KA-NODE
23
Using a KA-NODE
To use the KA-NODE as a means of connecting to some other node or end-user, you must first
connect to the KA-NODE. At the
cmd:
prompt on your TNC, issue a connect request to the callsign
of the KA-NODE, let's say LAW. When you make connection, you will see the following messages
on your display:
*** CONNECTED TO LAW
### CONNECTED TO WILD NODE LAW (WD0EMR) CHANNEL A
ENTER COMMAND B,C,J,N,X, or Help
?
The
*** CONNECTED
message is sent by your local TNC to the terminal and the
### CONNECTED TO NODE
message is coming from from the distant KA-NODE.
WD0EMR
is the
MYCALL of the station containing the KA-NODE in this example,
WILD
indicates that he is running
a "wildcard" node and
CHANNEL A
indicates that you have connected to its channel A. If A is in
use, you may obtain channel B. The channels, or circuits, are assigned by the KA-NODE as
needed.
After connecting to the KA-NODE, you are in CONVERS mode at your own station, but the KA-
NODE is waiting for a command. You issue a command to the node by STAYING IN CONVERS
MODE. The KA-NODE will interpret the data you send as its commands. It can receive only com-
mands; it doesn't know what data is. At this point, let's assume that you wish to know what other
KA-NODES are nearby. You would issue the NODES command by typing
N
or
NODES
, in response
to the KA-NODE "enter command" prompt. You will receive a list of KA-NODES which have recently
been heard. For example, let's suppose that KC was heard by LAW. Your list received from the No-
des command would be:
KC (N0APJ-2) 12/23/87 02:38:45
ENTER COMMAND B,C,J,N,X, or Help
?
KC denotes the KA-NODE callsign, the MYCALL of the KA-NODE station is in parentheses, followed
by date and time heard. If LAW had heard nothing, it would respond with:
NO KNOWN NODES
You may, instead, wish to know what other stations the KA-NODE has heard lately. This would ac-
complished by sending the JHEARD command. The node will respond by listing its own MHEARD
log. The list will contain end user and node callsigns and in the same type of list you get by using
your own MHEARD command at the
cmd:
prompt.
At this point, let's suppose that you would like to connect to the node called KC through your cur-
rent connection with LAW. Just issue a connect request to KC as follows in response to the "enter
command" from LAW:
CONNECT KC
The response will be:
###LINK MADE
###CONNECTED TO NODE KC (
MYCYLLSIGN
OF KC) CHANNEL A
ENTER COMMAND B,C,J,N,X, or Help
?
At this point you are "patched" through the KA-NODE LAW to the node KC. When LAW issued the
connect request to KC, it used your own call but subtracted a count of one from your SSID. For ex-