Does anyone know what became of the plans to develop a system for
pactor 2/3 using a PC soundcard rather than an extremely expensive
TNC?

I only found very old stuff by googling.

Thanks

"Steve" wrote in
oups.com:

Does anyone know what became of the plans to develop a system for
pactor 2/3 using a PC soundcard rather than an extremely expensive
TNC?

I only found very old stuff by googling.

Thanks



The only trouble with Pactor is that only Pactor 1 was released to the
public in 1991. Pactor II and III are still LICENSED, PROPRIETARY code
held very close to SMS's chest. This is the reason a PACTOR TNC is so
expensive, just like Windoze Vista. You can't just use either of them
without further prosecution.

If they sold a program for your soundcard, you'd have some kind of
licensing dongle hanging out of your computer so you don't steal it and a
box with a CDROM in it would be $379 + VAT, still.

Pactor is never going to be cheap.....

Too bad sailmail got attached to it, instead of public domain code.

Larry
--
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEJmc...elated&search=

Too bad sailmail got attached to it, instead of public domain code.

Larry
--http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEJmcvTzYfo&mode=related&search=

Hmm. Maybe it wasn't pactor I was thinking of but an alternative
protocol for the same purpose - email via HF.

I am sure I heard about a group working on such a thing, but on
reflection, you must be right that it coldn't be a PC implementation
of Pactor2/3

Steve wrote:
Too bad sailmail got attached to it, instead of public domain code.

Larry
--http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEJmcvTzYfo&mode=related&search=

Hmm. Maybe it wasn't pactor I was thinking of but an alternative
protocol for the same purpose - email via HF.

I am sure I heard about a group working on such a thing, but on
reflection, you must be right that it coldn't be a PC implementation
of Pactor2/3


Steve, you may be thinking of alternative (to Airmail) client software
for Winlink. While Airmail supports public domain Pactor I, it does so
only with KAM and PK TNCs and not soundcard implementations of Pactor I
(AFIK).

I believe there are other Winlink clients that do support soundcard TNC
protocols, which make HF/soundcard email possible.

You can explore these at:

http://www.winlink.org/Client.htm

Chuck

----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups
----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =----

"Steve" wrote in
oups.com:


Too bad sailmail got attached to it, instead of public domain code.

Larry
--http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEJmcvTzYfo&mode=related&search=

Hmm. Maybe it wasn't pactor I was thinking of but an alternative
protocol for the same purpose - email via HF.

I am sure I heard about a group working on such a thing, but on
reflection, you must be right that it coldn't be a PC implementation
of Pactor2/3



Pactor's big draw was being able to send binary files over HF, which I
personally think is stupid, but to each his own poison.

If you ever get a chance to play with PSK31, an open source ham radio
mode invented by a variety of contributors, you're in for a treat. PSK31
is useless for binary file transfers, it doesn't ack/retransmit. But
what it does is occupy a bandwidth of only 31 Hz. A hundred stations fit
inside the bandwidth of one SSB voice transmission.

The amazing part is its uncanny ability, simply using only your
soundcard, to detect and print perfect copy on a signal so weak you can
hardly see him on the PSK31 tuning display and you cannot detect his
signal is even there in the noise with your ear!

As a matter of fact, it can copy multiple weak stations, SIMULTANEOUSLY!

I've always liked WinWarbler:
http://www.dxlabsuite.com/winwarbler/
The main display is the top picture. The tuning display "waterfall" is
under the buttons and scrolls slowly down as time goes by. You pick one
of the 3 simultaneous "channels", that automatically match your
transmitter audio tone pair to the station you choose to print.

You click on a channel bar, let's say the Green Channel 1 bar to chose
that as the active channel. Then you place your mouse cursor over the
little signal trail on the waterfall spectrum display and click. Channel
1 starts printing what that guy is typing, even the faintest trace you
can see in that picture will print nearly perfect. PSK operators rarely
use more than 10 watts, even on the other side of the planet, to keep
from saturating your receiver. Speaking of receiver, Notice the
waterfall display's width is the same as an SSB channel. It was designed
that way to work with the simplest of ham SSB transceivers...about 3Khz.
Using the tone generator output from your soundcard's audio line out
jack...to the mic input of the radio, the warbling tone pairs will create
a two-tone very narrow PSK signal from your SSB transmitter, unless you
overdrive it. A simple volume control pot can attenuate the audio from
the computer to the mic input jack on the radio. It doesn't key on and
off and wear out the relays like Pactor. It transmits continuously until
all the letters you've typed are consumed and you have turned off the
transmitter, much like old RTTY teletype was/is.

Download Winwarbler and install it on your laptop. Simply plug the
earphone jack of any HF SSB receiver that covers the ham bands into the
computer's line in audio jack on the soundcard and you can play with
monitoring PSK31 or PSK63 transmissions very easily. PSK on 20 meters is
ALWAYS on 14.070 Mhz on a digital SSB receiver. In the bandwidth of the
SSB 3Khz receiver, you'll hear ALL the stations coming out of the
speaker. The computer will pick one of them when you click each channel
over a different trace on the waterfall screen. The chosen channel
transmit is simply a matter of typing way ahead while answering the other
guy's transmission in the typing buffer box, then pressing the TX button
to generate the PSK tones from your soundcard to match his signal until
you are ready to give him a turn, once again, or pass it along to more
than one station in a network.....

Now all you need is someone you can call with a working email client
willing to copy your emails from his email window to the WinWarbler
transmit window and from your Winwarbler reply back to his email client's
window for reply. You don't need no stinking sailmail...(c;

Larry
--

Steve wrote:
Too bad sailmail got attached to it, instead of public domain code.

Larry
--http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEJmcvTzYfo&mode=related&search=

Hmm. Maybe it wasn't pactor I was thinking of but an alternative
protocol for the same purpose - email via HF.

I am sure I heard about a group working on such a thing, but on
reflection, you must be right that it coldn't be a PC implementation
of Pactor2/3


You are probably thinking about SCAMP.

http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2004/12/07/6/?nc=1

I believe I read somewhere that it had been put on the back burner
because of lack of time.

Jeannette
SV Con Te Partiro
aa6jh

Larry wrote:
"Steve" wrote in
oups.com:

Too bad sailmail got attached to it, instead of public domain code.

Larry
--http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEJmcvTzYfo&mode=related&search=
Hmm. Maybe it wasn't pactor I was thinking of but an alternative
protocol for the same purpose - email via HF.

I am sure I heard about a group working on such a thing, but on
reflection, you must be right that it coldn't be a PC implementation
of Pactor2/3



Pactor's big draw was being able to send binary files over HF, which I
personally think is stupid, but to each his own poison.

If you ever get a chance to play with PSK31, an open source ham radio
mode invented by a variety of contributors, you're in for a treat. PSK31
is useless for binary file transfers, it doesn't ack/retransmit. But
what it does is occupy a bandwidth of only 31 Hz. A hundred stations fit
inside the bandwidth of one SSB voice transmission.

The amazing part is its uncanny ability, simply using only your
soundcard, to detect and print perfect copy on a signal so weak you can
hardly see him on the PSK31 tuning display and you cannot detect his
signal is even there in the noise with your ear!

As a matter of fact, it can copy multiple weak stations, SIMULTANEOUSLY!

I've always liked WinWarbler:
http://www.dxlabsuite.com/winwarbler/
The main display is the top picture. The tuning display "waterfall" is
under the buttons and scrolls slowly down as time goes by. You pick one
of the 3 simultaneous "channels", that automatically match your
transmitter audio tone pair to the station you choose to print.

You click on a channel bar, let's say the Green Channel 1 bar to chose
that as the active channel. Then you place your mouse cursor over the
little signal trail on the waterfall spectrum display and click. Channel
1 starts printing what that guy is typing, even the faintest trace you
can see in that picture will print nearly perfect. PSK operators rarely
use more than 10 watts, even on the other side of the planet, to keep
from saturating your receiver. Speaking of receiver, Notice the
waterfall display's width is the same as an SSB channel. It was designed
that way to work with the simplest of ham SSB transceivers...about 3Khz.
Using the tone generator output from your soundcard's audio line out
jack...to the mic input of the radio, the warbling tone pairs will create
a two-tone very narrow PSK signal from your SSB transmitter, unless you
overdrive it. A simple volume control pot can attenuate the audio from
the computer to the mic input jack on the radio. It doesn't key on and
off and wear out the relays like Pactor. It transmits continuously until
all the letters you've typed are consumed and you have turned off the
transmitter, much like old RTTY teletype was/is.

Download Winwarbler and install it on your laptop. Simply plug the
earphone jack of any HF SSB receiver that covers the ham bands into the
computer's line in audio jack on the soundcard and you can play with
monitoring PSK31 or PSK63 transmissions very easily. PSK on 20 meters is
ALWAYS on 14.070 Mhz on a digital SSB receiver. In the bandwidth of the
SSB 3Khz receiver, you'll hear ALL the stations coming out of the
speaker. The computer will pick one of them when you click each channel
over a different trace on the waterfall screen. The chosen channel
transmit is simply a matter of typing way ahead while answering the other
guy's transmission in the typing buffer box, then pressing the TX button
to generate the PSK tones from your soundcard to match his signal until
you are ready to give him a turn, once again, or pass it along to more
than one station in a network.....

Now all you need is someone you can call with a working email client
willing to copy your emails from his email window to the WinWarbler
transmit window and from your Winwarbler reply back to his email client's
window for reply. You don't need no stinking sailmail...(c;

Larry
What's the throughput of PSK31 vs Pactor III?

On Feb 26, 11:41 am, Larry wrote:
"Steve" wrote groups.com:



Too bad sailmail got attached to it, instead of public domain code.

Larry
--http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEJmcvTzYfo&mode=related&search=

Hmm. Maybe it wasn't pactor I was thinking of but an alternative
protocol for the same purpose - email via HF.

I am sure I heard about a group working on such a thing, but on
reflection, you must be right that it coldn't be a PC implementation
of Pactor2/3

Pactor's big draw was being able to send binary files over HF, which I
personally think is stupid, but to each his own poison.

If you ever get a chance to play with PSK31, an open source ham radio
mode invented by a variety of contributors, you're in for a treat. PSK31
is useless for binary file transfers, it doesn't ack/retransmit. But
what it does is occupy a bandwidth of only 31 Hz. A hundred stations fit
inside the bandwidth of one SSB voice transmission.

The amazing part is its uncanny ability, simply using only your
soundcard, to detect and print perfect copy on a signal so weak you can
hardly see him on the PSK31 tuning display and you cannot detect his
signal is even there in the noise with your ear!

As a matter of fact, it can copy multiple weak stations, SIMULTANEOUSLY!

I've always liked WinWarbler:http://www.dxlabsuite.com/winwarbler/
The main display is the top picture. The tuning display "waterfall" is
under the buttons and scrolls slowly down as time goes by. You pick one
of the 3 simultaneous "channels", that automatically match your
transmitter audio tone pair to the station you choose to print.

You click on a channel bar, let's say the Green Channel 1 bar to chose
that as the active channel. Then you place your mouse cursor over the
little signal trail on the waterfall spectrum display and click. Channel
1 starts printing what that guy is typing, even the faintest trace you
can see in that picture will print nearly perfect. PSK operators rarely
use more than 10 watts, even on the other side of the planet, to keep
from saturating your receiver. Speaking of receiver, Notice the
waterfall display's width is the same as an SSB channel. It was designed
that way to work with the simplest of ham SSB transceivers...about 3Khz.
Using the tone generator output from your soundcard's audio line out
jack...to the mic input of the radio, the warbling tone pairs will create
a two-tone very narrow PSK signal from your SSB transmitter, unless you
overdrive it. A simple volume control pot can attenuate the audio from
the computer to the mic input jack on the radio. It doesn't key on and
off and wear out the relays like Pactor. It transmits continuously until
all the letters you've typed are consumed and you have turned off the
transmitter, much like old RTTY teletype was/is.

Download Winwarbler and install it on your laptop. Simply plug the
earphone jack of any HF SSB receiver that covers the ham bands into the
computer's line in audio jack on the soundcard and you can play with
monitoring PSK31 or PSK63 transmissions very easily. PSK on 20 meters is
ALWAYS on 14.070 Mhz on a digital SSB receiver. In the bandwidth of the
SSB 3Khz receiver, you'll hear ALL the stations coming out of the
speaker. The computer will pick one of them when you click each channel
over a different trace on the waterfall screen. The chosen channel
transmit is simply a matter of typing way ahead while answering the other
guy's transmission in the typing buffer box, then pressing the TX button
to generate the PSK tones from your soundcard to match his signal until
you are ready to give him a turn, once again, or pass it along to more
than one station in a network.....

Now all you need is someone you can call with a working email client
willing to copy your emails from his email window to the WinWarbler
transmit window and from your Winwarbler reply back to his email client's
window for reply. You don't need no stinking sailmail...(c;

Larry
--

Great explanation on PSK31 but a little off on the bandwith
requirement.

PSK31 was originally developed by Pawel Jalocha (SP9VRC) and was
called "SLOWBPSK". Peter Martinez (G3PLX) developed this idea further
and came up with a very narrow (160 Hz) phase shift mode which uses a
31 bit/second data rate (hence the name). The 31 bit/sec rate would
allow only 3 characters per second which is ok for on line typing
between two users but a little slow if there's a number of users
queued up to access their email. (That's a raw data rate not using
compressing algorisms but Viterbi error correction.) I believe the
narrow bandwith is due to only two frequencies being used. In Pactor
II they went to 4 as in QPSK and in Pactor III they use even more with
tons of compression and error correction. I believe the Pactor III
goes a full 9600 baud.

Larry sits at a dock with a broadband connection to the Internet and
tells you how great PSK31 is. I typically sit out at anchor with an
SSB connection via a Pactor running the version 3 code and I can
assure you that it's wonderful. There's no comparison to the version
2 code. Spend the money and get a real Pactor with version 3 code and
you won't be sorry. Yes, it's expensive, but worth every penny if you
want e-mail access while cruising.

-- Geoff

Pactor's big draw was being able to send binary files over HF, which I
personally think is stupid, but to each his own poison.

That is what I really want - I want GRIBs


If you ever get a chance to play with PSK31, an open source ham radio

..
I have played with PSK31, I agree it is technically impressive (but
the QSOs are staggeringly dull IMHO )
..
..
Now all you need is someone you can call with a working email client
willing to copy your emails from his email window to the WinWarbler
transmit window and from your Winwarbler reply back to his email client's
window for reply. You don't need no stinking sailmail...(c;

Larry


If I had a team of hams positioned around the world, listening 24/7 on
multiple frequencies and able to pass on my emails and send back
weather data then I would agree. :-)

Thanks all - I think it must have been SCAMP I was thinking of. I will
stick to Pactor1 with my $25 ebay PK-232 for now.

Steve