Packet Radio Information Series

These are a series of packet information bulletins by Larry, WB9LOZ.
I don't know if Larry is still active, but his articles are still one
of the best sources of info for understanding the operations of packet
radio.
You can find ALL these pages of info on the TARA BBS. You'll need
to go into "DOS" mode on the bbs and initiate downloads via YAPP
or whatever protocol your terminal\packet program supports.
Not sure what I'm talking about? I'll post info on using the BBS
(my own series of articles) as soon as I finish setting up these packet info pages... or
you can snoop around on the bbs. Use the ? Help command to guide
you through.
This is just a page to get started.
I will organize and dress it up in the near future.
73, Paul, wa6ewv

PACKET INFORMATION BULLETIN - #1
DETERMINING NODE ROUTE QUALITY

As I monitor the activity on the local packet frequencies, I see users
attempting to connect to nodes that aren't accessible, or to distant
nodes via a poor path when a good path is available. This wastes the
user's time and adds unnecessary congestion to the network.

In this first bulletin of my "Packet Information" series let's look at
a feature offered by the nodes and packet switches that gives you a
simple way to find out if a node is accessible and, if it is, the best
route to use to reach it.

After you connect to your local NET/ROM node, TheNet node or G8BPQ packet
switch, it's easy to make a quick check of the route quality to any other
node or switch. All you need to do is enter N followed by either the
alias or callsign of the node or switch that you want to reach, such as:

N FRESNO    or    N W6ZFN-2

You'll receive a report showing up to three routes to the node you asked
about, how good these routes are and how up to date the information is.
If there is no information available, you will receive either "Not found"
or the complete node list, depending on the type of node or switch you're
using.

Let's take a look at a typical report you would receive after entering
N FRESNO. If you were connected to a NET/ROM : FRESNO:W6ZFN-2

     108 6 0 WB9LOZ-2
   > 81 6 0 W6PW-6
     64 5 0 WA8DRZ-7

If you were connected to a G8BPQ packet switch you would see one less
column in the report and it would look like this:

 SF:WB9LOZ-2} Routes to: FRESNO:W6ZFN-2
   > 144 6 W6PW-10
     108 5 KA6EYH-3
     108 6 N7SOF-2

Each line shown is a route to the node or switch you asked about.
The symbol > indicates a route that's in use.

The first number is the QUALITY of the route.  255 is the best possible
  quality and means a direct connect via hard wire to a coexisting node
  at the same site; zero is the worst, and means that the route is locked
  out.  192 is about the best over the air quality you'll find, and it
  usually means that the node is only one hop away.  If you see a quality
  of less than 80, you'll probably have a difficult time getting any
  information through via that route.

The second number is the obsolescence count.  This number is a 6 when
  the information for this route is less than an hour old.  For each
  hour that an update on the route is not received, this number is
  decreased by one.  A 5 means the information is an hour old, a 4 means
  that it's two hours old, and so on.
The next number, shown only on NET/ROM and TheNet nodes, indicates the
  type of port.  A 0 is an HDLC port; a 1 is an RS-232 port.  You don't
  need to pay any attention to this figure.
The callsign is that of the neighboring node or packet switch that's
  next in line on the route.  Digipeaters are shown if any are used to
  reach this neighboring node.

This quick check on a node or switch that you want to reach can save
you a lot of time. You'll know immediately whether or not the node is
available, and if it is, how good the available routes are to it. You
then won't have to spend time trying to connect to a node that isn't
available or is of poor quality.

If you find that there's a decent route to the node or switch you want
to reach, it's normally best to let the network make the connection
for you. Simply enter a connect to the alias or callsign you want
rather than connecting to each individual node along the route yourself.

If a route exists but the quality is not very good, you might want to
connect to the neighboring node shown for the best route, then do
another quality check, repeating this procedure until you find a route
with decent quality. You can actually get through to some distant
nodes using this method if you have the time and patience to work on it.

BACK