It is now 6 months since the last server maintenance release, and time
to take another look...
We have seen some problems with timing on the server, and there was
also a quirk
in the ~QUIT routine, which made a clean disconnect difficult.
I have been testing the 2.1.n server extensively from my remote
winter location which has a very high noise level (mainly free running
switching power supplies, well kown on large camp sites and in
harbours...).
My tests show that the PSK (and PSKxxxR) modes don't work well in
harsh surroundings. MFSK modes, especially MFSK16 and THOR22 did
a lot better when the going got really rough. The main drawbacks for
these
modes are rather long latency and critical tuning.
This triggered a number of tests with DOMINOEX, which does not have these
problems, and as a bonus it has 2x the speed of the FEC modes. Tests show
it works very well. I plan to include DOMINOEX22 and DOMINOEX11 in the
next
client release for the version 1 client (the V2 client has no DominoEx
mode yet),
and introduce MEMORY ARQ to copy for the lack of FEC.
Meanwhile, I would propose to update all servers to version 2.2.1, which
already includes mode handling for DominoEx (it generates no error
messages
when DomEx modes are used on frequency). It also fixes some problems
regarding protocol timing and ~QUIT sequence.
The archive is
http://www.pskmail.org/downloads/pskmail_server_update-150514.tar.gz,
it contains new versions of arq.pm and rflinkserver.pl. Just drop
those into
/usr/local/share/pskmail_server and you are in business....
A new version 1 client including DomEx modes is being tested at the
moment.
A mode table of PSK500,PSK500R, DOMINOEX22,DOMINOX11,MFSK16 (or THOR22)
seems to work very well, momentarily I am adding some intelligence
regarding
the decoding of status frames....
73,
Rein PA0R
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