Packet-2
My station consists of a Kenwood
TR-7950 2 Meter Transceiver, an MFJ
1270C TNC, and a Dell D-630 Laptop currently running Windows XP Professional.
I have not found a packet program for the Windows environment that I really
like so for now I'm just using Hyper
Terminal. I handles most of that I need at this point but it will not handle
binary transfers. I planing around with Linux (Ubuntu
build 11.10) and ultimately Linux will be running the station. I want to
get a full BBS system and Linux provides the most options and is much more reliable
and robust that is Windows.
The older radios make great digital radios but any rig will work. MFJ makes good
TNCs but you can't go wrong with Kantronics either. But as a word of caution,
TNCs never made it to the 21st century; they still use serial ports (com ports)
so your want to take that into consideration when acquiring a PC to use. Older
PCs work just fine. The PC does not have to be the latest/greatest on the market.
A cable needs to be constructed to connect the radio to the TNC. One end is connected
to the Mic jack on the radio and the audio out of the radio, and the other end
connects to the TNC using a
5 pin Din connector.
For the MFJ 1270C TNC the pins on the Din connector are as follows:
Pin 1: Microphone audio, from the TNC to the transmitter
Pin 2: Ground, audio, and PTT common
Pin 3: Push to Talk, to allow the TNC to ket the transmitter
Pin 4: Receive audio, from the receiver to the TNC
Pin 5: Squelch Input, to allow the TNC to detect activity on a shared-mode signal
The TNC settings are as follows:
MyC K9GPC. Use this for the main connect callsign(SSID=0)
Cono ON: This enables transmitting
Digipeat ON: This enables digipeating
Beacon Every 60: This sends out a beacon message every 10 minutes
BTEXT: This is the K9GPC Packet Station in Rochelle, IL. Connect to: K9GPC or connect to: K9GPC-1 to leave mail