[digitalradio] SSTV : Ham Radio's Space Vision
August 17 : MSNBC An innovative space transmission system built by volunteers has started sending down pictures from the international space station to the whole wide world via amateur radio. Thanks to SpaceCam1, anyone with a police scanner or a suitable radio rig, plus a computer and the appropriate software, should be able to receive pictures from orbit, the project's organizers say. The SpaceCam1 slow-scan television system, which combines a couple of hardware gizmos plus the signal-coding software on one of the station's laptop computers, has been three years in the making. The project follows up on a less sophisticated system that was tested aboard Russia's Mir space station in its waning years. It's been fun, and this is just a steppingstone, said Miles Mann, project lead and chief executive officer for the MAREX amateur-radio club. MAREX was involved in the Mir project - and it teamed up with another volunteer group, Amateur Radio on the International Space Station, for SpaceCam1's next-generation SSTV system. SSTV basically means snapping a digital still image and translating the scan lines of that image into a sequential stream of data. That stream can be transmitted on a radio frequency, then decoded on the other end to reconstitute the digital image. On the space station, the original image can come from something as simple as a Webcam, hooked up to an onboard laptop. Astronauts can point the camera at themselves, at the station interior or just set it up at one of the station's windows for a view of Earth below. The data conversion is done through software on the laptop plus a little hardware interface known as a VOX box. Then the data is beamed down to Earth via a radio transmitter. Down on the planet, you can tune your scanner or radio receiver to 145.800 mHz on the 2-meter band, pick up the signal, have it converted automatically on your own computer ... and voila! you've made contact. (Here's a technical how-to with links to shareware sources ... or you can do a Web search for software.) The equipment and the software was sent to the station last September on a Progress cargo craft, and since then the space station astronauts have been working off and on to get the system running. On July 30, they sent the first still image - and at least two more have come down since then. Farrell Winder, a retired electrical engineer who is part of the SpaceCam1 team, said the transmitter's power levels had to be dialed down due to overheating. They had it set up on high power, and there's no convection cooling on the station because there's no gravity, Winder explained. During the current testing phase, the equipment will be running only intermittently, on low power. But eventually, the camera can be set for continuous operation. We have great confidence that it's going to give us hundreds of pictures a day, he said. And that's just the start. Eventually, the system will be able to receive pictures sent up to the station from licensed ham-radio operators, Mann said. Mann is already dreaming of the day when a SpaceCam can be fitted aboard a moon-bound spacecraft, to serve as a transmitter or even as a relay for earthly transmissions. A fair number of radio enthusiasts are already bouncing their signals off the moon to reach faraway earthlings, Mann noted. We'd be able to increase the number of people who can do that tenfold, Mann told me. For the record, here's the full release from the SpaceCam1 team: Amateur Radio established an exciting first for the international space station on July 30, August 12 and August 13, 2006. This event was the sending of still picture images from the ISS via amateur radio. Amateur-radio and shortwave listeners in many countries including England, Russia, Brazil and Australia were able to see these images from the ISS, which is orbiting Earth approximately every 90 minutes at an altitude of around 225 miles. These pictures were sent by ISS Commander Pavel Vinogradov, an amateur-radio Operator with call sign RV3BS. The amateur-radio software program used to send pictures is called SpaceCam1. This project is currently being operated intermittently during the crew's free time. After testing is complete, the system will have the capability of sending several hundred images per day from the ISS Amateur Radio VHF link. With a direct onboard camera feed pointed out the window or in the cabin, each picture sent down could be of unique content. SpaceCam1 was developed over a three-year span. The concept was initiated by the same group that developed the very successful amateur-radio TV system flown on board the Russian space station Mir, 1998-2001. Those involved with this amateur-radio development are: Dr. Don Miller, W9NTP Hank Cantrell, W4HTB Miles Mann, WF1F Farrell Winder, W8ZCF While the Mir system was a hardware system, the ISS SpaceCam1 system is a software-based system which was developed primarily by Jim Barber, N7CXI, Silicon Pixels,
Re: [digitalradio] ALE On-The-Air Week (13-23 Oct) HF Automatic Link Establishment
I went to the configuration, selected Generic Icom in the drop down menu and then also went to the Generic Icom button and entered the usual information. The crash of the program occurs as the tones begin to TX. At that point it asks if you want to send an error report to Microsoft. Perhaps I might try it later on when someone comes up with a useable product. I don't much care anymore for anything on amateur radio that requires special licensing or has proprietary conditions. We have enough of that already and we need to move toward open source and back to what amateur radio stands for. If it can not work at least as well as Multipsk with DX Lab's interoperation, it is not really ready for prime time. 73, Rick, KV9U Steve Hajducek wrote: Hi Rick, Did you select GENERIC ICOM from the radio type pull down as well? Be sure to check SPLIT if you plan to perform Scanning to keep your PA BPF relays from activating until its time to transmit. New radio control support is coming to PC-ALE in the future based on the library developed for MARS-ALE radio control. I can't however comment on what the GUI interface will be as I am not coding that. It may or may not be similar to MARS-ALE where you just select the make/model radio from the radio type menu (over 60 selections that support like 100 radios where some selections support many models, like Kenwood where one selection is needed as the radio ID is read for all models) for all the default settings for each model such as factory addresses, the highest baud rate supported etc., there are some variables like model select with or without handshaking. The option for changing those settings comes after that selection via a new secondary panel should the user want to use other than default settings as pictured below from the latest Alpha build. /s/ Steve, N2CKH/AAR2EY www.n2ckh.com http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MARS-ALE/ Emacs! Emacs! At 11:09 PM 8/19/2006, you wrote: I have installed PC-ALE on my e-machine. I tried setting it up for a Generic ICOM and then tweak it for my 756 Pro 2. I have not been able to get it to work with the interface and I also noted that if I try to send anything the entire program crashes. What this program needs to do is be able to control the rig similar to DX Commander/Multipsk. Thus far I have not had much success. Do you have to use a separate COM port for keying your rig? 73, Rick, KV9U Andrew O'Brien wrote: I would like to encouraged all digitalradio members to try this event and work towards a certificate. One good thing about the concept is that it is over a 10 day period and thus gives people that are new to ALE and/or PC-ALE the chance to make adjustments and seek help if needed. Folks, if I can get on the air with ALE...anyone can. Please give it a try. Andy K3UK On 8/19/06, expeditionradio [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: ALE On-The-Air Week AOTAW 2006 Starts: 0001 UTC Friday 13 OCTOBER (13/10/06) Ends: 1159 UTC Monday 23 OCTOBER (23/10/06) 10 Days of worldwide Amateur Radio ALE activity... More information: http://hflink.com HFLINK is sponsoring a new International Amateur Radio event called: ALE On The Air Week (AOTAW). All ham radio operators worldwide are invited to participate in 10 days of amateur radio HF-ALE Automatic Link Establishment and HF Selcall activity. AOTAW is an open operating event to explore ALE communications and equipment. The experience gained by participation is also useful for HF emergency and disaster relief communications. There are now many hundreds of hams worldwide with ALE stations. The AOTAW gives operators a chance to exercise ALE transceivers, antennas, software, systems, and operating procedures. ALE Operator Certificate for AOTAW2006 === HFLINK issues a unique ALE Operator Certificate to operators who participate in AOTAW. To qualify for an ALE Operator Certificate, the operator must initiate and complete at least 5 QSOs through Automatic Link Establishment with other ALE operators. The ALE link must then be followed by a communication either by voice or texting. Additional certificate endorsement is issued by HFLINK for operators who link and QSO with 25 ALE stations or more. Logs: see HFLINK.COM website for details: http://hflink.com About AOTAW = AOTAW is not a contest. All operators are reminded to be courteous and operate within the recognised Amateur Radio ALE channels and standards. Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org Other areas of interest: The MixW Reflector : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup/ DigiPol: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digipol (band plan policy discussion) Yahoo! Groups Links Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org Other areas of interest: The MixW Reflector :
[digitalradio] TARA Digital Award..Still FREE!
Greeting's: If you're into digital communications do we have great news for you. TARA now sponsors a complete selection of world class digital awards that we're sure you'll find most challenging. And, to make things even better it's FREE! But, you had better act quick!! Our club now has the TARA-Grid - Digital Maidenhead Grid Award Program which I'm sure many of you might even qualify for right now. The TARA-Grid Award is an excellent companion to our All Seasons, Grid-Dip Contest. All contest entries qualify for inclusion in our TARA-Grid Award. You need only 300 different four(4) digit Grid Squares to claim your Basic certificate. Next, we have the TARA-PX Award Program. TARA wants to recognize the achievements of Amateur Radio Operators world wide, for confirming two way communications by offering it's new Digital Prefix Awards Program. This award is available in MIXED, RTTY and PSK but more are coming out! And, we offer other awards like the Wet Award, TARA D-WAS, Canadian Award the TARA-DDXCC. But wait...there are a few more! TARA invites you right now to review our new World Class Digital Awards Program and we've saved the best part for last. Now, through January 1st 2007 these awards are FREE! Come check out the complete line of custom certificates that we've designed especially for this program and we believe you'll see why we think they're Distinctively Different. _http://www.n2ty.org/seasons/tara_awards.html_ (http://www.n2ty.org/seasons/tara_awards.html) 73 de NY2U Bill Eddy [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org Other areas of interest: The MixW Reflector : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup/ DigiPol: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digipol (band plan policy discussion) Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[digitalradio] Submit Your Score...It's Not Too Late!
To All: I would like to ask everyone that participated in the TARA Grid-Dip on August 5th to PLEASE take a couple of minutes and submit your score for us. You don't need to mail us your logs and our online score submission makes this just about as easy as its going to get. Anyone that submitted a score earlier today, or last night will have their scores corrected. You can go to our online score submission page by going to: **http://www.n2ty.org/seasons/tara_grid_score.html** No matter what your score was they're ALL very important to us! Don't think that any score is too little to send in. Also, when you get a chance take a peek at the results we have so far I think you'll find them quite interesting. This is a fairly new contest but this year we're seeing a boost in the participation level, especially from you RTTY contesters. See for yourself by going to: **http://www.n2ty.org/seasons/tara_grid_results.html** Thanks ever so much for all of your support! 73 de NY2U Bill Eddy [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org Other areas of interest: The MixW Reflector : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup/ DigiPol: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digipol (band plan policy discussion) Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Re: [digitalradio] ALE On-The-Air Week (13-23 Oct) HF Automatic Link Establishment
If it can not work at least as well as Multipsk with DX Lab's interoperation, it is not really ready for prime time. 73, Rick, KV9U But Rick, some of the best TV shows are on osbcure channels and not broadcast in prime time. Give ALE a little more time and you will see it's potential. -- Andy K3UK Fredonia, New York. Skype Me : callto://andyobrien73 Also available via Echolink Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org Other areas of interest: The MixW Reflector : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup/ DigiPol: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digipol (band plan policy discussion) Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[digitalradio] Re: ALE On-The-Air Week (13-23 Oct) HF Automatic Link Establishment
Does PC-ALE include an API that would enable interaction with DXLab? If you point me at a URL, Rick, I'll take a look. 73, Dave, AA6YQ --- In digitalradio@yahoogroups.com, KV9U [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I went to the configuration, selected Generic Icom in the drop down menu and then also went to the Generic Icom button and entered the usual information. The crash of the program occurs as the tones begin to TX. At that point it asks if you want to send an error report to Microsoft. Perhaps I might try it later on when someone comes up with a useable product. I don't much care anymore for anything on amateur radio that requires special licensing or has proprietary conditions. We have enough of that already and we need to move toward open source and back to what amateur radio stands for. If it can not work at least as well as Multipsk with DX Lab's interoperation, it is not really ready for prime time. 73, Rick, KV9U Steve Hajducek wrote: Hi Rick, Did you select GENERIC ICOM from the radio type pull down as well? Be sure to check SPLIT if you plan to perform Scanning to keep your PA BPF relays from activating until its time to transmit. New radio control support is coming to PC-ALE in the future based on the library developed for MARS-ALE radio control. I can't however comment on what the GUI interface will be as I am not coding that. It may or may not be similar to MARS-ALE where you just select the make/model radio from the radio type menu (over 60 selections that support like 100 radios where some selections support many models, like Kenwood where one selection is needed as the radio ID is read for all models) for all the default settings for each model such as factory addresses, the highest baud rate supported etc., there are some variables like model select with or without handshaking. The option for changing those settings comes after that selection via a new secondary panel should the user want to use other than default settings as pictured below from the latest Alpha build. /s/ Steve, N2CKH/AAR2EY www.n2ckh.com http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MARS-ALE/ Emacs! Emacs! At 11:09 PM 8/19/2006, you wrote: I have installed PC-ALE on my e-machine. I tried setting it up for a Generic ICOM and then tweak it for my 756 Pro 2. I have not been able to get it to work with the interface and I also noted that if I try to send anything the entire program crashes. What this program needs to do is be able to control the rig similar to DX Commander/Multipsk. Thus far I have not had much success. Do you have to use a separate COM port for keying your rig? 73, Rick, KV9U Andrew O'Brien wrote: I would like to encouraged all digitalradio members to try this event and work towards a certificate. One good thing about the concept is that it is over a 10 day period and thus gives people that are new to ALE and/or PC-ALE the chance to make adjustments and seek help if needed. Folks, if I can get on the air with ALE...anyone can. Please give it a try. Andy K3UK On 8/19/06, expeditionradio [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: ALE On-The-Air Week AOTAW 2006 Starts: 0001 UTC Friday 13 OCTOBER (13/10/06) Ends: 1159 UTC Monday 23 OCTOBER (23/10/06) 10 Days of worldwide Amateur Radio ALE activity... More information: http://hflink.com HFLINK is sponsoring a new International Amateur Radio event called: ALE On The Air Week (AOTAW). All ham radio operators worldwide are invited to participate in 10 days of amateur radio HF-ALE Automatic Link Establishment and HF Selcall activity. AOTAW is an open operating event to explore ALE communications and equipment. The experience gained by participation is also useful for HF emergency and disaster relief communications. There are now many hundreds of hams worldwide with ALE stations. The AOTAW gives operators a chance to exercise ALE transceivers, antennas, software, systems, and operating procedures. ALE Operator Certificate for AOTAW2006 === HFLINK issues a unique ALE Operator Certificate to operators who participate in AOTAW. To qualify for an ALE Operator Certificate, the operator must initiate and complete at least 5 QSOs through Automatic Link Establishment with other ALE operators. The ALE link must then be followed by a communication either by voice or texting. Additional certificate endorsement is issued by HFLINK for operators who link and QSO with 25 ALE stations or more. Logs: see HFLINK.COM website for details: http://hflink.com About AOTAW = AOTAW is not a contest. All operators are reminded to be courteous and operate within the recognised Amateur Radio ALE channels and standards. Need a Digital mode QSO?
[digitalradio] re: PC-ALE and CAT Control
Hi Dave, As fine a product as DXLab, HRD or anything else may be for casual Amateur Radio CAT Rig control, nothing is geared for the needed support of ALE Scanning/Sounding at 1, 2 and 5 channels/second (the future MIL-STD-188-141 goal being 10 ch/sec) taking into account all the various needs of radio port selection and the bypassing of Power Amplifier Band Pass Filter relays all within the timing constraints of RX to TX turn around and factoring in an Automatic Antenna Tuning Unit. PC-ALE was originally written for a few specific radios, similar to the U.S. Government ALElite tool what was written for just one make/model radio. The most critical focus is not the CAT Rig control but rather the challenging Military Standard protocols. With MARS-ALE, derived from the PC-ALE baseline, a big effort was made to support all suitable 2-30Mhz coverage (e.g. Ten Tec Orion is not supported as its ham band only) SSB transceivers in use by MARS members, be it Amateur, Commercial, Marine or Military grade as we needed all MARS members operational with ALE in short order. We kept that library current and it has been provided to for integration to PC-ALE. When that library is integrated into the PC-ALE baseline in a future release all the desired make/model radios should then be supported. A listing of all supported make/model transceivers and receivers in MARS-ALE can be found in the document at http://www.n2ckh.com/MARS_ALE_FORUM/ALE102BRHUGAA.zip when it was last updated. I last updated as many things have changed but not that document yet, the new FT2000 was just coded and MICOM and SEA units are being coded and we are waiting to hear if the new Ten Tec Omni VII will support 2-30Mhz out of band, the VX-1700 is being reviewed. In guard channel receivers the new ICOM PCR-1500 and 2500 receivers were added and we just heard about the new IC-R9500 receiver as well, see: http://ndl-dx.se/icom_r9500/http://ndl-dx.se/icom_r9500/ In closing, those that have problems making PC-ALE work with their current radio simply need to be patient. P.S. - I seen a question in passing about PTT on a 2nd serial port aside from the CAT port, that is supported in the PC-ALE Beta as well as MARS-ALE. Sincerely, /s/ Steve Hajducek, N2CKH/AAR2EY U.S. Army MARS-ALE Software Development Team [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MARS-ALE/ Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are my own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policy of U.S. Army MARS management, or the Department of Army. At 03:45 PM 8/20/2006, you wrote: Does PC-ALE include an API that would enable interaction with DXLab? If you point me at a URL, Rick, I'll take a look. 73, Dave, AA6YQ [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org Other areas of interest: The MixW Reflector : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup/ DigiPol: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digipol (band plan policy discussion) Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Re: [digitalradio] ALE On-The-Air Week (13-23 Oct) HF Automatic Link Establishment
Prime time meaning that it doesn't actually work yet. If the program completely crashes upon attempting to transmit the tones, that suggests that more work is needed. Perhaps I am the only one who has experienced this? Another concern I have is that this is another one of those modes that almost has to have many channels even though we don't have a channelized system in amateur radio. I know some are pushing to get the rules changed to accomodate their operating preferences. If you were to try and send an ALE call to several different frequencies over a short span of time, how do you insure you are not QRMing someone? How are you able to listen for a frequency already being in use so that you do not illegally transmit on that frequency? I can see ALE possibly being used on one HF band for a selcal system similar to what we had in the old days with RTTY selcal and similar modes, but to transmit on many different frequency bands in a few seconds? 73, Rick, KV9U Andrew O'Brien wrote: If it can not work at least as well as Multipsk with DX Lab's interoperation, it is not really ready for prime time. 73, Rick, KV9U But Rick, some of the best TV shows are on osbcure channels and not broadcast in prime time. Give ALE a little more time and you will see it's potential. Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org Other areas of interest: The MixW Reflector : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup/ DigiPol: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digipol (band plan policy discussion) Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[digitalradio] Does an RST of 519 Make Sense ?
Does an RST of 519 Make Sense ? I had a QSO with KE5CO on 30M tonight via Throb/4, I could barely hear him or see his signal on the Multipsk waterfall but his copy was 100%. So, I guess a 51 is legitimate. R = READABILITY 1 -- Unreadable 2 -- Barely readable, occasional words distinguishable 3 -- Readable with considerable difficulty 4 -- Readable with practically no difficulty 5 -- Perfectly readable S = SIGNAL STRENGTH 1 -- Faint signals, barely perceptible -- Andy K3UK Fredonia, New York. Skype Me : callto://andyobrien73 Also available via Echolink Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org Other areas of interest: The MixW Reflector : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup/ DigiPol: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digipol (band plan policy discussion) Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Re: [digitalradio] ALE On-The-Air Week (13-23 Oct) HF Automatic Link Establishment
Either I am totally misunderstanding the ALE concept, or the principal requires a special purpose dedicated transceiver and computer dedicated to ALE. To call on several frequencies would require programming memory locations and then incrementing the memory location periodically, with some type of abort scheme in case a connection was made. A band plan controller might be employed to pseudo-control band-switching to follow the gray-line. I doubt that one of the currently available transceivers offered to the general ham market would last a month with that kind of cyclic pounding on band-switching mechanicals or the necessary (?) antenna tuner. Just some ramblings of perceived problems facing the ham mulling the feasibility of implementing such a scheme. The End On Aug 20, 2006, at 3:11 PM, KV9U wrote: Prime time meaning that it doesn't actually work yet. If the program completely crashes upon attempting to transmit the tones, that suggests that more work is needed. Perhaps I am the only one who has experienced this? Another concern I have is that this is another one of those modes that almost has to have many channels even though we don't have a channelized system in amateur radio. I know some are pushing to get the rules changed to accomodate their operating preferences. If you were to try and send an ALE call to several different frequencies over a short span of time, how do you insure you are not QRMing someone? How are you able to listen for a frequency already being in use so that you do not illegally transmit on that frequency? I can see ALE possibly being used on one HF band for a selcal system similar to what we had in the old days with RTTY selcal and similar modes, but to transmit on many different frequency bands in a few seconds? 73, Rick, KV9U Andrew O'Brien wrote: If it can not work at least as well as Multipsk with DX Lab's interoperation, it is not really ready for prime time. 73, Rick, KV9U But Rick, some of the best TV shows are on osbcure channels and not broadcast in prime time. Give ALE a little more time and you will see it's potential. Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org Other areas of interest: The MixW Reflector : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup/ DigiPol: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digipol (band plan policy discussion) Yahoo! Groups Links Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org Other areas of interest: The MixW Reflector : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup/ DigiPol: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digipol (band plan policy discussion) Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[digitalradio] HF Automatic Link Establishment and QRL
On 8/20/06, KV9U [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: If you were to try and send an ALE call to several different frequencies over a short span of time, how do you insure you are not QRMing someone? How are you able to listen for a frequency already being in use so that you do not illegally transmit on that frequency? Good point Rick. I am always in control whenever I make an individual call over different frequencies, so I can just kill the call if the freq is occupied. You do raise an interesting question though. Andy K3UK Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org Other areas of interest: The MixW Reflector : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup/ DigiPol: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digipol (band plan policy discussion) Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
ALE and Amateur Radio - Re: [digitalradio] ALE On-The-Air Week (13-23 Oct) HF Automatic Link Establishment
Hi Rick, Its rather simple actually. Regarding the first item, as ALE is sophisticated and originally meant for Military and Government users with all the wealth of expandable capabilities, its was designed to implemented in via dedicated firmware/hardware Controllers/Modems and specially designed radios that were up to the task. However that hardware costs 3 to 5 thousand U.S. Dollars for the bare minimum capabilities in Commercial dress and much, much more for the Military grade basics, then when you add the DTM and DBM protocols and the high speed MIL-STD-188-110 serial tone modem and additional BRD/ARQ protocols it adds 5 to 10 thousand more dollars to the price tag. So if you see the need for ALE and have the money, you can buy the hardware, however PC-ALE and your existing Amateur Radio grade SSB transceiver will allow one to participate in ALE operations for a lot less money, so why complain, make due and in time like most good things, it will be even better. As to the second part of your slant, yes, ALE operation to take full advantage of what ALE offers and normal Amateur Radio communications as those of us that have been around (I started in 1963 with SWL and 1979 licensed Amateur) for while know differ quite a bit as multi-channel Soundings are required to build that Link Quality Analysis (LQA) database so that you always get a link on the best channel with the lowest Bit Error Rate (BER) and highest Signal To Noise Ratio (SNR), its just the nature of the beast and one of the better aspects of ALE to maximize the use of changing propagation. So to take advantage of the ALE technology new operating habits need to be embraced on a channelized basis, what's the problem, we have lots of elbow room in all but the 60m (just channelized) band to provide for ALE and the hardware ALE and PC-ALE software controllers in accordance with the Military Standards requirements have features to inhibit transmitting on busy channels if the channel is busy when being listened to by the ALE controller just prior to making a Sounding or Linking call. Reading either the standards or even just an ALE radio user manual, one will see how well thought out the entire ALE system is as to not only what it offers, but how it goes about providing it all. There is nothing else like it and its now being used by most all Nations in the world, free world or not, the Iranians and Chinese make domestic ALE hardware, you don't see that happen unless there is really something to it ! The Amateur Radio Service needs to embrace ALE just as much in my opinion, in the U.S. all Federal Agencies are moving to ALE and STANAG 5066, the agencies that ARRL ARES serve, those of us in ARS ECOM need to be up to speed with an ALE solution and for most of us that means PC Sound Device Modem based and not expensive ALE hardware. There there is all the digital mode fun of ALE for the casual Amateur Radio enthusiast as well, even if you just use ALE to nab your buddy on the best channel and then once linked switch over to keyboard to keyboard mode like Olivia or whatever or just leave your buddy a message and clear the link as he is not there at that moment. The HFlkink sponsored ALE On-The-Air Week (13-23 Oct) HF Automatic Link Establishment that has been the subject line on these messages will be a very good opportunity for all Amateurs to hear and part take in ALE on the ham bands, its just far enough away to get ready for it if you are starting from scratch. Just my opinion. /s/ Steve, N2CKH/AAR2EY At 07:23 PM 8/20/2006, you wrote: Prime time meaning that it doesn't actually work yet. If the program completely crashes upon attempting to transmit the tones, that suggests that more work is needed. Perhaps I am the only one who has experienced this? Another concern I have is that this is another one of those modes that almost has to have many channels even though we don't have a channelized system in amateur radio. I know some are pushing to get the rules changed to accomodate their operating preferences. If you were to try and send an ALE call to several different frequencies over a short span of time, how do you insure you are not QRMing someone? How are you able to listen for a frequency already being in use so that you do not illegally transmit on that frequency? I can see ALE possibly being used on one HF band for a selcal system similar to what we had in the old days with RTTY selcal and similar modes, but to transmit on many different frequency bands in a few seconds? 73, Rick, KV9U Andrew O'Brien wrote: If it can not work at least as well as Multipsk with DX Lab's interoperation, it is not really ready for prime time. 73, Rick, KV9U But Rick, some of the best TV shows are on osbcure channels and not broadcast in prime time. Give ALE a little more time and you will see it's potential. Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org
Re: [digitalradio] HF Automatic Link Establishment and QRL
Hi! Wouldn't it be nice to have a FAQ or a generic Step-By-Step to help folks in their start on ALE? Does anyone have the skills and knowledge to do it? Best regards Sal CT2IRJ On 8/21/06, Andrew O'Brien [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On 8/20/06, KV9U [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: If you were to try and send an ALE call to several different frequencies over a short span of time, how do you insure you are not QRMing someone? How are you able to listen for a frequency already being in use so that you do not illegally transmit on that frequency? Good point Rick. I am always in control whenever I make an individual call over different frequencies, so I can just kill the call if the freq is occupied. You do raise an interesting question though. Andy K3UK Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org Other areas of interest: The MixW Reflector : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup/ DigiPol: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digipol (band plan policy discussion) Yahoo! Groups Links -- Cumprimentos Salomão Fresco CT2IRJ If it works... dont fix it! [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org Other areas of interest: The MixW Reflector : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup/ DigiPol: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digipol (band plan policy discussion) Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
RE: [digitalradio] ALE On-The-Air Week (13-23 Oct) HF Automatic Link Establishment
Freqs all controlled by ALE software, not to worry, and uses rig control commands to manipulate the transceiver. Hank KI4MF/NN0BBX _ From: digitalradio@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of WA7HYD Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2006 5:52 PM To: digitalradio@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [digitalradio] ALE On-The-Air Week (13-23 Oct) HF Automatic Link Establishment Either I am totally misunderstanding the ALE concept, or the principal requires a special purpose dedicated transceiver and computer dedicated to ALE. To call on several frequencies would require programming memory locations and then incrementing the memory location periodically, with some type of abort scheme in case a connection was made. A band plan controller might be employed to pseudo-control band-switching to follow the gray-line. I doubt that one of the currently available transceivers offered to the general ham market would last a month with that kind of cyclic pounding on band-switching mechanicals or the necessary (?) antenna tuner. Just some ramblings of perceived problems facing the ham mulling the feasibility of implementing such a scheme. The End On Aug 20, 2006, at 3:11 PM, KV9U wrote: Prime time meaning that it doesn't actually work yet. If the program completely crashes upon attempting to transmit the tones, that suggests that more work is needed. Perhaps I am the only one who has experienced this? Another concern I have is that this is another one of those modes that almost has to have many channels even though we don't have a channelized system in amateur radio. I know some are pushing to get the rules changed to accomodate their operating preferences. If you were to try and send an ALE call to several different frequencies over a short span of time, how do you insure you are not QRMing someone? How are you able to listen for a frequency already being in use so that you do not illegally transmit on that frequency? I can see ALE possibly being used on one HF band for a selcal system similar to what we had in the old days with RTTY selcal and similar modes, but to transmit on many different frequency bands in a few seconds? 73, Rick, KV9U Andrew O'Brien wrote: If it can not work at least as well as Multipsk with DX Lab's interoperation, it is not really ready for prime time. 73, Rick, KV9U But Rick, some of the best TV shows are on osbcure channels and not broadcast in prime time. Give ALE a little more time and you will see it's potential. Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster. Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org dynalias.org Other areas of interest: The MixW Reflector : http://groups. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup/ yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup/ DigiPol: http://groups. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digipol yahoo.com/group/Digipol (band plan policy discussion) Yahoo! Groups Links [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org Other areas of interest: The MixW Reflector : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup/ DigiPol: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digipol (band plan policy discussion) Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
re: ALE Concept - Re: [digitalradio] ALE On-The-Air Week (13-23 Oct) HF Automatic Link Establishment
Hi Robert, Its rather simple, I see on QRZ.com in your station photo you have a Kenwood, using that and lets assume you have a single NVIS antenna for 160-30m and a Skywave antenna for 20-10m. 1. In setup you enter your Callsign as your ALE SELF ADDRESS and you enter a number of other parameters, some of which are the Sounding Period of say 60 minutes and a ReSounding period of say 5 minutes and you select to perform Soundings. There are many more parameters but lets keep it simple. You also select for using a Kenwood radio and the com port. You select your PTT method, CAT or RTS/DTR and comm port. You can also select to use just one TX audio level setting or to enter a value for each cahnnel to maintain a level RF output across the bands or more or less as desired. 2. You program an ALE Scan GROUP with a channel for each band 160m-10m (except 60m) using USB as the mode. In MARS-ALE you also select the antenna port for each channel and to use any ATU, a number of ATU and ATU SW hardware choices are available, in the new PC-ALE at present its just the LDG AT-200PC that supports your ATU and ANT SW support. 3. With PC-ALE you will want to place your Kenwood radio into SPLIT VFO manually (for ICOM you select it on the GENERIC interface) with MARS-ALE is all automatic in that various methods are used to drop out the power amplifier bandpass relays during scanning, both SPLIT VFO and radio specific Bypass command (and when people modify their radios logic lines). 4. You start ALE Scanning or Scanning and Sounding. You Kenwood radio is in SPLIT VFO and the PC-ALE software is writing the RX frequency and mode (when it changes) to VFO A, if you are just Scanning that continues until an ALE signal is heard, which pauses the Scanning and notes the remote ALE station SELF ADDRESS and prints the activity to your screen and enters that station into you OTHER (stations heard) database and ranks the station (based on BER and SNR) on that channel and then you continue Scanning. If you are also set for Sounding, your station will make Sounding transmissions on each channel you authorized once each during the Period (60 minute example) that you specify, if you have Voice Detect on or it hears a digital tone, it will place that channel into ReSounding for the period you entered (5 minute example) and come back to it. When you Kenwood goes into Sounding, PC-ALE writes the frequency and mode (if changed) to the VFO B and at TX your BPF relays select the proper filter section and then when you go back in to RX on VFO A, the relays go back to bypass. In MARS-ALE we have many options for ATU with both CAT radio ATU and external ATU like the LDG AT200PC and RS-232 signal lines, Antenna selection via CAT radio ANT ports, LDG AT200PC ANT ports, LDG DTS-4 and DTS-6 ANT switches, ACOM 2000S and RS232 signal lines with more to be added, the ATU and ANT SW is used channel by channel as user configured. 5. During all the Scanning and Sounding if any station is doing the same as you, then you calling them or them calling you while Scanning will result in an LQA Individual Call which means that PC-ALE will choose the best channel based on the BER and SNR data collected, that channel will be like 80-85% of MUF more than likely, regardless, of all the channels common between the two stations, the one with the lowest BER and highest SNR will be chosen. If you have an LQA Time Out of say 90 minutes and you have not heard the station anymore in that last 90 minutes, then you have no good LQA data for that station and PC-ALE will automatically call on the highest channel, an automatic indication to just stop the call. A station that is not capable of full multi-channel operation can make a single channel call to a Scanning station as well, they would need to make use of propagation software to attempt choosing the best channel during a 24/7 day and and seasonal/Solar Cycle affects etc. I hope this better explains as least regarding the aspects covered, the basics of how ALE works and how the Amateur Radio grade equipments are utilized. /s/ Steve, N2CKH/AAR2EY At 06:51 PM 8/20/2006, you wrote: Either I am totally misunderstanding the ALE concept, or the principal requires a special purpose dedicated transceiver and computer dedicated to ALE. To call on several frequencies would require programming memory locations and then incrementing the memory location periodically, with some type of abort scheme in case a connection was made. A band plan controller might be employed to pseudo-control band-switching to follow the gray-line. I doubt that one of the currently available transceivers offered to the general ham market would last a month with that kind of cyclic pounding on band-switching mechanicals or the necessary (?) antenna tuner. Just some ramblings of perceived problems facing the ham mulling the feasibility of implementing such a scheme.
Re: [digitalradio] Does an RST of 519 Make Sense ?
519 means I have an ICOM $7800. Leigh/WA5ZNU On Sun, 20 Aug 2006 3:56 pm, Andrew O'Brien wrote: Does an RST of 519 Make Sense ? Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org Other areas of interest: The MixW Reflector : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup/ DigiPol: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digipol (band plan policy discussion) Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Re: [digitalradio] Does an RST of 519 Make Sense ?
I wish. On 8/20/06, Leigh L Klotz, Jr. [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: 519 means I have an ICOM $7800. Leigh/WA5ZNU On Sun, 20 Aug 2006 3:56 pm, Andrew O'Brien wrote: Does an RST of 519 Make Sense ? -- Andy K3UK Fredonia, New York. Skype Me : callto://andyobrien73 Also available via Echolink [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org Other areas of interest: The MixW Reflector : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup/ DigiPol: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digipol (band plan policy discussion) Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[digitalradio] Getting Started: ALE Automatic Link Establishment - Software or Hardware
The HFLINK.COM website http://hflink.com has information and articles for amateur radio operators about getting started in ALE on the air. HFLINK is the download site for the latest released versions of PCALE software for using ham radio transceivers for ALE. An amateur ALE operating manual is being written, but not yet available. The HFLINK group running on yahoo is available to help anyone set up ALE. You may join it at HFLINK.COM By using the improved yahoo group search engine for HFLINK group messages, it is possible to see the evolution of ALE in amateur radio, as well as answer most questions hams have have about amateur ALE. PCALE software is currently in use by thousands of hams and government agencies. The author of the software, Charles G4GUO, has generously made PCALE available free for hams to use. ALE is important for HF radio operators because it is rapidly becoming the defacto worldwide standard for most non-amateur HF two-way communications. For those who are interested in interoperative HF emergency communications for governmental and non-governmental organizations, ALE is essential. Recently, two less expensive HF transceivers with built-in ALE have appeared on the market. The Vertex VX-1700 and the Icom IC-F7000. Both of these are being sold at about the same cost as a medium-priced HF ham transceiver. Bonnie KQ6XA Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org Other areas of interest: The MixW Reflector : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup/ DigiPol: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digipol (band plan policy discussion) Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[digitalradio] Too hot? Try this radio gig
ANTARCTIC RADIO OPERATOR NEEDED. Alan, VK6CQ/VK0LD/VP8PJ/9V1DX, reports: I am looking for someone for a temporary position as a radio/communications operator at Patriot Hills, Antarctica, this coming season. The job involves maintaining voice communications with Twin Otter aircraft and mountaineering parties on HF, VHF and Iridium satellite. This would suit an experienced HF amateur radio operator and is a paid position with airfares to/from Punta Arenas provided. Patriot Hills is located at 80 degrees South, at the southern end of the Ellsworth Mountains and is serviced by a weekly 5 hour flight on an Ilyushin 76 cargo jet from Punta Arenas, Chile. Accommodation, food etc. at Patriot Hills is provided free of charge. Dates are approximately mid October 2006 to end of January 2007, but a shorter period may be negotiated for suitable candidates. The position requires very good English language skills and a reasonable level of fitness. If you are interested, contact Alan at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To see pictures and info on Patriot Hills, visit Alan's Web page at: http://www.geocities.com/vk0ld/home.html From Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org Other areas of interest: The MixW Reflector : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup/ DigiPol: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digipol (band plan policy discussion) Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Re: [digitalradio] Too hot? Try this radio gig
There you go Andrew, you done gone and busted his Web site! :-) doc Andrew O'Brien wrote: ANTARCTIC RADIO OPERATOR NEEDED. Alan, VK6CQ/VK0LD/VP8PJ/9V1DX, reports: I am looking for someone for a temporary position as a radio/communications operator at Patriot Hills, Antarctica, this coming season. The job involves maintaining voice communications with Twin Otter aircraft and mountaineering parties on HF, VHF and Iridium satellite. This would suit an experienced HF amateur radio operator and is a paid position with airfares to/from Punta Arenas provided. Patriot Hills is located at 80 degrees South, at the southern end of the Ellsworth Mountains and is serviced by a weekly 5 hour flight on an Ilyushin 76 cargo jet from Punta Arenas, Chile. Accommodation, food etc. at Patriot Hills is provided free of charge. Dates are approximately mid October 2006 to end of January 2007, but a shorter period may be negotiated for suitable candidates. The position requires very good English language skills and a reasonable level of fitness. If you are interested, contact Alan at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To see pictures and info on Patriot Hills, visit Alan's Web page at: http://www.geocities.com/vk0ld/home.html From Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin -- Thanks! 73, doc, KD4E ... somewhere in FL URL: bibleseven (dot) com Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org Other areas of interest: The MixW Reflector : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup/ DigiPol: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digipol (band plan policy discussion) Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Re: [digitalradio] Does an RST of 519 Make Sense ?
Looks to me like you answered your own question! 73 WB4M - Original Message - From: Andrew O'Brien To: digitalradio@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2006 6:51 PM Subject: [digitalradio] Does an RST of 519 Make Sense ? Does an RST of 519 Make Sense ? I had a QSO with KE5CO on 30M tonight via Throb/4, I could barely hear him or see his signal on the Multipsk waterfall but his copy was 100%. So, I guess a 51 is legitimate. R = READABILITY 1 -- Unreadable 2 -- Barely readable, occasional words distinguishable 3 -- Readable with considerable difficulty 4 -- Readable with practically no difficulty 5 -- Perfectly readable S = SIGNAL STRENGTH 1 -- Faint signals, barely perceptible -- Andy K3UK Fredonia, New York. Skype Me : callto://andyobrien73 Also available via Echolink [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org Other areas of interest: The MixW Reflector : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup/ DigiPol: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digipol (band plan policy discussion) Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Re: [digitalradio] Does an RST of 519 Make Sense ?
Now that was funny! Kev K4VD On 8/20/06, Leigh L Klotz, Jr. [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: 519 means I have an ICOM $7800. Leigh/WA5ZNU Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org Other areas of interest: The MixW Reflector : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup/ DigiPol: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digipol (band plan policy discussion) Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[digitalradio] Re: PC-ALE and CAT Control
Fine, Steve, but none of that satisfies the need for interoperation with logging applications - including the ability to log the frequency in use. If you are scanning/sounding more than one frequency at those rates, I sincerely hope your implementation includes a busy detector that prevents transmission on any frequency that is already in use. Otherwise, its entirely incompatible with amateur radio. 73, Dave, AA6YQ --- In digitalradio@yahoogroups.com, Steve Hajducek [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi Dave, As fine a product as DXLab, HRD or anything else may be for casual Amateur Radio CAT Rig control, nothing is geared for the needed support of ALE Scanning/Sounding at 1, 2 and 5 channels/second (the future MIL-STD-188-141 goal being 10 ch/sec) taking into account all the various needs of radio port selection and the bypassing of Power Amplifier Band Pass Filter relays all within the timing constraints of RX to TX turn around and factoring in an Automatic Antenna Tuning Unit. PC-ALE was originally written for a few specific radios, similar to the U.S. Government ALElite tool what was written for just one make/model radio. The most critical focus is not the CAT Rig control but rather the challenging Military Standard protocols. With MARS-ALE, derived from the PC-ALE baseline, a big effort was made to support all suitable 2-30Mhz coverage (e.g. Ten Tec Orion is not supported as its ham band only) SSB transceivers in use by MARS members, be it Amateur, Commercial, Marine or Military grade as we needed all MARS members operational with ALE in short order. We kept that library current and it has been provided to for integration to PC-ALE. When that library is integrated into the PC-ALE baseline in a future release all the desired make/model radios should then be supported. A listing of all supported make/model transceivers and receivers in MARS-ALE can be found in the document at http://www.n2ckh.com/MARS_ALE_FORUM/ALE102BRHUGAA.zip when it was last updated. I last updated as many things have changed but not that document yet, the new FT2000 was just coded and MICOM and SEA units are being coded and we are waiting to hear if the new Ten Tec Omni VII will support 2-30Mhz out of band, the VX-1700 is being reviewed. In guard channel receivers the new ICOM PCR-1500 and 2500 receivers were added and we just heard about the new IC-R9500 receiver as well, see: http://ndl-dx.se/icom_r9500/http://ndl-dx.se/icom_r9500/ In closing, those that have problems making PC-ALE work with their current radio simply need to be patient. P.S. - I seen a question in passing about PTT on a 2nd serial port aside from the CAT port, that is supported in the PC-ALE Beta as well as MARS-ALE. Sincerely, /s/ Steve Hajducek, N2CKH/AAR2EY U.S. Army MARS-ALE Software Development Team [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MARS-ALE/ Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are my own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policy of U.S. Army MARS management, or the Department of Army. At 03:45 PM 8/20/2006, you wrote: Does PC-ALE include an API that would enable interaction with DXLab? If you point me at a URL, Rick, I'll take a look. 73, Dave, AA6YQ [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org Other areas of interest: The MixW Reflector : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup/ DigiPol: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digipol (band plan policy discussion) Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
ALE and Amateur Radio - Re: [digitalradio] ALE On-The-Air Week (13-23 Oct) HF Automatic Link Establishment
Reporting that the PC-ALE application crashes seems like reasonable feedback. Labeling this feedback as a complaint is not the way to encourage more feedback and the improvements it can drive. 73, Dave, AA6YQ --- In digitalradio@yahoogroups.com, Steve Hajducek [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi Rick, Its rather simple actually. Regarding the first item, as ALE is sophisticated and originally meant for Military and Government users with all the wealth of expandable capabilities, its was designed to implemented in via dedicated firmware/hardware Controllers/Modems and specially designed radios that were up to the task. However that hardware costs 3 to 5 thousand U.S. Dollars for the bare minimum capabilities in Commercial dress and much, much more for the Military grade basics, then when you add the DTM and DBM protocols and the high speed MIL-STD-188- 110 serial tone modem and additional BRD/ARQ protocols it adds 5 to 10 thousand more dollars to the price tag. So if you see the need for ALE and have the money, you can buy the hardware, however PC-ALE and your existing Amateur Radio grade SSB transceiver will allow one to participate in ALE operations for a lot less money, so why complain, make due and in time like most good things, it will be even better. As to the second part of your slant, yes, ALE operation to take full advantage of what ALE offers and normal Amateur Radio communications as those of us that have been around (I started in 1963 with SWL and 1979 licensed Amateur) for while know differ quite a bit as multi-channel Soundings are required to build that Link Quality Analysis (LQA) database so that you always get a link on the best channel with the lowest Bit Error Rate (BER) and highest Signal To Noise Ratio (SNR), its just the nature of the beast and one of the better aspects of ALE to maximize the use of changing propagation. So to take advantage of the ALE technology new operating habits need to be embraced on a channelized basis, what's the problem, we have lots of elbow room in all but the 60m (just channelized) band to provide for ALE and the hardware ALE and PC-ALE software controllers in accordance with the Military Standards requirements have features to inhibit transmitting on busy channels if the channel is busy when being listened to by the ALE controller just prior to making a Sounding or Linking call. Reading either the standards or even just an ALE radio user manual, one will see how well thought out the entire ALE system is as to not only what it offers, but how it goes about providing it all. There is nothing else like it and its now being used by most all Nations in the world, free world or not, the Iranians and Chinese make domestic ALE hardware, you don't see that happen unless there is really something to it ! The Amateur Radio Service needs to embrace ALE just as much in my opinion, in the U.S. all Federal Agencies are moving to ALE and STANAG 5066, the agencies that ARRL ARES serve, those of us in ARS ECOM need to be up to speed with an ALE solution and for most of us that means PC Sound Device Modem based and not expensive ALE hardware. There there is all the digital mode fun of ALE for the casual Amateur Radio enthusiast as well, even if you just use ALE to nab your buddy on the best channel and then once linked switch over to keyboard to keyboard mode like Olivia or whatever or just leave your buddy a message and clear the link as he is not there at that moment. The HFlkink sponsored ALE On-The-Air Week (13-23 Oct) HF Automatic Link Establishment that has been the subject line on these messages will be a very good opportunity for all Amateurs to hear and part take in ALE on the ham bands, its just far enough away to get ready for it if you are starting from scratch. Just my opinion. /s/ Steve, N2CKH/AAR2EY At 07:23 PM 8/20/2006, you wrote: Prime time meaning that it doesn't actually work yet. If the program completely crashes upon attempting to transmit the tones, that suggests that more work is needed. Perhaps I am the only one who has experienced this? Another concern I have is that this is another one of those modes that almost has to have many channels even though we don't have a channelized system in amateur radio. I know some are pushing to get the rules changed to accomodate their operating preferences. If you were to try and send an ALE call to several different frequencies over a short span of time, how do you insure you are not QRMing someone? How are you able to listen for a frequency already being in use so that you do not illegally transmit on that frequency? I can see ALE possibly being used on one HF band for a selcal system similar to what we had in the old days with RTTY selcal and similar modes, but to transmit on many different frequency bands in a few seconds?
