Does anyone use an email-to-SMS text as an alerting system for your squadron?
Never even thought to use something like that.
TSGT Sean Riley
IL-042
Quite simple. Most, if not all, cell carriers have an address consisting of: ##########@xxxxxx.xxx
Set up an email contact with everyone's address and one email becomes multiple texts.
I've been playing with it, and I sent three of us one email, and our phones chimed almost simultaneously within 1-2 seconds.
Texting can be almost instant, whereas an email may not be received or read for several hours.
Further, when a recipient replies to their "text", the email sender gets an email from that person, potentially indicating their availability.
Quote from: grunt82abn on May 04, 2017, 04:53:09 PM
Never even thought to use something like that.
TSGT Sean Riley
IL-042
Your wing uses email to SMS for alerting.
(Yeah I took the bait)
Quote from: Spaceman3750 on May 04, 2017, 06:03:21 PM
Quote from: grunt82abn on May 04, 2017, 04:53:09 PM
Never even thought to use something like that.
TSGT Sean Riley
IL-042
Your wing uses email to SMS for alerting.
(Yeah I took the bait)
I guess I'll have to ask
TSGT Sean Riley
IL-042
Quote from: grunt82abn on May 04, 2017, 06:06:33 PM
Quote from: Spaceman3750 on May 04, 2017, 06:03:21 PM
Quote from: grunt82abn on May 04, 2017, 04:53:09 PM
Never even thought to use something like that.
TSGT Sean Riley
IL-042
Your wing uses email to SMS for alerting.
(Yeah I took the bait)
I guess I'll have to ask
TSGT Sean Riley
IL-042
PM sent.
Quote from: ka8yiu on May 04, 2017, 05:31:39 PM
Quite simple. Most, if not all, cell carriers have an address consisting of: ##########@xxxxxx.xxx
Set up an email contact with everyone's address and one email becomes multiple texts.
In many cases, doing this without setting up the originator's address with the carrier in advance
will bounce the messages as SMS spam.
Florida Wing has access to CAPDB.US, which offers an alerting system (amongst several other things). Have the SQ/CC contact me if your unit would like to use it.
joe@tomasone.com
Interesting to see this topic come up.
I posted about it almost 10 years ago here.
http://captalk.net/index.php?topic=6910.msg127530#msg127530
Quote from: JoeTomasone on May 05, 2017, 03:46:58 AM
Florida Wing has access to CAPDB.US, which offers an alerting system (amongst several other things). Have the SQ/CC contact me if your unit would like to use it.
joe@tomasone.com
Joe, tell us more about capdb.us
Quote from: NIN on May 06, 2017, 01:11:38 AM
Quote from: JoeTomasone on May 05, 2017, 03:46:58 AM
Florida Wing has access to CAPDB.US, which offers an alerting system (amongst several other things). Have the SQ/CC contact me if your unit would like to use it.
joe@tomasone.com
Joe, tell us more about capdb.us
I would like to know more as well.
Interesting, Eclipse, your comment here and the older thread also referenced here. Was notifying the various carriers as simple as calling Sprint and AT&T and...etc, and telling them this is who we are and what we need?
Quote from: ka8yiu on May 10, 2017, 07:00:02 PM
Interesting, Eclipse, your comment here and the older thread also referenced here. Was notifying the various carriers as simple as calling Sprint and AT&T and...etc, and telling them this is who we are and what we need?
Well, at a high level, yes, but if you call 800-carrier, they aren't going to have a clue.
You'd need someone at your wing to establish their identity with the government or corporate relations
people at the various carriers for them to eventually whitelist certain origination addresses, etc.
We did it years ago, and as I recall it was a "process".
Tnx
My 10 cents...we've used RainedOut with great effect. The down side is that people have to actively sing up to your account; the Admin can only remove people, not add them and you can't see who is in the account only how may people have subscribed.
That being said....it works fairly well and Wing sue it for initial SAR alerts amongst other things.
YMMV.
https://groupme.com/en-US/
Has an app for members with smart phones, SMS for members with dumb phones or who don't want to install the app.
Quote from: NIN on May 06, 2017, 01:11:38 AM
Quote from: JoeTomasone on May 05, 2017, 03:46:58 AM
Florida Wing has access to CAPDB.US, which offers an alerting system (amongst several other things). Have the SQ/CC contact me if your unit would like to use it.
joe@tomasone.com
Joe, tell us more about capdb.us
CAPDB is a system I created years ago to produce useful reports from CAPWATCH data that I couldn't get easily from eServices. It was later expanded to include things like unit alerting (as opposed to a calldown tree, say) and searching for and alerting qualified ES members for missions (find all UDF/GTM3 within 25 miles of a given lat/long, zip, or city & state and alert them).
The main reports are:
1. ES report - Lists all qualifications and how many members are qualified, expired, and will expire in the next 30/60/90 days.
2. Unit report - Lists all the organizational data for a unit including how many members (broken down into Cadets/Seniors) and all duty assignments.
3. Member List & Currency Report - Displays all unit members, their grade, expiration, safety currency, and their OPSEC, EO, and CPPT currency. Also provides totals on how many members need those courses. Allows for alerting all members as well.
4. Duty Assignment - Lists all members who hold a selected duty assignment. Great for Group level and above to find all Safety Officers, for example.
5. Qualification Report - Lists all members who hold a specific qualification - ES and pilot ratings, mainly.
6. Member Search - Essentially brings up an electronic member record with expiration info, contact info, lists of duty assignments, qualifications, and courses taken.
7. Commercial Privilege Pilot Report - Lists all members with either FAA COMM SEL or ATP SEL and who have both current medical and are TMP rated.
7. Qualification Search - Finds all members qualified in a given ES qualification (and some combos like all aircrew or all UDF) a given distance from a provided lat/long, zip, or city & state. Allows selective alerting and displays the member's home location on a map.
The alerting function has 4 options:
1. Email - sent to eServices Primary and Secondary email addresses.
2. Email list - generates a list to paste into your email program of choice.
3. Text message - sent to eServices listed cell phone
4. Phone call - Robocall sent to eServices Primary home phone.
You can select any combination of alerting options for a given alert.