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ZL3AI > APRDIG 20.04.03 10:34l 291 Lines 10697 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: TAPR Digest, Apr 17, 1/2
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From: ZL3AI@ZL3VML.#80.NZL.OC
To : APRDIG@WW
TAPR APRS Special Interest Group Digest for Thursday, April 17, 2003.
1. 4th Infantry Divison network sure sounds like mil-spec APRS!
2. more serial ports again
3. Re: more serial ports again
4. HSMM hamming (was can 'o worms)
5. RE: HSMM hamming (was can 'o worms)
6. RE: Pizza Bash
7. pocketAPRS and HandEra 330
8. Open call for language translation: Xastir
9. All Coaxial Stub "duplexer"
10. Tracker prototype
11. Re: Tracker prototype
12. RE: Tracker prototype
13. DJ-S11T and packet
14. Radio Help, just a little OT
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Subject: 4th Infantry Divison network sure sounds like mil-spec APRS!
From: WA8LMF2@aol.com
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2003 04:48:49 EDT
X-Message-Number: 1
Paragraphs excerpted from story on ABCnews.com website at:
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20030417_126.html
Items in [ ] added by me...
"The Army's 4th Infantry Division is guided by a sophisticated computer
network that tracked the division's 1st Brigade during a skirmish Wednesday
for the Taji air base north of Baghdad.
The computer network is known as Force 21 Battle Command Brigade and Below,
and works as a battlefield Internet that keeps track of fast-moving combat
vehicles.
The system's global positioning satellite navigation system also warns
whenever a vehicle strays from its planned path [ Every vehicle has an APRS
tracker ].
On the system's networked screens, blue icons denote friendly forces [APRS
icons?] and are constantly updated. Red icons show the enemy, which are added
as they're spotted [ APRS Objects?]. The 4th Infantry also has unmanned
aircraft that can handle surveillance tasks.
Hazards like minefields, areas where poison gas has been reported or other
pitfalls can be added so units can steer clear. [ More APRS objects ]
Another touch allows soldiers to send text messages between vehicles or back
to the command post, cutting down on radio chatter. [ APRS Messaging ]
The FBCB2 system transmits by bouncing data from vehicle to vehicle [ Every
HumVee a mobile digipeater! ] until it hits the brigade or division command
centers [ Igates? Connections to wired LANs? ]. This "mesh network" lets the
4th Infantry update its positions faster than the rest of the Army, which
must cope with the five-minute delay inherent in its satellite communications
systems [ Huh? ] .
Younger soldiers, many of them raised on video games, quickly learn how to
use the system, Iacobacci said. [ Do they use sand-colored mil-spec Cybikos
as personal terminals??? ]
"Some of these kids grew up on Nintendo and Play Stations, so once they get
on it's easy," he said."
Stephen H. Smith wa8lmf @ aol.com
Home Page: http://wa8lmf.com
Ham Radio/Mobile SSTV page: http://members.aol.com/wa8lmf/ham
APRS Stuff
http://members.aol.com/wa8lmf/aprs
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Subject: more serial ports again
From: "Joe Della Barba" <joe@dellabarba.com>
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2003 06:19:37 -0400
X-Message-Number: 2
FYI, I found quite a number of serial port adapters for PCI slots on Ebay,
everything from 2 to 8 ports on a card.
73
Joe N3HGB
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Subject: Re: more serial ports again
From: Brian Short <bshort4@cox.net>
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2003 09:11:41 -0400
X-Message-Number: 3
Some time ago found a RocketPort 4J there.
Win2k recognizes automatically.
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Subject: HSMM hamming (was can 'o worms)
From: Jeff King <jeff@aerodata.net>
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2003 11:35:15 -0400
X-Message-Number: 4
Bill:
Actually quite a few restrictions on Part 15, including adding external
amplifiers, external antennas and ERP limitations. I realize the standard is
for people to ignore the regulations in this service, but as licensed amateur
radio operators we carry additional risk in ignoring the FCC rules, even if
they are outside Part 97. None-the-less, there is a place for part 15
operations in everyone's tool kit.
Some of the readers might want to take a look at the recent article in the
April Issue of QST entitled: "High Speed MultiMedia Hamming could be the next
big thing". These folks are using the standard $50 part 15 equipment (WiFi
802.11b/g cards) under part 97. No hassles or worries with running higher
power, experimenting with antennas/equipment, standard tcp/ip protocols,
cts/rts to reduce hidden transmitter effects, spread spectrum and OFDM
modulation. Use these cards just like you do any other piece of amateur radio
equipment. In fact, can even be used for personal business and surfing the
internet.
Check the article out.
http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/pdf/0304028.pdf
Here is a link to the web page
http://www.arrl.org/hsmm/
And to keep it on topic, they even use APRS to send position reports of their
stations:
http://db.aprsworld.net/datamart/wifi-search.php
Regards,
--
Jeff King, jeff@aerodata.net on 04/17/2003
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Subject: RE: HSMM hamming (was can 'o worms)
From: Miller Scott Contr 30SCS/FTI <Scott.Miller@vandenberg.af.mil>
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2003 16:19:13 -0000
X-Message-Number: 5
Took me a minute to figure out what this was about - when I see 'hamming' I
think error correction codes
(http://mathworld.wolfram.com/HammingCode.html). I thought it was odd that
anyone would worry about Hamming ECC when 802.11's already got its own error
correction built in... =]
Scott
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Subject: RE: Pizza Bash
From: "Dave Sloan" <desloan@earthlink.net>
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2003 13:33:07 -0600
X-Message-Number: 6
James,
Sounds like a plan to me. Look forward to meeting everyone!
73,
Dave N0EOP
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Subject: pocketAPRS and HandEra 330
From: Mike Musick <mikemusick@earthlink.net>
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2003 15:52:28 -0500
X-Message-Number: 7
I need any and all users of pocketAPRS who are running or plan to run
the program on a HandEra 330 to contact me IMMEDIATELY. HandEra has
announced that they will no longer sell the 330 (nor any other Palm
OS PDA) after May 31.
If I do not hear from any HandEra 330 users by Dayton Hamvention
(5/18), the special HandEra 330 support in pocketAPRS will be
removed. It was very costly in terms of program size, performance and
function, and if there's nobody running it there's no sense in
continuing to carry the burden.
Thanks!
...mike
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Subject: Open call for language translation: Xastir
From: "Curt Mills, WE7U" <hacker@tc.fluke.com>
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2003 14:17:21 -0700 (PDT)
X-Message-Number: 8
I don't know why we haven't done this before...
Here's your chance to contribute!
The Xastir APRS program (www.xastir.org) is free, runs on several
different operating systems, and supports seven different languages:
Dutch
English
French
German
Italian
Portuguese
Spanish
If you can be an effective translator to yet another language, we'd
love to have your help! We have no upper limit on the number of
languages we can support. Send a translated file and we can add a
new language to Xastir very quickly. If we get into multi-byte
characters we may run into difficulty, but let's try it!
The CVS version of the language-English.sys file is always the
latest master. If anyone can translate that to some other language
not listed above, please contact me or another Xastir developer to
make sure you're starting from the latest text file.
Even for the languages we already support, we could use help in
keeping the non-English "help" files up to date, such as
"help-Portuguese.dat". The English file is kept fairly current, but
the rest tend to lag behind.
--
Curt Mills, WE7U hacker_NO_SPAM_@tc.fluke.com
Senior Methods Engineer/SysAdmin
"Lotto: A tax on people who are bad at math!"
"Windows: Microsoft's tax on computer illiterates!" -- WE7U
"The world DOES revolve around me: I picked the coordinate system!"
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Subject: All Coaxial Stub "duplexer"
From: "Ev Tupis (W2EV)" <w2ev@arrl.net>
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2003 18:17:43 -0400
X-Message-Number: 9
I ran across this link in a sale for some hardline "cut to spec" for
building this filter. A while ago there was a discussion on the topic...so
I thought I'd forward the info here as an FYI.
The design is for 6m, but "hey, you never know". :)
http://www.dallas.net/~jvpoll/dup6m/dup6m.html
Ev,W2EV
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Subject: Tracker prototype
From: Miller Scott Contr 30SCS/FTI <Scott.Miller@vandenberg.af.mil>
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2003 22:42:22 -0000
X-Message-Number: 10
If anyone's interested, I got the first prototype of an OpenTRAC-based
tracker running last night. At the moment it just interfaces to a KISS TNC,
but an integrated modem is in the works. Pic at
http://www.opentrac.org/tracker.jpg. Ugly, because the FT203 was the only
HT I already had cables made for, and the board's actually a GPS logger I
built for another project, hence the need for the 'Y' cable.
Anyway, the point is that the project's got something tangible to show now.
The basic position report is a 10-byte payload with accuracy to a few
centimeters. Course and speed will add another 5 bytes, and altitude
another 2. Still, it compares favorably to Mic-E for efficiency, and the
tracker code only occupies about 2400 bytes, written in C. It'd be far
smaller in assembly. The decoder (integrated into the AX25 'listen'
command, soon to be part of the standard distribution) doesn't mind doing
floating point, so it only takes a couple of lines of code to convert the
position back to lat/lon.
More stuff to come. Once I've got a working design with integrated modem,
I'll post all of the code, schematics, CAD files, and foil patterns. The
parsing routines I've contributed to 'listen' are released under the
Modified BSD license - the rest of the package is GPL, but I don't want to
discourage anyone from using the code in closed source software. Not that
you'd necessarily need to - the decoding is pretty trivial - but at least
it's a starting point.
Scott
N1VG
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