[amsat-bb] Thoughts on ISS packet switch back to 145.825 MHz (long)

[JoAnne K9JKM]

Hi Kevin,

 > What software would you run with your hardware TNC ? Wouldn't
 > UISS still need agw or direwolf, etc?

I used the terminal emulator program called MFJCOM that MFJ used to sell 
with their TNC back in the 1990's. It came on 5.25 disk but I have a 
copy of it on an old computer hard drive ... good thing I'm an 
electronics hoarder. I still haven't tossed out PC's from the 1990's :-)

The window MFJCOM software runs in is the command line interface. It 
pretty much looks like the window you get with the windows 'Run' 
command. Plain ascii, not much help for commands, no mouse, etc. When 
MFJCOM comes up in the usual TNC 'cmd:' mode you can send the setup and 
operating commands to the TNC. Once setup in the cmd; mode you issue a 
'CONVERS' command to enter the UI mode. A ctrl-c gets you out of CONVERS 
and back to cmd;

My article in the AMSAT Journal has a table showing the top dozen or so 
TNC commands useful for configuring a hardware TNC for operation with 
ARISS packet.

I believe there would be lots of terminal emulator programs out there 
that get the job done. Running in this basic mode I'm talking directly 
to the TNC hardware. What the TNC receives is what I'd see directly in 
the terminal emulator window.

I still have the hardware TNC project on my to-do list. Before I go so 
far as trying to bring up a 20 year old PC box I think I'll take Alan's 
advice and try Direwolf. Alan mentioned that Direwolf has some of the 
commands I've been missing via UISS - like PASSALL and ways to display 
some of the additional protocol.

Now that I think about it, I have an old laptop with dual-boot linux and 
windows on it which also has a 'real' RS-232 port on it - I could see 
how linux based terminal emulators work too. Heh, the to-do list just 
got longer over here :-)

-- 
73 de JoAnne K9JKM
k9jkm at amsat.org