The Check Character is the Modulus 43 sum of all the character values in a
message, and is printed as the last character, preceding the Stop Character.
Leading and trailing asterisk "*" characters in the human-readable
interpretation are not used in calculating the Check Character.
Check Character generation is illustrated by the following examples using the
table below:
Example 1
DATA encoded: 07000503
0+7+0+0+0+5+0+3 =15
Divide by 43 and find remainder. Quotient is Zero, remainder 15.
The Check Character is the character corresponding to the value of the
remainder
From table numerical value of 15 is represented by the letter F
Therefore code should read: - *07000503F*
None mathematicians
see bottom of page.
Example 2
Message: +A1234BJC5D6E71
Sum of values: 41+10+1+2+3+4+11+19+12+5+13+6+14+7+1 = 149
Divide 149 by 43. The quotient is 3 with a remainder of 20. The Check
Character
is the character corresponding to the value of the remainder which in this
example is 20, or "K".
The complete data, including Check
Character, is therefore: +A1234BJC5D6E71K
None
mathematicians see bottom of page.
Table of Numerical Value Assignments For Computing the Modulus 43 Check
Character
0 = 0
F =
15
U = 30
1 =
1 G =
16
V = 31
2 =
2
H =
17
W = 32
3 =
3
I =
18 X = 33
4 =
4
J = 19 Y = 34
5 =
5
K = 20 Z = 35
6 =
6
L = 21 - = 36
7 =
7
M = 22 . = 37
8 =
8
N = 23
Sp = 38
9 =
9
O = 24 $ = 39
A =
10
P = 25 / = 40
B =
11
Q = 26 + = 41
C =
12
R = 27 % = 42
D =
13
S = 28
E = 14 T = 29
When both primary and
secondary codes are in use, the Check character is known as the ‘Link
Character’.
Especially
for those who don’t like math’s.
Re-run of example 1.
15
divided by 43:
43 will
not go into 15, therefore remainder = 15
Looking up
‘15’ in the table results in a check character of ‘F’.
Re-run
of example 2.
149
divided by 43:
If you
use your electronic calculator, the answer comes to 3.465116 etc.
Note the
number ‘3’ before the decimal place.
There are
3 whole forty-threes in 149 and some left over. The leftover is the
remainder.
3 x 43 =
129
Take 129
from the original 149. This gives 20; we look up this number in the table to
discover the corresponding character equals ‘K’. This is the check
character.
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