Many Hams have expressed an interest in upgrading their Packet stations by changing over to the use of FlexNet, with it's easy set up, advanced design and high performance. Here is a step-by-step account of how to go about doing this if you own a BayCom, or Tigertronics BayPac 1200 baud Packet modem. Though the details of this setup may differ slightly from yours, it is still hoped that this will serve as a general guide. I will be setting up an individual Packet station here, not a node.
The computer I will be using for the purposes of this article is a 33 MHz 386DX PC, with an 80 MB HD and monochrome VGA monitor.
I'll be using a Tigertronics Model BP-2 "BayPac" 1.2kb modem. This is a modern version of the BayCom modem, built with surface-mount components and featuring increased resistance to RF over the original design. I paid around 50 bucks for mine, brand new.
The Radio is a Kenwood TM-241a, hooked up to a Ringo Ranger at 30 ft.
The software to be installed will be the DOS version of FlexNet, along with a special FlexNet port of the BCT terminal program.
Getting the Software
The first thing to do is to get a copy of the software at the FlexNet web-site:
FlexNet
Home Page
http://www.afthd.tu-darmstadt.de/~flexnet/
The Flexnet page has information about the FlexNet E-mail support list, the new Win95 version of FlexNet, and there is also a link called "Downloading Information". Click this and when it comes up, read the information there carefully, then go on to the "Directory Page".
PC FlexNet is modular in design, which means that
you only use the program modules needed for your particular setup. This results
in a smaller, easier to expand and modify suite of program modules rather than
having one large, bug-prone and hard to de-bug program that "does it all". In
fact, the entire package can be run from a floppy disk, if you choose to do
so, with room left over.
I use the hard-drive because it's faster and it's there, but my first setup
was on a floppy so that if I got it wrong I could always pull the floppy, reboot
and use my old software while I tinkered with FlexNet. This precaution turned
out not to be necessary, as setting up FlexNet is generally very easy and uncomplicated.
Not much tinkering was called for.
From the Directory page, I will download the following files:
PCF.LZH
This file contains the kernel, as well as several utilities used for setting
up and operation. It also contains the docs.
SER12.LZH
This is the driver module for BayCom type 1.2 kb modems.
BCT.LZH
This is a port of the BayCom "BCT" terminal program for FlexNet.
After downloading the files, I'll create a new directory called C:\FLEX , and decompress the files into the new directory using the LHA.EXE file compression/decompression utility. The command is: LHA E [filename.lzh] as in: LHA E PCF.LZH
Setting Up the Software:
At this point, there isn't much left to do. An initiation file for the BCT term program, INIT.BCT, must be configured to suit your station, and a batch file FLEXUP.BAT must be created which will call and load the program modules, then set the station parameters. This is a good time to become familiar with the docs.
FLEXNET.DOC
Don't panic! The first half of this file is in
German, but halfway down, the entire thing is repeated in English. What I do
is put FLEXNET.DOC into a text editor and delete the German part, then save
the edited file.
There is an example batch file in FLEXNET.DOC which will work for my purpose
with very little modification, so I cut 'n pasted that part of the docs into
FLEXUP.BAT, then modified it to look like this:
LH FLEXNET 20 if errorlevel 1 goto end LH SER12 2 BayCom on COM 2 if errorlevel 1 goto error FLEX FSET mode 0 1200c 1.2 kb, soft DCD option enabled FSET txd 0 15 TXDELAY set at 150 ms. goto end :error FLEX /u :end
That's it. The batch file uses the FSET.EXE utility to tell
FlexNet what speed to transmit at, and set the TXDELAY to suit your radio. Most
radios will work at the setting above, but you may need to go slightly higher.
Keep the TXDELAY as short as you can reliably get away with.
All other TNC parameters such as FRACK, PACLEN, MAXFRAME, RESPTIME, PPERSIST,
and so on, are all automagically adjusted as you operate by the software, so
you don't have to worry about them.
I chose to use the soft DCD option so that I could run a wide open squelch.
This improves performance, and gives you one less thing to adjust properly.
(or improperly!)
This would be a good time to look carefully at FLEXNET.DOC, being sure that you understand what each line of the batch file does.
INIT.BCT
The docs for BCT are in German only, but fortunately, INIT.BCT
is easy to set up and understand.
I set mine up for VGA Monochrome, first window 5 lines high,
middle window 18 lines high, no screen-saver:
Some of the parameters I could not figure out, so I left them alone and this
has worked out well.
; --- packet interface --- mycall N5PVL monitor ON ; --- screen outline --- vgalines ON color OFF d1lines 5 d2lines 18 crtsave 0 sa_color 02 47 CF 07 47 40 57 03 02 17 1E 5E 04 sa_mono 07 70 F0 07 70 70 0F 07 0F 70 07 70 70 ; --- remote --- remote ON rcmd CSTATUS DIR QUIT READ RPRG WRITE WPRG boxcalls DB0??? OE?X?? ; --- signals --- echo 0 knax ON cbell ON ctext Z qtext Q ; --- input behaviour --- german OFF command ON ; --- file parameters --- autobin ON 7psave OFF log OFF ; --- default save files --- write 0 OFF write 1 OFF write 2 OFF write 3 OFF write 4 OFF write 5 OFF write 6 OFF ; --- standard text --- st B BayCom-Terminal st C \x:c \i st D \x:d st G Gruss ... \z st Q Goodbye! st Z Default-CTEXT ; --- save qso context (do not edit!) --- ; --- end ---
In theory, after editing these files to suit, you should be able to run FLEXUP.BAT and when it finishes loading, run BCT and be ready to go.
Good luck! 73 DE Charles, N5PVL
Please send comments, suggestions
to:
Charles Brabham N5PVL
E-MAIL: [email protected]
WWWeb: http://www.texoma.net/~n5pvl
PACKET: N5PVL @ N5PVL.#NTX.TX.USA.NOAM