Today I was listing on 20m to the Dutch PACC contest, there i found Z60A a new DXCC station from Kosovo. I worked it ride away. Very nice to worked that station. There was a YL op, she was very good and fast.
https://www.qrz.com/lookup/z60a
Month: February 2018
Symek TNC3s
Today I add a Symek tnc3s to the collection. This modem came with 3 separate modem cards.
2x T-M192 / 19K2
1x T-M96 / 9k6
Completely original packaging and manuals. Very Nice
I’m still looking for the 1k2 modem card.
Fbb problem showing .HLP and .ENT file
Donnie WD1F has some trouble to get the english.hlp and the english.ent files to show up in fbb. He found the solution.
connecting from remote TNC...
cmd:c wd1f-7
*** CONNECTED to WD1F-7
S (H for help) >
rm
There are no such messages (message choice: *).
(1) WD1F BBS (H for help) >
H
{nothing happens}
All the files are there with the right permissions.
root@ks1r:/etc/ax25/fbb/lang# strace -e open -p 2457
strace: Process 2457 attached
open("/var/ax25/fbb/inf.sys", O_RDWR) = 10
open("/var/ax25/fbb/wp/wp.sys", O_RDWR) = 10
open("/etc/ax25/fbb/lang/english.ent", O_RDONLY) = 10
open("/etc/ax25/fbb/lang/english.hlp", O_RDONLY) = 10
Dir of /etc/ax25/fbb/lang
root@ks1r:/etc/ax25/fbb/lang# l
total 248
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 179 Feb 6 11:29 english.ent
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 179 Feb 6 11:13 english.ent.sample
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 62459 Feb 6 11:13 english.hlp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 62459 Feb 6 11:26 ENGLISH.hlp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 743 Feb 6 11:13 english.inf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12428 Feb 6 11:13 english.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12428 Feb 6 11:26 ENGLISH.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 155 Feb 6 11:13 francais.ent.sample
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 51417 Feb 6 11:13 francais.hlp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 777 Feb 6 11:13 francais.inf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 14783 Feb 6 11:13 francais.txt
root@ks1r:/etc/ax25/fbb/lang#
I found my problem and it wasn’t easy. In case others have this issue…
The issue was: Pressing H would not give me the help file. After getting it working I see I was missing other things as well like lots of the welcome text.
open("/usr/local/etc/ax25/fbb/lang/english.hlp", O_RDONLY) = 8
fstat(8, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=62459, ...}) = 0
mmap(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x7f2bba612000
read(8, "################################"..., 4096) = 4096
read(8, "erver menu, and continue from\nth"..., 4096) = 4096
read(8, "information on one special comma"..., 4096) = 4096
read(8, " - Download a file with AUTOB"..., 4096) = 4096
read(8, "he current line. The number can"..., 4096) = 4096
read(8, "T new in 5.15b\n@@ 9 BGET\n\nComman"..., 4096) = 4096
close(8) = 0
munmap(0x7f2bba612000, 4096) = 0
lseek(4, 0, SEEK_SET) = 0
read(4, "MemTotal: 32896168 kB\nMemF"..., 999) = 999
write(3, "\r- Type ? [COMMAND] for the HELP"..., 250) = -1 EMSGSIZE (Message too long)
duckduckgo.com search showed EMSGSIZE (Message too long) had to do with packet sizes allowed. Made me think it may relate to max packet length setting in axports
The fix was:
in /etc/ax25/axports…
name Call speed paclen window desctiption
1 WD1F-1 9600 128 2 144.01 MHz (1200 bps)
I had to set paclen to 255 like this:
1 WD1F-1 9600 255 2 144.01 MHz (1200 bps)
Howto set ax25 Parameters
Howto set ax25 parameters on a tnc in kissmode.
/usr/local/sbin/kissattach /dev/ttyUSB0 1 44.137.31.85 > /tmp/ax25-config.tmp
awk '/device/ { print $7 }' /tmp/ax25-config.tmp > /tmp/ax25-config-tmp
Device=ax0
# Check for Device
if [ -d /proc/sys/net/ax25/$Device ]
then cd /proc/sys/net/ax25/$Device/
/etc/ax25/ax25parms
echo -e "Port 1 attached to $Device"
else echo -e "** Error setting $Device parms*"
fi
echo -e -n "$"
Below the file ax25parms. (chmod 755)
#! /bin/bash # Parms for a USER Port echo 5000 > t1_timeout # (Frack) echo 500 > t2_timeout # (RESPtime) echo 300000 > t3_timeout # (Check) echo 900000 > idle_timeout # Idle Timer echo 5 > standard_window_size # Outstanding Frames echo 8 > maximum_retry_count # Max Retrys echo 256 > maximum_packet_length # Paclen echo 0 > ax25_default_mode echo 0 > ip_default_mode echo 0 > backoff_type echo 2 > connect_mode #echo 180000 > dama_slave_timeout echo 32 > extended_window_size echo 0 > protocol
9600 BAUD Parameters
TXDelay…….between 8 and 15 – set for best throughput BUT that depending upon your RIG. Several commercial rigs they don’t accepts TXD less than 25-30 because they needs enough time to “LOCK-on” the PLL unit, otherwise the TX signal is unusable. Of course, if you want that values (8-15), we talking for modern Transmitters using PIN-diodes and very fast PLL-units for RX-TX swithces and NOT for RIGs with Relays in the output and slllooowwww PLLs… Relays and slow-PLLs have extremely large values between RX-TX, which that means Hi-Value TXD settings!
RESPtime …..100 mS seems to have better results than 0
Frack……….. 8 seconds on a busy channel; but never less than 5 sec
PERSIST…….128/users; if it’s a pretty clean channel, 64 is nice; if it’s busy, guesstimate the average number of users and divide 128 by this number, i.e. 4 users = 128/4 = 32
SLOTTIME… 20
MAXFrame… If the channel is great, 7; average, 3; rough, 1
RETry……….15
Check………. 300 seconds
MAXFrame
Again, let’s not complicate the commands any more than we have to. This is another of the “throughput’ , timing commands in the TNC which can be made into a monster. Let’s use some common sense and simplify its use by applying two simple and easy-to-remember rules for its use.
1. When operating VHF, use the (default) value of 4. If connected direct with good connect path and no other traffic, use MAXFrame 7 .
- When using the HF bands, good or favorable conditions use 2 FAIR, or poor conditions use 1.
PACLen
Let’s really uncomplicate these final two commands. I can bet on at least 40 letters from some of my friends and some users who are old-timers (or who think they are) giving me “the dickens” or a rebuttal about these next two commands. I’m about to simplify these two commands to the point of possible over-simplification. Over-simplification of a command is not to the liking of a few users.
They feel that because their early packet, days were difficult, so should be every one else’s. Νo one has more reason to complain about those days than I do, but who wants to complain? Even in those days we were having fun with packet.
The only difference between packet radio now and then is now we have more packeteers with whom to QSO, and the terminal program features have given us a medium that is far more than the “ΤYPE” and “SEND” system of six or seven years ago.
Now that the history lesson is over, let’s get to the PACLen setup of the TNC.
There are three simple rules for this command, and they are.
- When using nodes or digipeaters on VHF, set PACLen 128 (normal default of most TNCs).
- When usingdirectconnects, and with near perfect connect paths, set PACLen 255 (some TNCs accept PACL 0 as 255).
- When operatingHFpacket, set PACLen 32 for300 b/s or PACLen 64 for 1200 b/s.
DWait (Digipeater Wait)
DWait was once the means used to allow the radio/TNC combination to handshake ith each other . It was considered by many users that DWait was used toallow the AGC to recover after returning to the receive mode from the transmit mode.
In a sense, this thought has some merit, because if you set the DWait too short, you may discover that the receiver in your radio will be unable to recover fast enough to allow the first of each received packet to get to the TNC on time. That is the long xplanation. Following is the real purpose of the DWait command. The DWait command is a command agreed upon by all members of a Local Area Network (LAN). This is why it is good to have packet users groups, or a packet club where the LAN members can meet so that issues of this kind can be talked through and agreed upon by the users of the LAN. Βy so doing the LAΝ members are establishing a means to reduce the number of collisions. Even with the new “anti-collision” features in many of the TNCs, we must remember that all LAΝ users do not have this new feature in their TNC. Most TNCs support a DWait of 16 as the default setting, but we have found that a DWAIT on our LAN of 8 to 12 is suitable for our needs and for use when downloading files from the local BBS.
FRame ACKnowledge (FRACK)
We can make this TNC command short and sweet, or we can complicate it to the greatest possible level. I ‘m for reducing the complications within the command structure of the packet TNC. Τοo often I see new writers going after the complicated rendition of the TNC commands, only to end υ confusing themselves.
Packet radio is very easy to use, and as long as we keep it this way, we all will benefit from it and more users will enter its ranks.
FRACK should never be set below 3!
FRACK has a rule of order that can be used in the following manner. If you are about to connect to a friend who is 3 nodes away, add that number to the TNC setting of 3; thus we have 6. If the station to which you wish to connect is only one node away , use that number to add to the TNC FRACK of 3 (3 + 1 = 4). This is the manner with which I make the system work for me, and at the same time it “un-complicates” the FRACK command for us.
