The new old fashion internet

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stuartcnz
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The new old fashion internet

Post by stuartcnz »

http://www.baycom.org/bayweb/tech/usb/usbindex.htm

I'd be interested to see how this would work on a boat at sea. Maybe also an option for those that don't want to be tied into an ISP plan?

Found it while looking through Synaptic package manager on a virtual installation of Debian Squeeze, that I am running on Ubuntu.

Drivers for the HB9JNX packet radio usb modem

This package provides drivers for the baycom usb packet radio modem designed
by HB9JNX, see http://www.baycom.org/bayweb/tech/usb/usbindex.htm
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Post by stuartcnz »

Amateur Packet Radio Node program

The node program accepts TCP/IP and packet radio network connections and
presents users with an interface that allows them to make gateway connections
to remote hosts using a variety of amateur radio protocols.
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Post by stuartcnz »

Sound Card Amateur Packet Radio Modems

This package contains the driver and diagnostic utility for the
userspace SoundModem suite by Thomas Sailer.

This package allows you to use any soundcard supported by the kernel as
an Amateur Packet Radio modem.
kb2iaw

amatuer node

Post by kb2iaw »

You Have to be a licensed amateur to access this mode of operation ....
just sayin , fcc is pretty adamant about mis use :roll:
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Post by Sharkey »

Packet radio is very popular with marine amateurs, email from almost anywhere on the planet when propagation is right.

I've been messing with an ancient PK232MBX terminal node controller for a while so I can get backup email connectivity through the local 2 meter repeater when the phone and the satellite internet are down at the same time (it's happened). I think I need to upgrade the firmware on the PK232, it connects properly up in Lincoln City, sends are receives messages fine, but I'm having trouble receiving emails from the home repeater.

One of the tech gurus in our ham club demonstrated packet email from his home using HF (40 meters), connecting to send and receive messages from a station a thousand miles away like it was next door.

The practical upshot of packet radio is that it's NOT a way to connect to the internet for web surfing, the bandwidth is much too narrow. Most gateways for amateur use run 1200 baud. The fast ones are 9600. How much time do you have to load a single page?
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Post by graydawg »

I am not even going to pretend to know what yaw are up to here, but when you get ready to put a tower or antenna up in the air, I might be able to help, catch me on a good day physically, and will go 60 foot up if nessesary, but will pay for it in the bed for days afterward, but always willing to help and learn something new. This sounds like something I need to learn anyway, when I was able to learn how to splice Fiber Optic cable no one could believe I picked it up so easily. For those of us that are willing to learn something new, PLEASE do a little more explaining and pictures always help, Thanks James in da GRAYDAWG
I ONCE WAS A MIGHTY GREYHOUND
I THEN GOT OLD AND RETIRED
I LOST MY SEATS AND GOT A NEW GIG
I AM NOW A HAULIN SOME OLD DAWGS &
I BECAME THE GRAYDAWG
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Post by stuartcnz »

Sharkey, I was hoping you would chime in on this one. Could you translate the baud speed into kilobits or bites? I've never been able to figure that one out.

I also realise that radio internet is slow, but notice a lot of people use it for email on boats, with SSB and some also use it for blog posts too.
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Post by Sharkey »

Stuart, 1200 baud is 1.2 kilobits per second while 9600 is 9.6 kilobits per second. Speaking in terms of kilobytes, 1200 baud = .146 484 kilobytes per second and 9600 = 1.171 kilobyte per second.

As for file downloads, an average news story online these days is about 1 megabyte. That would take an hour at 1200. If you got lucky and got on one of the gateway that supports 9600, it would take only 15 minutes...

Back in 1995, you might have been able to have some fun onlie at those speeds, but with page design and size (and included adverts, scripts, analytics, etc), you'd be tearing you hair out trying to maintain that kind of connection.

There is a proprietary digital system called D-Star, available through Icom radios, but it's not all that common, and it's not intended to ba a substitute for having a real internet connection.
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Post by stuartcnz »

So what you are saying is that it would only take a few hours to download a Youtube clip? :D
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Post by Sharkey »

No, it takes me a few hours to do that over the satellite connection. It would take a few days over packet radio, and by then, you'd have a whole busload of pissed-off amateurs banging on your door for tying up the gateway forever. It's a single-user system, simplex operation, so even small text files take several back-and-forth bursts of data from each end to load and verify the bits. Packet does error checking, so it checks every so often to make sure that the receiving end is reading things OK. If the data is missing or corrupted, it resends. Over 2 meter FM (146 MHZ), there aren't a lot of dropped bits, but over HF, with sunspot activity being variable, and upper atmosphere propagation changing, it might take more than one try to get any given packet across properly. When you are sending or receiving packets, all other users on that frequency are "on standby" until you are finished.
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