PRACTICAL DEMONSTRATION OF E-MAIL OVER HAM RADIO

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PRACTICAL DEMONSTRATION OF E-MAIL OVER HAM RADIO
L. E. bud Thompson N0IA
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E-mail over Ham Radio With no internet
connection at a tactical site the Ham Radio
e-mail station must make contact with a Winlink
2000 (WL2K) network station over long range High
Frequency (HF) or line-of-site VHF/UHF using
digital modes.
USER ACCESS TO WL2K E-MAIL SYSTEM
HF To any PMBO station using Pactor
76 PMBO stations worldwide, four in Florida
VHF UHF To any Telpac Node using Packet
670 Telpac Nodes worldwide
372 Telpac Nodes active 31 in Florida
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HF PACTOR PMBOS
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TELPAC NODES VHF UHF USER ACCESS TO WL2K
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FLORIDA PACKET NETWORK Extends range of Telpac
Nodes
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PRACTICAL DEMONSTRATION OF E-MAIL OVER HAM RADIO
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On Saturday March 10, 2007 I set up to
demonstrate e-mail over ham radio from a tactical
site in Gemini Springs State Park near DeBary,
Florida 20 miles north of Orlando on the St.
Johns River. I employed both HF Pactor and VHF
packet systems. Two friends from our club, Bill
N4ZZO and Frank KK4RW, set up a 2 meter station
to demonstrate using repeaters throughout the
area.
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E-mail Over Ham Radio
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On VHF I used Paclink AGW on the local packet
network LAN (Orlando Linux FPAC switch 145.07
N4PLZ-8/9) where I could use the N4PLZ-10 Telpac
node at the switch. Southward I could use any of
four telpac nodes (the farthest 18 miles south,)
on the same 2m LAN but only through the network
switch as my dual band J-pole (2m/70cm) antenna
was only 10 ft agl.
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Northward, through the Orlando network switch, I
could use the N3PPC-10 Telpac node on the Deland
FPAC Linux switch (N3PPC-8/9) 10 miles away, or
any of three Telpac nodes on the DeLand user
LANs (144.91 1200b or 446.550 9.6kb.)
From DeLand then 20 miles NE to the Daytona Beach
Switch, another 50 miles NNW to the St. Augustine
Switch, and another 35 miles NNW I could use the
WD4SEN-10 Telpac node on the Orange Park FPAC
Linux switch (WD4SEN-8/9) near Jacksonville
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Any of the telpac nodes tested could be reached
by a simple connect script on 145.070 from the
tactical site in Gemini State Park north of
Orlando -
C lttelpacnodecallgt v N4PLZ-9
as they all are on the automatic routing White
Pages scheme maintained by the FPAC network.
A Telpac Node bridges the connected packet user
to an internet connection.
What if there is no Telpac Node accessible in the
area? (Think Katrina 2005)
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HF PACTOR PMBOS LINK USERS TO INTERNET E-MAIL
The Airmail program was used for these tests
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Starting at 0945EST the only PMBO I could reach
on 20 meters was VE2AFQ in Montreal Canada (1230
statute miles.) That PMBO was useable with full
throughput rate throughout the exercise until we
broke camp at 1500EST.
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Propagation on 20 meters was not favorable to any
other PMBOs until nearly 1300EST when WB5KSD
(near Dallas, TX 960 miles) was contacted though
throughput was slow. Signal levels increased
over the next 30 minutes to allow max throughput
for the Pactor1 link. By 1330 VE1YZ in Nova
Scotia (1370 miles) was also solid. E-mail
transfers could be made using any of these PMBOs.
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During short exercises at public gatherings such
as this one it is not practical to try all
possible routes to make a link to a network
station. The current sunspot cycle activity
(Solar Flux Index less than 75) was not favorable
for many contacts on 20 meters until later in the
afternoon.
In a full tactical test or actual event 40 meters
would have permitted linking to many more PMBO
stations on the HF map during the morning hours.
Considering the minimalist antenna (mobile
vertical antenna ten ft off the ground) and low
power (50w) this exercise ably demonstrates the
value of the e-mail over ham radio network to
provide e-mail messaging to and from outside The
Last Mile during conditions of local
communications emergency.
The voice tests on 2 meters from this site
confirmed that Emergency Operations Centers,
incident sites, and tactical stations in the
five-county East Central District could have been
contacted.
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