Marrold (2E0SIP) has provided a beautifully written article regarding the up and coming national packet project.
You can see the article here.
News
GB0WFD – Winter Field Day 2023
TeamWave will be taking part in the WFD using the call sign GB0WFD.
Below is a message from our Mattermost system.
Thankyou to all of you for your support as at the beginning of the journey with The TeamWave collective. We are happy to announce our first meet up for this year on Sunday the 29th of January. We will be taking part in winter field day as GB0WFD at the NZ and VW site in Wymondham. It is at Standley steel stockholders NR189JD all are welcome but we will be working out of a little shed so please let us know if your interested in coming along.
Within the TeamWave ethos you are encouraged to come along and work the station. Get hands on with us and play some radio. We will be messing around with antennas in the field and there will be tea and coffee provided. If you would like food please bring it along with you. If you would like to come along please let us know in the DXpeditions feed.
If you’d like more information please contact us on our chat system.
Packet Radio SSID and Alias convention
SSIDs
SSIDs are used to identify separate services running under the same call sign. For example, you may have a node, a BBS, and a chat server all running on your home packet station. All three can’t operate as exactly the same call, so an SSID is added on the end to differentiate between them.
There isn’t a fixed convention on which services should use which SSID, but as a group, it would be helpful if we had a “standard” we used, just for clarity. It doesn’t really matter what the standard is, as long as we document it, and stick to it.
With that in mind, I would like to propose the following :
M7GMT– Your “raw” call sign without an SSID (this implies-0). Your personal terminal. Use when you connect to other systems, are having a chat, etc.M7GMT-1– BBS (mailbox). This is somewhat of a convention already, with many TNC’s in-built mailbox defaulting to-1.M7GMT-3– ChatM7GMT-5– Node
We can use SSIDs 1 to 15, so if there are other services that several stations run (e.g. DX Cluster), we can add a new line here to keep things organised.
Aliases
Aliases are used as a “friendly name” for packet stations, allowing you to connect without having to remember whch SSID you need. For example, my node currently has the alias ATTLE (for Attleborough), so you could connect by typing either connect M7GMT-5 or connect ATTLE.
Aliases can be up to 6 characters, and should be unique on the packet network. The idea is for these to be memorable, so I would be interested in your feedback on the following formats:
WAVExx–WAVEfollowed by a 2 letter ID. First letter is first letter of city/town/village. Second letter is type:Dfor digipeater,Nfor node,Bfor BBS, andCfor chat. Examples:WAVEWD:MB7NAF= Wymondham DigipeaterWAVEAN:M7GMT-5= Attleborough Node
WAVxxx–WAVfollowed by a 3 letter ID. As option one, but this allows an extra character for station ID, which would help prevent potential clashes as the network grows. Examples:WAVBCC:GB7MSX-3= Burgh Castle ChatWAVWYD:MB7NAF= WYmondham DigipeaterWAVATN:M7GMT-5= ATtleborough Node
TWxxxx–TWfollowed by a 4 letter ID. This allows even more flexibility for the station ID, but is perhaps less clear that they are all associated. Examples:TWBUCC:GB7MSX-3= BUrgh Castle ChatTWWYMD:MB7NAF= WYMondham DigipeaterTWATTN:M7GMT-5= ATTleborough Node
Discuss
Again, what we settle on is less important than sticking to the standard. I would love your feedback on this, other formats to consider, and so on.
Happy packeting!
Tech Net on Tuesday 22 November at 19:30 GMT
We are running their second ‘tech net’ on Tuesday 22 November at 19:30 GMT
The net will be hosted on GB3NZ, GB3VW and DMR TG841 – East Anglia Multimode. The subject is “Team Wave – What we’ve been up to and where we’re going”.
Everyone welcome!
Please see below for ways to join:
GB3NZ:
Output: 145.600
Input: 145.000
CTCSS: 94.8Hz
GB3VW:
Output: 430.8125
Input: 438.4125
CTCSS: 82.5Hz
DMR – DVS Phoenix repeaters (e.g. GB7YL, GB7EB, GB7DS) via talk group 841 Slot 2
D-STAR – XLXWVV Module A
NXDN – Talk group 841
TETRA – Via GB7TX
Yaesu System Fusion – Via Rooom 00841
EchoLink – Search for GB3VW.
TeamWave – Matrix
As the Fediverse has become a little more popular with the recent twitter fiasco, I’ve decided that now would be a good time to create a letstalkradio matrix chat system. Firstly I don’t plan on Mattermost going anywhere so you are welcome to stay. If anything we will probably set up a bridge between the two so messages are sent to both systems.
At the moment these are independent systems so messages on one will not show on the other.
The benefits of Matrix is that you can run your own server (if you wish) and the system supports many 3rd party clients, unlike Mattermost where you’re limited to the single client.
We have the one room at the moment: Teamwave – MX0WVV for testing.
I welcome everyone to create an account and come and try the system, and again this system (Mattermost) is not going anywhere at the moment.
Here are the instructions if you’d like to come along and play:
1) Visit https://app.element.io
2) Click Edit (under the information icon ‘i’)
3) Select “Other homeserver” and insert the URL “https://matrix.letstalkradio.org” and click continue.
4) Now under the Sign in button select “Create account”
5) Enter your desired username
6) Enter a strong password
7) Click Register
8) You’ll now be signed in, if you get a “You’re in” page click “Skip” in the middle of the screen
9) You can then join the Teamwave room “https://matrix.to/#/#admins:matrix.letstalkradio.org”
Following feedback we will then decide whether to bridge the two systems together.
Our first packet net
It’s been talked about for a long time, but we’ve finally set a date for our first packet net; Saturday 17th September at 20:00 – 144.950FM.
With so few of us within simplex range of each other, digipeating will be essential, so please make sure this is enabled in your TNC if you’re taking part. The more stations we can get involved, the better this will work, so if your station is packet-capable, please dust off your TNC and join in.
Stations confirmed so far:
- M0XTF Tony – Bungay
- M0VCX John – Watton
- M1MIT Tim – Norwich
- M5MSX Martin – Gt. Yarmouth
- M7GMT Rik – Attleborough
As this will be the first attempt, we’ll be figuring out who can hear who, and exactly how paths should be configured, but if all goes well, this could become a regular thing, perhaps alternating with a 2m JS8 net. We could call it SaturDATA. 🙂
Packet Radio & New Features
Now that we’ve a second packet node on the air with GB7ZAH, the focus is starting to move towards functionality.
We’ve 2 new features currently in testing on GB7MSX:
- Mattermost integration.. Yes, that’s right! using the MATTERMOST command, you’ll be able to come through to our Mattermost server and chat away (channel #GB7MSX). It’s still under test and allows packet users to converse with pre-approved licensed amateurs in Mattermost to ensure we’re complying with licensing conditions
- We now have a repeater lookup function called RPTSEARCH, just for fun. It’s a simple wildcard search by repeater callsign right now but in the future we’d like to extend this to deliver repeaters within X distance from a location as that’s a little more useful. Stay tuned!
At the time of writing, I’m also messing with a couple of other python scripts I’ve picked up along the way.. One is based on the classic Zork, and another on Eliza.. both very retro, so you may see them active at various points in the name of science & fun.
Both packet nodes are likely to be up and down over the coming days and weeks as we continue to tweak, improve and expand. GB7MSX will be undergoing some antenna tests and improvements, however in the meantime it is accessible from greater distances thanks to the extended range GB7ZAH is providing. Don’t forget to node hop!
We’d welcome any ideas for cool packet node functionality, as we really want to develop out both nodes with unique features and generate some interest in VHF packet radio.
If you have packet capability in your station or are interested in learning more, please join us on the air or via our Mattermost chat.
For now, 73!
GB7ZAH – On air testing
Our second packet station (GB7ZAH) switched on today for full testing. This has been a long time coming and joins GB7MSX in the East of Norfolk. There will be periods where the station may not be available while we change configs in the backend.
A huge thanks to Martin M5MSX for his help with configuration hits, and M7GMT for testing on air.
The next step is to get MB7NAF (M1MIT) node on the air.
If you’d like to use either GB7MSX/GB7ZAH you can connect via 1200Baud AX.25 on 144.950NFM.