[ ANARTS - Australian National Amateur Radio Teletype Society ] ANARTS NEWS BULLETIN 808 08/05/1994 Sunday Transmission Schedule 3.545 MHz plus/minus 3 0930 UTC VK2BQS (Jim) 7.045 MHz to minus 3 0030 UTC VK2CTD (Col) 14.070 MHz (amtor/fec) 0030 UTC VK2DPM (Alan) 14.091 MHz 0030 UTC VK2BQS (JIM) 146.675 MHz 0030/0930 UTC VK2JPA (PAT) 144.850 MHz (ax25 bbs) VK2JPA AT VK2RWI 146.675 MHz (rtty mmbbs/repeater) VK2RTY Views expressed in this news bulletin are not necessarily those of the Broadcast Officer, the Relay Officers, or of the Society. GTOR (conclusion) reprinted from RTTY Digital Journal ------------ On-The-Air Testing During the month of January over a million bytes were transferred error-free from Lawrence, Kansas to Laguna Niguel, California. During these tests, TRACE was set ON at each station, enabling the display of acknowledgement bytes and data frames including control bytes. This allowed us to view and count data and acknowledgement frames received with and without the aid of forward error correction and interleaving. The results were somewhat surprising! While Pactor often dropped in transmission speed from 200 to 100 baud, G-TOR nearly always kept on crunching frames at 300 baud! Enough frames are corrected to keep the system running at 300 baud, regardless of man-made interference and mild multi-path condi- tions. Transfer duration for the entire test file varied from 12 to 27 minutes for Pactor but only 5.5 to 7.5 minutes for all but one transfer in G-TOR. G-TOR simply maintained its highest pace better than Pactor, resulting in a substantial increase in average throughput. Operation of G-TOR is much like AMTOR. Establish a link by typing (GTOR callsign) and (return) at the cmd: prompt. Enter standby to copy CQs or to receive a link request by typing (GTOR) and (Return). Tune to a G-TOR CQ call as you would in AMTOR. G-TOR uses the AMTOR FEC mode for calling CQ and as its broadcast mode. Change the direction of information flow using the directives (Control-C T) and (control-C E). Conclusion G-TOR features include Golay forward error correction coding, full-frame interleaving, on-the-fly Huffman data compression with run-length encoding, fuzzy acknowledgments, a long hybrid-ARQ cycle of 2.4 seconds, and a link-quality based transmission rate. Combined, these techniques result in a new, very robust, interference-resistant mode for HF digital communication for the amateur radio service. Throughput exceeds other existing all-mode TNC modes by better than two- to-one. G-TOR will be standard in the KAM Plus and the Enhancement board for the KAM (predecessor of the KAM Plus). G-TOR will not be available for KAMs without the enhancement board since EPROM space is too small. Firmware EPROM updates will be available for the KAM Plus and KAM with Enhancement board. G-TOR is a trademark of Kantronics, Inc. Editor's note : there is a critique of G-TOR on the packet system here at the moment. In the interests of amateurs who do not have access to packet, we will run this item following the completion of this review so as to have another viewpoint on this new system. ----------------------------------------- VOLTA RTTY WW Contest Contest period: from 1200z Saturday to 1200Z Sunday 14-15 May (24 hours, no rest periods required) Bands: 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10M Classes: A1 - Single op, all bands A2/xx - Single op, single band (xx = band) B - Multi-op, single transmitter C - SWL Exchange : Send : RST plus QSO nr. plus CQ zone nr. Multipliers: DXCC Country List plus each call area in VK, VE and USA. DO NOT COUNT VK, VE , or USA as separate country. (USA stations with callsigns from one district but are now living in a different district should give proper identification, such as :K6WZ/0.) The same multiplier counts again on a new band. An additional multiplier is given for each INTERCONTINENTAL COUNTRY worked on at least four bands. Contacts between stations within the same country will not be valid, such as: a W2 station can work W1, W3, W4 etc. but not W2. Contacts made OUTSIDE ones own continent on 80 or 10M are worth double QSO points. A contact with a station that would count as a multiplier will be valid if that station appears in at least 4 other logs, or a contest log is received from that station. More next week ----------------------------------------- IPS weekly report ----------------- 29 April - 5 May 1994 Issue No 18 Date of issue: 6 May 1994 INDICES: Date 29 30 01 02 03 04 05 10cm 078 075 075 076 074 073 073 A 06 02 25 41 45 23 (30 estimated) T 45 40 27 -05 49 09 16 SUMMARY OF ACTIVITY Solar activity was very low during the period. The geomagnetic field at Learmonth (WA) was quiet on 29th-30th April, unsettled to minor storm 1st-2nd May, and unsettled to active 3rd-5th with a brief minor storm period on 3rd. Ionospheric F2 critical frequencies at Sydney were near predicted monthly values 29th-30 April, near normal to 30 per cent enhanced on 1st May, depressed by up to 30 per cent on 2nd, returning to near normal to 20 per cent enhanced on 3rd. On 4th-5th May, frequencies were near normal to 30 per cent depressed. Spread F was observed on 2nd and 4th-5th May, and blanketing sporadic E conditions obtained at times on 2nd May. FORECAST FOR THE NEXT WEEK (6 - 12 May) SOLAR: Very low GEOMAGNETIC: Unsettled to active IONOSPHERIC Near predicted monthly values. Updated IPS Monthly Predicted Smoothed T-Indices YR JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC ------------------------------------------------------------- 94 39 37 36 35 34 31 28 26 24 22 21 19 95 18 18 17 16 15 14 14 13 12 11 11 10 96 10 9 9 8 8 8 8 9 9 10 11 12 97 13 15 17 19 21 23 26 30 33 38 43 48 Courtesy of IPS Radio and Space Services ---------------------------------------- VK2SG RTTY DX NOTES 29 APR 94 VK2SG RTTY DXNOTES FOR WEEKENDING 29 APR. 1994 (BID RTDX0429) THIS HAS BEEN ONE OF THOSE WEEKS WHERE NOTHING HAS HAPPENED, SO I TOOK LIBERTY TO LOOK AROUND THE BANDS. ONE WONDERS AT TIMES ABOUT THE OPERATIONS OF SOME PEOPLE, IT WOULD APPEAR THAT, AT THE MOMENT, THE BIG GAME IS TO JAM OTHER STATIONS. IT HAS BEEN NOTICED THAT THERE ARE LOTS OF SIGNALS THAT JUST IDLE ON TOP OF STATIONS THAT ARE TRYING TO ESTABLISH A CONTACT. SOME OTHER OPERATOR SEEM TO SPEND A LOT OF TIME JUST LISTING BULLETINS IN EVERY MAILBOX THAT CAN FIND, WELL EACH ONE IS ENTITLED TO DO THAT, BUT IT SURE SEEMS TO ANNOY SOME PEOPLE. OUR THANKS THIS WEEK GO TO: ZS5S, W2JGR, WB2CJL, VK2SG, OH2BBF ON6RO, DJ3IW AND THE CENTRAL-EU. DXCLUSTER NODE DB0SPC, I5ICY AND IK5PWJ PACKETCLUSTER AND THE NJ0M NODE OF THE TWIN CITIES. BANDPASS: FRIDAY 22 0641-14084 C91AI 1240-14085 RA1ZD 1337-14087 J28JJ 2005-14084 UY0IO 2201-14083 EI3GZ SATURDAY 23 (INT. MARCONI DAY) 0056-14082 CX7BF 0140-14077 P29RB PACTOR 0338-14069 A35CT AMT 0551-14080 7Z1AB PACTOR 1006-14077 T30NS PACTOR 1256-21085 ZD7DP 1304-21084 Z21HD 1440-14082 XU7VK 1443-14086 3Z0RY FER PREFIX 1445-21085 5R8DS 1447-21088 S92ZM 1512-14078 V51A 1538-21083 VQ9SS 1541-21091 ZP6XR 1639-21085 J28JJ 1705-14083 UN5PR 1836-21090 9H1ET 1930-14088 VP9MZ SUNDAY 24 0302-14085 ZL3GQ 0321-14075 V31AE PACTOR 0937-21086 UZ9CWA 0944-21084 3Z0RY 1448-21083 Z21HD 1511-14085 LZ1KB 1653-21087 CX5CJ 2032-14086 VA3MM 2153-14081 LU1HM MONDAY 25 0345-14084 T28RW QSL ZL1AMO 0605-14086 HV4NAC QSL IK0FVC 1345-21070 J28JJ ARQ 1355-21074 VP8WA PACTOR 1414-14082 UN5PR 1512-14087 RU9FM 1526-21076 ZC4SW PACTOR QSL G0DVF 1638-14087 TA5C 1741-14089 5R8KH 2156-14086 SV1QN TUESDAY 26 0612-14095 V63JM PACTOR 0625-14082 C91AI QSL VIA CT1GTZ 0720-14090 WL7EE 1205-14087 UT7FP 1340-21085 VS6GA 1747-14084 SV1ADG 2310-14089 HK0DPA 2356-14083 V31AR WEDNESDAY 27 0552-14085 C91AI 0605-14088 NH6XM 0620-14086 WL7EF 0745-14086 T28RW 1107-21070 S92ZM ARQ 1404-14090 VS6GA 1555-14085 9H1ET 1714-14089 ZC4ZZ 2212-14088 HK0DPA THURSDAY 28 0524-14080 OD5NA PACTOR 0552-14083 C91AI 1514-21070 J28JJ ARQ NOTES OF INTEREST: MORE ON 9X5LJ. ON HIS RETURN IN BELGIUM, JACQUES WAS ON TV NEWS. HE WAS RECOMMENDED FOR KEEPING A 2 MTR VOICE REPEATER IN KIGALI GOING WHICH ASSISTED GREATLY DURING THE EVACUATION OPERATIONS.JACQUES WAS HOPITALISED FOR MALARIA AND HEPATITIS. BOTH, MONIQUE AND JACQUES ARE TOUCHED BY ALL SEND MESSAGES OF OF SYMPATHY THEY HAVE RECEIVED. THEY ARE VERY GRATEFUL FOR THEM AND SEND THEIR REGARDS TO ALL OF YOU. THE BOX WAS STILL RUNNING ON THE 25TH APR. 21073 ON AMTOR. MARKET REEF. ERIC OJ0/OH2BBF PLANS TO AIR SOME RTTY FROM 15TH TO 16TH MAY FROM MARKET REEF. OJ0/OH1VR, OJ0/AC6T, OJ0/OH6RM AND OH0MB WILL BE ON SSB/CW, OJ0/OH1VR ALSO ON 6 METERS, 14TH TO 17TH MAY. (OH0MB IS THE CURRENT MARKET REEF CALL OF LARS, OH0RJ). OPERATION IS PENDING FROM WEATHER DUE TO HELICOPTER TRANSPORTATION. VOLTA RTTY TEST. HONORING ITALIAN DISCOVERER OF ELECTRICITY, ALESSANDRO VOLTA, I REMIND YOU THIS CONTEST WHICH WILL START FROM 1200Z MAY 14TH AND WILL END 1200Z OF MAY 15TH. EXCHANGE RST, QSO NUMBER AND CQ ZONE NUMBER. GENEVA. AN ITALIAN TEAM WILL BE ACTIVE FROM ITU HEADQUARTERS MAY 20-22TH USING SPECIAL CALL 4U9ITU ON CW, SSB AND RTTY. SEND YOUR BANDPASS AND NOTES FOR NEXT WEEK BULLETIN TO JULES, W2JGR AT W2TKU.#SRQFL.FL.USA.NA. GL DE (DX2) LUCIANO, I5FLN AT ZS5S.ZAF.AF Editors Note Lucianos comments apply here as much as overseas. What has happened to the Amateurs code of respecting others rights? All that is required is to choose a frequency in that segment of the band set aside for the mode you want to use, and to take a moment or two to listen for any traffic to see that the frequency is clear. Not too much to ask, is it? Surely amateurs of today can abide by the gentlemans code and make the hobby pleasant and friendly for all. --------------------------------------- Coming events ------------- 1994 ---- May 14th-15th Volta RTTY WW Contest ------------------------------------ Society information The Society may be contacted at : PO Box 860, Crows Nest 2065 Australia, for such matters as membership and general enquiries. Enquiries can also be made by packet to the President (Col) VK2CTD, or the Secretary (Pat) VK2JPA @ VK2RWI or whatever BBS is providing the alternative communication. News items may be sent to Broadcast Officer PO Box 60 Blacktown 2148 Australia, or by packet to VK2JPA as per the above outline. Email address for the Broadcast Officer is: patl@pitt.conmusic.su.oz.au The Society welcomes news items on any digital subjects from anywhere in the broadcast footprint. We know we reach ZL and South Pacific islands. We are looking forward to news from your areas to let other amateurs know what you are doing in the hobby. Hope to hear from you. 73s de Pat VK2JPA Broadcast Officer That concludes ANARTS NEWS 808 08/05/94. To assist an analysis of our distribution, if you use this means of obtaining a copy of the bulletins, a VERY BRIEF note would be appreciated. Simply your call and via ??????BBS would be sufficient- Send via Packet through VK2DAA, or Amtor through VK2AGE, I monitor them both weekly......Additional comments will be read with interest. Inserted by VK2BQS (Jim) Vice President ANARTS.