I got an email from my better half this morning asking me what deliveries I was expecting as the postman had left a note. I couldn’t think what it could be and quickly forgot about it.
Much to my surprise, this it was is was…
What a lovely certificate for my (fairly minimal) participation in the experiment. In fairness the photograph taken with my phone does not do it justice.
Boy it has been busy of late, not what I expected 2013 to be. I’m way behind on a lot of things I had planned to get done this year, but who isn’t.
Today I got one item off the todo list. Back in September at the DCC, John Hansen, W2FS presented the TNC-Pi, a radio modem for the Raspberry Pi. John was kind enough to entertain my questions, and I purchased one from him. This morning, I dug out the kit, fired up the soldering iron and put it together, quite therapeutic I must say.
Looking forward now to getting a Pi, and getting it all going, assuming I’ve not messed up in the construction.
Happy Christmas!
In between cleaning the rubbish off the deck, entertaining my cousin Saturday afternoon, getting the tables and chairs out, putting the glass back into the glasshouse (literally), and getting the lawn cut. I got some time to look at some digital modes for Amateur Radio.
First up was getting my tunnel set back up to AMPRNet. That took a bit longer than expected, but I finally got it all sorted and have rip44d (Written by Heikki, OH7LZB) running, with a slight modification to use a separate routing table for the “44” Network. More on this below.
Next up, was to get my 4m (70Mhz) AX.25 port back running. Then configure LinuxRMS to allow the port to be used as a Winlink Gateway. This will allow anyone that can connect to my 4m port to use it for sending and receiving email over radio (just like a smart-phone, only much more slowly 😉 and much larger range between base-stations).
Now, the only real way to test it properly was to connect to it from another machine which meant configuring paclink-unix on my (recently re-installed) Linux laptop. So I unpacked my Emergency Communications Go-Kit, plugged it all in, downloaded and installed the latest version of paclink-unix. Configured it up and tried to connect. Lo and behold it all worked.
While I was as it, I tried out the wl2kax25d daemon and the peer-to-peer mode of paclink-unix and it also seemed to work quite well (for instances when no Winlink gateway is available).
Now that I had the tunnel to AMPRNet running, I though I’d test it out some more so configured up a second ethernet port on the machine with my AMPRNet address of dstar.ei7ig.ampr.org, and configured the (same) laptop with the address of mobile.ei7ig.ampr.org. Once it was all set up I tested the wl2ktelnet daemon which is the paclink-unix mechanism for directly connecting to the Winlink servers when Internet connectivity exists. Much to my surprise (that I hadn’t stuffed something up) it worked first time.
Now that it all seems to work, I’m going to bring it all along to Tankardstown Geopark next Sunday (17th) where SEARG will be operating for a few hours (80m Counties Contest) The priority will be voice on Sunday, but I may get time to “go digital”.
If your passing, drop in and say hello. Club members will be there from about 10 in the morning until after 6 in the evening.
1200mk: fm FAST2 to BEACON ctl UI pid=F0(Text) len 123 23:22:10
F21001633 38263.461363903952.94 -3773326.54 +4430538.23 +0.00000 +0.00000 +0.00000+1297283286 011 015 011 015 018
9600mk: fm FAST2 to FAST1 ctl SABM 23:26:59
9600mk: fm FAST2 to FAST1 ctl SABM 23:27:30
1200mk: fm FAST2 to BEACON ctl UI pid=F0(Text) len 123 23:28:10
F21001633 38263.461363903952.94 -3773326.54 +4430538.23 +0.00000 +0.00000 +0.00000+1315283286 009 014 010 015 019
1200mk: fm FAST2 to BEACON ctl UI pid=F0(Text) len 123 02:37:10
F21001633 38263.461363903952.94 -3773326.54 +4430538.23 +0.00000 +0.00000 +0.00000+1297283286 012 016 010 014 020
9600mk: fm FAST2 to FAST1 ctl SABM 04:21:00
9600mk: fm FAST2 to FAST1 ctl SABM 04:21:05
1200mk: fm FAST2 to BEACON ctl UI pid=F0(Text) len 123 07:43:09
F21001633 38263.461363903952.94 -3773326.54 +4430538.23 +0.00000 +0.00000 +0.00000+1321283286 007 013 009 018 019
1200mk: fm FAST2 to BEACON ctl UI pid=F0(Text) len 123 08:41:05
F21001633 38263.461363903952.94 -3773326.54 +4430538.23 +0.00000 +0.00000 +0.00000+1348283286 008 014 007 014 024
1200mk: fm FAST2 to BEACON ctl UI pid=F0(Text) len 123 10:23:04
F21001633 38263.461363903952.94 -3773326.54 +4430538.23 +0.00000 +0.00000 +0.00000+1356283286 008 012 008 014 022
1200mk: fm FAST2 to BEACON ctl UI pid=F0(Text) len 123 12:50:10
F21001633 38263.461363903952.94 -3773326.54 +4430538.23 +0.00000 +0.00000 +0.00000+1375283286 009 013 009 016 024
1200mk: fm FAST2 to BEACON ctl UI pid=F0(Text) len 123 13:42:53
F21001633 38263.461363903952.94 -3773326.54 +4430538.23 +0.00000 +0.00000 +0.00000+1364283286 011 010 010 012 023
1200mk: fm FAST1 to BEACON ctl UI pid=F0(Text) len 123 00:10:23
F11001646601751.000005377683.06 +2015354.18 +4050195.37 -4621.20112 +863.93108 +5686.27132+0BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB
1200mk: fm FAST2 to BEACON ctl UI pid=F0(Text) len 123 02:15:51
F21001633 38263.461363903952.94 -3773326.54 +4430538.23 +0.00000 +0.00000 +0.00000+1298283286 010 013 010 013 017
1200mk: fm FAST2 to BEACON ctl UI pid=F0(Text) len 123 01:27:58
F21001633 38263.461363903952.94 -3773326.54 +4430538.23 +0.00000 +0.00000 +0.00000+1297283286 011 012 009 011 017
1200mk: fm FAST2 to BEACON ctl UI pid=F0(Text) len 123 01:30:58
F21001633 38263.461363903952.94 -3773326.54 +4430538.23 +0.00000 +0.00000 +0.00000+1294283286 010 011 009 011 017
1200mk: fm FAST2 to BEACON ctl UI pid=F0(Text) len 123 04:57:57
F21001633 38263.461363903952.94 -3773326.54 +4430538.23 +0.00000 +0.00000 +0.00000+1328283287 009 011 012 014 019
1200mk: fm FAST2 to BEACON ctl UI pid=F0(Text) len 123 11:36:56
F21001633 38263.461363903952.94 -3773326.54 +4430538.23 +0.00000 +0.00000 +0.00000+1366283286 005 010 011 016 020
9600mk: fm FAST1 to FAST2 ctl SABM 12:53:48
Fri Jul 29 13:01:53 UTC 2011
1200mk: fm FAST2 to BEACON ctl UI pid=F0(Text) len 123 09:28:00
F21001633 38263.461363903952.94 -3773326.54 +4430538.23 +0.00000 +0.00000 +0.00000+1328283286 009 013 007 013 022
1200mk: fm FAST2 to BEACON ctl UI pid=F0(Text) len 123 09:37:00
F21001633 38263.461363903952.94 -3773326.54 +4430538.23 +0.00000 +0.00000 +0.00000+1357283286 009 012 007 013 022
9600mk: fm FAST1 to FAST2 ctl SABM 10:43:16
1200mk: fm FAST2 to BEACON ctl UI pid=F0(Text) len 123 11:16:00
F21001633 38263.461363903952.94 -3773326.54 +4430538.23 +0.00000 +0.00000 +0.00000+1368283286 008 011 008 013 023
9600mk: fm FAST2 to FAST1 ctl SABM 12:49:30
1200mk: fm FAST2 to BEACON ctl UI pid=F0(Text) len 123 12:54:59
F21001633 38263.461363903952.94 -3773326.54 +4430538.23 +0.00000 +0.00000 +0.00000+1373283286 009 013 005 011 025
1200mk: fm FAST2 to BEACON ctl UI pid=F0(Text) len 123 09:04:03
F21001633 38263.461363903952.94 -3773326.54 +4430538.23 +0.00000 +0.00000 +0.00000+1332283286 008 012 009 014 021
1200mk: fm FAST2 to BEACON ctl UI pid=F0(Text) len 123 10:46:03
F21001633 38263.461363903952.94 -3773326.54 +4430538.23 +0.00000 +0.00000 +0.00000+1349283286 008 013 008 014 022
1200mk: fm FAST2 to BEACON ctl UI pid=F0(Text) len 123 14:10:03
F21001633 38263.461363903952.94 -3773326.54 +4430538.23 +0.00000 +0.00000 +0.00000+1384283286 009 012 009 015 022