Bob wrote:
In the old days, it required everyone to get a $300 modem and use an
SSB
rig on the downlink. But the Uplink is FM. SO anyone can transmit.
And
these days, somone I am sure has already written the sound-card
generate
the manchester uplink!
Hi Bob, I wrote that program to generate the Manchester uplink on a soundcard about ten years ago. The program is called UPW for "Uplink to Pacsats for Windows" and it's at
http://www.quagliana.com/upw/index.html
if anyone is still interested in it. UPW will generate the proper 1200 baud AX.25 APRS packet with NRZI and Manchester encoding suitable for feeding to the microphone of an FM transmitter. UPW is also mentioned on your APRS ASTARS page. :-)
Bob continues:
But if it is a pacsat, can't it act as a digipeater if you just set
the DIGI bit to on?
I think there's more to digipeating than just setting the digi bit. I believe IO-26 is still in MBL mode or something similar. I am pretty sure the satellite is not running the full PACSAT BBS software which was needed to digipeat AX25 packets, but I'll defer to Mark, N8MH, on the specifics of the current status of IO-26.
73, Douglas KA2UPW/5