I concur with many of Howard's suggestions. Here are some of the criteria that I think will insure success of a new emergency communications mode, not in any special order:
1. Open source so that many can help with developing and even tweaking the program. We have seen how successful major programs such as Firefox browser, Thunderbird e-mail, Open Office suite can be built with open source, and anything we do in amateur radio can as well. 2. Modularized design so that the interface to the operator can be changed without affecting the modes used on the RF connection. Protocols can then be "bolted on" and changed as technology advances without a loss of the programming effort that occurs with many other amateur radio software. 3. For the short term (the next 5 to 10 years) it must operate on MS Windows OS since that is what the great majority of us use for ham radio. Cross platform is to be encouraged. 4. Insure that the "server" that connects to the internet can be set up on an ad hoc basis and can be placed where needed. We never know where the emergency situation will be and how widespread, but having the capability to quickly position internet access points to reach a disaster area is a killer ap that is not available with any other HF systems. As a comparison, Winlink2000 servers (PMBO) are strictly controlled and programmed by the central administrator and are not possible to set up and configure by individual hams. A new paradigm should return control to the amateur community and away from a centralized failure point. Recent comments suggest that the HFLink system will not have ad hoc quick installation, but we don't have the information to fully understand how this will be done. Perhaps the HFLink developers will fill us in on their vision. 5. For any automatic station, busy frequency detection is a must, however during emergency situations, you will often have human operators at both ends insuring that the frequency is being monitored. 6. As narrow bandwidths as possible. E-mail is not used for extreme time value traffic as is tactical communications that has paramount requirements for an immediate contact and immediate acknowledgement. Other thoughts? 73, Rick, KV9U Howard Brown wrote: > Dave, > > What about building a replacement now? It would be good for > Emcomm (ARES & MARS) to have a package that would > support high speed without a high price. > > For my two cents, I would like a non-ARQ mode to run a net > and then the package would use ARQ to transfer messages. > > It seems the PSKmail guys can adapt quickly to different modems. > They also have the advantage that you can quickly set up a new > post office sort of ad hoc. > > Howard K5HB
