Nevada County A.R.E.S. - N1OES April 06, 2011 Introduction to Packet Radio 1 Introduction to Packet Radio (and the ‘GVCITY’ node utilizing ‘JNOS’ packet operating system) Nevada County Amateur Radio Emergency Service - N1OES - April 2011

Nevada County A.R.E.S. - N1OES April 06, 2011 Introduction to Packet Radio 2 Presented by:Wm Lewis, KG6BAJ Past EC - Nevada County Wm Lewis, KG6BAJ Past Emergency Coordinator Nevada County – N1OES

Nevada County A.R.E.S. - N1OES April 06, 2011 Introduction to Packet Radio 3 What is Packet Radio? Amateur Packet Radio is one of many digital modes we can use. Packet establishes a “private connection” between two stations while sharing a frequency with other stations. Packet can be used for reading the mail from a Packet BBS (bulletin board system). Packet gives you a personal mailbox. Packet has three great advantages over other digital modes: transparency, error correction, and automatic control.

Nevada County A.R.E.S. - N1OES April 06, 2011 Introduction to Packet Radio 4 Components of a Packet Station Computer - runs a “terminal emulation” program. TNC - Terminal Node Controller; similar to a modem, the interface between your radio and your computer. Radio - with antenna, transmits the digital data from the TNC to another packet station. Various interconnecting cables and power supplies.

Nevada County A.R.E.S. - N1OES April 06, 2011 Introduction to Packet Radio 5 What can we connect to? Networked BBS station Keyboard to Keyboard Personal PMS Mailboxes Your station

Nevada County A.R.E.S. - N1OES April 06, 2011 Introduction to Packet Radio 6 Networked BBS Stations passing a message from station to station WOLFROSEMODOCLASSENRDGYRGTN 119 mi 111 mi 80 mi97 mi 48 mi Originating Station (Home user in Grass Valley) Destination Station (Home user in Nevada) Total Distance Needed To Travel = 455 Miles

Nevada County A.R.E.S. - N1OES April 06, 2011 Introduction to Packet Radio 7 Some 2 meter packet frequencies … and local stations of interest Freq (MHz)“Organized” stations or use Keyboard-to-Keyboard & Mailbox A.P.R.S. (US & Canada network) Emergency Packet (EMCOMM) BBS ( N0ARY BBS, San Jose ) WinLink Systems Keyboard-to-Keyboard & Mailbox Keyboard-to-Keyboard & Mailbox TCP/IP on packet DX spotter network

Nevada County A.R.E.S. - N1OES April 06, 2011 Introduction to Packet Radio 8 TNC vs BBS Commands TNC Commands Some of the commands that control the TNC –MYCALL - sets the TNC call sign –HELP, ? - displays available commands and usage –CONNECT - connects to another TNC Other useful TNC commands –MONITOR - turns on or off frequency monitoring –RESET - re-initializes the TNC to the power-on state –CONVERSE - force the TNC into “connected” mode BBS Commands Commands that control the remote BBS station –Help, ? - displays list of commands –List - lists messages you can read –Nodes – Display a list of known network nodes –Read - read a message –Send - send a message –Kill - delete a message –Bye - log off this BBS

Nevada County A.R.E.S. - N1OES April 06, 2011 Introduction to Packet Radio 9 Summary of a typical TNC session TNC Commands 1. Turn on the TNC 2. Check the TNC call sign 3. Connect to the other station BBS Commands A. List messages on the BBS B. Read any message of interest C. Read and kill your messages D. Send a message E. Log off TNC Commands 4. Next TNC command Radio Control a. Turn on the Radio b. Set the frequency

Nevada County A.R.E.S. - N1OES April 06, 2011 Introduction to Packet Radio 10 Powering On the TNC Power-up Message KANTRONICS PACKET CONTROLLER III VERSION 5.0 (C) COPYRIGHT BY KANTRONICS INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. DUPLICATION PROHIBITED WITHOUT PERMISSION OF KANTRONICS. cmd:

Nevada County A.R.E.S. - N1OES April 06, 2011 Introduction to Packet Radio 11 Basic TNC set-up commands Setting the TNC callsign KANTRONICS PACKET CONTROLLER III VERSION 5.0 (C) COPYRIGHT BY KANTRONICS INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. DUPLICATION PROHIBITED WITHOUT PERMISSION OF KANTRONICS. cmd: ? mycall MYCALL This station's callsign {call[-n]} cmd: my MYCALL NOCALL cmd: my kg6baj MYCALL was NOCALL cmd: my MYCALL KG6BAJ cmd:

Nevada County A.R.E.S. - N1OES April 06, 2011 Introduction to Packet Radio 12 TNC Commands Using the ‘?’ command cmd: ? TYPE 'HELP' OR ? FOLLOWED BY COMMAND FOR MORE INFORMATION 8BITCONV AX25L2V2 ABAUD AUTOLF AXDELAY AXHANG BEACON BKONDEL BTEXT BUDLIST BUDCALLS CONNECT CANLINE CANPAC CALIBRAT CD CHECK CMDTIME CMSG COMMAND CONLIST CONMODE CONOK CONVERS CPACTIME CR CRSUP CSTAMP CTEXT CWID DISCONNE DAYTIME DAYTWEAK DAYUSA DBLDISC DELETE DIGIPEAT DISPLAY DWAIT ECHO ESCAPE FLOW FILTER FRACK FULLDUP HELP HBAUD HEADERLN HID ID INTFACE K KNTIMER LEDS LCOK LCSTREAM LFADD LFSUP LLIST MONITOR MALL MAXFRAME MAXUSERS MBEACON MCON MCOM MHEARD MHCLEAR MRESP MRPT MSTAMP MYCALL MYALIAS MYNODE MYPBBS MYREMOTE NDHEARD NDHCLEAR NDWILD NEWMODE NOMODE NTEXT NUCR NULF NUMNODES PACLEN PACTIME PARITY PASS PASSALL PBBS PBHEADER PBLO PBPERSON PERSIST PID PTEXT REDISPLA RELINK RESET RESPTIME RESTORE RETRY RING RNRTIME RTEXT STATUS SCREENL SENDPAC SLOTTIME START STATSHRT STOP STREAMSW STREAMCA STREAMEV SUPLIST SUPCALLS SWP TRANS TRACE TRFLOW TRIES TXDELAY TXFLOW UNPROTO USERS VERSION WEFAX XFLOW XMITOK XOFF XON cmd: Show the list of commands that this TNC can execute

Nevada County A.R.E.S. - N1OES April 06, 2011 Introduction to Packet Radio 13 Starting a BBS Session Connecting to the BBS cmd: help connect CONNECT callsign [via calls] can be used to reconnect with different path cmd: cmd: c gvcity *** CONNECTED to GVCITY:KG6BAJ-2 [JNOS-2.0i-IHM$] If you have any questions about this system, or need an AMPR IP Address, please send a message to KG6BAJ or SYSOP. You have 0 messages. GVCITY:KG6BAJ-2 Area: kg6baj Current msg #0 ?,A,B,C,CONV,E,H,I,IH,IP,J,K,L,M,N,NR,P,PI,R,S,T,V,X > An alternative way of getting help on TNC commands Connect to the KG6BAJ-2 GVCITY node

Nevada County A.R.E.S. - N1OES April 06, 2011 Introduction to Packet Radio 14 BBS Commands Using the ‘?’ command ?,A,B,C,CONV,E,H,I,IH,IP,J,K,L,M,N,NR,P,PI,R,S,T,V,X > ? Mail : Area Kill List Read Send Verbose Gateway: Connect Escape Nodes NRroute Ports PIng Telnet General: ?-Help Bye CONVers Help Info IHeard IProute Jheard Mbox Xpert GVCITY:KG6BAJ-2 Area: kg6baj Current msg #0 ?,A,B,C,CONV,E,H,I,IH,IP,J,K,L,M,N,NR,P,PI,R,S,T,V,X > Show the list of commands that are available on this BBS

Nevada County A.R.E.S. - N1OES April 06, 2011 Introduction to Packet Radio 15 Displaying Message AREA’s Using the ‘Area’ command GVCITY:KG6BAJ-2 Area: kg6baj Current msg# 0. ?,A,B,C,CONV,E,H,I,IH,IP,J,K,L,M,N,NR,P,PI,R,S,T,V,X > a Current message area is: kg6baj Available areas are: kg6baj allca allus ares ascii bbs cq dx help history humor misc nntp nts radio recipe sale space wx Type AF to get description of areas. AF tells more about that area. GVCITY:KG6BAJ-2 Area: kg6baj Current msg# 0. ?,A,B,C,CONV,E,H,I,IH,IP,J,K,L,M,N,NR,P,PI,R,S,T,V,X > List AREA’s on the BBS

Nevada County A.R.E.S. - N1OES April 06, 2011 Introduction to Packet Radio 16 Switching Message AREA’s Using the ‘Area’ command GVCITY:KG6BAJ-2 Area: kg6baj Current msg# 0. ?,A,B,C,CONV,E,H,I,IH,IP,J,K,L,M,N,NR,P,PI,R,S,T,V,X > a bbs bbs: 44 messages - 0 new. GVCITY:KG6BAJ-2 Area: bbs Current msg# 1. ?,A,B,C,CONV,E,H,I,IH,IP,J,K,L,M,N,NR,P,PI,R,S,T,V,X > Select the ‘BBS’ message area Now you are in message area ‘BBS’

Nevada County A.R.E.S. - N1OES April 06, 2011 Introduction to Packet Radio 17 Listing available Messages Using the ‘List’ command ?,A,B,C,CONV,E,H,I,IH,IP,J,K,L,M,N,NR,P,PI,R,S,T,V,X > la Mail area: bbs 44 messages - 0 new St. # TO FROM DATE SIZE SUBJECT > Y 1 cx2sa Mar FBBLOG 11/2011 * CX2SA BBS Y 2 tapr.o Mar nos-bbs Digest, Vol 80, Issue 15 Y 3 tapr.o Mar nos-bbs Digest, Vol 80, Issue 16 Y 4 tapr.o Mar nos-bbs Digest, Vol 80, Issue 17 Y 5 tapr.o Mar nos-bbs Digest, Vol 80, Issue 18 Y 6 tapr-a Mar tapr-announce Digest, Vol 57, Issue Y 7 tapr.o Mar nos-bbs Digest, Vol 80, Issue 19 Y 8 tapr.o Mar nos-bbs Digest, Vol 80, Issue 20 Y 9 tapr.o Mar nos-bbs Digest, Vol 80, Issue 21 --more-- List All messages in this AREA

Nevada County A.R.E.S. - N1OES April 06, 2011 Introduction to Packet Radio 18 Reading BBS Messages Using the ‘Read’ command ?,A,B,C,CONV,E,H,I,IH,IP,J,K,L,M,N,NR,P,PI,R,S,T,V,X > r 9 Message #9 Date: 25 Mar 11 22:13:00 GMT From: To: Subject: nos-bbs Digest, Vol 80, Issue 21 Path: N6ROE Send nos-bbs mailing list submissions to You can reach the person managing the list at When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of nos-bbs digest..." GVCITY:KG6BAJ-2 Area: bbs Current msg# 9. ?,A,B,C,CONV,E,H,I,IH,IP,J,K,L,M,N,NR,P,PI,R,S,T,V,X > Read Message #9

Nevada County A.R.E.S. - N1OES April 06, 2011 Introduction to Packet Radio 19 Sending a Message Using the ‘Send’ command ?,A,B,C,CONV,E,H,I,IH,IP,J,K,L,M,N,NR,P,PI,R,S,T,V,X > s kf6dqu SUBJECT: Scouting event Enter message. End with /EX or ^Z in first column (^A aborts): Hi John, If you want more information about Jamboree on the Air (JOTA), check out the ARRL's web site at and search for JOTA. regards, Bill ' kg6baj /ex Msg queued GVCITY:KG6BAJ-2 Area: bbs Current msg# 9. ?,A,B,C,CONV,E,H,I,IH,IP,J,K,L,M,N,NR,P,PI,R,S,T,V,X > Send a Message to kf6dqu The subject is... “/EX” ends message entry Message is now queued for delivery!

Nevada County A.R.E.S. - N1OES April 06, 2011 Introduction to Packet Radio 20 Deleting a Message Using the ‘Kill’ command ?,A,B,C,CONV,E,H,I,IH,IP,J,K,L,M,N,NR,P,PI,R,S,T,V,X > r 1 Message #1 Date: Tue, 19 Apr :58:24 PDT From: To: kf6dqu Subject: Scouting Event Hi John, If you want more information about Jamboree on the Air (JOTA), check out the ARRL's web site at and search for JOTA. regards, Bill ' kg6baj GVCITY:KG6BAJ-2 Area: kf6dqu Current msg# 1. ?,A,B,C,CONV,E,H,I,IH,IP,J,K,L,M,N,NR,P,PI,R,S,T,V,X > k 1 MSG 1 Killed. GVCITY:KG6BAJ-2 Area: kf6dqu Current msg# 1. ?,A,B,C,CONV,E,H,I,IH,IP,J,K,L,M,N,NR,P,PI,R,S,T,V,X > Read Message # 1 Delete this message!

Nevada County A.R.E.S. - N1OES April 06, 2011 Introduction to Packet Radio 21 Ending a BBS session Using the ‘Bye’ command GVCITY:KG6BAJ-2 Area: kf6dqu Current msg# 1. ?,A,B,C,CONV,E,H,I,IH,IP,J,K,L,M,N,NR,P,PI,R,S,T,V,X > B *** DISCONNECTED cmd: “B” for Bye! Disconnect from this BBS

Nevada County A.R.E.S. - N1OES April 06, 2011 Introduction to Packet Radio 22 NTS Message Format GVCITY:KG6BAJ-2 Area: kg6baj Current msg# 0. ?,A,B,C,CONV,E,H,I,IH,IP,J,K,L,M,N,NR,P,PI,R,S,T,V,X > st SUBJECT: QTC 1 R Grass Valley CA ( ) Enter message. End with /EX or ^Z in first column (^A aborts): Nr 101W N1ABC 8 Brattleboro VT 1652z Aug 18 To Bill Lewis KG6BAJ POB 78 Grass Valley CA (530) BT STILL IN NEW YORK X WILL RETURN SOON BT John AR /EX Packet routing address Subject Line Preamble of message Destination of message Body of Message Signature

Nevada County A.R.E.S. - N1OES April 06, 2011 Introduction to Packet Radio 23 Nevada County BBS KG6BAJ-2 Frequencies – mhz (Keyboard, Limited Mail) – mhz (Chat rooms) – mhz (Full BBS w/Message Forwarding) – mhz (Emergency Packet Operations) Node = GVCITY:KG6BAJ-2 BBS = GVCITY:KG6BAJ-2 County ARES/RACES BBS

Nevada County A.R.E.S. - N1OES April 06, 2011 Introduction to Packet Radio 24 County ARES/RACES BBS On mhz(EMCOMM Frequency) c kg6baj-2 or c gvcity or on mhz (Sacramento Valley Section Nodes) c kg6baj-2 or c gvcity

Nevada County A.R.E.S. - N1OES April 06, 2011 Introduction to Packet Radio 25 Where to go for more information ARRL Publications Web – – –ncpa.ampr.org BBS and Node –GVCITY:KG6BAJ-2 (Node and BBS)