Digi installed at
Brackettville.
WX5II-4 is on air at the
Intertie/Border Amateur Radio Society site at Brackettville.
This joint effort finally took off on Saturday, December 6,
with KD5FVZ installing the new Sinclair SRL 235 antenna, K5DRT
and N5VRP pulling on the rope, while W5EX hooked it all up.
K5ZZT donated the power supply, K5MCA the radio, N0VH the 1270
and firm/software.
KISS Mode TNC (John Hansen,
W2FS, QST, Nov. 2000).
I built John's TNC. Works fine
- likes 1200 Baud best. Seems like errors creep in as the
baud is increased. Needs to be set at 4800 to work with
GPS.
Software choice
We are running UI-View 32
here, with Precision Mapping maps. Working on
the transistor toggle to allow GPS on demand by the CPU RTS
line. ("Hardware single port switch - [HSP]). Schematic and
instructions are imbedded in UI-View Help. Press F1, after
selecting "GPS Set-up" in "Setup". Bench check of circuit
done: works! More checks in progress.
If this works out, John's circuit can
be programmed like a Tiny-Trak -or - used in KISS mode with
UI-View. That way, you can still be tracked without the
computer, with GPS connected.
I want to see if the HSP can be kept
in line with the 2 modes. If not, no big deal: just hook the
GPS to the TNC line and feed the satellite data for
tracking.
This ought to give the best of both
worlds:
- Leave lap- top home: Program "APRS "
into John's KISS TNC:>Pure tracker, like TT-3 (I haven't
tried this yet)
- Bring lap top: Tracks you on map -
and - all APRS traffic received - on the map.
Requires HSP.
- So far, I have
been unable to make John's splitter work as shown in QST.
So, GPS + Kiss TNC + Laptop is a no go with
UI-View, or his recommended program: - Win
APRS.
Correct FM deviation. Keep
deviation 2.5 KHz nominal for the combination
of 2 tones in Tiny-Trac setup program, or by watching your
beacon's deviation on a service monitor 'scope. I think that
most of the non-processable packets I see in terminal mode
could be over-deviated. Just and opinion!
Terminal mode is a great place
to trouble-shoot receiving difficulties. Weirdest junque is
seen when conditions are really poor. Lots of SA1xxx calls
> 800 miles range. You may be able to use your Windows
Hyperterminal program. Click on
Programs>Accessories>Communications>Hyperterminal.
[Make a shortcut to your desk top]. Configure to use Com 1, or
whatever serial com port you are using, then set baud, word
size, parity, stop bits. With 1270 use 9600 7E1 or 8E1; With
UI-View use whatever your TNC is set for - usually 4800
8N1. Use this program to configure Hansen's KISS TNC, or to
monitor incoming traffic.
Correct APRS unproto address.
I'm working on this. I'm close.
Cable recommendations. Stay
tuned. You need to settle on a standard cable configuration,
with colors assigned. This will prevent many wasted hours with
pesky serial data ports.
Home GPS, using MFJ
1270
With N0VH's help I have configured a
1270 for Host NONE, Handshake NONE,
1296 Baud, 8-bit, Even parity, 1 Stop bit. There is a
pre-programmed button for TNC-2, which is what a 1270
is - which pops up when you select NONE for host. When you
boot the program, with the 1270 already on, you will see
UI-View program the 1270. Cool!
1270 outperforms the Hansen KISS unit
- fewer errors, more stations decoded.
Set toggle switch 6 up - the middle
of 3 "radio" switches at the back of unit. These are the last
3 switches. The previous 5 are for baud set -- toggle 5 up. Do
this with TNC OFF.
I found that the 1270 does not like
4800 baud. Also, in UI-View "Setup" is a
category of "Miscellaneous". In there, you can decrease
digital selectivity for address and QTH. Needed for sure with
the KISS TNC.
Time waster. Like all digital
stuff, this can be a voracious parasite on your available free
time. We hope to publish here things no else seems to get down
on paper. Comments to us appreciated: [Dennis - an e-mail
address, please]
W5EX
Copyright 12/03
Work in progress
ÅTOP
Revised:
08/07/07 05:38 PM by N5VRP, Dennis Rogers, Webmaster
Copyright 2003 by Intertie, Inc. All Rights Reserved
No use of these symbols or phrases is allowed without the express
written permission of Intertie, Inc.