Seems to me that the MODAT signaling format that some of us love, and some of us hate could actually be put back to some legitimate use if some enterprising soul who knows how to write software could put something together.
I have the complete format for the MODAT signaling protocol on paper here. It's in quite a few of the older service manuals for radios that were available with the option (MX300's, MT500's, etc.)
I'm envisioning a program that would allow you to take regular speaker audio out of a receiver (scanner, SpectraTAC, etc) and feed it to the line input of a sound card.
The resulting program would be able to decode MODAT ANI and log the source input, Unit ID, date, time, etc.
Maybe it could also decode MODAT Emergency and flash the unit ID, play a WAV file, make the PC beep, something like that.
Maybe it could also track PTT's and give you the total number of keyups for a given unit, etc.
Perhaps the ability to shrink the display down into just a pop-out Unit ID display that could be put on a 2nd monitor if you have a CAD system, etc.
It's just audio tones. I know nothing about computer programming (I work on radios for a living, not computers), so is there anyone out there who would be interested in doing something that actually made use of the protocol?
Why? Because it's a hell of a lot more pleasant to listen to than that God-awful MDC600/1200 stuff. I have a legitimate need for some form of ANI on our local public service amateur repeater, and I'd much rather bring back something great from the past. That, and I don't want to pay Midian $700 for the hardware decoder, or $800 for the PC based decoder.
Or you guys can laugh at me and tell me just how sexy I really am
Thanks!