Timewave DSP-232, Operating Manual

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Chapter 5 Packet Operation
Nodes usually have a CQ command; to call CQ through it, you’d connect, first, then enter
CQ
—it’ll send your
callsign out for you.
To send a CQ through a couple of nodes to a distant one, you’ll have to conect to each node as described in the
Digipeating section below.
Going On-The-Air
Choose one of the stations with an asterisk displayed in your MHEARD list, or a friend that you know is on-the-air
near you and enter:
cmd:
C call
A few moments later, you should see:
*** CONNECTED to call
If you see this, you have just connected to your first packet station! Since you initiated the contact, you speak first.
As you type, you may notice that the TX light on the DSP’s front panel comes on. This means you’ve typed in a
PACLEN ’s worth of text and the DSP is sending it; just keep on typing until you’ve finished with your message.
After you’ve finished typing, enter a couple of ( RETURN )s or press the “greater than” sign ( > ), followed by a
(
RETURN
), to let the other station know that you’ve finished typing and that it’s their turn to transmit. The other
station will respond—at a
PACLEN
’s worth of characters sent at a you at a time—then will give you a couple of
(
RETURNS
) or a “>” to signal you to start transmitting. This is how it goes, back and forth, until you’ve finished
chatting. Terminate the QSO as you did before with a (
CTRL-C
).
If you didn’t connect according to plan, see below.
I’m Having Trouble Connecting
If the station you’re trying to connect to is connected to someone else, you may see the following message:
*** BUSY call : DISCONNECTED
If you see this it means that the other station is connected with someone and can’t respond to you now. Simply wait
a few minutes and try again or try connecting to a different station from your
MHEARD
list.
If the distant station can’t hear you, you may see the following:
*** Retry count exceeded
*** DISCONNECTED: ( call )
A number of different things can cause this to occur. It may simply be that the station you’re trying to connect to is
out of your transmitter’s range or for one reason or another, is inaccessible. It’s possible, however, that something
more serious is wrong. If your connects don’t go smoothly or as planned, go to
Chapter 13: Troubleshooting , the
packet section, for assistance.
More Packet Features
Now that you have worked a packet station or two, it is time to learn a little more about the other packet capabilities
of the DSP. Rather than explain all the features in detail here, read about them later in this chapter and in the next
chapter -
GPS Applications .
Nodes, and Node Operation
In the early days of packet radio, Amateurs had to “digipeat” through many stations (up to 8) to connect to a distant
station. As more users became active on packet, digipeating quickly proved to be an inefficient way of relaying
packets through even a few “hops”. The reason why is simple: with all the packets on-the-air being leapfrogged and
trying to reach their destination, they’d invariably “crash”, meaning that stations would transmit (and retransmit)
packets at the same time. As you know from voice radio operation, when two stations talk at the same time you get
a garbled mess, and that’s what happened—packets would crash, stations would retransmit the packets since they
weren’t
ack ed, they’d crash again with the same or someone else’s packets.
September, 05 5-9