Motorola MICOM-2ES/2RS/2TS ALE - Manual (Page 20)

MICOM-2ES/2RS/2TS ALE Supplement to Owner’s Guide
New ALE Features
This section covers the new ALE features that meet the requirements of
MIL-STD-188-141B. This includes a description of selective calling features, and
operating instructions for the various types of ALE calls. This includes new call
types, as well as call types already supported under MIL-STD-188-141A but have
been expanded under new version.
Selective Calling
MICOM 2 supports selective calling as standardized in MIL-STD-181-141B and
FED-1075, and therefore has the capability and flexibility to link with one or many
prearranged or as-needed single or multiple stations.
ALE Addressing Method
ALE uses digital addresses to identify stations. The fundamental address element in
the ALE system is the single word: one ALE address word must always contain three
characters (one triplet).
A single ALE word is needed for the basic individual station address (this is called a
basic address). To increase the available range of addresses, basic addresses can be
expanded up to a maximum of 5 words (15 characters): such addresses are called
extended addresses.
The characters that can used in addresses are a subset of the standard Basic 38 ASCII
character set. This subset includes:
• All the capital (upper case) letters (A to Z)
• All the digits (0 to 9)
• Two utility characters:
!" The stuffing symbol @. It can be used to add characters at the end of an
address, so that the resulting length is a whole number of words
(triplets). A receiving station then interprets only the non-stuffing
characters. For example, if the address has 8 characters, add one @ at the
end of the address, whereas for an address with 7 characters, two @
symbols must be added. In special addressing modes, this symbol is
interpreted as an ignore instruction: see additional utilization guidelines
in Table 1.
!" The wildcard symbol ?. It is used to indicate that any character (except
@) is acceptable (this is the equivalent of a don’t mind instruction). See
Table 2 for utilization guidelines in the special addressing modes.
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