Living close to the packet station located on top of the Gasunie headquarters, this handheld suits most of my packet wishes. Using only 0.5 W (low power) and the standard antenna is enough to cross the 10 km.
Portable packet
Controlling the built-in TNC only requires a simple terminal program.
Many packet programs rely on hardware flow control what
makes them impossible to use for this tnc. What you need is software
flow control, also described as XON/XOFF. For those who who like
to try out an old terminal: an old printer manual notes them as
DC1/DC3, or ctrl-Q/crtl-S, or h11/h13. Don't forget to set the
right baudrate (9600 bd) and character type:
N 8 1.
Receiving packet stations with a Palm device works surprisingly well. The command structure for packet is based on short commands. That is exactly what you need if the keyboard is not meant to write long stories.
What the tested terminal programs1) don't give is a button to scroll through the text on the screen. Fortunately a Palm is built for storing information.
Using the standard cradle that came with the Palm IIIxe, the usual cable between the TH-D7 and computer needs a refit. The Tx and Rx have to be switched since the cradle also works as a nullmodem.
The picture of the Gasunie building was taken with this PalmPix camera. The other were made with a webcam and postprocessed.
1) VT100 and OnlineTM
Last change: march 14th 2001