KV9U wrote: > Bob's point is well taken.
Bob's point is without merit. The specifications are public and no one is keeping you or anyone else from implementing your own decoder. In fact, independent decoders capable of all three PACTOR family modes already exist: http://www.wavecom.ch/downloads/PDF/W61Brochure_internet.pdf > The FCC regulation on technical descriptions, ยง 97.309(a)(4), reads: > > (4) An amateur station transmitting a RTTY or data emission using a > digital code specified in this paragraph may use any technique whose > technical characteristics have been documented publicly, such as > CLOVER, G-TOR, or PacTOR, for the purpose of facilitating > communications. > > ARRL further states: > > "Documentation should be adequate to (a) recognize the technique or > protocol when observed on the air, (b) determine call signs of stations > in communication and read the content of the transmissions." > > Clearly, Pactor 2 and 3 and probably Clover II, do not completely > fulfill these requirements. Since they have been used for many years > now, it is probably too late to do much about it and I doubt that the > ARRL Directors would take any action. However, one could mention it to > their director and see what response they get. Laughter would probably be a good start for an appropriate response. http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/regulations/techchar/PACTOR.html http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/regulations/techchar/PACTOR-II.html http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/regulations/techchar/PACTOR-III.html http://ecjones.org/pactor.html http://ecjones.org/PT-III.pdf http://people.uncw.edu/youngb/research/nwc.pdf http://www.rmsinst.com/dt3.htm http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6518330597 Your technical inability to implement the documented protocols does not constitute a Part 97 rule violation on the part of those using PACTOR modes, nor should it. > In the last year the Winlink 2000 spokesperson made a big deal how > "secure" Winlink 2000 was since it was not very practical to read the > messages even if they had one of the SCS modems that could monitor the > frequency because all they would see is scrambled data. They were > challenged by another ham who wrote a program that can decode their > format and they had to back down somewhat. This is not due to the SCS > product as much as it is due to a compression technique that Winlink > 2000 uses. Yes, that was me. > Unlike anything else in amateur radio, I have never seen as much closed > and proprietary techniques that we have seen from Winlink 2000 and I > think this is a big factor for the animosity so many hams have to such > operations that are completely opposite the whole spirit of amateur > radio. There are those of us who try to promote interoperation of any > messaging systems on amateur radio and while there is not much interest > in this, we do have a forum on the winlink2000 yahoogroup that permits > all points of view. > > For those of you who do have an SCS modem, can you provide us with your > experiences in your success in monitoring the traffic content on the > amateur radio bands with these modes? Since you are already familiar with my experience of successfully decoding PACTOR III Winlink 2000 transmissions off the air, I'm not sure what you're looking for here. Could you be more specific about what it is that you want? -- 73 de Nick N2QZ Section Traffic Manager, Eastern New York Section FISTS #11469 SKCC #1027 ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Great things are happening at Yahoo! Groups. See the new email design. http://us.click.yahoo.com/TISQkA/hOaOAA/yQLSAA/ELTolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org Other areas of interest: The MixW Reflector : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup/ DigiPol: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digipol (band plan policy discussion) Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
