I've been involved with ham radio for a long time and loved playing with digital formats, everything from Morse Code to packet radio. Packet radio included doing "TNOS" or "WNOS" which was an implementation of a AX25 via TCP/IP and then over the air. I ran a local BBS on the air for a time and of course did a lot of packet radio, radio teletype (RTTY) and in general experimented with many of the modes. I continued to play with packet until about four or five years ago when APRS was big. For some reason packet sort of died out in our local area and I stopped getting email and data via the radio (and in fact have stopped doing much with ham radio of late due to time constraints). Now, the reason for this article. Over the past two years we've been doing a lot of sailing, and a lot of thinking about retirement. When we head out, we will likely give up cellular phones and stick to Amateur Radio and Marine radios for communications since, in most cases we simply won't be in range of US cell services. So, that begs the question, without using the US Postal Service or cell phones, how do we get messages out? A lot of people use the Internet when they hit a port, have wifi capability available and some use email over HF. This is where I get to the meat of the problem. Right now, there are radio sites, both in the Amateur Spectrum and in the Marine spectrum using Pactor III protocols. Pactor III is a proprietary protocol created by some German guys, and they want to keep it that way. Profit. Sailmail is a PAY system. Airmail (the ham side) isn't pay, BUT you have to use Pactor III or II protocols. Again, you pay a kilobuck for a modem. Too much money in my estimation. I'll be looking more deeply into this problem in the future and let you know what kind of solutions I come up with. Being an engineer, ham radio operator, and having been a communicator for the Air Force and the White House all those years gives me a bit of advantage over others in this respect. At least, for once I know something about what I am talking about. RD |
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Email over HFposted Feb 9, 2010 7:00 AM by Rick Donaldson |
Winds of Time Join Rick and JoAnne as we prepare and count down the days to retirement, and to the purchase of our cruising boat. We're still learning and will share as much of the experience as we can with others in the hope that our plans and dreams can be realized by others as well. We welcome email, see the contact page. We want to help others to do the same - and will gladly give whatever information we ourselves have learned. So, sit back and read, and enjoy the site. Rick and JoAnne |