pa0r

I have been to a lot of festivals, and I thought I had seen everything... I have never been so far beside the truth. I am camping amidst 3000 computer nuts. With at least 3000 computers, mainly laptops, running day and night. And half of them is on the end of a cable, and those cables all disappear into mobile toilet houses. It really looks like the toilets are in command, and the 3000 on the other end of the wires do what they do at home as well.... look at a screen, make funny noises when something happens on that screen, typing a few things into the keyboard and so on.... the only time they take the computer off the wire is when they take the computer to the bar to get the battery charged. You then see them walking whilst looking at the screen of the laptop they are holding... sometimes they will stop and type something, and then they walk on. They are sitting in on the lectures, and they show each other what happens on the screen. They are in the bar drinking and...

And there is the 'music'. There is a constant dumb beating of drums all day coming from one of the bars/disco. There is nobody in that bar, but the drum goes on day and night. It is so loud that I have trouble listening to the speakers of the lectures. Nobody seems to mind, nobody seems to care. It must be my age.

What The Hack.... I am having a hell of a time...

On tuesday they took the power off our server farm. There had been a serious leak and the repair crew did not know anything else but pull the switch. Wednesday afternoon, right before I left to the festival I was able to get the mail server back up (remotely, via a vnc connection).

I had installed a sever at home, connected to the ORION, set to 80 meters, the NVIS frequency. (The f0F2 MUF is under 5 MHz all the time here...). The WTH festival is 20 km from home, and I could hear the server o.k. But apparently the antenna on the camper is too small for the job, signals were not coming through the S9 QRN.

Thursday I contacted the server at the TUE on 10 meters with stable 56/57 singnals both ways, 3 times during day and evening. I did the email, got the weather forecast and was happy.

This morning the server was only 50/51, but no problem during the morning session. The rest of the day the signals were lost in the 59+ QRN. Small wonder at 28 degrees C. Even at blocksize 16 bytes there was no way coming through.... I can decode the server o.k., but the sinal from the camper is mutilated by qrm and qrn. But then the rig in the server has no CW filter, it takes the full 3kHz load of trouble...

W!T!H!

The PSKmail website is on the air, with a description of the system.

You can also download the files for the PSKmail client. The files for the server are still missing, you can expect them somewhere next week as I am at the WHATTHEHACK event momentarily... IF YOU ARE HERE (51.5545143 N / 5.3436764 E), look for a camper with an unconspicuous fishing rod at the back :)

The PSKmail system is ready for beta.

I have put the client files on a website for testing. Of course you can only use them with the server, and to use the server (PI4TUE) you need an entry in the user data base. We will start with a closed user group so I can control the beta tests...

You can also test the client-to-client arq behaviour, I have not done so yet, maybe it works.

I have implemented some nice features for sailors (like myself hehe...):

• Position entry into the APRS system
• Weather bulletin
• Navtex bulletin

The documentation is still missing. I will build a website with explanations etc., at this moment only an INSTALL instruction is available.

You may want tohave a sneak preview at the screenshots.....

I will take a rest over the weekend, we will be sailing up north. Stay tuned...

On monday morning, the 11th of July we left Eersel with target Cap Blanc Nez, near Calais. We put the camper full of Diesel and headed south. Blue sky and 25 degrees C. We, that was my son Thomas and myself. Thomas had never been to France, and we wanted to use the short trip to enjoy all the goodies of Normandy (like bread, wine and sausages) combined with a series of live tests of the PSKmail system. After a trip of 3 hours via Brussels (the roads in Belgium are comparable to those in Russia, only the wholes are deeper... WHY CAN'T WE HAVE A TUNNEL FROM HOLLAND TO FRANCE?) we hit the French/Belgian border near Lille and stopped for a first enjoyment....

As soon as we reached France the skies became cloudy and temperatures dropped to about 20 degrees. Which was good, as we planned to spend the night at Blanc Nez (a high cliff overlooking the English Channel), and there would be no power to run the airconditioner. After a pleasant trip we reached our destination and parked the camper amidst some 10 others. There are always strong winds at this high location on top of the cliff. Nevertheless there was heavy fog coming in from the sea.

We put up the antenna and set up the station at the back of the camper. We tried to connect the server on 10.148 kHz every hour, but there was no sign of it being alive. Frustrated I made a PSK31 qso with R3/DL2GM, Gena in Moscow. He assured me that there was no problem with the signal from the camper, reports were 599/599.

The next morning we drove 5 hours south to Honfleur, at the southern bank of the Seine, one of my favourite places in Europe. In expectation of the French National Holiday, July 14th, the camper parking was full (we had over 100 neighbours from all over Europe... from F, ON, PA0, G, DL, SM, LA, I, SV to name a few countries), but we managed to grab a nice "spot with a view" and set up the radio.

July 12, 19:30 UTC
Success!! The server answers the first connect request, and the signal is 559 to 589. There are 5 emails waiting for download. The first is from Skip Teller, KH6TY. What a coincedence! Skip is the "father of PSK63", He gets the first return mail via the server. I am also able to update the APRS position via findu.com, and send an email to the XYL. I also try to update the weblog via PSKmail. Then the signal of the server starts getting thin (less than S 0) and the server disappears completely.

July 13, 07:45 UTC
Success!! This time 7 connect requests are needed to make the connection. The signal is S4 maximum with strong, fast, fading which completely cancels the signal. I can't get a download going, as the block length (64 characters) is too long. Unfortunately it is fixed at the server side. For this case a block length of 16 characters would be ideal. First item for the todo list..... I can download 1 email before the connection dies completely within a time frame of 5 minutes! We go visit the city and the beach, as the weather has changed into the blue sky necessary to charge the batteries (there are only 4 power outlets on this parking lot, and first come first served.... we will have to run the fridge, transmitter and computer on solar power for the next few days).

July 13, 19:00 UTC No signal from the server

July 13, 20:00 UTC No signal from the server, 9+20 dB QRM. The neighbours, 3 metres away, have started their TV and their DC/AC convertor is giving a nice strong signal every 100 Hz, quarz controlled!!

July 14, 07:00 UTC
Success!! Immediate connect, excellent signal (S8), and 3 emails waiting. One of them is from blogspirit.com, refusing the blog update. Don't know why. 2 mails from KH6TY, and I start downloading the first.
It turns out to be a rather big picture in base64 encoding. Nice stuff for testing.
Download starts with few repeats until:

July 14, 07:14 UTC
The signal starts to become messy again.... strong QSB, completely cancelling the signal. I also get a jammer on frequency who apparently doesn't know what is going on. Probably can't receive PSK63, as the system automatically sends the calls every 10 minutes to indicate this is about HAM RADIO. The jammer gives up after 5 minutes, and the connection is still alive although 6 out of 8 blocks have to be repeated....
I also notice a principle error in the protocol. The time-out is fixed, which is no good for a varicode system.
The picture contains a lot of CAPITALS, and when it gets a heavy block the client polls in the middle of a block transmission by the server. This does not stop the flow, but it does provoke a lot of repeats. For the todo list!!
Also I feel the need to include a byte count in the mail headers so I am warned in future that a file of 56k is waiting :) => Todo list.

July 14, 07:42 UTC
The signal disappears completely in the middle of a download. The system times out and connect request cannot revive the connection.

July 14, 18:00 UTC
No signal

July 14, 19:00 UTC
No signal

July 14, 20:00 UTC
No signal

JUly 14, 20:30 UTC
Weak signal, no connect possible

July 14, 20:40 UTC
Signal disappears completely. Moreover the battery voltage is going low, better conserve some energy to keep the fridge going. We are rewarded with a splendid fireworks display outside. Well done Honfleur!!

We drove back yesterday, the 15th of July, loaded with a supply of bottles of wine to cover the enjoyment bit for the next few weeks.

This was good stuff!! The main lesson from all this was that we are dealing with RADIO here. For the 450 km distance probably the 30 metres band is not optimal. And a beacon transmission every half hour would be a good indicator for useability of the connection. Work to do!!

ThePSKmail test system is working again since wednesday. We just had to reset the TX, which was hanging in it's PTT watchdog. Since then it has been working reliably. On Friday PSKmail had it's first big live performance. The ADSL connection was down all day, and the HF mail system was the only way to receive the mail. Since the time I use the FT897 especially for PSK63 the system has become very reliable, due to the frequency accuracy of the set. There are still some quirks in the GUI, which I hope to kill during our next trip, starting tomorrow. Target is northern France, and I will try to upload APRS data every evening. The tests will be run with 20 Watts and a fishing rod antenna in the camper, the server has 10 Watts and a dipole on 10.148 MHz.

The GUI version of the client is now operational!! The only thing missing in version 1.0 is the handling of the options and the menus. I have done a bit of tuning with respect to the protocol, especially timing issues. I had not taken into account that the Baud rate is not fixed in a varicode system, so the client timed out while drawing lines and other fancy things.
At the moment the server is down. There was a planned power-down on saturday. I have been able to bring the system back up remotely, but the TX has no output (RX is ok). I hate hardware.... Looks like I have to make a trip to Eindhoven tomorrow.

I have been shopping around for a compact station package for the camper. On VHF/UHF I was still using the old IC2E/IC4E equipment which I had bought in 1977, and the K2 is dead at the moment.
I settled for a Yaesu FT897D with optional 500Hz CW filter, which gives me everything I need for HF CW and Digimodes (PSKmail), and also covers 6 metres and VHF/UHF with ample power. Meanwhile I have prepared the cables for use at PSK63 and RTTY with the laptop. The frequency difference between the FT879D and the PSKmail server at the TU Eindhoven is only 3 Hz!! This transceiver costs less than a Pactor-3 controller!!

Unfortunately I was unable to work the server from Friedrichshafen. I had set the output power to 5 Watts before I left, and I could not hear the server at all. Probably a wrong antenna connected to the server again, as the signal was only S2 at the home station when we came back (normally it was S7 with 5 Watts out). Top priority is now to build a separate antenna for the server, so this type of problem is solved.

Back home. The trip to Friedrichshafen was nice as usual. Unlike the last 5 years we did not stay in the hotel in Kressbron, but we took the camper to the parking lot at the Messe.

We left on the 18th of june early morning (9:30) for a 350 km drive to Worms, our first destination, via the A61. Worms has a special parking/service area for campers which is right on the banks of the river Rhine (49.63455 N, 8.37537 E) and 300 meters from a number of interesting Restaurants. We had sun all day and the temperature was around the 25 degrees mark. We had dinner at the Hagenbraeu restaurant (I had Schweinshackse with dark beer) at the Rhine promenade. This is also the place for the camper service.
We spent the rest of the day looking at the ships passing through.

On the sunday morning we drove to Friedrichshafen via A61, A6 (until Heilbronn), and the A81, again with excellent travelling weather. We made the 280 km in 4 hours. Friedrichshafen also has a parking/service area for campers (47.65010 N, 9.49617 E), 50 metres from the Bodensee. The parking area has room for some 20 campers. One place was in the shade, and we were glad to take it over from the UK couple who left at the time we arrived. We spent the rest of the day at the border of the lake.

Monday morning we moved to the parking area of the exhibition, and we were astonished to see that there were already 50 campers and caravans. The sanitary installation was already working, and people told us that most had taken their spot already on sunday morning. We connected to the 220V mains (important for the airco) and took our seats in the shade of the camper... We had hell of a time. Temperatures were between the 25 and 30 degrees C marks all week, and we had only one thunderstorm on the wednesday evening. Strange. Other years it was always on the thursday.

Friday to sunday we were at the Ham Radio exhibition, partly representating the European DX Foundation at their exhibition stand. During the exhibition and the RRDXA DX dinner at the Adler we met lots of old friends. We will be back...

On the 27th of june we drove north to Baunatal, near Kassel to visit some old friends we had not seen since the last 10 years. We had excellent travelling weather and enjoyed the 6 hour trip.
Baunatal has a parking area for campers (51.25465 N, 9.42042 E), with a nearby service point which is clearly indicated. The parking is at the end of the Altenbaunaer Strasse, near the sport fields in Altenritte. We settled for a different parking area, because the official one is on top of a rainwater basin which did not smell too well....