Burbank CDV

Packet Radio Setup

A guide to packet radio setup.

By David Fleming -- KG6SQU

The Personal Mailbox (pbbs) and Network Nodes

Once everything is physically connected and adjusted, one of the first things to be set up by software on the TNC is a mailbox. You will want others to be able to connect to you and leave messages. Fortunately, this is quite easy. By default, when you bring up the TNC for the first time, your mailbox (once you put in your callsign as the "start up sequence" asks you to) will be (callsign)-1. For instance, my mailbox is KG6SQU-1. In addition, you will want to have networking (or nodes) set up. This allows others to use your TNC/radio to "hop" to a more distant location ... and for everyone to be able to communicate with more distant stations easier. There are many other things to be set to make your TNC have all the capabilities that you can. I will list the things that I think should minimally be done. In addition to these things there are other options but I will not mention them at this point so that I can keep this simple. Just type these things one line at a time and press enter.

Before you begin setting parameters, check what the most relevant settings are by typing DISP ID , and then pressing enter. This does not need to be capitalized but it is easier to see on this page if I do that in the text. All the commands to set parameters below I show as capitalized for the same reason. Type DISP ID from time to time as you set things up to make sure something was not mistyped. Also type DISP PBBS followed by enter for the same reason.

Parameters to set right away (type the command, and then press the enter key):

INTF TERM

This allows you to set the more advanced parameters (do this first!)
NTEXT Some nice phrase

This is what people see when they connect to your TNC. I typed "Welcome to KG6SQU" ... without the quotes
PTEXT Some nice phrase

This is what people see when they connect to your mailbox. I typed "Welcome to KG6SQU-1" ... without the quotes
CTEXT Some nice phrase

This is what people see when they connect to your Node. I typed "Welcome to BURCA K-net node, operated by KG6SQU, in Burbank, California" ... without the quotes
PBBS 60

This sets the size of your mailbox to a little smaller than max so that other other things can be set properly
NUMNODES 2

This is also so that you have a KA-node set up (I will explain later)
MYNODE (callsign-3)

This will be your KA-node name. Mine is KG6SQU-3.
MYALIAS (somenameyoulike)

This will be an easier to remember name for your KA-node name. Mine is BURCA1.
NETCALL (callsign-7)

This will be your K-Net node name. Mine is KG6SQU-7.
NETALIAS (somenameyoulike)

This can be typed instead of the netcall. Mine is BURCA (for Burbank California).

Other things to attend to:

Now there are some very important things that need to be done before it is forgotten. You need to establish your "home BBS" and set up things with that BBS. This is different than your PBBS (which is a personal mailbox). There are a couple of good BBS stations that can be chosen locally. I am set up with K6VE, but another could be chosen. Assuming that K6VE is chosen, do the following.

type C K6VE-5

This will connect you to a this full service BBS. The software at this BBS will ask you some questions. When it asks for a choice for a home BBS, type K6VE and then press enter. When someone send a message to you from out of the area, it will route through this BBS. It will ask a few other questions as well. Answer them all. Before you exit, send a message to K6VE and ask to have your mail forwarded to your PBBS.

type S K6VE

For the subject choose PBBS forwarding. In the body of the message, say what your name and callsign is, what your zipcode is, and that you need to set up PBBS forwarding to (callsign-1). Mine again is KG6SQU-1. Now, exit the BBS.

type BYE

More parameters to set (type the command, and then press the enter key):

Now for some final things to set up ...

PBREV ON
PBFOR K6VE-5 EVERY 1
HTEXT K6VE.#SCA.CA.USA.NOAM

This is the end part of your full address that will be added to your callsign (mycall) when mail is sent.
PBUSER 2

This is so you can log into your mailbox at he same time someone else is connected.
USER 2

This allows two users to connect at the same time

A Bit More About Network Nodes

There are two kinds of network nodes. They each have their place ... and each has strengths and weaknesses.

KA-Nodes will work just as setup in the previous section. But with KA nodes, you must know what the next hop is, and then the hop after that, and move to the final station step-by-step.

K-Net-Nodes have more setup involved, but once this K-Net Node setup is complete it is more automatic. K-Net Nodes work with other K-Net Nodes to find the most reliable connection to the final destination (highest signal-to-noise), and take that route. If one wanted to hop to SNOW as an example, if there were only KA-Nodes you would have to connect to LA and from there connect to SNOW. With K-Net Nodes, you type C SNOW and you are routed to that station (which is in Palm Springs).

K-Net Nodes are supposed to set up something called ROUTES automatically, but it does not work very well. It took me a long time to figure this out. If you are reading this and are one of the dozens of people all over the country I queried about this "THANK YOU", and sorry about being a pest about this until I figured this out. ROUTES by default will add information to your K-Net Nodes routing table when another K-Net Node connects to yours. The default values assigned will make your K-Net Node disfunctional.

Please read the Kantronics manual for a more complete understanding of this but ... in essense, there will be no connect to the next station if the software thinks the connection noise level will be too high. The value that is set by default is one where a connection to the next station would never be attempted.

As a starting point set, when connected to your K-Net Node, type and ENTER:

QUALITY 255/100
MINQUAL 20

Then, for each station that you know you can easily connect to (K6VE-10 is used as an example) type the following, and then press ENTER:

ADDROUTE 1 K6VE-10 100!

Disconnect from your K-Net Node with a B, and then pressing ENTER, and then type DISP NET ... and press ENTER

Consider setting these values (these have worked for me)

NETBUFFS 32
NETCIRCS 5
NETDESTS 30
NETLINKS 15
NETROUTE 20
NETUSERS 5

I will add more information here as I learn more, and as people ask questions.