Donegal Packet Network (Part 3)

The Packet Network

Part 3

The Journey continues with my Packet Radio adventure.

The Amateur Radio Emergency Network (AREN) in Northern Ireland seems to be using 144.650MHz

And that was the frequency I was going to keep the Node & BBS on.

So I thought a change was in order…

I have settled on the following frequencies:

  HF:    14.105   - 300 Baud (Live)

VHF: 144.950   - 1200 Baud (Live)

UHF: 432.650   - 9600 Baud (Planned)

As yet I have not got the UHF port setup on BPQ nor do I even have the hardware like the radios setup.

I was thinking I could use my Kenwood TS-2000 to use as the radio system as this has 2 bands on it so I could use UHF & VHF on the same radio.

I am still undecided if the UHF port should be 9k6 or 1k2.

Id like to run 9k6 on UHF as this would give a faster connection to local users and I could also

use this port for forwarding to other systems via RF. – (Let me know your thoughts)

I was chatting with Paul G4APL on packet today to sort out my forwarding issue and we managed to work out the issues.

I had to add a list to the Hierarchical Routes (Flood Bulls) on the BPQ32 setup.

So far, I have added:

WW GBR IRL EU ARRL AMSAT ARL RSGB IRTS DATV ANT EVENT RALLY TECH PACKET NEWS

I’m sure there will be many more to add to the list, so these will be forwarded onto the system.

E.G if you type: SB PACKET@WW this will now send onto the system and be forwarded.

Anything not on the list will stay “local” on my bbs.

So, if I wanted to send a newsletter out to the club I could type: SB CARC@WW

This would then stay on my system and not be forwarded.

(N.B CARC = Carndonagh Amateur Radio Club)

I now need to start thinking on how to promote the system & get more people involved……