Larry,
How do I send an email to my non ham daughter in Orlando from 100 miles
north of the BVI with PSK31?
krj

Larry W4CSC wrote:
wrote in :


I want to get back into some form of free ham radio
comms that would allow me to stay in touch with people
while living in an RV or boat



The boaters have been sucked into the most overpriced, proprietary-of-
course, digital mode, Pactor.

It's all nonsense. You can get the finest digital service on HF on the
planet called PSK31....without buying more equipment, more modems, more
wasted money....

The worldwide homepage of PSK31 is:
http://www.aintel.bi.ehu.es/psk31.html

PSK31 only requires your transmitter to be in the 10-20 watt output class
because it will copy perfect text....right down so far in the noise you
can't even hear the guy you are communicating with. Wanna hear it? That's
easy. Tune any USB receiver to 14.070 Mhz, the "PSK-band" on 20 meters.
You'll hear this funny "warbling" sound, many of them at once. On this
website:
http://www.qsl.net/wm2u/psk31.html
You'll find pointers to all the different PSK31 programs to run on your
computer....any Windoze computer will do.....like your boat notebook.
PSK31 uses your computer's sound card and does all its stuff in
software....no external "boxes" are necessary.

I, personally, have always used WinWarbler:
http://www.qsl.net/winwarbler/
but most hams are using Digipan:
http://www.digipan.net/

Any of the programs work great. There's even versions for Linux and Mac.

Winwarbler will copy three separate stations SIMULTANEOUSLY, and you can
switch your transmit back to them with just a mouseclick.

If you get your shore stations also setup with PSK31, you'll have reliable
text comms from any point on the planet. I worked a Japanese station that
was running a 20 meter dipole and 10 watts! PSK stations will raise hell
with you if you hog the bandwidth with big powerful transmitters. It is
simply amazing how far down in the noise the computer running this software
can copy.....a station you can't even hear!

As it's free.....give it a try!

73, and welcome back to ham radio

DE Larry W4CSC

NNNN

AR

krj wrote in
:

Larry,
How do I send an email to my non ham daughter in Orlando from 100 miles
north of the BVI with PSK31?
krj


I've forwarded messages via email (for free, not $250/year) for people I've
met on PSK31 (and other modes for that matter). All you need do is find a
ham friend ashore who has internet service. You text up the messages to
your daughter and send them to your scheduled ham ashore via any mode you
like, PSK31 included, then they simply cut and paste the message into an
email to your daughter, saving your replies to send back to you as 3rd
party traffic next time you have a sked with them.

OF course, this means you must have FRIENDS, not Sailmail business
acquaintenances for pay. Some boaters (including ones listed here) are too
damned independent for FRIENDS. You've met them, I'm sure.

If you need business comms, ham radio isn't the place, of course. That
hasn't changed.....

CRAZY Larry also likes the idea of all ham-radio-equipped boats constantly
transmitting their current position and data on another ham radio system
called APRS, invented by Bob Bruninga at the Naval Academy so they could
track lost cadets in Academy boats. Your daughter could just go to your
personal webpage for your callsign at:
http://www.findu.com/
From your very recent position report, she'd be relieved to see:
A - Your still afloat, have power, are "there" and have been recently heard
by an APRS reporting station in the network.
B - Haven't declared an emergency.
This, alone, would be very comforting, wouldn't it?

She doesn't have to be a ham to look at the webpage, only you do. Just
leave APRS running on the unused HF SSB rig with its packet modem when
you're not using it.

Silly me.....

Lines: 46
Message-ID:
X-Complaints-To:
X-Abuse-Info: Please forward a copy of all headers for proper handling
X-Trace: bhmkggakljkaanefdbdpiflmbcekedmfhojhikkbagflhcbocj dncknjgomgcpnkpeiphjjefhhdbmabobkjllfbcblgiodcekkj flfncmkmngeicfapdndjfanbolknkbghddmkhkdnfoapbmoldc ncgdaojocm
NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2005 14:43:32 EST
Organization: BellSouth Internet Group
Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2005 19:43:32 GMT
Xref: number1.nntp.dca.giganews.com rec.boats.electronics:58957


On 2005-02-23 said:
changed..... CRAZY Larry also likes the idea of all
ham-radio-equipped boats constantly transmitting their current
position and data on another ham radio system called APRS, invented
by Bob Bruninga at the Naval Academy so they could track lost
cadets in Academy boats. Your daughter could just go to your
personal webpage for your callsign at: http://www.findu.com/
From your very recent position report, she'd be relieved to see:
A - Your still afloat, have power, are "there" and have been
recently heard by an APRS reporting station in the network.
B - Haven't declared an emergency.
This, alone, would be very comforting, wouldn't it?
She doesn't have to be a ham to look at the webpage, only you do.
Just leave APRS running on the unused HF SSB rig with its packet
modem when you're not using it.
wInlink gives you this and if you happen to have troubles with your
TNC operators on the maritime mobile service network can enter your
position into a database which is called shiptrack. Family and
friends back on shore can look at the shiptrack page and get your last
reported position even if you've had troubles with your digital
equipment if you've called into the net on ssb recently.
THe advantages of a pactor ii modem and winlink are that you'll be
able to email your daughter directly and get email. IF life keeps you
rather busy she can check the shiptrack page for your latest position
data. gives her peace of mind and comms with you. I wouldn't want to
rely on iffy skeds with a shorebound friend and cut and paste text
from psk to email. WIth your pactor box and the right rig it can scan
different ham bands for the one which gives you the best signal to one
of the winlink gateways to get your email out and in.

73




Richard Webb, amateur radio callsign nf5b
active on the Maritime Mobile service network, 14.300 mhz
REplace anything before the @ symbol with elspider for real email

--



Any IC protected by a fast acting fuse will protect
the fuse by blowing first.