[pskmail] Some pskmail questions
- From: Darren Long <darren.long@xxxxxxx>
- To: pskmail@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2013 12:07:04 +0000
Hi all,
Thanks to the developers for the continued development of pskmail and to
the server operators for their provision of resources.
I've been dabbling with pskmail on 30m in the past few days, for the
first time in many years. My main aim is to assess its HF APRS
functionality, as I suffer from a lack of good local VHF APRS
connectivity and wanted an alternative/additional mechanism for
exchanging APRS messages other than using the ISS as and when it is in
view.
I've been using my relatively new Elecraft KX3 at up to 8W with an
indoor Alex Loop antenna, and have been succefully hitting a few pskmail
APRS igates and getting APRS beacons and messages out into the APRS-IS.
Hopefully my dabblings haven't hampered regular users of the European
30m servers.
I have some questions about the Java client. When I last used pskMail,
it was with the perl client. I'm currently using JPSKmail v. 1.5.11,
with latest fldigi, v3.21.66 on Ubuntu 12.10 x86_64.
Firstly, I'm having some issues with server connections. My connections
attempts have mostly been with DL4OAH-8, although I've tried others with
similar results. My client initiates a connection and gets an initial
connection ack back from the server. I then typically choose a menu
function such as "Get server freqs", but nothing happens at the client
end. No outbound message is cooked up and the client idles. Meanwhile
the server retransmits the connection ack, proceeding to drop down
through the modes as one would expect. Typically at this time, I
attempt to quit the connection, but no outbound message is cooked up.
This seems to leave me with no other option than to send an Abort
message, which usually succeeds in stopping connection ack
retransmissions from the server.
<SOH>10cG0HWW-5:1024 DL4OAH-8:24 6685b321e7067<EOT>
<US><SOH>11kDL4OAH-8:24 G0HWW-5:1024 59DB9<SOH>81s 2A7>A<EOT>
<US><SOH>11kDL4OAH-8:24 G0HWW-5:1024 59DB9<SOH>81s 2A7A><EOT>
<US><SOH>11kDL4OAH-8:24 G0HWW-5:1024 59DB9<SOH>81s 2A7A><EOT>
<SOH>01a77D4<EOT>
I've trimmed garbage from the message sequence above, but link quality
seems good with the initial connection establishment going smoothly in
psk500r mode and all recent beacons getting acked OK.
It seems to me that the connection is half made. The manual refers to
the traditional 3-way handshake, but I note that the client never
responds to an initial or retransmitted connection ack from the server,
and it seems that the connection is not fully established.
My second question relates to modem selection. The default mode, as set
in the Preferences dialog, is, I believe, intended to be the mode that
is used for sending and receiving, unless varied automatically based on
link quality, or if a different mode is selected in the mode menu.
However, when I do select a different mode in the mode menu, it doesn't
seem to remain selected, and under some circumstances (probably a
timeout) the default mode is restored. Sometimes the default mode is
restored after a outgoing frame is cooked and queued, but prior to
actual transmission via fldigi (presumably due to a DCD backoff)
resulting in the frames transmission in an unintended mode. I'd like to
understand better how this is supposed to work.
My third question relates to APRS messaging, specifically with pskmail
servers gating to HF messages directed at my pskmail node, G0HWW-5. As
I understand it, I have to 'link' to my server of choice, which should
then configure it to forward traffic destined to my node as and when it
is received via APRS-IS. I am able to send APRS messages, but I've
never received an end-to-end APRS ack from the destination in response,
and messages sent to G0HWW-5 do not seem to be gated to HF by any server
that I have 'linked' with. Could someone explain how this can be
achieved, please.
I have tried briefly with the version 2 java client, but gave up as I
had two problems that I didn't resolve. I could see no way of selecting
the soundcard to be used by the internal modem. I need to make it use
pulseaudio which is the sound system I'm using for all my SDR and
traditional radio interfaces. Secondly, I couldn't get hamlib control
working using the model number 2, i.e. a TCP/IP connection to rigctld. I
need this ability as my panadapter software that shows the I/Q output
from the KX3 uses the same method to connect to an instance of rigctld
which controls the radio via the serial connection. I'm not all that
sure that I prefer the self-contained modem solution over the use of
fldigi as an external modem. Is there an intention to provide an option
to use an external modem in the v2 java client? One advantage of the
internal modem, I suppose, is the ability to run fldigi concurrently and
entirely independently, for different modes in the same receiver pass
band, as long as both applications are able to access tx & rx audio via
pulse audio and access rigctld via hamlib.
Sorry for the large volume of text here. Hopefully this won't have to
actually be distributed via pskmail :)
Cheers,
Darren, G0HWW
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- » [pskmail] Some pskmail questions - Darren Long
