My personal favorite for home VHF/UHF Packet is Flex32 with the excellent PAXON terminal.
There are step-by-step tutorials for both of these programs at USPacket.Org, featuring a screen shots for each step involved in installation and setup. These tutorials are very popular, I had to purchase additional bandwidth for USPacket after publishing them. Flex32: - This tutorial also includes an introduction to soundcard interfaces, and how they work. Several Packet modes are supported, plus IPX and Q15x25 mode: http://www.uspacket.org/flex32/flx_32.htm Paxon: - A great Packet terminal with sophisticated features for transferring files, and direct support through the Flex32 kernal: http://www.uspacket.org/paxon/paxon.htm For HF Packet, MixW is the best choice by far. Other software does this too, but thier interfaces all suck. ( Comparatively speaking ) If you are going to operate HF Packet, then unfortunately you must also learn how to deal with harmful interference from WinLink robots and thier 'customers'... MixW is good for this problem, as you can set up a second Rx window that receives PACTOR I on the same frequency you are QSOing on, in Packet mode. - This gives you the WinLid customer's callsign, and the call of the WinLid server they are ceaselessly polling on top of your QSO, while the server on another frequency. If he comes back to the customer and wipes out everything on the passband, then you know which server was being polled, right? At WinLink-Watch ( http://www.arwatch.com/watch/w_winlink.htm ) we have found a good screen-capture utility that makes it easy to capture evidence of WinLid QSO-crashing activity. ( http://www.uspacket.org/pqrm.htm ) MixW also has a "record last 20 seconds of audio" feature which is also useful in this respect. For more info on this, stop by at WinLink-Watch. Nobody has to stand by and "just enjoy" radio rape by mindless QRM factories on HF. For a Packet BBS, once again MixW is far and away the best choice for an HF Packet TNC. See the paragraph above, about dealing with interference issues. How can you use MixW as a TNC? - In Packet mode, MixW has an option to be set up as a Packet modem with a KISS TNC interface so it can be utilized by any Packet BBS software that is out there. My HF Packet BBS looks like this. ( It runs on BPQ32, not visible in the screenshot ) BPQ32, WinFBB alpha, MixW, and a PK-96 for VHF access. http://s239.photobucket.com/albums/ff206/arwatch/N5PVL/?action=view¤t=newsetup-1.jpg Note that this is a large image on PhotoBucket, If you zoom it up to full size, all the text is clear and easy to read. This is what a modern Packet BBS station looks like. 73 DE Charles, N5PVL [EMAIL PROTECTED]
