Email via Satellite Simulated Emergency Test
The value of sending an Email via APRS Satellite in an emergency is that it is a set-and-forget outward bound communcations mode. Perfect for real emergencies.
You don't need anything but a 2m radio and a TNC. No special software. No special hardware, no satellite predictions, and no time consuming operating.
Just set the Email message in your TNC beacon, turn it on, and then return to all the emergency tasks at hand. Think Katrina. You wanted to report your status, but had no time for the tedium of "operating" to find a means to get your traffic out. There was just too much else to do...
In real emergencies, those affected have far too much else to do than to try to make a satellite contact to report back their location and status. But using an APRS beacon allows you to set up your outgoing message (or email), with no knowledge required about satellite pass times. Sooner or later an APRS satellite will pass over your location and your beacon and EMAIL will get in without any effort on your part.
Your emergency health and welfare email will not only get relayed by the satellite to a SATgate, but should then be automatically emailed to the intended recepient. You did not need any special software, no satellite predictions, no special hardware other than a TNC and 2m radio.
This is the ideal first-response health-and-welfare-status reporting mechanism. Put your beacon on the air and then do all the rest of the emregency work you have to do, and do not get burdened with having to sit and "operate" to try to get your message out.
The Satellite Simulated Emergency Test web page shows you how to use any TNC to set up your outgoing EMAIL...
http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/sset.html
Try it with your old TNC. Anyone can do it. But the format must be correct for the packet that you place in your BECONTEXT:
BT :EMAIL :email@address.com your_message_goes_here...
Where 4 spaces are required after the word EMAIL and then the "email@address.com" must be the intended recepient.
Its only one line. But in an emergency, ONE LINE is exceptionally valuable, and has a great chance of getting through.
Not only will it get delivered (if the infrastructure works) but you can also just check the downlink yourself to see if it got through on:
Try it this week while PCSAT is working!
Bob, WB4APR
--- Robert Bruninga bruninga@usna.edu wrote:
You don't need anything but a 2m radio and a TNC. No special software. No special hardware, no satellite predictions, and no time consuming operating.
Bob can you or anyone tell me if there are software TNCs for soundcards out there? I know almost nothing about APRS or even where to turn to get useful information. Unfortunately, buying a TNC is simply not going to happen at this time. I am a Linux user.
Bob - AE6RV
On Nov 5, 2007, at 3:26 PM, Bob Stewart wrote:
Bob can you or anyone tell me if there are software TNCs for soundcards out there? I know almost nothing about APRS or even where to turn to get useful information. Unfortunately, buying a TNC is simply not going to happen at this time. I am a Linux user.
Bob,
In the "early" days of packet radio, TNC's or "Terminal Node Controllers" were often used because the PC's themselves had little or no soundcard support, and most folks were comfortable with external modems for calling BBS's, and later dialing into the early Internet.
TNC's are still available for specialized functions like acting as standalone digipeaters (a TNC and a radio on a mountain, no computer required), etc... and some people still like them for other reasons... but they're FAR more expensive than software on a PC, a sound card, and a simple audio and keying interface to the rig, nowadays.
Too bad most of the "official" books from ARRL and others on the subject still have 1980's black and white photos of TNC's to guide the new hams doing this stuff off into oblivion.
But most "modern" digital setups include at least one connection from the sound card of a modern PC to a radio directly or via one of the many interface "boxes", which are just a nicer way to package up all the connectors and possibly some isolation electronics to isolate the PC (an excellent RF noise generator) from the rig, and also to provide simpler "plug and play" connections for things like keying logic from the PC to the rig.
The TigerTronics website has a good listing of a whole bunch of software that will work with soundcards, for example, since they sell one of these interfaces. (A pretty good one too. They also sell the TigerTronics Signalink USB which contains a USB-based sound chipset that "looks" like a secondary sound card to the PC, which has a VOX circuit for keying).
http://www.tigertronics.com/sl_soft.htm
There's a LOT of ways and a LOT of software out there for the various digital modes that will work with a sound card, a simple audio interface and some way for the PC to key the rig. Almost too many to describe all the options.
What kind of rig do you have Bob? Perhaps the group can tell you the easiest and cheapest way to get it going for APRS. Some software is free, other software costs a few bucks, but it's far cheaper than anything using a real TNC will be.
-- Nate Duehr, WY0X nate@natetech.com
On Nov 5, 2007, at 4:14 PM, Nate Duehr wrote:
On Nov 5, 2007, at 3:26 PM, Bob Stewart wrote:
Bob can you or anyone tell me if there are software TNCs for soundcards out there? I know almost nothing about APRS or even where to turn to get useful information. Unfortunately, buying a TNC is simply not going to happen at this time. I am a Linux user.
Bob,
In the "early" days of packet radio
[snip my long-winded and goofed reply...]
Oops, I also missed that you were specifically looking for Linux info Bob. Other folks covered it, but I missed it completely and also could have helped in that regard.
The abundance of ham radio software in Ubuntu is the direct result of the core group of Amateur Radio package managers in the upstream Debian project.
The Debian-Hams mailing list is always quiet, but active... and the group of hams using/supporting Debian (long before Ubuntu even existed as a down-stream/cross-stream distribution) has always been an impressive list of "who's who" in Amateur Radio... and Unix Operating Systems.
-- Nate Duehr, WY0X nate@natetech.com
Quoting Bob Stewart bob@evoria.net:
--- Robert Bruninga bruninga@usna.edu wrote:
You don't need anything but a 2m radio and a TNC. No special software. No special hardware, no satellite predictions, and no time consuming operating.
Bob can you or anyone tell me if there are software TNCs for soundcards out there? I know almost nothing about APRS or even where to turn to get useful information. Unfortunately, buying a TNC is simply not going to happen at this time. I am a Linux user.
Bob - AE6RV
Hey, Bob:
I'm a Linux user, too. You're in luck: the xastir program is one of the best for APRS, and it runs under X11. Any post Pentium III machine with a sound card can do the demodulating of 1200 AFSK pretty easily. There is ax.25 packet built into many kernels as an option, and there are a good number of possibilities for decoding the audio. So with a bit of Linux hacking and the cheapest of all 2m ht's, you can have a great APRS station.
When I last set up a Linux machine to do this, most of the demodulators were not user-space; in the Windows world, they are. I'm not sure if that's changing in Linux these days.
As it happens, I just installed Ubuntu 7.10 on a new machine at work and noticed the raft of ham radio applications that are available with this distro. I look forward to the day that phaseIV_beacon_demodulator is among them!
73, Bruce VE9QRP
Bruce,
I tried to get this stuff working about 2 years ago, and I simply couldn't figure it all out; probably because I've never seen it done. Jim Jerzycke (KQ6EA) sent me this link: http://www.qbjnet.com/packet.html. I'm going to start there, and see if I can get it figured out this time. I had let my license lapse during the "Packet Years", so I really have no experience to fall back on. IOW, I don't have even the vaguest of clues. :) I have the soundcard hooked up to the FT-726R for recording, so at least I've got a place to start.
Bob - AE6RV
--- Bruce Robertson broberts@mta.ca wrote:
Quoting Bob Stewart bob@evoria.net:
--- Robert Bruninga bruninga@usna.edu wrote:
You don't need anything but a 2m radio and a TNC. No special software. No special hardware, no satellite predictions, and no time consuming operating.
Bob can you or anyone tell me if there are software TNCs for soundcards out there? I know almost nothing about APRS or even where to turn to get useful information. Unfortunately, buying a TNC is simply not going to happen at this time. I am a Linux user.
Bob - AE6RV
Hey, Bob:
I'm a Linux user, too. You're in luck: the xastir program is one of the best for APRS, and it runs under X11. Any post Pentium III machine with a sound card can do the demodulating of 1200 AFSK pretty easily. There is ax.25 packet built into many kernels as an option, and there are a good number of possibilities for decoding the audio. So with a bit of Linux hacking and the cheapest of all 2m ht's, you can have a great APRS station.
When I last set up a Linux machine to do this, most of the demodulators were not user-space; in the Windows world, they are. I'm not sure if that's changing in Linux these days.
As it happens, I just installed Ubuntu 7.10 on a new machine at work and noticed the raft of ham radio applications that are available with this distro. I look forward to the day that phaseIV_beacon_demodulator is among them!
73, Bruce VE9QRP
On Monday 05 November 2007 18:46:31 Bruce Robertson wrote:
Hey, Bob:
I'm a Linux user, too. You're in luck: the xastir program is one of the best for APRS, and it runs under X11. Any post Pentium III machine with a sound card can do the demodulating of 1200 AFSK pretty easily. There is ax.25 packet built into many kernels as an option, and there are a good number of possibilities for decoding the audio. So with a bit of Linux hacking and the cheapest of all 2m ht's, you can have a great APRS station.
When I last set up a Linux machine to do this, most of the demodulators were not user-space; in the Windows world, they are. I'm not sure if that's changing in Linux these days.
As it happens, I just installed Ubuntu 7.10 on a new machine at work and noticed the raft of ham radio applications that are available with this distro. I look forward to the day that phaseIV_beacon_demodulator is among them!
Soundmodem which is a soundcard modem for both 1200 afsk and 9600 fsk is now user-space and available in the deb/ubuntu repositories. Soundmodem and Xastir will let you work APRS in linux without buying a TNC. MixW will also run under Wine.
73, Lee-KU4OS
As it happens, I just installed Ubuntu 7.10 on a new machine at work and noticed the raft of ham radio applications that are available with this distro. I look forward to the day that phaseIV_beacon_demodulator is among them!
Soundmodem which is a soundcard modem for both 1200 afsk and 9600 fsk is now user-space and available in the deb/ubuntu repositories. Soundmodem and Xastir will let you work APRS in linux without buying a TNC. MixW will also run under Wine.
In Ubuntu, there is ao40tlmview and modemp3d already under the Amatuer Radio section in Synaptic Package Manager.
I just upgraded to 7.10 myself and having problems with WSJT and segmentation errors (core dumps). Just another thing to have fun figureing out before the ARRL EME weekend this month.
James W8ISS
AGW Packet Engine (AGWPE) from SV2AGW... there's quite an array of useful applications to go with it, too! BBS, APRS tracking, DX Cluster, TCP/IP, etc. www.elcom.gr/sv2agw
73, George, KA3HSW
----- Original Message ----- From: "Bob Stewart" bob@evoria.net To: "Amsat-BB" amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Monday, November 05, 2007 4:26 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Email via Satellite Simulated Emergency Test
--- Robert Bruninga bruninga@usna.edu wrote:
You don't need anything but a 2m radio and a TNC. No special software. No special hardware, no satellite predictions, and no time consuming operating.
Bob can you or anyone tell me if there are software TNCs for soundcards out there? I know almost nothing about APRS or even where to turn to get useful information. Unfortunately, buying a TNC is simply not going to happen at this time. I am a Linux user.
Bob - AE6RV
I can see this would be very handy in a ham rich environment where the down linked message would likely to be received. This is great for Europe and N. America. Places like Asia, Australia, Africa and Oceania are less likely to have much success getting the word out since no one in the footprint would be listening.
Kenneth - N5VHO
-----Original Message----- From: amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Robert Bruninga Sent: Monday, November 05, 2007 4:02 PM To: 'Amsat-BB' Subject: [amsat-bb] Email via Satellite Simulated Emergency Test
The value of sending an Email via APRS Satellite in an emergency is that it is a set-and-forget outward bound communcations mode. Perfect for real emergencies.
You don't need anything but a 2m radio and a TNC. No special software. No special hardware, no satellite predictions, and no time consuming operating.
Just set the Email message in your TNC beacon, turn it on, and then return to all the emergency tasks at hand. Think Katrina. You wanted to report your status, but had no time for the tedium of "operating" to find a means to get your traffic out. There was just too much else to do...
In real emergencies, those affected have far too much else to do than to try to make a satellite contact to report back their location and status. But using an APRS beacon allows you to set up your outgoing message (or email), with no knowledge required about satellite pass times. Sooner or later an APRS satellite will pass over your location and your beacon and EMAIL will get in without any effort on your part.
Your emergency health and welfare email will not only get relayed by the satellite to a SATgate, but should then be automatically emailed to the intended recepient. You did not need any special software, no satellite predictions, no special hardware other than a TNC and 2m radio.
This is the ideal first-response health-and-welfare-status reporting mechanism. Put your beacon on the air and then do all the rest of the emregency work you have to do, and do not get burdened with having to sit and "operate" to try to get your message out.
The Satellite Simulated Emergency Test web page shows you how to use any TNC to set up your outgoing EMAIL...
http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/sset.html
Try it with your old TNC. Anyone can do it. But the format must be correct for the packet that you place in your BECONTEXT:
BT :EMAIL :email@address.com your_message_goes_here...
Where 4 spaces are required after the word EMAIL and then the "email@address.com" must be the intended recepient.
Its only one line. But in an emergency, ONE LINE is exceptionally valuable, and has a great chance of getting through.
Not only will it get delivered (if the infrastructure works) but you can also just check the downlink yourself to see if it got through on:
Try it this week while PCSAT is working!
Bob, WB4APR
_______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Subject: RE: [amsat-bb] Email via Satellite Simulated
Emergency Test
I can see this would be very handy in a ham rich environment where the down linked message would likely to be received. This is great for Europe and N. America. Places like Asia, Australia, Africa and Oceania are less likely to have much success getting the word out since no one in the footprint would be listening.
Yes, but all it takes is one ground station in an entire country to link it up. Also PCSAT has a little-used save-and-dump mode for such cases... But the keys are unpublished, because the save-and-dump mode should be reserved for only those remote areas...
But PCSAT is only a demo. We hope that other schools and satellite builders will always include a 145.825 digipeater for this kind of mimimal essential communications.
Bob, Wb4APR
Kenneth - N5VHO
-----Original Message----- From: amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces@amsat.org] On Behalf Of Robert Bruninga Sent: Monday, November 05, 2007 4:02 PM To: 'Amsat-BB' Subject: [amsat-bb] Email via Satellite Simulated Emergency
Test
The value of sending an Email via APRS Satellite in an
emergency
is that it is a set-and-forget outward bound communcations
mode.
Perfect for real emergencies.
You don't need anything but a 2m radio and a TNC. No special software. No special hardware, no satellite predictions, and
no
time consuming operating.
Just set the Email message in your TNC beacon, turn it on, and then return to all the emergency tasks at hand. Think
Katrina.
You wanted to report your status, but had no time for the
tedium
of "operating" to find a means to get your traffic out. There was just too much else to do...
In real emergencies, those affected have far too much else to
do
than to try to make a satellite contact to report back their location and status. But using an APRS beacon allows you to
set
up your outgoing message (or email), with no knowledge
required
about satellite pass times. Sooner or later an APRS satellite will pass over your location and your beacon and EMAIL will
get
in without any effort on your part.
Your emergency health and welfare email will not only get relayed by the satellite to a SATgate, but should then be automatically emailed to the intended recepient. You did not need any special software, no satellite predictions, no
special
hardware other than a TNC and 2m radio.
This is the ideal first-response health-and-welfare-status reporting mechanism. Put your beacon on the air and then do
all
the rest of the emregency work you have to do, and do not get burdened with having to sit and "operate" to try to get your message out.
The Satellite Simulated Emergency Test web page shows you how
to
use any TNC to set up your outgoing EMAIL...
http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/sset.html
Try it with your old TNC. Anyone can do it. But the format must be correct for the packet that you place in your
BECONTEXT:
BT :EMAIL :email@address.com your_message_goes_here...
Where 4 spaces are required after the word EMAIL and then the "email@address.com" must be the intended recepient.
Its only one line. But in an emergency, ONE LINE is exceptionally valuable, and has a great chance of getting through.
Not only will it get delivered (if the infrastructure works)
but
you can also just check the downlink yourself to see if it got through on:
Try it this week while PCSAT is working!
Bob, WB4APR
Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur
satellite
program! Subscription settings:
participants (8)
-
Bob Stewart -
Bruce Robertson -
George Henry -
Lee McLamb -
Nate Duehr -
Ransom, Kenneth G. (JSC-OC)[BAR] -
Robert Bruninga -
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