Supported Character Sets - Siemens TC37 Module At Command Reference

AT Command Set

1.5 Supported character sets

The ME supports two character sets: GSM 03.38 (7 bit, also referred to as SMS alphabet) and UCS2
(16 bit, refer to ISO/IEC 10646). See Chapter 4.40 for information about selecting the character set.
Character tables are provided in Chapter 7.5.
Due to the constraints described below it is recommended to prefer the USC2 alphabet in any external
application.
If the GSM alphabet is selected all characters sent over the serial line are in the range from 0 ... 127.
CAUTION: GSM alphabet is not ASCII alphabet!
Several problems resulting from the use of the GSM alphabet:
1. "@" character with GSM alphabet value 0 is not printable by an ASCII terminal program (e.g.
©
Microsoft Hyperterminal
2. "@" character with GSM alphabet value of binary 0 will terminate any C string!
This is because the \0 is defined as C string end tag. Therefore, the GSM Null character may
cause problems on application level when using a ´C´-function as „strlen()". This can be avoided if
it is represented by an escape sequence as shown in Table 4.
By the way, this may be the reason why even network providers often replace "@"with "@=*" in
their SIM application.
When sending e-mails via SMS the @ character may also be replaced with "*" as defined in GSM
03.40 (3GPP TS 23.040).
3. Other characters of the GSM alphabet are misinterpreted by an ASCII terminal program. For
example, GSM "ö" (as in "Börse") is assumed to be "|" in ASCII, thus resulting in "B|rse". This is
because both alphabets mean different characters with values hex. 7C or 00 and so on.
4. In addition, decimal 17 and 19 which are used as XON/XOFF control characters when software
flow control is activated, are interpreted as normal characters in the GSM alphabet.
When you write characters differently coded in ASCII and GSM (e.g. Ä, Ö, Ü), you need to enter
escape sequences. Such a character is translated into the corresponding GSM character value and,
when output later, the GSM character value can be presented. Any ASCII terminal then will show
wrong responses.
Table 4: Character definitions depending on alphabet (examples)
GSM 03.38 GSM character
character hex. value
Ö 5C
" 22
ò 08
@ 00
CAUTION: Often, the editors of terminal programs do not recognize escape sequences. In this case,
an escape sequence will be handled as normal characters. The most common workaround to this
problem is to write a script which includes a decimal code instead of an escape sequence. This way
you can write, for example, short messages which may contain differently coded characters.
TC3X_ATC_01_V04.00
®
).
Corresponding
ASCII character
\
"
BSP
NULL
Page 13 of 204
ASCII Hex
Esc sequence Esc sequence
\5C 5C 35 43
\22 5C 32 32
\08 5C 30 38
\00 5C 30 30
29.05.2002