george@genat.UUCP (George Gorsline) (02/26/86)
Gateway: The ARRL Packet-Radio Newsletter
Volume 2, Issue 11
January 24, 1986
Published by:
ARRL
225 Main Street
Newington, CT 06111
Editor:
Ed Raso, WA2FTC
NORTHERN NEW JERSEY 220 MHz DIGIPEATER
The first full time 220 MHz digipeater in northern New Jersey is
now operational, according to Harold Winard, KB2M.
The digipeater operating under the call of KB2M-7 is located in
Mount Arlington, New Jersey, about 20 miles northwest of
Morristown and slightly east of the Delaware River. At an
elevation of 1230 feet above sea level, KB2M-7, can cover a
substantial portion of northern and central New Jersey and
adjacent portions of New York state and Pennsylvania.
The digipeater is presently operating on 221.01 MHz. However,
there appears to be some local interference from television
receivers and the frequency my change as need dictates.
Harold would like to hear from anyone who has experienced similar
interference problems. He may be contacted at the following
address:
Harold Winard, KB2M
30 West Union Turnpike
Apt. B-2
Wharton, NJ 07885-1702
From KB2M
OREGON TO SF BAY PACKET CONNECTION
On January 3, 1986, W6UJA located in the San Francisco Bay area,
had a packet QSO with WB7SZM in Ashland, Oregon. The 500-mile
connection was made via six 2 meter digipeaters, and was the
first reported San Francisco Bay area to Oregon packet-radio
contact on 2 meters. The path used was via W6AMT, W6AMT-7,
WA6YNG-1, W6SOP, WA7KSW-1, WB7SZM-1. It is hoped that this path
into Oregon will eventually be improved and made more reliable.
The San Francisco Bay area also has a path to northern Arizona
and southern Nevada already in operational via W6AMT, W6AMT-1,
W6AMT-2, W6AMT-3, AA6TN-1, WA7HXO-3. These paths are operating
on 145.01 MHz, with a redundant system now being developed on
145.05 MHz to increase the reliability.
Via HAM/LINK
HF PACKET TUNING INDICATOR
If you operate HF packet, or are thinking of becoming an HF
packeteer, you probably already know that tuning can be very
critical. To ease this situation, TAPR is hard at work
developing a P.C. board for an HF Tuning Indicator that will
interface with the TNC 1 and TNC 2. It is reported that the
indicator will allow you to tune to a resolution of 10 Hz.
Working from the circuit that appeared in the Packet Status
Register issue number 17, Lyle Johnson, WA7GXD, has laid out a
neat two sided circuit board. All active components are
available from Radio Shack (3 ICs and 2 LED bar displays).
Prototype boards have just been completed in St. Louis and will
be tested in Arizona before being offered for sale by TAPR. The
price has not been announced.
Via HamNet
FIRST VK/US PACKET TRAFFIC PASSED
"On January 10, 1986, N6EEG and VK2BVS passed 3 pieces of
standard ARRL formatted NTS traffic, marking the first third
party packet-to-packet formal traffic. The messages were
promptly forwarded from N6EEG to K6APW, where they were put
directly into the Pacific Area Net.
"Through the hard work of West coast mailbox owners, VK2BVS and
W7GHT (Pacific Area Staff Chairman), it is hoped that there will
soon be a reliable method of passing U.S./Australian third party
traffic routed to the Pacific Area Net (NTS) via the packet-radio
mailbox system.
"Packet radio offers many advantages such as 24-hour time
flexibility that is relatively immune to changing band conditions
and the disparity of common waking/working hours for schedules
between the two diverse geographical areas.
"Experiments will continue, hopefully having VK2BVS able to check
in direct to the West coast packet mailboxes and dump all the
U.S. bound traffic. All West coast HF Gateways/Mailboxes have
assigned NTS liaison stations. We also hope to establish a
nationwide standard for NTS store and forward traffic
designators, using the W0RLI
method. It is hoped that this will also solve the Hawaii and
Alaska traffic problems.
"Congratulations to N6EEG and VK2BVS. May this herald in a
fruitful year for NTS."
From NI6A
MFJ TNC 2 DELAY
Word has it that delivery of MFJ's new TNC 2 clone has been
delayed by a month. This should put the the unit on the shelves
sometime in March. The MFJ TNC 2 clone will contain an RS-232-C
interface as well as a TTL interface for the C 64 and VIC 20, and
will be housed in MFJ's own cabinet. The firmware will be
compatible with the TAPR TNC 2 and will support multiple connects
and AX.25L2V2. The selling price is reported to be $129.95.
Via WB9FLW
TAPR ANNUAL MEETING
"TAPR has located another hotel for those planning to attend the
annual meeting on February 8th. The Roadway Inn, located just
across from the All Star Inn, is within walking distance of the
TAPR office and a 10 minute drive from the airport and site of
the TAPR meeting. The rates at the Roadway Inn are $38.00 for a
single and $48.00 for double occupancy. Reservations for the
Roadway Inn can be made by calling (602) 884-5800.
"After the Friday night Packet Pizza Party, we will proceed to
the Malibu Grand Prix Race Track on 22nd Street in Tucson. This
is to continue a TAPR tradition that was started at the 1985 ARRL
National Convention. Old timers Harold Price, NK6K, and Lyle
Johnson, WA7GDX, will be happy to show newcomers the ropes. It's
an experience that you will never forget."
Via WB9FLW
HELP NEEDED
The Little Astronauts Amateur Radio Club of Astoria, New
York Intermediate School is interested in packet radio.
They would also like to maintain a digipeater at their
site.... it would operate on 145.03 MHz to help extend POLINET
(Packet Of Long Island Network) into the NYC area and northward.
Wanted is 2 meter FM gear suitable for packet radio. Old
crystal radios, including HTs are perfect! If anyone wants to
throw in a TNC or computer...you'll have the love and
appreciation of all science students at the school! All
donations are tax deductible.
For more information, contact:
Little Astronauts Amateur Radio Club
c/o Ron Lulov, KD2LA
Astoria Intermediate School
31-51 21st Street
Long Island City, NY 11106
(718) 274-8316
From KD2LA
NNC PROTOTYPE TESTING UPDATE
We received this update on the Network Node Controller (NNC) from
Lyle Johnson, WA7GXD.
"The NNC Prototype PC board has now been suitably hacked because
of:
"a) incompatibility of HD64180 uP with Z80(tm) peripherals
running Mode 2 interrupts
"b) requirement of parallel printers to get a pulsed signal
telling when data is ready.
"I patched the Z-system BIOS to recognize the modified Z80 PIO B
port as the system listing device. It is now fully Mode 2
interrupt driven and the OkiData uLine 93 printer loves it! The
wait-state generator has been reworked to provide a single wait-
state during op-code fetches in the lower 256 kbytes of address
space as well as providing the required leading edge delay in the
!LIR signal from the HD64180 to more closely emulate the !M1
signal from a standard Z80.
"The system clock is 4.608 MHz (9.216 MHz crystal) and the BIOS
has been modified to accept this data rate. The disk drives have
been interfaced and run just fine with the disk controller
running under DMA control. The SIOs have been tested using a
simple test procedure sending HDLC frames and receiving them in a
full duplex loopback system; interrupts have not yet been tested
with the SIOs. The SCSI interface has been tested to the extent
of verifying that the uP can in fact talk to the registers of the
NCR5380 chip and read the registers from the chip.
"The modified schematics will be sent to St Louis this weekend to
get the necessary changes CADded. We hope to have the revised
artwork back in Tucson by Friday the 17th and test boards in time
for the annual meeting. One additional change being implemented
is replacing the op-amp RS-232-C driver with a CMOS RS-232-C
driver for better operation at higher data rates.
"If the revised artwork is accurate, then we will immediately
push the button on getting the Alpha and Beta PC boards
fabricated."
From WA7GXD
W0RLI VERSION 11.1 RELEASED
Version 11.1 of the W0RLI Mailbox/Gateway software has been
released. Hank Oredson, W0RLI, author of the well known PBBS has
included several additions to his code. Changes include the
following:
On the user side, when a station drops into the Gateway mode, he
can monitor activity (in real time) on the other TNC. This may
help cut down on channel congestion somewhat, as a user can now
see if the station he wishes to call is already connected to
someone else. Users entering the mailbox can now add their
names to the user log instead of having it entered by the SYSOP.
Hank has also added a very short menu for stations flagged as
PBBSs.
On the operator side, the SYSOP can flag and display users marked
as PBBSs, and allow only stations flagged as PBBSs to connect on
either the COMM or PRINTER ports.
To obtain the most recent version of the W0RLI software, send an
8-inch disk with return postage (two disks for source code) to:
Wes Morris, K7PYK
7422 E. McKinley St.
Scottsdale, AZ 85257
From KE3Z
KANTRONICS V 2.0 FIRMWARE
Kantronics has announced the availability of version 2.0 firmware
for the Kantronics Packet Communicator. New features are:
o AX25L2V2
o Multiple Connects
Price for the upgrade is $20.00 and will be available on
February 3rd.
Via DRNET
IBM PC TERMINAL PROGRAM
If you are using an IBM PC or compatible to interface with your
TNC, then you may be happy to know that a terminal program for
the PC has been developed. Norm Wilcox, W2GRH, has written a
packet terminal program called QPACKET based on the popular PC-
TALK communications software. According to Norm, the software
acts very much like PC-TALK, and uses the same basic command
structure. Some of the features included in QPACKET are:
o PC-TALK like commands
o TNC initialization file
o Split-screen operation
o ASCII and Binary file transfer
o Auto-answer
o Remote file transfer
For more information, contact:
Norm Wilcox, W2GRH
RD #5 Box 82
Kingston, NY 12401
From W2GRH
HAPN ANNOUNCES IBM PC PACKET ADAPTER
The Hamilton Area Packet Network, (HAPN) a packet-radio club
dedicated to furthering the state of packet radio, has announced
the availability of the HAPN Packet Adapter Card for the IBM
PC/XT/AT.
The HAPN adapter is unique in terms of its versatility and ease
of operation. It is designed for the IBM PC and compatibles. The
IBM PC or compatible is rapidly becoming a leader in the amateur
community because of its attractive price and excellent
performance.
The HAPN packet adapter is a card that plugs directly into one of
the slots of the PC. It contains a built-in modem which
interfaces to the radio with a DB9 connector. The card is 8.5
inches (22 cm) long and contains a prototype area. The software
is powerful and is a delight to use. The transfer of ASCII or
binary files is very simple by using the function keys on the
keyboard. A popup menu allows you to set up the repeater routing
table. Optional software is available for bulletin board
operation. Experimental protocols such as VADCG V1 and V2 are
also available.
Features of the H.A.P.N. packet adapter :
1. In addition to the AX.25 protocol it
also runs the Canadian experimental protocols
V1, V2 as designed by Doug Lockhart, VE7APU,
of the VADCG (Vancouver Amateur Digital
Communications group).
2. Software available at present:
a. AX.25 host support (included)
b. bulletin board program PCRBBS (optional)
c. file transfer programs (optional)
d. experimental protocol support for VADCG V1,
V2 (optional)
3. The HAPN adapter plugs into a PC, PC-XT, PC-AT
or compatible. No external cabinet or power
supply is required.
4. Simple to interface to your radio. It requires
RX audio, TX audio and push-to-talk. The
carrier detect (radio channel busy) is
generated internally from the received data or
optionally brought out from your squelch
circuit.
5. Built-in modem is Bell 202 compatible. It
uses the XR2206 and XR2211 chipset. The tones
are 1200 and 2200hz. The data rate is 1200
bit/s. A hardware watchdog circuit prevents
possible TX runaway problems as a result of
power glitches or lightning.
6. The board contains a pre-drilled prototype
area for personal use.
7. The adapter is based on the INTEL 8273
HDLC/SDLC protocol controller chip with a
straightforward interface to the PC.
8. The low level software (device driver) is
interrupt driven and stays resident in the PC
allowing the adapter to function in the
background. An application program such as
bulletin board, file transfer or terminal
program does not have to be resident for
the adapter to function. In this mode, the
user is alerted to a caller by a connect
alarm utilizing the PC's speaker.
9. Easy customizing for the user. The user
configuration such as callsign/SSID, auto
logging of packet activity to disk, default
repeater, connect alarm etc. are set up using
the configuration screen and remembered by the
program. These options can be changed at any
time.
10. NOTE FOR PROGRAMMERS
Since the adapter uses the native code of the
host computer no cross compilers are needed
for anyone wanting to develop his own code.
ORDERING INFORMATION AND PRICE :
All prices are in US$ and include postage and
handling in USA or Canada. Please add 3$ for
overseas orders.
1. Assembled and tested board with AX.25 host
software and self-test program (4 programs and
documentation) $199.00
2. Bare board with AX.25 software and construction
details $75.00
3. AX.25 software $40.00
4. Bulletin board & file transfer programs $25.00
5. Advanced VADCG experimental software $ 25.00
Make checks and money orders payable to H.A.P.N.
The mailing address is :
HAPN
Box 4466, Station D,
Hamilton, Ontario,
Canada, L8V4S7
Via DRNET
REPRODUCTION OF GATEWAY MATERIAL
Material may be exerpted from Gateway without prior permission,
provided that the original contributor is credited and Gateway is
identified as the source.
... de VE3YDX - The Yonge St. DX Association {VE3 EZU FEA FIU IPR}
--
George Gorsline, Jr. VE3FIU / K8HI
One of the VE3YDX gang... Y DX? Because it's there(~Y)!
__... ...__ . ... _.. _.._
Genamation, 351 Steelcase Rd. West, Markham Ontario L3R 3W1
{allegra|linus|ihnp4|...}!utzoo!mnetor!genat!george
(416) 475-9434