Burbank CDV
Packet Radio Setup
A guide to packet radio setup.
By David Fleming -- KG6SQU
Other Topics in Packet
For the time being, this page is a catch-all for other things that one needs to know about packet but which is "none too obvious". There is a good tutorial which I mentioned on the first page that covers a variety of topics, but what I will mention here are things that I have figured out by trial and error.
Hopping
When you watch your terminal screen (assuming that MONITOR On has been entered),
you will see various stations and nodes ID themselves. Just because you are seeing them
does not mean that you can connect to them. They may be broadcasting with much more power
than you are. You may receive them and still not be able to connect. Still, ... it is worth
a try to see if you can connect, and then if you are successful in connecting, type a ?
and press enter, and see if a list of commands comes up. If you do connect you may be able to
figure out who the packet station belongs to and where the transceiver is
located. It is good to see where in the city you can connect directly. I mention some of
these places to connect, but not all of them in the The
CDV Packet Radio Plan.
You can also type MHEARD or NDHEARD (and then press enter) before connecting to anyone . This will show a list of stations that your TNC has recorded as having heard, or nodes that it has heard. These are other places that you may want to try and connect to with a C CALLSIGN (example: C BURCA).
No matter how you get to another station (when you do), you will want to try and hop to a more distant station from there. You have a choice (depending on the type of station) of typing in a J, M, or N. The first two letter choices bring up stations that this station has heard, and the N lists nodes that this station has heard. Now you can hop to another more distant station. If an I is listed in their commands, they may list some information about themselves too if you type I and then press enter.
If, when you type a question mark, the station shows route is an option (meaning it is a K-Net Node), type route and see what the station owner has designated as strong stations. Those are good stations to try to connect to from the perspective of that packet station programmer. Also, some packet stations are much more complex than a simple Kantronics KPC3+. Some stations may have connections to multiple radios on different frequencies. If you type PORT, you will find out. If the frequency or baud rate is different from yours, don't worry. That TNC will handle the conversion for you. Go ahead and connect. Some stations are not even connected directly to a radio, but to the internet. They are called JNOS or TNOS stations. From your perspective it does not matter. You can still connect, though the connect speed and response may be slow.
You can hop several stations before you start having problems. The reason there are problems at some point is that each time you connect to yet another station, the digital information picks up a bit more noise, and eventually the signal is too noisy to be dependable.
Connecting to others and chatting:
When you start checking for other stations and nodes to connect to, often times you will see that the terminal screen will show a callsign with a -1, -3, -5 ending (which is called a SSID). By default, callsign-1 is a PBBS (even though the station can choose not to follow the normal convention). By the same token, callsign-3 or callsign-4, etc. are usually either KA-nodes and K-Net nodes. If they have no dash number, it is probably the station itself that is connecting to other places. If you connect to this place (for example KG6SQU), your ID will show up on their terminal screen if they are connected. If you are connected directly to them and try to typing a ? and enter, ... nothing will happen on your screen. If I get this condition, I will type "Are you monitoring?". If they are, they will see what you type and can just type and enter to reply back. When they type and enter you will you see what they wrote, and vise versa. You can have a written discussion with them. While not as fast and user friendly as a chat page (for those that are familiar with this from the internet), it is a reasonable communication mode. Remember though, everyone else that is monitoring will also see your conversation ... so watch what you say. When one of you is ready to disconnect, just press (ctrl) - C and then D, and then you will get a message back to say you are disconnected. Either of you can initiate this disconnect.
Getting "locked up" when connecting to another node:
Sometimes you are on another node (as described in "hopping"), and you try and connect to a third node, and nothing happens (because your signal is not strong enough, they are busy, etc.). This attempted connect will eventually time out, but if you get tired of waiting, just press (ctrl) - C and then D, and you will get a message back to say you are disconnected. Now you are "back home" and can start again.
In a similiar way, you may be trying to connect to another node from your station (not having hopped to another place) and you try and connect to another node, and nothing happens. Again, this will eventually time out, but if you get tired of waiting, press D and enter, and you will get a message back to say you are disconnected. Now you are free to start again.
I will add more information here as I learn more, and as people ask questions.
Our Packet Radio Operations Plan
David Fleming is the BEARS' packet radio sysop and the contact for issues relating to packet radio!
For more Packet Radio information and/or help contact David Fleming at the following e-mail: BEARS-Packet@BurbankCDV.org
