Hello Hams

I'm David Abutbul 31yo from Israel my callsign is 4Z7DVX limited to VHF/UHF at the moment but positivily considering going HF, just need some time to complete the test and tasks by our local spectrum office and radio ham association.

I have recently had growing nostalgic pains for oldschool BBS and decided I will start one of my own again (I used to have a local BBS over 14400 baud land line when I was a teenager)

So it's still not public, I will have to do some further testing and customization before I go on-line, however I would love to have it hybrid so I would be able for example to hook my lappy to my VHF transmitter anywhere around my house and be able to login over RF.

I am very novice in electronics and radio, however I'm pretty fly computers :)

I hope this doesn't fall on deaf ears, as I am really surprised to see packet news even somehow exist.

73 and best regards

David Abutbul 4Z7DVX
Cyber Space BBS SysOp

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■ Synchronet ■ Cyber Space BBS - bbs.abutbul.com Hams and Crackers all around!

Re: Introduction + Callsign
By: david to All on Sun Oct 11 2015 19:18:14

I'm David Abutbul 31yo from Israel my callsign is 4Z7DVX limited to VHF/UHF the moment but positivily considering going HF, just need some time to compl the test and tasks by our local spectrum office and radio ham association.

I have recently had growing nostalgic pains for oldschool BBS and decided I will start one of my own again (I used to have a local BBS over 14400 baud l line when I was a teenager)

It always interests me that there is such an overlap in interests with BBS and amateur radio. Despite both my BBS and radio interests originating at about the same age in the 1990s, I've never tried packet radio on the amateur bands. Me a nd a couple of friends built some TNCs which we used on CB radio using packet but it was just using it as a digital mode only, we didn't actually set up a BBS although that was always the plan.

Definitely go for the licence that allows HF. I know a lot of countries don't allow HF with their initial licence classes but here in the UK we do for some reason, albeit limited to 10 watts. I have just passed my US technician and general class licenses (yesterday!) too and plan on going for extra class fairly soon. I am already fully licensed in the UK but wanted to get licensed in the US for a number of reasons.

Mark, M0LXQ.


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■ Synchronet ■ Toxic Laboratory BBS, home of BBSlink.net - Birmingham, UK - toxicbbs.com

Re: Introduction + Callsign
By: Lab Rat to david on Mon Oct 12 2015 16:33:31

It always interests me that there is such an overlap in interests with BBS and amateur radio. Despite both my BBS and radio interests originating at about the same age in the 1990s, I've never tried packet radio on the amateur bands. Me a nd a couple of friends built some TNCs which we used on CB radio using packet but it was just using it as a digital mode only, we didn't actually set up a BBS although that was always the plan.

Definitely go for the licence that allows HF. I know a lot of countries don't allow HF with their initial licence classes but here in the UK we do for some reason, albeit limited to 10 watts. I have just passed my US technician and general class licenses (yesterday!) too and plan on going for extra class fairly soon. I am already fully licensed in the UK but wanted to get licensed in the US for a number of reasons.

Mark, M0LXQ.

Hey Mark,

Congrats on passing the license test!

this special connection you talk of, not really sure what makes it happen, but after reading around some DoveNet forums, i see many like-headed people
and a little bit better about myself being a regular bore-talk in my social meetings with friends and co-workers h-i

I hope to finalize my plans and make my bbs somehow available over RF, I have no expectation as for how long it may take, probably a decade :)

it was nice meeting you!

Cheers and 73s

David, 4Z7DVX

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■ Synchronet ■ Cyber Space BBS - bbs.abutbul.com Hams and Crackers all around!

Re: Introduction + Callsign
By: david to Lab Rat on Mon Oct 12 2015 11:25 am

Re: Introduction + Callsign
By: Lab Rat to david on Mon Oct 12 2015 16:33:31

It always interests me that there is such an overlap in interests with BBS and amateur radio. Despite both my BBS and radio interests originating at about the same age in the 1990s, I've never tried packet radio on the amateur bands. Me a nd a couple of friends built some TNCs which we used on CB radio using packet but it was just using it as a digital mode only, we didn't actually set up a BBS although that was always the plan.

Definitely go for the licence that allows HF. I know a lot of countries don't allow HF with their initial licence classes but here in the UK we do for some reason, albeit limited to 10 watts. I have just passed my US technician and general class licenses (yesterday!) too and plan on going for extra class fairly soon. I am already fully licensed in the UK but wanted to get licensed in the US for a number of reasons.

Mark, M0LXQ.

Hey Mark,

Congrats on passing the license test!

this special connection you talk of, not really sure what makes it happen, but after reading around some DoveNet forums, i see many like-headed people and a little bit better about myself being a regular bore-talk in my social meetings with friends and co-workers h-i

I hope to finalize my plans and make my bbs somehow available over RF, I have no expectation as for how long it may take, probably a decade :)

it was nice meeting you!

Cheers and 73s

David, 4Z7DVX

Hey all!

Putting the BBS on air should be do-able: The system has a packet menu hidden in the /text folder.
I'll experiment on my setup and get back to you. I *think* it should just be a case of spawning a new node using ax25d whenever a station calls in - this is how ax25node and uronode do it.

The packet modem itself is a solved problem, mostly, these days - soundmodem or direwolf[1] make it really easy to have a softmodem compatible with most, if not all radios. I've used both with baofeng handhelds to Yaesu boat-anchors, anyway!

Cheers and good DX,
Grey

[1] https://github.com/wb2osz/direwolf

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■ Synchronet ■ Virtualhacker.net BBS [under test]

Re: Introduction + Callsign
By: Greystripe to david on Wed Oct 28 2015 00:46:08

Putting the BBS on air should be do-able: The system has a packet menu hidden in the /text folder.

That file on its own won't do much of anything, though it can be used as a header for a packet-oriented command shell.

I'll experiment on my setup and get back to you. I *think* it should just be a case of spawning a new node using ax25d whenever a station calls in - this is how ax25node and uronode do it.

Gating between an AX.25 client and Synchronet is the crucial first step. I don't know if the spawning-a-node process will be quite as straightforward as you'd like. I had mixed results with ax25d.

Past that point, the command shell that you send clients to will be a big deal.
To work best with most TNCs, all prompts and text inputs should just sit around waiting for a whole line of input, etc.

I had some interest in this in previous years, but even for a pointless BBS endeavour it was more pointless and unrewarding than most. :D We do however have the beginnings of native AX.25 support kicking around, though not usable at the moment. I got partway through revising it this summer and then lost interest again.

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echicken
electronic chicken bbs - bbs.electronicchicken.com - 416-273-7230
■ Synchronet ■ electronic chicken bbs - bbs.electronicchicken.com

Re: Introduction + Callsign
By: echicken to Greystripe on Wed Oct 28 2015 12:12 am

That file on its own won't do much of anything, though it can be used as a header for a packet-oriented command shell.

This is what I figured. It's a positive start!

Gating between an AX.25 client and Synchronet is the crucial first step. I don't know if the spawning-a-node process will be quite as straightforward as you'd like. I had mixed results with ax25d.
Past that point, the command shell that you send clients to will be a big deal.

Another option is to use an existing packet node frontend to handle the ax25 interface and telnet from that, and present a custom command shell to that interface. Uronode will let you run custom commands with a quick config update, so that should be an easy start. That removes the requirement for integrating packet radio functions to synchronet, but it also feels like cheating!

To work best with most TNCs, all prompts and text inputs should just sit around waiting for a whole line of input, etc.

I'd also be concerned about end-user terminal capabilities and ANSI. Can't run axcall in syncterm, so it'd have to be telnet over 44net, which will add additional headers and slowdown on 1200bd afsk, as well as having some known bugs.

I had some interest in this in previous years, but even for a pointless BBS endeavour it was more pointless and unrewarding than most. :D We do however have the beginnings of native AX.25 support kicking around, though not usable at the moment. I got partway through revising it this summer and then lost interest again.

We're expanding packet stuff here in Aberdeen so I'm curious to see where this goes. Sadly my code is rusty or I'd investigate and contribute. Maybe I'll look anyway.

Given no one really uses our existing APRS Digi, no one's ever going to use real packet radio, but it's entertaining for me if nothing else!

Cheers,
Grey

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■ Synchronet ■ Virtualhacker.net BBS [under test]

Re: Introduction + Callsign
By: Greystripe to echicken on Wed Oct 28 2015 10:14:09

Another option is to use an existing packet node frontend to handle the ax25 interface and telnet from that, and present a custom command shell to that interface. Uronode will let you run custom commands with a quick

Yes, I messed around with this using JNOS at one point. It worked but was pretty clunky. Perhaps Uronode could do it more transparently. I believe there is an 'ax25shell.js' in the exec directory that could be used, anyhow.

config update, so that should be an easy start. That removes the requirement for integrating packet radio functions to synchronet, but it also feels like cheating!

Integrated/native support for packet has a bunch of advantages.

Automating the user login / account creation process based on callsign (and looking up their info online as part of it) is one thing. (I had all of this working, but the AX.25 session-handling stuff is shaky and needs to be redone.)

Also doing things like exchanging mail with other types of packet BBSs would be a lot easier without relying on external things.

Additionally, there was little consensus among sysops as to what a packet radio integration for Synchronet should look like. Native support would make it easier to create various types of interfaces for different purposes.

Ultimately it's something I'd like to get back to, but I only pay attention to it once or twice each year when I get in a packet radio kind of mood.

I'd also be concerned about end-user terminal capabilities and ANSI. Can't run axcall in syncterm, so it'd have to be telnet over 44net, which will add additional headers and slowdown on 1200bd afsk, as well as having some known bugs.

Cursor positioning sequences generally make a mess of things when the TNC (or AX.25 terminal software) does things like append a CRLF after new data is displayed, etc. One needs to take special steps to configure their TNC or software specifically for use with that sort of input, and that's a hassle. Better to present an interface that works with the lowest (and most) common denominator.

Anything that echoes the user's input back to them will also barf out lots of extra overhead, and be visually annoying to the user. Any prompt that expects one character's worth of input might not deal well with a full line of input received from the remote side. And so on. So a line-based shell is a good idea, and limiting "ANSI" stuff to just colours and "graphics" characters is the way to go. Automated terminal-type detection won't readily work, so the user would need to make a choice re: extended ASCII and colour as a setting for their account.

We're expanding packet stuff here in Aberdeen so I'm curious to see where this goes. Sadly my code is rusty or I'd investigate and contribute. Maybe I'll look anyway.

Well, I'll be curious to see how it works out for you. I wouldn't recommend wasting any time on the current code that we have; the part that needs to be fixed is an annoying beast. I'll glance at it sometime soon and see if I have the will to work on it.

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echicken
electronic chicken bbs - bbs.electronicchicken.com - 416-273-7230
■ Synchronet ■ electronic chicken bbs - bbs.electronicchicken.com