Tag: digital modes

  • Setting up HF Winlink Using Soundcard Modes

    Last fall I bought a used ICOM IC-7200 radio so I could start operating on the HF bands. Part of the attraction of this radio is the built-in soundcard. It takes a single USB cable for both the soundcard and for radio control. My goal was to use Winlink on HF.

    I found a Youtube video by Commsprepper on setting up Winlink Winmor for this specific radio. From this video, I learned about some great information included with Winlink:

    In Winlink, click on Help -> Help Index…, then click on IC-7200 or Radios with Built-in Soundcards or Sound Cards or Winmor Setup

    In my case, the IC-7200 section had everything I needed, and the video showed the radio side of the steps. The basic information needed from the radio is the USB device address, plus there were a couple of mode changes.

    Next start Winlink, open a “Winmor Winlink” session, click on Settings, and then click on “WINMOR TNC Setup”. (You may get a Setup window the first time you select a Winmor session.) You should only need to set the “WINMOR Capture Device” and the “WINMOR Playback Device” to your radio’s sound device (e.g. “USB Audio Codec”). Click “Update” when done.

    Click on Settings again, then click on “Radio Setup”. In the “Select Radio Model” pull-down, select your radio model (I selected Icom 7200). Enter the radio’s configured USB address (in my case, in the “Icom Address” field), and click on “USB Digital” so Winlink can control the radio. For the “Radio Control Port” field, select the radio’s COM port in the “Serial Port to Use” field, and set the radio’s configured baud rate. For the “PTT Port”, select the radio or COM port in the “Serial Port to Use” field. Click on “Update” when done.

    Now click on “Channel Selection” and get the current list of HF RMS Gateway channels using the “Update Table Via Internet” option. Pick a channel with a high “Path Reliability Estimate” and “Path Quality Estimate”. Double click on a channel row to select the channel and close the HF Channel Selector window. You should see/hear the radio change to the frequency of the selected channel.

    Now click on Start to initiate a connection attempt. (Commsprepper also has a video called “SignaLink and Winmor”, which shows a session using Winmor.)

    Setting up for ARDOP follows a similar sequence. Open an “ARDOP Winlink” session, click on Settings, then click on “Ardop TNC Setup” to enter the “Ardop Capture Device” and “Ardop Playback Device” (set to the USB Audio Codec), and then do the same “Radio setup” steps mentioned above. If you have already setup Winmor, these settings may be set for ARDOP too.

    More information:
    This document has good information overall, and a detailed Winmor setup section.

  • PRRO Certification Workshops

    I am leading a set of workshops for members who would like to be certified in Winlink operations. I will provide an overview of the Winlink system and will go into detail on configuring Winlink Express, sending and receiving messages, and using templates. Plenty of time will be provided for hands-on practice, and operators who feel ready will have an opportunity to complete their check sheet and earn their Packet RMS Radio Operator (PRRO) certification.

    There are two workshop dates currently planned, and more will be added if there is interest. Locations will vary, in an effort to make travel easier for folks in different parts of the county. Each workshop is scheduled to run for four hours, but we’ll probably finish earlier.

    Upcoming Dates
    December 2, 13:00 to 17:00, in St. Johns
    January 13, 13:00 to 17:00, in Gresham

    These workshops are open to all Multnomah County ARES members who have completed their ARRO certification, however space is limited. To sign up for either workshop, email me at KE7QPV [at] arrl [dot] net.

  • Send an ICS 213 Form with Your Phone!

    Did you know you could send a digital ICS213, and a large number of other forms or text, with just your Android phone and a radio? You can, and it’s super easy to do! The hardest part, really, is getting the software onto your phone.

    With the normal desktop version of FLDIGI, you can send nicely formatted forms using FLMSG. This is something that Matthew AF7PV has been exploring on the monthly digital ARES net and it works really well. It works great using a Signalink and even works well just holding the radio’s hand mic up to the speakers of the laptop, just like the smartphone SSTV apps do.

    The developers of FLDIGI came out with an Android version called AndFLmsg. You can’t get it from the Google Play store, but you can download it and install it directly to your phone from the Sourceforge website where you download the normal desktop version.

    The mobile app strips out a lot of the desktop FLDigi application, leaving mostly just the NBEMs messaging forms and a few of the popular modes. What’s great about the mobile version is that creating and managing messages looks just like email in the app. Honestly, it’s much easier to use than that desktop version.

    At the last monthly digital meeting I was able to both transmit and receive several FLDIGI form-based messages just by acoustic coupling. So even if you don’t have a big mobile radio, a laptop and a fancy Signalink digital interface, you can still participate in the monthly digital net just by putting your phone up to your radio’s speaker. We think his might have a lot of value for ARES operations, especially for something like the mass delivery of update messages or something along those lines.

    Although sadly there is no iOS version of this app for apple devices, you can get the desktop version of FLDigi for OS X on a Mac, which supports the message and form functions.

    Come help us experiment on Matthew’s Digital Modes Net, the first Tuesday of every month on the 443.300 repeater.

  • Digital Modes Net Explores Fldigi

    The members of the monthly Digital Modes Net have begun experimenting with Fldigi. This “Fast Light Digital” application runs on several different OS platforms and uses your sound card (e.g. a SignaLink) to send digital information over the air. No TNC is required for this mode.

    The Fldigi application provides a chat interface in which text is sent as you type it, but there are additional applications that allow more sophisticated data transfers. Flmsg is one such program; it works in cooperation with Fldigi to send form data, and there is a built-in template for the ICS-213 message form as well as the ARRL radiogram. Flmsg applies a checksum to the form data to detect transmission errors. Similarly, the Flwrap application cooperates with Fldigi to send arbitrary file data, also with a checksum.

    There is an overlap in functionality between Flmsg and Winlink, but one interesting difference is that whereas Winlink is more or less for communication between two stations, Flmsg can be used to send a message to multiple stations simultaneously. That’s also true for Flwrap — it might be used to send file data from the EOC to all field stations in a single transmission, for instance. The data rate is rather slow, so this might be done simplex rather than via a repeater.

    Join the Digital Modes net on the first Tuesday of the month if you’d like to give it a try. Time and frequency details are on the nets page.

  • Digital Modes Training Net

    A new recurring net has been created with the goal of exploring some digital modes that should be useful for emergency communications. We’re using UHF and we’re initially focusing on SSTV (slow scan television) for image transfer and Fldigi for keyboard-to-keyboard text-based conversation. The net meets on the first Tuesday of the month at 8:00pm on the 443.300 MHz repeater, which requires a 100.0 Hz tone.

    A deluxe rig for both SSTV and Fldigi would include a laptop with an external sound card (such as the popular SignaLink USB sound card) cabled to your 70cm radio, but simpler setups can also work. For instance, there’s an SSTV program for the iPhone that can produce the right tones from the speaker, which you could hold close to your radio’s microphone. SSTV transmissions can then be decoded by holding your phone’s microphone close to your radio’s speaker. There are Fldigi apps available for Android, but we haven’t seen one for iOS.

    This net is totally about troubleshooting and practice, so feel free to join even if you’ve never used these modes before and you aren’t sure whether your rig will work. Matthew AF7PV is the net manager, and questions about the net may be directed to him at digitalnetmanager [at] multnomahares [dot] org. Links to useful software can be found on the Digital Net page.