of simplicity the possibility that data may be encrypted at certain stages is ignored data transmitted from a sensor to a connected communicator is transmitted in one of several sensor formats 600 in a first preferred embodiment the sensor format used will ordinarily be one of digital 602 analog 604 or rs 232 606 digital format 602 would typically be implemented with a zero to five volt direct current circuit and would provide two logic levels on and off or alternately open and closed or full and empty analog format 604 would typically be implemented with a zero to twelve volt direct current circuit and would provide a series of 256 512 1024 or another convenient number of steps of value thus analog input would be discrete rather than continuous in nature the use of 256 steps is particularly convenient because that is the number of states that can be represented by one byte of memory rs 232 format 606 is a commonly accepted serial port communications format either binary data or ascii formatted data can be conveniently accepted using the rs 232 protocol ascii format is particularly convenient in that dissemination system 240 can prepare human readable reports from ascii formatted data without the need to know what such data represents provided that the data itself contains all necessary labels and other elements binary data has the advantage of allowing more data to be packed into the same.