December 1998
Contents
1. CLERMONT FERRAND FRANCE with a self addressed envelope and two 1998 IRC coupons If you have any questions drop me a note 73 Scott E Mail wa6lie juno com Packet wa6lie wa6lie wcca ca usa noam DOWNLOAD STSPLUS Bill Manley KB4XE Dave Ransom has released STSPLUS version 9848 as of November 28 1998 To download an upgrade or this newest version in entirety and other goodies visit his web site at http tie jpl nasa gov dransom stsplus html STSPLUS is a mainstay satellite orbit prediction program which has been in circulation many years Ransom offers it as shareware and requests a minimum of 15 00 donation for licensing What s New In Packet Doug Welcker WB4KGY How about a 1200 9600 dual band held transceiver that will plug directly into you laptop Or maybe a YAM for yet another 9600 modem a product of Italy that operates at 1200 and 9600 and is available as a kit or assembled YAM connects to the COM port of a PC and is software drive using PC FlexNet JNOS Windows 95 or DOS TFPCX 2 71 DOS or a Linux driver A French development PIC RCT is a 9600 packet modem that interface with any TNC It is driven by an on board PIC microcontroller and is NRZ NRZI switchable PIC RCT includes a high speed data output header a 2x10 pin HE10 connector a bit error rate test BERT function and automatic test function that checks the integrity of the PIC and an accurate AF tuning on both transmit and receive av2. being used I forward the message My TNC talks to MIR s TNC and goes through the forwarding process This is a lot quicker I send 3 7K of info in one minute This includes the connect to disconnect time Consult your TNC users manual for forwarding mail to a station Note As of 12 June 1998 there is a Russian crew ONLY They do not speak English or any other language All mail addressed to the crew should be in Russian As of 24 June 1998 the mailbox has been opened up to third party traffic See MIREX UPDATES for more information HINTS please wait for a lt lt D gt gt frame from ROMIR 1 to the currently connected station before you try a connection Most TNC s use the command MCOM ON to see ALL frame headers Consult your TNC user manual for more information cmd MCOM ON eg ROMIR 1 gt WAOLIE 06 21 98 01 00 24 lt lt rr2 gt gt This is what my tnc shows ROMIR 1 gt W6XXX_ 06 21 98 01 00 30 lt lt DM gt gt This station is QRMing ROMIR 1 gt K6XXX_ 06 21 98 01 00 34 lt lt DM gt gt This station is ALSO QRMing Why ROMIR 1 hasn t yet finished with WA6LIE thus still connected The lt lt D gt gt is a disconnect request from ROMIR 1 To connected station ONLY At this time you might be able to connect to ROMIR 1 IF the connected station has already send his lt lt D gt gt request ROMIR 1 gt WA6LIE 06 21 98 01 00 45 lt lt D gt gt Now ROMIR 1 is done with WA6LIE A lt lt DM gt
3. those of us addicted to picking through boxes of other peoples junk Never understood why Hamfest season and Tourist season end at the same time Do they take all that stuff back north with them So another year has passed and another year begins Seasons greeting from the Officers and Directors of the Palm Beach Packet Group End on an Era Approaches by Doug Welcker WB4KGY The following was gleaned from a message by Scott WA6LIE I found it so interesting I followed his instruction December 1998 that I tried it myself By leaving my radio and TNC on for a few days I was able to see the time to expect a flyover I connected on my second try after a W8 stationed signed queried the mailbox and disconnected After no one else was observed I connected again With all this operation I had only one retry When I disconnected a Colombian station established with the BBS Read Scott s article and give it a try Don t wait too long as the MIR Space Station is on it s last legs and soon to be abandoned HOW TO WORK ROMIR 1 by Scott Avery WA6LIE The MIR Space Station is currently orbiting the earth about every 95 minutes while traveling at roughly 17 000 MPH Due to the fact that MIR is a moving object and radio frequencies being involved here Doppler corrections may be needed On the 2 meter band the Doppler is a maximum of 3 5 khz on a pass directly overhead 90 degrees On a pass say 10 degrees above the horizon the Doppler i
4. ARE AS FOLLOWS For President DOUG WB4KGY nominated by Bill KE4GUM second by Bob WD9ATM Vice President Mike Michaels K2GPI nominated by Bill KE4GUM second by Bob WD9ATM For Treasure Marvin KD2CK nominated by Bob WD9ATM second by Mike K2GPI For Secretary Burke Grosse KC4UEC nominated by Bill KE4GUM second by Bob WD9ATM Howie Silver KB2BBG nominated by John WB4MOZ second by Bill KE4GUM Andy Czermann KF4ATC nominated by Bill KE4GUM second by Bob WD9ATM A motion was made by John WB4MOZ that nominations be closed second by Bill KE4GUM Voting will occur at the December meeting Additional nomination can be made from the floor in December These people will lead us into the NEW CENTURY We would like to have members step forward to help the club in it s activities BARDS meeting Nov 2lst Motorola HAMFEST ACTIVITIES Tampa Nov 21 22 Okeechobee Dec 5th ADJOURN BREAK WORKSHOP Doug WB4KGY made a fine presentation End of an Era Approaches New things to come see article on MIR in this issue Meeting adjourned 20 37 hrs Next PBPG Meeting Info Doug Welcker WB4KGY Bob WD9ATM the man with the most inquisitive mind will give an educational secession on how to use and navigate the INTERNET via packet radio Larry W4BKX a young 84 has made available to the packet radio community an INTERNET TCP IP gateway to the world Bob will cover everything you want to know about th
5. DRESSED TO YOU R ead n DISPLAY MESSAGE NUMBER n RH n DISPLAY MESSAGE n WITH HEADERS RM ine READ ALL MESSAGES ADDRESSED TO YOU White Noise is published by the Palm Beach Packet Group Inc The PBPG can be reached by mail at Palm Beach Packet Group PO Box 16471 West Palm Beach FI 33416 6471 The officers of the PBPG with their packet address and phone numbers are Doug Welcker President WB4KGY WB4MOZ 561 686 3747 Mike Michaels Vice President K2GPI WB4MOZ 73754 3116 compuserve com 561 967 0478 Bill Rabun Secretary KE4GUM WB4MOZ 561 688 2088 Marvin Kaskawits Treasurer KD2CK WB4MOZ kd2ck ibm net 561 683 2930 John Green Director WB4MOZ WB4MOZ wb4moz maco net 561 793 6093 Bill Manley Editor KB4XE WB4TEM bmanley gate net 954 752 3908 S end call SEND MESSAGE TO callsign S B P T call SEND BULLETIN PRIVATE or TRAFFIC Please don t use the Help command on MIR This is STANDARD to MOST TNC s and doing so just limits the use of MIR by other stations There can only be ONE user connected to ROMIR 1 at a time 5 BE PREPARED If you wish to send a message to the crew have a file of message READY to go What I usually do is make a message Page 2 WHITE NOISE December 1998 to ROMIR before I even send it On my KPC 9612 I get in my mailbox and SP ROMIR MIR Then enter the subject and then the message When MIR is in range and the mailbox is not
6. K being out of town Full report will appear in the White Noise Technical report was given by Doug WB4KGY 1 Lake Placid site has been upgraded from Rose System to FPAC on Wednesday November Sth 2 WPB SWITCH has had no problems for the past month 3 Problems in the SRQ Lan are resulting in equipment being merged into local radio club OLD BUSINESS Seventeen donated computers monitors and printers have been tested and stored Thanks to Marvin s sons Philip and Stuart who were here for a visit Club will offer a computer to any amateur that has and interest the digital modes Applicants we be screened for needs The Secretary will write an article for the West Palm Beach Amateur Radio Club news letter announcing the availability of the aforementioned computers White Noise was mailed on November 12th Marvin s computer is back up and running thanks to his sons Polo shirts were delivered to the distributor however when Marvin KD2CK went to pick them up they were not the style that was ordered and will have to be reordered There are books on Packet operations available from KE4GUM We may have found antenna site in Lake Harbor for the replace of the Bel Glade site An APRS site in Clewiston may also be in the near future Satellite Locator site up and running on Bills N4XEO BBS New NODE amp SWITCH LISTS were passed out NEW BUSINESS It is time for nominations and election of new officers for the coming year 1999 NOMINATIONS
7. O fficial Newsletter of the Palm Beach Packet Grou Inc WHITE NOISE Volume 10 Number 10 SEASONS GREETING by Doug Welcker WB4KGY It s hard to believe that December is once again upon us and twelve months have past so quickly Being a displaced northerner I can remember when we use to have four distinct seasons with each having it own unique status You use to plan your activities around the seasons When the snow and ice melted it was time to clean up the house and yard when it got hot it was lawn mowing and vacation time with weekends spent at the cabin on the lake when the days started to shorten it was back to school rake the leaves and before you knew it Thanksgiving and Christmas were upon you Down here in subtropical South Florida we have been reduced to three sets of seasons all depending on your prospective First there is Tourist season and Non Tourist season If I lived in a cave under a sand hill I would know about this from the frustration that I see in my wife s face and the raised tempo of her frustration getting back and forth to work Bet she can t wait to retire so she can drive at forty five on the I during rush hours The second set of seasons is Air Conditioning and Non Air Conditioning season This runs somewhat concurrent with the Tourist season depending on your comfort level and location But the best season is the Hamfest season This starts in September at Melbourne after a long dry spell for
8. ailable as a kit of assembled For more information see pg 90 December QST Suppose Edgar Allan Poe Used a Computer Once upon a midnight dreary fingers cramped and vision bleary System manuals piled high and wasted paper on the floor Longing for the warmth of bedsheets Still I sat there doing spreadsheets Having reached the bottom line I took a floppy from the drawer Typing with a steady hand I then invoked the SAVE command and waited for the disk to store Only this and nothing more Deep into the monitor peering long I sat there wond ring fearing Doubting while the disk kept churning turning yet to churn some more Save I said You cursed monster Save my data from before One thing did the phosphors answer only this and nothing more Just Abort Retry Ignore Was this some occult illusion Some maniacal intrusion These were choices undesired ones I d never faced before Carefully I weighed the choices as the disk made monstrous noises The cursor flashed insistent waiting baiting me to type some more Clearly I must press a key choosing one and nothing more From Abort Retry Ignore With my fingers pale and trembling Slowly toward the keyboard bending Longing for a happy ending hoping all would be restored Praying for some guarantee Timidly I pressed a key But on the screen there still persisted words appearing as before Ghastly grim they blinked and taunted haunted as my pa
9. ailable on the Internet I use STSPLUS and have for over 12 years read Download STSPLUS in this issue of White Noise ed Keplerian information on MIR and other satellites is updated twice weekly and can be found on your local BBS 3 FREQUENCY The frequency is 145 985 simplex world wide 1200 baud packet and Voice 4 PACKET WISE If you are not familiar with packet connections or mailboxes do some experimenting on the ground first before trying to operate MIR The TNC on MIR is a Kantronics KPC 9612 V 8 1 and is operating at 1200 baud ONLY Here is the HELP that you would get on ROMIR 1 when using the Help H command B ye PBBS WILL DISCONNECT E dit n BPTYNFH gt tocall lt fromcall BBS old new H elp THIS LIST J heard CALLSIGNS WITH DAYSTAMP J S hort HEARD CALLSIGNS ONLY J L ong CALLSIGNS WITH DAYSTAMP AND VIAS L x y LIST MESSAGES x THRU y YOU CAN READ L lt gt call IST MESSAGES FROM OR TO CALL LB LIST BULLETINS LC cat LIST CATEGORIES LL n LIST LAST n MESSAGES LM ine LIST UNREAD MESSAGES ADDRESSED TO YOU LO LISTING ORDER LT LIST TRAFFIC LTn DISPLAY LOCATION TEXT n 1 4 K ill n DELETE MESSAGE NUMBER n KM ine DELETE ALL READ MESSAGES AD
10. e how when why of Larry s operation and INTERNET gateway is general See you there Minutes of November BARDS meeting November 24 1998 Bob N4CU Most of the attendees assembled at Marions Bagel Host We had a good time discussing old times operating RTTY and the changes in keyboarding when we switched to packet We adjourned after breakfast and assembled in the Motorola lobby The program was by Dave KBONNZ It was an interesting tour of the Motorola manufacturing facility Dave described the latest manufacturing processes We followed the tour up with a stop at the Motorola Amateur Radio Club shack and checked out the TenTec Omni IV The December 19 program will be by Carl W9ZGU Page 5
11. gt commonly seen is a Disconnect sent to a station We call this DM City In other words no person is doing anything except getting Disconnected This is seen then stations are trying to connect to ROMIR 1 when there is already a user connected This is the main contribution to qrm and failures of those that are connected or trying to connect or send read mail EXAMPLE If I were on a high speed highway and STOPPED in the middle of the road to see where I was at I would become a traffic hazard Others would honk their horns and give obscene gestures Someone else will rear end me and cause a major accident and close down the road IF I had been aware of where I was at and where I was going there would be no incident and everything would flow normally Bottom line look think and listen first Don t try to send a message to your buddy down the street to MIR s personal mailbox It will not allow 3rd party messages If you try you will get a response MESSAGES MUST BE ADDRESSED TO THIS STATION Please Don t connect to your buddies mailbox or home station Via the MIR digipeater This is like you and your buddy going down the highway at the same speed chit chatting impeding traffic TF you can run your radio squelch open using CD software KPC only you will increase your odds of decoding the signal Consult your Kantronics manual for more information 6 BE COURTEOUS See 5 above and apply here Again please don t t
12. ry connecting to ROMIR 1 when someone else is already connected You will get a ROMIR 1 BUSY When you get this don t keep trying while others are connected This just messes up the other station and it is interference and will just take that much longer for the user to finish before he she disconnects Would you like others interfering with your connects to MIR Look for the lt lt D gt gt frame from ROMIR 1 to the connected station Using MCOM ON will allow you to see all these packets Here is what MY KPC 9612 would show ROMIR 1 gt WA6LIE 1 05 13 98 22 18 04 lt lt D gt gt After you see this hopefully the ground station has sent his her disconnect to ROMIR 1 and it will be ready for the next connect ROMIR This is the callsign of MIR This port has no value to working MIR except credit towards a QSL card There is nobody at the keyboard You will get BUSY DISCONNECTED QSL requests USA and WW except Europe Dave Larsen N6CO PO Box 1501 Page 3 WHITE NOISE December 1998 Pine Grove California 95665 USA Please include a SASE Business Size Envelope and one IRC for international If you are sending an IRC Please make sure it is dated 1998 as the post office won t accept IRC s dated over year old Green Stamps USA only are appreciated for covering additional costs European QSLs To Radio Club F5SKAM QSL Manger de ROMIR Carrefour International de la Radio 22 Rue BANSAC 63000
13. s small about 1 khz This can be a very important factor in working the packet Personal Bulletin Board This is because packets may become distorted Here are some items to look at in your station for successful attempts Note Doppler on 2 meters is really not too valid unless there will be a pass in excess of 45 degrees or so above you horizon Your mileage will vary 1 LOCATION If you are in a bad location where it might be difficult to get a signal out you might be limited to the number of passes that you can work You might want to look into a simple 1 4 wave 2 meter groundplane This antenna has a good lobe looking up pre amp suggested Another common antenna is a Jpole and is a good antenna for this If you are in the clear to your horizons you have it made However Doppler and antenna type will be your disadvantage For the average HAM station running say a 50 watt radio and a Jpole antenna has a great advantage on MIR passes that are up to about 20 degrees above the horizon Doppler isn t a real Page 1 WHITE NOISE December 1998 consideration and your antenna pattern is ideal for something up to 20 degrees above the horizon or a bit more Most radios will work and no frequency corrections are needed Doppler up on UHF is around 10 KHZ and Doppler compensation is needed 2 TRACKING You will need some satellite tracking software to know when and where MIR will be in your area There is a lot of tracking software av
14. tience wore Saying Abort Retry Ignore I tried to catch the chips off guard I pressed again but twice as hard I pleaded with the cursed machine I begged and cried and then I swore Then I tried in desperation sev ral random combinations Still there came the incantation just as senseless as before Cursor blinking mocking winking flashing nonsense as before Reading Abort Retry Ignore There I sat distraught exhausted by my own machine accosted Getting up I turned away and paced across the office floor And then I saw dreadful sight a lightning bolt cut through the night A gasp of horror overtook me shook me to my very core The lightning zapped my previous data lost and gone forevermore Not even Abort Retry Ignore To this day I do not know The place to which lost data goes What demonic nether world is wrought where data will be stored Beyond the reach of mortal souls beyond the ether in black holes But sure as there s C Pascal Lotus Ashton Tate and more You will one day be left to wander lost on some Plutonian shore Pleading Abort Retry Ignore Our gratitude to some unknown WWW author with condolences to Mr Poe ed Page 4 WHITE NOISE December 1998 PALM BEACH PACKET GROUP MINUTES NOVEMBER 12 1998 MEETING TO ORDER President DOUG WB4KGY brought the meeting to order 19 34 hrs introductions were made Treasure s report was not available due to Marvin KD2C
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