Bulletins from the Pacific Packet Radio Society - page 006

Hank Magnuski distributed a 555 based watchdog timer circuit for transmit PTT protection.

Brian Yee volunteered to try mounting 3 MK4118N3 1kx8 RAMS on his VADCG board to implement a downline loaded version of the protocol.

The VADCG 1200 baud modem schematics, recently received, were inspected by the group.

Brian Yee and Dave Altekruse described their recent meeting with Larry Kayser, VE3QB. There were several questions concerning the satellite channel, and more information is needed on the details of the Vancouver-Ottawa link.

Speakers -

The main topic of the meeting was a description of how some of our network users have connected their personal computer systems to packet.

Bob Reiling, W6JHJ, who has an OSI 6502, described his station and gave us a peek at the FORTH programs he uses to control his packet board. Bob also mentioned his interest in installing a "Conference Tree" service on his system.

Warren Struven, W6CB, related some of his experiences in working with a FORTH interface for his H89.

Brian Yee, KD6LI, detailed some of the modifications he made to the MODEM7 program for his S-100/CPM system.

Finally, Ed Mersich, WA6RZW, outlined his conversion of an H8 to packet, and reviewed his plans to couple two H8 systems to packet and allow outside users to operate his system via the repeater. There was also some discussion on the merits of using a general purpose system for packet instead of a dedicated controller such as the VADCG TNC.

In summary, it seems as if most of our users are planning on coupling fairly large systems to the net, and there is high interest in resource sharing and services. The presentations also pointed out the tremendous diversity of systems in use, and yet there is little trouble in getting these systems to communicate with the current packet setup.

Network Usage Survey -

To wrap up the meeting and to get an answer to the question of "What are we going to use it for?" a matrix of interests vs. potential users was constructed by the group:

Topic Votes

Click for Original Graphic Image of this page.