Alan, This is EXACTLY what I was looking for! I am not sure why I did not have it accessed previously, but I suspect it is because I only used the home page for hflink.com assuming I would find everything. I went back right now and tried every hyperlink and quite honestly am not able to find the bbslink from the home page. Is this possible to put more prominently?
I know of at least one other ham who has also been trying to send messages and he was able to finally get it to work, but it took quite a trial. He indicated that there may be an issue with something about putting a space in some part of the message (using Multipsk) but I did not understand just where his reference was in the message sequence. So hope to hear back on this. As you may have seen today, just before I received your message I was able to get a message through the NJ7C server with confirmation that it went through. Having said that, it is now after 0200Z (9 pm), and it has not come through as e-mail as yet. Hopefully the syntax was correct and I did use SMTP so that it would go to my mrfarm address here at Misty Ridge Farm. Now on the issue of being 100 Hz off frequency. This is not the sound card which should be close to 1 Hz accuracy after calibration. One of the unresolved problems with Multipsk, and I have brought this up a number of times so I apologize to those who have heard this before, is that at least with my ICOM 756 Pro 2, when in the "D" digital mode and you bump the thumbwheel, with the mouse cursor in the program window, you are dropped out of "D" mode and into regular mode. This also turns on any mike compression, changes the tuning rate (faster) and shifts frequency. Yeah, it is a real problem and in an emergency would be unacceptable. But right now this is for test purposes. Patrick has been unable to figure out the problem. In fact, between the DXLab Commander program and Multipsk program, there was added code to insure that the thumbwheel is not activated and yet it still causes this effect. I have asked if others have this problem and have had no response so perhaps I am the only one with this problem. I don't know. I use Multipsk quite a lot since it has modes no other program offers, particularly FAE which is a killer app for sound card digital ARQ, but few are interested in ARQ modes from what I can tell. When I use Ham Radio Deluxe with Digital Master 780, not only does it not have the "D" mode problem, but the programming allows me to use mouse control of the "D" mode directly from screen buttons. Very cool. So it is possible to make the software do this correctly. Of course DM780 is unlikely to have any ALE support, but it would be nice to have. Even more important would be to have advanced technology such as the FAE modes. As far as Winlink 2000, I would have no way to access it in a practical manner. I am not sure what you mean by a NVIS link. Steve Waterman was very opposed to my suggestion of increasing any NVIS capability of their system as you folks are with your system. I don't understand this, but its your system and you have to decide on the goals that are important to you. Along with the great majority of digital oriented hams, I prefer sound card modes and have no plans to move back toward legacy hardware. While VHF Packet could be used in some areas, it is not a weak signal mode and can only go a short distance and thus no servers would be accessible from this area on a consistent basis. Anything we would set up here would likely go down if the internet failed. One future change that they are making is to add a way to forward traffic between stations connected to an RMSpacket server, even when the internet goes down. This is something I asked for years ago and was told that was not their plan to do so, but moving to provide this capability will mean that those servers, will effectively be like hubbing emergency PMBO's (now RMS) for VHF. This is a welcome change in their thinking. Now if they ever move again toward building on the already invented high speed SCAMP mode (which was shelved three years ago), and include a fall back weak signal mode, they will have a technology that would make it possible to run 1000 wpm during moderately good conditions on HF and even faster on VHF, using sound card modes rather than legacy hardware modes. Speaking from experience, it is quite a blast to run 1000 wpm on HF using a sound card ARQ mode! In the meantime, the advantage of the ALE servers is that while some what of a legacy mode, compared to the new technology we have with weak signal sound card modes, it is currently the only automatic e-mail server system, using sound card technology, that can work with MS Windows. The the other reason that I am using the system is to see how it works on a practical basis and eventually will be included in some of my published information. I want to give it a fair test and hopefully hear of more hams doing the same. How about it group members? How are your experiences using the system? 73, Rick, KV9U Alan Barrow wrote: > > > Hello Rick, > > As suggested to you more than once, the documentation for using bbslink > is at < http://hflink.net/bbslink >. > > The steps for using DBM ARQ are clearly listed. Others are using these > instructions with no difficulty. > > DTM is not supported yet, and it's not been an urgent need. Most users > just use DBM ARQ, which works but it still in development. (All of which > has been discussed with you previously) Down the road we may add DTM > support to support the few HW ALE controllers which have DTM but not DBM > ARQ. But we will be adding HW TNC support as a higher priority. Link via > ALE, then use the HW TNC (or SW) mode of your choice to send the traffic. > > I plan to test and confirm usage of Multi-PSK, but as explained before, > Multi-PSK's new functionality has not been tested yet. If the DBM ARQ's > are truly compatible, it should work. Data is data. But since CR/LF > treatment, etc all impact this type of thing there is no guarantee yet. > > That said, it will be great if it works. If it does not, my suggestion > is to use the supported PC-ALE or MARS-ALE tool as we know it works > correctly. > > As others have pointed out, the faster soundcard modes are very > dependent on both soundcard frequency accuracy as well as rig accuracy. > On more than one occasion you have been observed operating 100 Hz off > frequency, which can explain your difficulty. (That was also pointed out > to you in past emails). Unlike PSK which has no "absolute" frequency > need, other modes do require this. This is not unique to ALE, SSTV, > RTTY, etc are all dependent accurate frequency. Having a new soundcard > does not guarantee this, the only way to tell is via a calibrated > system. There are multiple methods to confirm this, several are > documented on HFLink. I know Multi-PSK has this capability also. > > Again, based on your expectations I'd suggest looking into Airmail and > Winlink. It's production ready, answers many of your concerns about ALE > efficiency & usage, and has a very easy to use GUI. Since you do not > like or recognize the advantage of scanning, just pop on that NVIS link > and send your traffic. > > Have fun, > > Alan > km4ba > > ------------------------------------ > > Announce your digital presence via our Interactive Sked Page at > http://www.obriensweb.com/sked > > Check our other Yahoo Groups.... > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dxlist/ > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/contesting > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG. > Version: 8.0.101 / Virus Database: 270.4.1/1516 - Release Date: 6/24/2008 > 7:53 AM >
