Decisions, decisons .....

[davecason]

Hi Gang,

I want to start to play around with my Yeasu 8900 in the truck and see if I can get e-mail going on my Asus P1005 Mini PC and get them to play nice.

It seems like the two popular guys are Byonics or Argent Data, they seem to be the two choices. So if I want to get one from one of the two places to use as a KISS TNC initially and play with APRS later what should I buy?

I'm brand new to packet as well ...... except for a bit of blue water sailing and a pactor modem a while ago.

Cheers'
Dave

 

[n2nov]

Email? What infrastructure/mechanism would you use to transfer from the email client on your laptop and go all the way to the recipient?

 

[davecason]

got some bits

Hi Charles,

I dunno yet, I want to first get the APRS going and try that and then use the new TinyTrac4 I got as a dumb TNC and setup my PC with Winlink and try that as the second option.

I'm just going to get the TNC going and play / experiment / goof off with it and see what I can try to get away with, its experiment time so I thought I'd ask.

I'm bashing around the idea of setting up a node on my HF rig at home to run as a Winlink node but its too early to play with that plan. I'll prob have to jump to a better HF rig at home besides we need one here in Calgary.

Cheers'
Dave

 

[n2nov]

APRS is mainly a one-way broadcast with minimal SMS-like capability. It is not intended, nor would I use it, for regular e-mail/packet messaging. Do you have a local packet BBS in your area? Winlink and it's off-shoots are RF on the front-end, but internet on the back-end. Without an internet connection, your throughput suffers or dies altogether. Solely relying on a non-ham infrastructure like Winlink is not good EmComm planning.

I've been at it since the late 90's with a JNOS BBS and now with FLdigi, as I have started three NBEMS nets (NY-NBEMS on 40m, USeast-NBEMS on 40m and NYC-NBEMS on 2m). I know that the SATERN folks out of Canada are using FLdigi for their own NBEMS ops.

Just like a new person on a computer, figure out the task required first before the software and the hardware is last. We can pick this up on private e-mail or continue here for others to "constructively" chime-in.

 

[davecason]

this is true !

Hi Charles,

Oh I agree with you there for sure, APRS is basically one why but its something I want to learn as well and have in the truck for my work with ARES. That's why I just initially just bought a TT4 and the bits, I want to enable the APRS side of things to learn it and try it out.


As for phase two, I know you can use the TT4 as a KISS TNC so I'm hoping I can leverage off that somehow, I dunno hence my initial post here. I did use Sailmail a few times when we were at sea so I know you "can" do it with a TNC / Laptop / Radio. (he said with fingers crossed - grin)


I have a feeling that I may have to provide both ends of the link like you did but I'd enjoy that and would like to make it avail for others to use as well. I'm an IT geek and have a few old HP and Dell servers sitting around that would be fun to play with and try. So having the servers, UPS and a 60MB hard internet connection is half the battle.


I'd like to start exploring and see if I can get something going on analog, I think it might be fun. Right now everyone is looking happily at all of the Yeasu Fusion Repeaters going in around here, at last count I think we have about 9 going in so that's one way to get e-mails going. I just thought it might be fun to try and get something going on analog.


As for the conversation, let's leave it here, it might be handy for someone else to learn from my mistakes or our chat. Thanks again for the response, I'm going to go see what I can find about JNOS.

Cheers'
Dave

 

[n2nov]

A KISS tnc is only a modem and requires a computer program capable to assemble and disassemble the packets. You might want to align yourself with Outpost Packet Manager (Outpost Packet Message Manager) as it will work with the TT4. As for the JNOS BBS, you should go to JNOS 2.0 for more info. It is mostly for Linux, but he has been working on a Win32 version. Do you have any other packet BBS locations in the Calgary region that you can reach within 25 miles of your location?

 

[davecason]

No problem ....

Hi Charles,

OK, I'll go grab a copy of Outpost and get it loaded up ...... I guess it's a matter of having a look at all the various software versions out there and see what works best with that TT4.

As for the server I can nuke the hard drive and mount up a Ubuntu or Mint distro so that won't be a problem making the switch. Now trying to find a packet BBS could prove challenging ! (grin)

Cheers'
Dave