-the-shelf hardware is available.

Any enlightenment will be appreciated.

Vic

Vic,

I've been doing something that can be adapted to your proposed use. It doesn't involve a cell phone, but it gets data from point A to point B via radio. It's actually pretty common in amateur radio circles and is called packet radio. Look up packet radio in Wikipedia for a broader explanation. Basically, I use the ZX-24 to generate a message and pass it to a KISS modem that produces audio which goes to the transmitter. The modem has its own keying circuit for the transmitter. On the other end a similar modem decodes the received audio and it can be passed to another ZX-24 or the serial input of a PC. Getting the data to the cell phone is another matter, but controllable cell equipment is available.

Even though this is used on amateur radio circuits it should be usable on other services licensed for data transmission. Note that use of the unlicensed FRS radio service us strictly forbidden for data and ancillary equipment attachment.

Any questions, send to dnendza at att dot net

Dennis

can't you use a phone's email address (SMTP) rather than open Pandora's box of SMS to all the different carriers and their individual proprietary schemes?

Ham radio (packet) has the AX.25 and gateways to mail servers.

Steve
WB6CSZ