Howdy, Dave! The closest thing to a website for Q15x25 is a Yahoo! egroup. The address is:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Q15X25/?yguid=203716760 If you go back through the posts there, you'll learn a lot about Q15x25. It's outstanding feature is that it is AX25, which means lots of software options are possible. The MixW and Flex32 versions both use the same DLL, but each programs has its advantages and drawbacks for Q15x25. MixW: Interleave defaults to 8, there is a waterfall display, and with MixW's virtual KISS TNC mode set up, you can run Q15x25 with Packet software that looks for a KISS TNC. I did this, running MixW and BBS software in the same machine by use of a null-modem cable. Works great. Flex32: Interleave defaults to 16, there is no waterfall, but you can easily set up a Q15x25 gateway by utilizing Flex32's internal digipeat function. To set up Q15x25 with Flex32, use my Flex32 soundcard packet tutorial, and choose the "NEWQPSK" soft modem instead of the AFSK 1.2kb modem. This tutorial can be viewed at: http://uspacket.org/network/index.php/topic,21.0.html Check out the PAXON tutorial in the same section at USPacket, if you go with Flex32. PAXON links into the Flex32 kernal, it is a great terminal program. The SkipNets experimented with Q15x25 extensively, looking for an AX25 alternative to HF Packet. It did not rturn out to be very robust, being very picky about band conditions. In good conditions it had impressive throughput, but under less than perfect condx, 300 baud Packet turned out to be much faster and more reliable, so we reluctantly had to admit at last that it was not good for our purposes. We tried scaling the modem down to 14, then the minimum of ten streams but noted no outstanding improvement in reliability. The 14 stream version did 'fit' better in some older rig's passbands though, so scaling the modem down can be a plus. It will, by the way, scale upward to 3000 baud, but that is not useful on HF. The most successful use of Q15x25 was by JPEG picture-swappers operating on 15 meters, in the tail-end of the last sunspot cycle. I also found it to be good for mixed-mode operation on VHF voice repeaters, the trick there is to bump the TXdELAY up to a full second or so, so the repeater won't chop off the initial tones. It's like 2500 baud packet over the repeater. Q15x25 tends to long PACLENS and MAXFRAME values, which helps make up for the long TXD. Hope this helps, that's all I know. 73 DE Charles, N5PVL .
