Click - Next Slide PRACTICAL DEMONSTRATION OF E-MAIL OVER HAM RADIO L. E. bud Thompson N0IA.

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PRACTICAL DEMONSTRATION OF E-MAIL OVER HAM RADIO

L. E. ‘bud’ Thompson N0IA

USER ACCESS TO WL2K E-MAIL SYSTEM

HF – To any PMBO station using Pactor

VHF – UHF – To any Telpac Node using Packet

76 PMBO stations worldwide, four in Florida

670 Telpac Nodes worldwide

372 Telpac Nodes active – 31 in Florida

E-mail over Ham Radio – With no internet connection at a tactical site the Ham Radio e-mail station must make contact with a Winlink 2000 (WL2K) network station over long range High Frequency (HF) or line-of-site VHF/UHF using digital modes.

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HF PACTOR PMBOS

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TELPAC NODES

VHF – UHF USER ACCESS TO WL2K

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FLORIDA PACKET NETWORK

Extends range of Telpac Nodes Click

PRACTICAL DEMONSTRATION OF E-MAIL OVER HAM RADIO

On Saturday March 10, 2007 I set up to demonstrate e-mail over ham radio from a tactical site in Gemini Springs State Park near DeBary, Florida 20 miles north of Orlando on the St. Johns River. I employed both HF Pactor and VHF packet systems. Two friends from our club, Bill N4ZZO and Frank KK4RW, set up a 2 meter station to demonstrate using repeaters throughout the area.

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2m antenna for voice tests

VHF/UHF J-Pole for packet

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HF Antenna

Packet

HF Pactor

50ah Battery

E-mail Over Ham Radio

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On VHF I used Paclink AGW on the local packet network LAN (Orlando Linux FPAC switch 145.07 N4PLZ-8/9) where I could use the N4PLZ-10 Telpac node at the switch. Southward I could use any of four telpac nodes (the farthest 18 miles south,) on the same 2m LAN but only through the network switch as my dual band J-pole (2m/70cm) antenna was only 10 ft agl.

Northward, through the Orlando network switch, I could use the N3PPC-10 Telpac node on the Deland FPAC Linux switch (N3PPC-8/9) 10 miles away, or any of three Telpac nodes on the DeLand user LANs (144.91 1200b or 446.550 9.6kb.)

From DeLand then 20 miles NE to the Daytona Beach Switch, another 50 miles NNW to the St. Augustine Switch, and another 35 miles NNW I could use the WD4SEN-10 Telpac node on the Orange Park FPAC Linux switch (WD4SEN-8/9) near Jacksonville

Orange Park Switch

Deland Switch andTelpac Nodes

Tactical Site Location

Telpac Nodes South

St. Augustine Switch

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Daytona BeachSwitch (at Ormond)

Any of the telpac nodes tested could be reached by a simple connect script on 145.070 from the tactical site in Gemini State Park north of Orlando -

C <telpacnodecall> v N4PLZ-9

as they all are on the automatic routing White Pages scheme maintained by the FPAC network.

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A Telpac Node bridges the connected packet user to an internet connection.

What if there is no Telpac Node accessible in the area? (Think Katrina 2005)

Tactical Site Location

Starting at 0945EST the only PMBO I could reach on 20 meters was VE2AFQ in Montreal Canada (1230 statute miles.) That PMBO was useable with full throughput rate throughout the exercise until we broke camp at 1500EST.

VE2AFQ

HF PACTOR PMBOS LINK USERS TO INTERNET E-MAIL

Propagation on 20 meters was not favorable to any other PMBOs until nearly 1300EST when WB5KSD (near Dallas, TX 960 miles) was contacted though throughput was slow. Signal levels increased over the next 30 minutes to allow max throughput for the Pactor1 link. By 1330 VE1YZ in Nova Scotia (1370 miles) was also solid. E-mail transfers could be made using any of these PMBOs.

VE1YZ

WB5KSD

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The Airmail program was used for these tests

During short exercises at public gatherings such as this one it is not practical to try all possible routes to make a link to a network station. The current sunspot cycle activity (Solar Flux Index less than 75) was not favorable for many contacts on 20 meters until later in the afternoon.

In a full tactical test or actual event 40 meters would have permitted linking to many more PMBO stations on the HF map during the morning hours. Considering the minimalist antenna (mobile vertical antenna ten ft off the ground) and low power (50w) this exercise ably demonstrates the value of the e-mail over ham radio network to provide e-mail messaging to and from outside “The Last Mile” during conditions of local communications emergency.

The voice tests on 2 meters from this site confirmed that Emergency Operations Centers, incident sites, and tactical stations in the five-county East Central District could have been contacted.

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