Ha! When you weren’t looking or attending meetings, the soldiers of Orange were busy at work. Indeed, at the last VAPO meeting (November 27^th.), attended by perhaps 17 souls (the AGM, I might add), democratic elections were held in accordance with our cherished constitution. After some scuffling near the coffee machine, President Wilson announced that he would not be seeking re-election. Secret agent and known Orange sympathizer, Don MacDonald (AKW type) nominated the hung-over Orange, and before you could say Tierra del Fuego, elections were over and some new guys found themselves Directors.

No-one really knows how any of this actually transpired as the following quote from the minutes of meeting suggest: …" Elections were held and the present ‘management’ were either re-elected or newly elected." I couldn’t have written (re-written) history like that myself! Anyway, the returning Directors and other illuminatti are:

Bill – VE7QC

Fred – VE7EE

Lee – VE7CC

Larry – VE7CFF

Lane – VE7IHL – Technical Wizard, Director & Honoured Past President

Tom – VE7DID – Secretary and Treasurer (collapsing one position)

James – VE7JMS – Sysop (VE7SRY)

Gerry – VE7IIR – Sysop (VE7CMR)

Jerome – VE7ASS – President for Life (2 year term) and your Hon. Editor.

That having been said, a belated millenial greeting to you all. Turn on your BEACONS and DIGI through everybody. Let us go forward and make Braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak together.

El-Presidente

Well, Y2K came and went for all of us, and amazingly the VAPO packet radio systems just kept on working. The ve7ihl/ve7vbs Pentium-150 computer kept on running right through midnight Dec. 31, 1999, and had no problems with Linux or XFBB. The only minor problems showed up in the Tnos software, which I was able to make the fixes in the source code, re-compile and re-install quite quickly. The same Tnos Y2K fixed version is also running on the ve7kit/ve7cc computer.

There are some other minor Y2K problems with the XFBB (Linux X-Windows based) v7.00g BBS software, that I have not yet had the time to re-compile the source code and re-install yet.

Interestingly, the ve7nsr 486DX4-100 computer’s bios did NOT pass the Year 2000 test! It failed miserably. No matter how many times I put the year 2000 into the CMOS setup screen, it would set it back to 1994. I had to write a quick DOS kludge ‘fix-it-up’ program to be run from the DOS Config.sys file to fix the problem for this year. See more on the NSR machine below.

On Saturday, Jan. 15^th, I visited the ve7kit/ve7cc site and made the following software improvements:

1. Installed the newly Y2K fixed Tnos program for ve7cc TCP/IP BBS program
2. VE7KIT will now answer directly on the UHF 441.050 9600-baud radio port. This will improve BBS forwarding with KIT, as one less digi packet needs to be used, and the digi path no longer needs to go through the Tnos program.
3. VE7CC is now directly available on both 144.430 and 145.070+ 1200-baud radio ports. You can now connect directly to ve7cc on these 2m 1200b ports, no need to connect to the ve7kit-3 node first.
4. If you connect to VE7CC-2 on either 144.430, or on 145.070+, you will be put right into the Tnos Converse server. I have linked the ve7cc Tnos converse server with the ve7ihl Tnos converse server. When the updated ve7nsr (Linux based) machine goes into service, it will also have its Tnos converse server linked to ve7cc and ve7ihl. This will provide a (semi-) real-time keyboarding method for many of the packet users in the lower mainland to easily keyboard between each other. You will be able to use this service on any of the 144.430, 145.070+ (use ve7cc-2), 144.970, 147.580 (use ve7ihl-2), 145.010 (use ve7nsr-2) 1200 baud user ports.

I purchased a new APC Backup-UPS 500 for the ve7ihl/ve7vbs packet radio computer, and got it installed in early January 2000. This UPS has the RS-232 serial port for a computer connection on the back of it.

Now, you would think that an rs-232 serial port is a standard thing, and a simple (standard) 9 pin rs-232 cable could be used between the UPS and the computer. You guessed it, no such luck. APC would like you to purchase there ‘special’ serial cable, and Windows software from them. This does not do me any good as I am running Linux. You would also think that the documentation that came with the UPS would just give the rs-232 connector pinout and you could easily make your own cable. How about that the various signal pins on the rs-232 connector actually using rs-232 voltage levels? Well you can determine by now what the problems I had to over come. They were:

1. No documentation on the rs-232 connector pinouts
2. Not all signals on the rs-232 connector use real rs-232 voltage levels. The Low battery signal is an open-collector type output. This means it needs some sort of pull-up voltage. I used a 4k7 resistor pulled up with the computer’s serial port output handshake line RTS.
3. No Linux software supplied.

So, I reversed engineered it all! Here is what I came up with.

Name DB9-Computer DB9-UPS Name

TXD 3 ---------------------------------1 Shutdown UPS (input +12V to turn off the UPS)

CD 1ß -------------------------------2 AC Line Fail (output = +12v = AC Fail)

GND 5----------------------------------4 Ground

CTS 8ß -------------------------------5 Low Battery condition, open collector(2)Minutes left)

RTS 7à -----/\/\/\/\/\------------------5

4K7 Resistor

What this means is:

• Use a serial ‘Break’ character to shut-down the UPS (only works when AC Power is gone)
• Use CD (DCD) input to monitor the AC power fail line
• Use CTS input to monitor the Low Battery condition
• Ensure that the RTS output line is set true (to provide a pull-up for the low-battery line)

The Linux software I used was called Genpower. It was available on the Slackware Linux 3.6 CD, and was well documented in the genpowerd.doc file. This software package is suited for ‘dumb’ UPS like the APC 500 I have. The only real difficulty was selecting which software package to use. There are many of them for Linux, most of them not documented very well.

The Linux files I had to modify where /etc/inittab, /etc/rc.d/rc.local, and /etc/rc.d/rc.0

When the AC power fails, the computer is notified, and the genpowerd program starts a 15-minute delayed Linux shutdown cycle. If the AC power is restored, then the genpowerd program cancels the Linux shutdown cycle. If the genpowerd program detects the low battery signal, it immediately starts a Linux (non-delayed) shutdown sequence. The last thing that the Linux shutdown script does (rc.0) is to send a break character out the serial port to shut down the UPS. This will remove the (backup) AC power from the computer. When normal AC power is restored, the UPS starts up normally, and the computer also powers up normally.

This is all done to avoid problems with a corrupt Linux file system, if the AC power is removed from a computer running Linux WITHOUT performing an orderly shutdown. This is because Linux does not write data to the hard disk write away, but instead it buffers up the data in memory, and writes it at a later time. This allows for faster and more efficient disk writes.

For the last several months, I have had the ve7nsr packet computer here in the ham shack. The machine that is currently running the ve7nsr DOS based FBB software is a spare/loaner 486 computer. Here is what was done in the hardware:

• Install a new 100MB internal IDE ZIP drive for backup purposes
• Install an IDE CD ROM drive (to install Linux and be used for call-book CDs)
• Install a 10BT Ethernet card
• Install more ram, bringing the machine up to 40M total system ram

The DOS partition on the 850M hard drive was shrunk down to 50M, and Slackware Linux v3.6 was installed on the remainder of the hard drive. The same Tnos and Xfbb Linux versions of software that run on the IHL and KIT machines was also installed on the NSR machine. The only trick here was that this time I had to use the VE7NSR callsign for both the Tnos AND the XFBB programs. I have been forwarding between the ve7vbs machine and the Linux based ve7nsr machine in the ham shack via a 10baseT Ethernet connection to keep the FBB message/bulletin base up to date. When the machine is installed in North Vancouver, NSR users should not notice too much difference. (hopefully)

• Linux Netrom switch NSARC:VE7NSR-3
• XFBB BBS NSRBBS:VE7NSR(-0)
• Tnos TCP/IP BBS VE7NSR-1
• Tnos Netrom not used, disabled
• Tnos Converse Server VE7NSR-2

This machine supports 10 separate serial ports, 8 of them resident on a DIGI 8 port serial card. The RF ports are:

• 442.975+ TPARC 1200 baud network drop
• 145.010 1200 baud user port
• 440.775+ VAPO 9600 baud backbone forwarding port

The configuration has yet to be determined, but the NSR packet machine will have a connection to the Internet, and also be live on the internal building’s network as well. (Possible network connection with R.C.M.P. and North/West Vancouver Emergency Program) This allows the possibility of having packet radio messages come in over the air, and be automatically distributed to various emergency centers inside the building.

Bill, ve7qc will be performing sysop duties on this machine. Stay tuned later this year for more information on this new packet radio setup.

CUL, and have fun on packet....

SFU is the only machine not up-dated with new sofware. SRY now has a UPS.

SRY, VBS and KIT now have zip drives for back-up.

Scott (N7FSP) Seattle node operator running a 220 node.

Perhaps we can communicate from a North Van site using 220 (future project) would provide another link out of the Vancouver area.

Tom finances are $1914.00 as of November 27^th.

We belong to Tapr and we can get electronic kits at 20% off.

That is all the funds that were spend in the last few months.

We presently have ninety six members of which fifteen have expired their memberships. [We now have about 50 members as of January 25^th. Ed.]

Sysop Reports

The machine is running on Linux which has a slight glitch. Lee will check with Jerome as his site is running quite well.

KIT is using the QRZ database for call signs which is dated 1997 and is out of date and must be replaced in the near future.

The site at Lee’s place now has a backup generator which will kick in after about 3 days of battery use. He has an enormous back-up battery supply which usually gets through most power outages, however this past year was an exceptionally bad year for storms.

Site is running Jnos and has been very reliable for the last six months.

The old TPG gateway is in reserve if the SFU machine should die.

CQD has a lot of hiccups lately as it over heated because the fan died causing the CD Rom to quit. It is presently running Windows ‘95.

Users are stable . About 25% of his users are now via the internet or HF with users as far away as Kuwait and Uganda.

Because of a fire on October 7^th the back bone was lost for twenty-three hours and it then came back by it self. He has eight users daily with a total of twelve or so. On November 11^th, 1998 DOS-FBB7 was installed at the site which has resulted in the majority of all the bugs being fixed.

A 486-66 computer with Linux will be installed to run the system similar to IHL’s in the very near future, hopefully by Christmas. Currently using a system similar to CMR’s. Expect by year end the Linux software will be working and an Internet link will be installed with the North Shore Emergency Program to work with the web site.

BCEP program is under development and may be in use by the end of November.

Six users are standard. The UPS is now functional which provides four to six hours of running time. VE7AS gave Vapo a deal on sealed lead acid batteries at $7.00 per battery. These batteries are similar to the ones used in alarm panels. The radio path between VE7IHL and VE7SRY occasionally fails and trouble shooting is still taking place. As a new building is going in next door this may have some effect on the RF path.

Everything is humming along with no problems.

GAZETTE: -Jerome VE7ASS, feels we need the printed copy as well as the web copy. Basically everyone agreed and Walter BGJ wanted the packet version as he uses software which can read the ASCII characters because of his blindness. Tom VE7DID mentioned that he had a few inquires about getting a paper version as it seems people like to read a hard copy. It was discussed about the various steps required to print the paper version and Gary VE7AS would have to be consulted as to the process. Discussion also came up about the various software required to produce the gazette. VAPO purchased MS Frontpage and MS Publisher a while ago for this purpose. The consensus was that we would start producing a paper version early next year as well as a web and packet version.

Walter VE7BGJ indicated that packet was perhaps losing favour because it is so simple that we have missed the masses and not because of the costs involved.

Tom VE7DID indicated that all of the users in the Seattle area are using 1200 baud and not 9600. This info came from Scott N7FSP.

Tom VE7DID indicated that all of the users in the Seattle area are using 1200 baud and not 9600. This info came from Scott N7FSP.

Jerome VE7ASS was inquiring of Bill VE7QC, how and what the different municipalities do to communicate with one another. Bill indicated that the plan is to use BCEP (BC Emergency Packet Communications System written by Ian Simpson) to do this function as it is a very simple system to use for volunteer operators who are unfamiliar with packet operation. It was suggested that we should try and use the program to become familiar with it. In fact Tom VE7DID, Bill VE7QC and Jerome VE7ASS did partake in a small test and the program does indeed work although it seemed a little slow in transferring data for some reason or other. It appeared that the performance using the VAPO repeater on Seymour performed better than the BC Tel site, perhaps because of better propagation.

If we are going to get in the emergency business, Lane was suggesting that possibly rebooting of all the VAPO users computers could be a possible way to easily configure the computers for an ‘Emergency Mode’ in event of an emergency.

Tom VE7DID was asking if all of the various municipalities were aware of the BCEP program and Bill VE7QC mentioned that certainly the North Shore and GVRD are aware of it, and not sure about the rest.

Walter VE7BGJ was wondering if all the various system in the LMD are compatible with one another and if there should be an effort put forward to ensure a proper compliance level.

Lane VE7IHL suggested we have a ‘technical day’ such that folks can bring in their equipment to be checked out to ensure that it is operating correctly. This was done some time ago at one of the meetings and the response was very poor.

Elections were held and the present ‘management’ were either re-elected or newly elected.

Further discussion was held about the status of the dues and whether to have a mailed out copy of the gazette. Jerome will put these questions in the next gazette and try and come with a consensus from the membership.

The meeting was adjourned at 12:04...

The above information was deciphered by Tom VE7DID from the hieroglyphics of JimVE7HUR

By VE7SPY

Life is good at Orange Central! The packet machine, a 386/25 with 4 big megs of memory is back on line running, yep, TPK. The TNC is my original 1270 with an upgraded EPROM from 1986. TPK pulls down the headers, and I cruise them and look for my personal mail a few times a day. It is just like 1990 all over again. Except that in the early 90’s there were almost 150 VAPOites, paid up and in good standing. And most of them were on one of KIT’s user ports. We are down a bit now… by around 60% I reckon.

I was quite surprised when listening to the venerable kit, through the venerable LAN, that day in and day out, I was hearing the same 6 stations (one of which was me) on 145.07. Actually 6 is optimistic… more like 4. So, I started wondering who was where, and what was the activity on the rest of the network.

Now the network is in great shape I found. Connecting to YVRKIT:VE7KIT, I could see all of the other nodes of the system and all of the other BBS’s as well. Not only could I see them, in a second or two I could actually connect to any of them. A far cry from yesteryear, believe me.

OK.. who’s around. I did a sweep of the BBS’s. Matter of fact, I did three sweeps, each two weeks apart, just to be fair and quasi-random. The results I report are cumulative, and that’s fair as I might have missed a guy first round by seconds. So, each of the BBS’s heard lists were scanned three times and the different callsigns recorded. Ready?

VE7KIT (both user ports): ve7’s ASS, HRF, FJL, IKF, DPE, AZU, PRS, CYS, AKW, SRN CQX, AVM, BDQ,YD, YR AIV, IKQ, JB, HIS, ILI, IPV, HRF, IFD, ITA, BXV IMM, AZP and SRN. As well there was KB7LYM and KG7ZC.

VE7SRY: ve7’s: QTL, IDV, MTY, HUR, IDH, DID-3, JMS, and HVR

VE7NSR: ve7’s HQM, ZX, BGJ YIO, EE, CQW, JC, and QC.

VE7CMR: ve7’s JA, JB, FY, AHX, MTY, GTE, FBB, TAG, IIR, JJF, WES, and CMA.

VE7VBS: ve7’s: KWK, TRC, IY, EB, CFF, HRA, UG, CNG, CNC, DHG, EB, HII, DHG. BAU and CFC.

I think that’s it, although I’m sure I’ve left someone out. WHO ARE YOU, and where are you attached to? Let me know.

Well, let’s count up: ….mmmm…70ish? NOT BAD!!!! Now, that’s much better than I could have expected! So, Packet ain’t dead after all. Great! We are reduced, but not dead. I needed to find that out.

Tom, VE7DID, our keeper of the books and Org. Historian, provided me with a membership list, which I’m going to edit, and present below, with his report. Matter of fact, I’m going to break the list into two parts following the report: Paid and UnPaid, following Tom’s report. Then, I’m going to continue a bit in Orange Pt. II. Standby for DID:

The financial situation in our bank account is $2,642 and our present paid up membership is at 48 members. We have 38 members whose membership has very recently expired and hopefully these folks will continue to support the club.

If the response is very minimal in the next few weeks, I will endeavour to start a small telephone campaign to jog peoples minds as I imagine it is one of those things that does not work its way to the top of the pile very often.

Our major expenditures since the last printing of a hard copy of the gazette about a year ago have been the following: Site Licences, $96; Software for Web Publishing, $89; Laptop for the Portable Packet Station, $200; ZIP Drives for Backup at KIT & SRY, $285; Antenna for VE7VPO Repeater, $110; Memberships to TAPR & IPARN, $66; Stationery & Postage, $115; and Internet Access, $85.

As can be seen, over the last number of years the membership of VAPO has been slowly dropping off to the point where if we have any major system problems with the equipment, we could be in grave problems. Hopefully we will be able to continue on and be an active group in the future.

That’s all the sad news from the money department.

...73 Tom ve7did

Ok… You’ve heard it from the man who signs the cheques. If you’re using the system; the internet gateways; e-mail via packet; the general packet messaging system, and you ain’t a member, then hang yo’ head in SHAME. The free ride isn’t going to last forever, believe me. We can only do what we can do, and that is to MAINTAIN the SYSTEM. If there aren’t enough resources, then the system will be diminished commensurate with available resources. For those who’ve dropped out, well, you’ve dropped out; but for those who haven’t and still find value in the system, and who haven’t renewed……. Let’s get it in TODAY, eh:?

Below is the list of paid members as of 29 Jan.,00

So… we have 50 paid and 72 users caught in the scan.

Below are those that forgot to renew. It's never to late: 

Can you find any of our Directors on this list?? SHAME! Anyway 72 users caught in the scan, and 50 paid members.

We have a huge investment in infrastructure and for the time being there are no problems that will require large cash outflows. That is for the time being. In the future we may not be able to support the system as it now exists on 50 members or less. Just something to think about.

If there are errors in the lists, please let me know (ve7ass@ve7kit). Apologies right now if any are paid up and still being subjected to public ridicule.

Renew Now: Send your $25 to:

VAPO c/o Tom Robson, 6510 Bradford Place,

Delta, B.C. V4E 1G3

Onward now to the BCEP report. Over to Bill – VE7QC

After many months of effort the British Columbia Emergency Packet program is now available for download from the PESSOC (Provincial Emergency Social Services Operations Centre)

web site. The URL is www.sfu.ca/~pessoc. Once there, use the links to reach the download page. BCEP is available in both zip and self extracting formats. Follow the download instructions to load it onto your own system.

BCEP will operate on a minimum configured IBM compatible system. There is an extensive installation manual in Word for Windows format to help you. Included are files for both AEA PK232 and Kantronics KPC. Other tncs may require tweaking one of these files. More tnc files

will be added in later distributions as they are tested. There are also sample forms which can

be used as is or tailored to suit local needs.

BCEP operates in a point to point mode with another BCEP system and also supports communications through the TPARC ROSE network. An unattended test system (VE7NSR) is operational on the VE7TEL VHF port on 145.09 + .600 MHz frequency. The ROSE listening address is 604432 or if you are in range of VE7TEL you can connect direct on the above VHF frequency. More information on the TPARC network and how to use it is on the web site. The VE7NSR test system will be available for the next month or so.

And while were reporting out, here’s the VE7CMR report – Go Gerry:

In the last few weeks of December 1999 the Y2K Bug Fixes start to be reported for the DOS Version of FBB 7.00g. On December 23, 1999 I installed 2 Fixes d700g23 and EPURWP.EXE. Both to fix Bugs in the White Pages. These fixes

seem to work for 2 Days then "CMR" Crashed during House Keeping on January 2, 2000. On January 03, 2000 I installed the next update d700g24. The System seemed to be running OK. On January 07, 2000 another fix came out so back

to the Site to install d700g25. Again the System seemed to be running 100% but on January 11, 2000 Crashed again during House Keeping. I went to the Site and checked the System out and rebooted the Computer. "CMR" is still running a week after this latest reset.

Listed below are the various Bug fixes for DOS FBB BBS V-7.00.

d700g23.zip - minor Y2K bug in WP - Fixed

d700g24.zip

- Y2K bug in trajectography. Fixed

- Y2K bug in date variable. Fixed

- Y2K bug in FbbDos dates. Fixed

d700g25.zip

- Y2K bug in LD and WP import. Fixed

There are Y2K compliant Versions of TPK and WinPack now available.

The TPK upgrade is TPK-183d

The WinPack upgrade is WinPack 6.51. * NOTE:- Some Packeteers have had trouble with the 6.5 upgrade not putting the Headers to the Hard Drive.

I have installed both upgrades on my Machines and both run flawlessly.

73 - Gerry, VE7IIR, Sysop of VE7CMR

Message timed: 15:32 on 14 Jan 2000

Message sent using WinPack V6.5

E-Mail:- ballgwt@uniserve.com

Now, are you ready for the VAPOizer? Ready for Freddy? Here it is……

Sunday, January 23, 2000

by Fred Engel, VE7EE

Editor:Please place the numerous disclaimers here..;

Talking about the Biggest Hype of the Century, 2YK. It certainly received a

Sitting Ovation in my neighbourhood, could also be described as a large yawn at best.

Petty the salesmen that had to issue credit notes for all those generators being returned, with the customary handsome re-stocking charges…yikes

Did you hear about the dyslexic agnostic insomniac North Shore 2YK

Operator, who stayed up all night wondering if there really were such a beasts as a Contesters turning out for Public Service events?

Well he didn’t get his picture into the paper, but is planning to be spontaneous for the next large event.

Success always occurs in private, but failure in full view.

So relax folks, you will have an equal opportunity to win the upcoming Burnaby ARC’s Flea Market to be held on Sunday March 5^th…

Bill, VE7QC, legendary VE7NSR SysOp, will be vacationing in Florida at that time, so every one will have a fair chance to win!

And how are you Paquetteers enjoying the ease with which just about any body can get a 2-letter Call from the Industry Canada Robot in Ottawa?

For every action by the Feds, there is an equal and opposite criticism.

Hard work with studying for the "Advanced" pays off in the future.

Laziness pays off now with a new Call.

And while we are chatting about new Regs., how about the FCC’s re-structuring if the US Ham Regulations…yow, a bit of a surprise with the lowering of the Morse Code requirements to 5 WPM…right across the board.

Looks like they are getting ready to do away with Code by the next ITU gathering.

Can Industry Kanata be far behind…?

I used to have an open mind, but my brains kept falling out.

Have you been reading the VECTOR Clubs News-Wire?

They’re doing a fine Job over there at 3201 E. Pender St, good luck Paulette, VE7VPE with your hard work and best regards to that other half of the Schouten team, John, VE7VPU the former DawgMan with the VPD.

Note to John courtesy of Robert Heinlein:

Women and Cats will do as they please and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea…!

And Clayton Moore recently passed away at the ripe old age of 85…

Not only did I always enjoy the playing of the William Tell Overture that was the "Lone Rangers" theme music, but also the many Episodes that continued to portray the Law and Order Horseman as a Good Guy that always won…

Congratulations to the newly elected VAPO Executive and the best of British Luck to all the "Volunteers" that "accepted" their fate, especially the new President for Life and VAPO founder Jerome, VE7ASS, who also edits this here NewsLetter.

A note to the Prez as quoted by the late Ann Landers:

Don’t accept your Dogs admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful…

Best wishes and many thanks to Lane, VE7IHL for his dedication to the VAPO Network and never ending loyalty to our Group. Thank you Lane and please negotiate a reasonable supply contract with your lovely wife for our Future Board Meetings ChocolateCookies...

And while on the subject of VAPO Biggies, what was a certain Maple Ridge BBS SysOp doing in a hidden back lot behind the Burnaby Radio Emporium, surrounded by shady characters with their cars trunk lids wide open.

The Vapoizer observed the entire scene…

And what a Bash to celebrate former Editors Gary, VE7AS House warming.

The entire APRS bunch was there or trying to home in on the new Skett Antenna Farm. My dreadful navigation to arrive at the new SkettHouse was saved by a certain retired chap named Tom,VE7DID, who was be easily tailed and listened to while on the approach to the new location.

And on the Repeater Listening Watch, the roving ZZX group having invaded the 825 machine is keeping the OldGuard of 2 (The Sparkie&Lox Show) off balance. The resulting Depression is merely anger without Enthusiasm…

Over the Holidays Visitor to [our fair city (original descriptor of town was removed by Hon. Ed.)] was the Dogger, formerly VE7AVX, VE4KV and now holder of one of those whimpy VA7 2 letter calls. Doug is now with the HMCS Naden Band in Esquimalt, an Overseas posting…

Oh what a change of pace since the Dogger played with a certain Army Band in New Westminster…!

I suppose mention should be made of what we all are expecting of Packet Radio. Once the doom and gloom of the Internetters ravings has evaporated, there still will be Packet Radio, just like there will be CW for the for

seeable future. The Emergency Responders will certainly use it for the next little while, I guess unless something better comes along.

In the meantime, let us packet on and enjoy it, one only needs to look at the latest Equipment Inventory by the legendary Tom, VE7DID to see that we have an investment to protect, period!

I intend to live forever, so far so good….please join me if you wish.

Best of 73 to you all…

Fred, VE7EE

(To "borrow" items from one person is plagiarism,

to steal from many is research…}

Those of you who turn on your packet machines might remember a bull that I sent out asking the pacqueteers to address a number of questions. I received ….mmmmm eight replies. 8/72 ..mmm, about 11%. Anyway, thanks to VE7’s IIJ, KWK, CSQ, YD, IIR, INM, BLF and BGJ. I did learn something from this. Most significant is that folks are using the system for purposes other than direct amateur packet communication. For example, access to the packet cluster; e-mail services over the internet and access to the convers servers were recurring interests. No-one keeps their stuff up 24/7, and keyboard to keyboard communications is dead. More than half of the respondents have some interest in emergency work, and everyone belongs to at least one club. Most folks are using either TPK or WINPACK, so one presumes that bull lists are being looked at. Me, I auto-download a variety of stuff that I’m interested in, use the packet gateway to test parts of my Linux system, use the dx cluster, occasionally show up on the convers servers, belong only VAPO, and don’t do any emergency work at present. So there!

I asked Keith, VE7KWK to write a few lines on using the gateways to send and receive e-mail from the internet. Here’s his few lines:

E-mail Services via Packet Radio

Firstly we must start with a caveat that extreme care and

consideration must be used in accessing this service. A lot of material flying around the Internet and a lot of E-mail content is not suitable for "family viewing" and in our case, not for transmission over amateur packet radio links. It is very possible to put your licence in jeopardy and cause personal embarrassment and

problems for the whole of the amateur packet radio community as our frequencies are open for anyone to monitor.. Discretion is the byword!

One must ensure you do not get on any mailing lists as the shear volume of material would swamp our 1200 baud terminals.

Personal mail only and TEXT files only as HTML files tend get so huge that they too can clog the system.

The following procedure is how to access the link:

 1. C YVRKIT (147.58)

2. wait for connect followed by switch information then at prompt

3. C YVRCC

4. wait for connect followed by info and prompt.

5. your in!

Your E-mail address is URCALL@SFU.VE7CC.AMPR.ORG

To send mail to E-Mail address: at the prompt use SP followed by the destination E-mail address and follow commands for entry of subject and text and again end with CTL Z or /EX.

To receive mail a list of subjects or a number indicating the message addressed to you will appear at the end of YVRCC information

package. The same command set as for packet applies R, K, B etc.

There you are folks, free e-mail service, if you watch your p’s and q’s. I use it from ve7kit. Lane has made a few system changes which makes things easier (next article), but from 145.07 thru LAN:

C VE7CC

At the TNOS prompt,

S user@emailaddress <enter>

Fill in the subject line when prompted <enter>?

Write your text when prompted and end with /ex.

Away it goes.

Your return mail is in your mailbox at VE7CC. The default area is your area, your callsign.

You can do the same thing in IHL’s TNOS gateway. From LAN:

C YVRKIT

C YVIHL

By the way, if either CC or IHL are set up to re-route your mail, it won’t work. The stuff will be taken from your area on the TNOS machine, and forwarded on. It will die the first time it hits an FBB machine as it won’t know what to do with an internet address (unless you set it up properly).

And there you are. Now let’s see what Lane did for/to the system (this was sent out as a bulletin, but in case you don’t turn on your tnc… 

About 2 weeks ago, I made software configuration changes to the VE7KIT and VE7VBS packet

BBS machines that allow the TCP/IP BBS/Email programs (ve7cc/ve7ihl) to be directly

accessed on the FBB system's user (1200 baud) ports.

a.) What does this mean for VE7KIT/ve7cc users?

It means that if you are a user of the ve7cc Tnos system, you would have previously had

to connect to the ve7kit-3 node first, and then connect to the Tnos system via the 'NET'

command. You can do this on either the 144.430 or 145.070+ user ports. Now, you can just

directly connect to the ve7cc Tnos system on 144.430 or 145.070+ by doing a direct

connect to VE7CC.

Some of you may have been seeing a 'Mail for ve7xxx' beacon from ve7cc-xx being sent out

as well. If you email going to the ve7cc Tnos system has been set up to automatically

forward your mail to the ve7kit FBB packet BBS system, then there is nothing new for you

to do. If you had to previously connect to the ve7cc Tnos system to read you (e)mail you

still have to. Remember you can now just do a direct connect to ve7cc on either of KIT's

users ports (144.430 or 145.070+). Do NOT try to connect to the ve7cc-xx beacon callsign

b.) What does this mean for VE7VBS/ve7ihl users?

It means that if you are a user of the ve7ihl Tnos system, you would have previously had

to connect to the ve7vbs-3 node first, and then connect to the Tnos system via the 'TNOS'

command. You can do this on 147.580 user port. Now, you can just directly connect to the

ve7ihl Tnos system on 147.580 by doing a direct connect to VE7IHL.

Some of you may have been seeing a 'Mail for ve7xxx' beacon from ve7ihl-9 being sent out

as well. If your email going to the ve7ihl Tnos system has been set up to automatically

forward your mail to the ve7vbs FBB packet BBS system, then there is nothing new for you

to do. If you had to previously connect to the ve7ihl Tnos system to read you (e)mail you

still have to. Remember you can now just do a direct connect to ve7ihl on VBS's user port

on 147.580, or on either of ve7ihl user ports on 144.970 (1200 baud) or 144.410 (9600 baud)

Do NOT try to connect to the ve7ihl-9 beacon callsign.

Also the VE7VBS FBB packet BBS can now be directly connected to on 144.410 (9600 baud).

If you experience any problems connecting to ve7ihl or ve7cc, or have any further questions

please send me a packet message.

Regards

Lane, ve7ihl

ve7ihl@ve7ihl.#vanc.bc.can.noam (packet)

ve7ihl@ve7ihl.ampr.org (email)

So, you think all this Survey stuff; the stuff about NSR going over to Linux; the changes to the TNOS systems and other rantings in this publication are noise, eh? Well you’re right! It’s the noise of the steady marching beat of the PENGUINISTAS. What you hear is the steady flapping of webbed penguin feet, getting louder, and louder. It is the wake-up call of change.

While the dos/windoze side of packet radio remains essentially stagnant, the linux side is growing rapidly – the ability to network machines, connect them to the net from the radio side, have your own node that can be accessed world wide is upon us. Yep, it will take some effort, and it’s not that easy, but IMHO, it’s the next phase. The integration (I guess convergence is the proper term) of ham radio with the wold of the internet is unavoidable. Like W0RLI, I fought for years for the radio side. If it ain’t coming by radio, it ain’t radio. And that’s true. But the tide has turned, and nothing we’re going to do is going to bring back HF packet forwarding as the main source of bulletins to the local systems. And nothing we’re going to do is likely to bring back keyboard to keyboard QSOs. Now, I suspect there is some interest in keeping some HF forwarding links going both for emergency and sentimental purposes, but it isn’t how the bulk of the traffic is moving now, or will move in the future. It’s much like my beloved CW. It has gone from a necessary communications technique to an ‘art-form’. I’m still on there pounding brass, but I hold no illusions about its usefulness outside of my affection for it.

My sense of why VAPO was successful in the ‘old daze’ was we were all learning lots, and that’s always exciting. We were right out there on the edge, and we were helping each other understand stuff, and it wasn’t easy, but it was fun. We built networks, and we ate breakfast together planning it all. Well folks, we’re not going to bring that back until there’s some ‘glue’ that binds us together again.

I think that perhaps there may be some glue in Linux. There’s an extraordinary opportunity to learn lots of good stuff here, and to make good use out of our old doorstop boxes. Linux has built in AX-25 support. It’s a natural for packet radio. I’ve seen packet bulletins indicating that there is a TPK-like terminal programme for Linux. I think Lane was going to look into that. I’ve been slugging it out with linux ever since Lane delivered the beginnings of another Linux packet/internet gateway to me last March.

Since then I’ve installed a number of different Linux distributions across a number of different computers (from 386 to Pentia). I’ve managed to start from scratch and compile a custom kernel, and move the gateway into a faster box. The gateway is now my ‘firewall’, protecting the Orange network from fierce and determined foreign invaders. I’ve got a simple Linux terminal programme talking to my tnc behind the firewall (not much, but it’s a start). All this with lots of help from Lane and the Vancouver Linux Users Group (VANLUG) listserv.

I personally would be willing to help anyone get started with Linux, if there is any interest out there – why we could have breakfast somewhere and talk about it, eh?

More glue: One rainy night before Christmas, the VAPO Exec. Got together to try and do a little planning. It seems that there is interest, at least at the Exec level for doing some emergency work, or at the very least, making our packet resources available during an emergency. I think Fred was going to look into hooking us up with ECOMM in Vancouver. It’ll be interesting to see how the emergency work shakes out, as most folks that are active in that sort of thing are active in their own local areas. VAPO, on the other hand serves the whole lower mainland and then some.

Tom, VE7DID and I did some elementary testing of the BCEP software, packeting each other a bunch of dummy messages through LAN. It worked flawlessly, once the clumsy orange got his end set up properly. I guess I could make Orange Central into an emergency communications centre as I have a fine 5kw generator left over from Y2k J . So, if you guys have any ideas on how VAPO might sensibly participate as a group during an emergency, I would like to hear from you!

.

Viva La Emergency Preparedness!!

How’s that for leadership?

See you at the meeting – at least we can drink coffee, eat doughnuts and tell lies.

Orange