If you don’t have a smartphone or tablet, you can still use BART via:

  • SMS
  • Email

SMS

Send broadcast via SMS

You can broadcast a message with your non-smartphone by using SMS. To do this, you must make sure:

  • Your message must be sent to the allocated BART number – 0437 980 096
  • Your mobile number has been associated with your BART membership
  • You must have appropriate ‘send‘ permissions for the Capcode you are broadcasting

The SMS must include the appropriate formatting tags in order for it to process:

SMS sent Examples:

  • MSG: Alert ADDR:
    LATLNG: <Latitude,Longitude> REF: <IncidentNo/Id>
  • MESSAGE: ADDRESS:
    LAT: < Latitude > LNG: < Longitude>
  • MESSAGE: Alert LATITUDE: < Latitude > LONGITUDE: < Longitude> REF: <IncidentNo/Id>

Message received Examples:

  • MSG: B-ALLMEM Alert House on fire, thick smoke everywhere ADDR: 420 Burwood Hwy Wantirna Sth Vic REF: INC1534567
  • MESSAGE: Can I have some responses of people who will be available for a strike team tonight
  • MSG: Cat stuck up tree LATLNG: -37.870056,145.236876

Required Fields:

MESSAGE: or MSG:

  • A Capcode or broadcast tag is required if the user has permissions to send to more than one Capcode.
  • Alert if it is considered an alert and it must be before the message content

Other Fields:

Either a valid address or lat lng can be used to get a location and work out an address where a Lat Lng is provided, and a Lat Lng where an address is provided.

ADDRESS: ADDR: LAT: LNG: LATLNG: LATITUDE: LONGITUDE:

REF: is used to provide an incident number. If it is an Alert message and no REF is provide one will be generated.

Trouble shooting:

  • If you have permission to send to multiple Capcodes/Broadcast Tags and one is omitted, then it is not considered a valid message
  • If there is no space before a formatting tag, the system will not pick up the tag
    eg. House fireADDR:

Respond via SMS

Not only can you receive SMS notifications on your non-smartphone, but you can now respond with your attendance status directly through the message.

The way it works is really simple. When you get a message on your trusty old phone (we all know there’s still plenty of Nokia’s out there), you simply reply with a number:

0 = Not attending

1 = Attending

2 = Other

You can also share your ETA if you choose, by using a dot or hashtag after your status:

Example a

[response].[time]

1.20

(Attending; ETA: 20min)

— Or —

Example b

[response]#[time]

1#20

(Attending; ETA: 20min)

Email

Emails can be sent directly to BART with parameter information purged out. Formatting is the following:

Compatible Email Format:

  • HTML
  • Plain Text
  • Rich Text

Recipient Information:

Recipient Information is provided via a capcode, this can be provided in the email address, the subject or the start of the body.

The Capcode can be the actual code or the Name eg: Wooroloo BFB

Message Body

Any text provided in the email body without the special characters are considered the message. BART will also attempt to strip out any disclaimers or signatures in the email, but it is recommended to not provide these.

Message Attachments

Any attachments provided in the email will be attached to the BART message so long as the attachment file types are one of the following:

JPEG, JPG, PNG, TIFF, BMP, MP4, MP3, PDF, DOCX.

Max file size: 2MB

Ending Message

To Avoid unwanted text in your message (such as signatures or automated footers) please use one of the following so BART will ignore everything after:

Optional parameters

ALERT Message Type:

  • Start the message with the word “ALERT”.
  • Anywhere in the body with the following strings “*CFSRES ,FIRECALL:, Turnout”
Note: This setting is user customisable

Map Coordinates:

  • LATLNG:[latitude],[longitude]eg: LATLNG: -37.8633788,145.2227037
  • LAT:[latitude]eg: LAT: -37.8633788
  • LNG:[longitude]eg: LNG: 145.2227037
Note: This setting is user customisable

Address:

The address can be passed instead of the Coordinates, in which BART will Geo-locate.

  • Address:[Address]Eg: Address:420 Burwood Hwy, Wantina South, VIC
  • Addr:[Address]Eg: Addr:420 Burwood Hwy, Wantina South, VIC
Note: This setting is user customisable

Incident Reference:

  • REF:[Reference Number]Eg: REF:F123456789
Note: This setting is user customisable