PACKET RADIO: Quickfix for Many Problems
(This text from the W8IZ packet radio bulletin
board. It's formatted to fit a 80 character screen.)
TITLE: PACKET\QUICKFIX
From: Steve, NO8M@NO8M
Date: October 9, 1990
Subject: Information for Initial Adjustment of Your TNC
YOUR RADIO
You need to insure the receiver in your radio works as fast as possible.
If you have a decent TNC, you should be able to open the squelch and it should
not affect the operation of the radio or TNC. However, some of the older TNCs
will not tolerate an open squelch. If you have one of those, keep you squelch
VERY loose, keep it just barely closed. (You can retrofit most TNCs to
operate with an open squelch.)
You also have to insure that your transmitter is up to full power and
ready to accept the data that is being sent before it begins. There is a
delay between the time the TNC turns the transmitter on and when the radio is
ready to accept the data. That delay is called TXDELAY. Monitor a busy
channel. If you are seeing all the packets when monitoring but still not able
to get information from the board when connected, bump TXDELAY way up ... set
it to 100. If things are working better you will want to shorten that delay.
You should NOT operate with a TXDelay that is longer than you need. It hurts
the network! Please, throttle that back!
THE BOARD
You should be seeing a steady DCD LED on your TNC when connected. The
signal should be strong. We are not, unlike most packet stations, an
alligator! We are running just barely enough power to match our receive.
This may seem strange to those who are more accustom to 160 watts on two
meters!
You should be able to hear the packets. They should sound clear.
Listen!
RESET
When all else fails use the RESET command followed by the MYCALL to set
your call.
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