[pskmail] Re: Sailing trip across Atlantic with PSKmail
- From: Christian Wagner <wagnerschristian@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: pskmail@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:33:55 +0100
Hi All, especially Rein.
I knew that my post would come across wrong. Sorry if anybody got
offended by it. In no way it was meant that way. I was merely giving
my thoughts on what I as a novice had difficulties with.
> Speed:
> PSKmail has a footprint of only 500 Hz. Remember we are using ham radio
> bands.
> The speed/bandwidth ratio of PSKmail depends on channel conditions, and it
> is
> automatically optimizwed by the server.
> The throughput/bandwidth ratio of PSKmail is MUCH better than with pactor
> III,
> and a LOT cheaper.
Good to hear that. Now I have something to brag about while having all
the Pactor users as neighbors in the anchorage ;-).
> Igate:
> The igate is just an HF APRS receiver for stations who run the pskmail
> client
> at home. The Igate sends every APRS beacon and message heard to th APRS
> central servers.
> The PSKmail servers listen to the APRS backbone, and forward messages
> back any pskmail client which is linked to them.
> This way, one one server sends the message.
So this Igate makes my position report appear on sites like aprs.fi?
>
> Mode table:
> you can set your own mode tables.
> The servers use a default mode for listening to APRS. In the US this is
> PSK250,
> in the rest of the world it is PSK500R.
> Set your client default to the server default, so all servers on frequency
> have
> a chance
> to hear you.
And this has to be in the manual. Also there should be something in
that you might try one of the more robust modes when connecting is
difficult.
>
> Mail/APRS:
> is the normal mode of operation
> Mail/scanning:
> sends your connect in the minute you set, this is for scanning servers,
> which change their frequency every minute.
> So if you know the server is on 14111 in minute 3, you can set the connect
> minute to 3,
> and the client will send connect frames during minute 3,8,13,18 etc...
> Monitor:
> Prints valid blocks to the screen, and switches off scanning. So you can
> monitor 1 frequency intensively.
>
> Inquiry:
> sends a ping to a specific server, so you get an answer from only that
> server.
> In EU we
> get 5 answers when we ping, and they are mostly unreadable because the
> servers
> tx on top of each other.
>
> Telnet:
> Once connected you can e.g. telnet to a packet BBS on the internet, or a dx
> cluster... or to your own machine at home... etc....
>
> Hope this sheds some light...
Thanks a lot for the clarification. Why not put all this you mentioned
above in the manual?
> If nobody reads the manual, maybe we should put less time into making one?
On the contrary. The manual was invaluable of course. I read it front
to back several times (it makes quite an interesting read during an
atlantic crossing ;-)) and consulted it for what felt like a million
times since the last two months.
In no way should you stop making one. Without it I would have been lost.
It was just quite tedious to go back and forth between the client and
the manual even for such simple tasks like disconnecting from a
server. What is just a press of a button for an experienced user took
me several minutes, mostly spent looking up stuff in the manual.
I was simply suggesting (among other stuff) to integrate some of the
manuals contents into popup/context help, this would speed up the
process for novices a lot. IMHO stuff like this means lowering the
learning curve.
>
> 73,
>
> Rein PA0R/M
>
Cheers, Christian DL3ZFC
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