Date: 25 Feb 1995 21:53:44 GMT From: gjones@tcet.unt.edu (Greg Jones WD5IVD /999999) Subject: TAPR 1.1.9 firmware? 1.1.9 is available from the TAPR office for $15 (with book) not including shipping or handling. I think s/h is $2.00 within the US. Full order information is on ftp.tapr.org as well as being available from listserv@tapr.org. We are in discussion with the firmware provider to see about making it available on Internet later this year, but there is a chance that it will only be made available in EPROM form from the TAPR office. Selling 1.1.9 EPROMS is one of the few ways TAPR brings in money to support its various activities....while making it available on Internet quickly is a benefit, it then removes any income source from TAPR. The question I have been thinking about for a long time -- How do you make information available on the Internet, but make people understand that it costs money to create and generate the information.....that if they then get the information, they really should be supporting the group that works on providing it ? I'll include the information on 1.1.9 below along with info on TAPR Internet access. Cheers - Greg, W5IVD ----- TAPR TNC-2 Release 1.1.9 Notes (c) 1994 InfoMotion, Inc. All rights reserved. Permission granted to TAPR, its TNC-2 OEM licensees, InfoMotion licensees, and all licensed radio amateurs, to reproduce the contents herein, provided this notice and the contents of this document are reproduced intact. General The checksum for TAPR release 1.1.9 containing the KISS module is $2D. InfoMotion licensees will not receive the KISS module; the checksum will therefore be some value other than $2D. Release 1.1.9 incorporates these new features: o - Modified P-Persistence o - Enhanced monitor modefiltering o - Support for Dallas Semiconductor RSmartwatchS (tm) socket o - NMEA beaconing mode o - CW identification in FSK using the onboard packet modem And these changes: o - The pound sign ASCII character "#" is allowed in callsigns o - The "OUT" command installed in version 1.1.8 is removed o - In addition to identification at 9.5 minute intervals, the HID function transmits an identification packet upon incoming connect acknowledge, outgoing connect attempt success, disconnection, and cancellation of outgoing connect attempts. o - DWAIT is now applied to digipeated and non-digipeated packets o - Delay equivalent to the current DCD backoff time is applied after transmit release to prevent multiple transmissions with extremely small delays in between Corrections, bug reports, enhancement requests and the like should be directed by mail to: InfoMotion, Inc. 425 Seagrass Avenue Sebastian, Florida 32958 USA Internet: imotion@iu.net Compuserve:75006.702 NMEA Beacon Function TNC-2 now incorporates a dedicated mode enabling the broadcast of one or two NMEA version 2.00 (and compatible) sentences to the UNPROTO address. When placed in NMEA mode with a non-zero value in the NMEABCN parameter, the TNC broadcasts the most recently received sentences received from the attached NMEA talker on the rads are permitted with the exception of identification, beacon, CTEXT, and mailbox data (*if supported). NMEA devices provide an ASCII output at 4800 baud, 8/N/1, consisting of one or more types of sentences containing various types of data. Most commonly these data contain navigation fixes. For example, the authorUs global positioning system receiver (Garmin model GPS-55AVD) generates sentences containing the receiverUs longitude and latitude (fix), time of the fix, groundspeed, waypoint da An example: $GPRMC,034523,Y,02754.31,N,08023.03,W,1.5,035,031294,4,W*23 Meaning: R$GPRMCS - Indicates the type of data (RMC-minimum recommended GPS sentence) 034523 - UTC hh/mm/ss Y - data valid 02754.31,N - longitude 08023.03,W - latitude 1.5 - groundpseed 035 - Track made good over the ground (degrees true) 031294 - date ddmmyy 4,W - magnetic variation, West 23 - checksum (ignored by the TNC) (Note that this example sentence was not actually generated by the unit and the checksum is probably wrong) The TNC automatically ignores the linefeed character - it will not be broadcast. Please note that the sentences are sent in the non-protocol mode, thus there is a distinct possiblity that the intended recipient may not receive the broadcast. Users desiring a gauranteed link should NOT use this new mode and should continue to utilize the TNC in connected mode. NOTES: o - To enable NMEA compatability, the TNC should be configured for 4800 baud, 8 bit, no parity operation. o - NMEA defines a balanced RS-422 interface. A particular NMEA device may or may not function with the TNC-2Us RS-232 interface. In the perfect world, everyone would attach the devices with an RS-422<>RS-232 converter, and the author recommends that one be used. THE USER THEREFORE ASSUMES THE ENTIRE RISK OF ATTACHING THE RS-422 NMEA DEVICE TO THE TNC-2 RS-232 PORT, including permanent damage to the NMEA device, or the TNC, or both. Modified P-Persistance P-persistance is a channel sharing technique that has gained great favor in the TCP/IP world. A modified form of P-persistance It is now included in TAPR TNC-2 as an alternative to priorized acknowledgements and DWAIT. Modified P-persistance relies on two principles to achieve a more equitable sharing of the common frequency. First, when the TNC waits a random multiple of DWAIT after hearing another station before it transmits. The upper limit of the random value is to prevent frequency monopolization by stations placing unusually heavy demands on the frequency, as with the case of a file transfer. Modified P-persistance increases the likelihood that a station with higher priority traffic can acquire the channel. The second way modified P-persistance promotes channel sharing is by gradually increasing the wait time when the TNC executes retry transmissions. Modified P-persistance as implemented in TNC-2 differs from standard P-persistance in that acknowledged retumulate. After a retry is successfully acknowledged the TNC reverts to the shorter delay that assumes a perfect channel. Another difference is that the retry delay is applied only to connections on stream A. Modified P-persistance is selected by setting PPERSIST to ON and ACKPRIOR to OFF. Commands CWID ON|OFF default: OFF FSK cw identification is now available. When CWID is ON, the string in the IDTEXT parameter is send at 20 WPM in international morse code at the times described for the HID command. If text is not present in the IDTEXT parameteWhen using the CW IDer, the HID function (HDLC identification) must be set to OFF or CW identifier may not automatically be transmitted at the 9 1/2 minute interval. Because current regulations do not require a morse identifier within the United States, users are requested to leave CWID set to the defaulted OFF position lest they burden the channel with unecessary identification. MNONPRIN ON|OFF default: ON The TNC will examine the contents of each monitored packet for nonprinting ASCII characters and discard the entire packet if at least one is detected. Nonprinting characters means any ASCII character less than the space character except for BELL, LF, and CR, and the DEL character. The test occurs after masking off the high order bit. By setting MNONPRIN to OFF, and in concert with MNONAX25 OFF, the TNC will filter nearly all screen-garbage inducing monitored packets. NMEABCN n default: 0 n 0-254 in 10-second intervals NMEABCN parameter defines the 10-second interval between broadcasts of the one or two most recently received NMEA sentences to the UNPROTO address =. If none of the selected sentences (see NMEAFLT1 and NMEAFLT2 for information regarding the selection) were received since the last power on, no broadcast is made. Normal TNC operation is enabled when the pin the selected CONMODE. CONMODE *must* be set to CONVERSE, SENDPAC to $0d, and CR set ON (all defaults) for the NMEA parsing to work correctly. NMEAFLT1 sssss default: empty NMEAFLT2 sssss sssss 5 character NMEA preamble defining the device and sentence types. The parameter must be coded exclusive of the leading R$S character. Example: User desires to broadcast the GPS fix and UTC sentences produced by a GPS board cmd:NMEAFLT1 GPGGA NMEAFLT1 was cmd:NMEAFLT2 GPZDA NMEAFLT2 was cmd: Example: User now only wishes to broadcast wind vector data from a weather station cmd:NMEAFLT1 WIMWV NMEAFLT1 was GPGGA cmd:NMEAFLT2 % NMEAFLT2 was GPZDA cmd: PERSIST n default: 8 n 0-254 Defines the persistance, or delay, the station tolerates. The actual delay is a random period of time between one DWAIT period and PERSIST DWAIT periods. The default value is appropriate for keyboard users and most digipeater installations. Higher values around 16 or 24 are appropriate for file transfers. PPERSIST ON|OFF default: OFF PPERSIST ON enables the P-persistant function described above. ACKPRIOR must be turned off for this feature to function. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Periodic Announcement - TAPR Information and Internet Access --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Greetings from TAPR! TAPR can be reached via the Internet. The Automated Information Server that TAPR provides allows anyone to request information on TAPR, products, newsletters, and lots of other files. To find out more about this service, send an e-mail message to listserv@tapr.org with the subject line "Request" and the following text in the body of the message: help (for a brief set of instructions) index -all (for a list of all file by topic area) list (for a list of TAPR Mail Groups) get tapr taprinfo.txt (or info on TAPR) In the above message example, "help" retrieves a brief set of instructions for info, "index -all" retrieves a list of available files by topic and "taprinfo.txt" retrieves a text file containing information on TAPR and what TAPR is all about. If you want to retrieve several text files with one message, use a separate line for each "get filename" request. ----- Membership: Membership in TAPR includes a subscription to the quarterly published Packet Status Register newsletter. PSR has been published since 1982 and is recognized as an authoritative source for up-to-date user and technical information on packet radio. Much of the material in PSR is timeless. Back issues may be obtained from the TAPR office. Membership in TAPR is $15 for one year. In Canada and Mexico membership is $18 and outside North America they are $25. Join the amateur digital-revolution -- Join TAPR! ----- Special Interest Groups TAPR maintains several SIGs in various areas. To get the latest list of SIG groups, send an e-mail message to listserv@tapr.org with the subject line "Request" and the following text in the body of the message: list (for list of mail groups on TAPR.ORG) To request the information on any mail group, send an e-mail message to listserv@tapr.org and in the message text include: information listname (where listname is the name of the mail group) When you are ready to subscribe, send e-mail to listserv@tapr.org with the following command in the message text: subscribe List should be the name of the mail list you want to join and Your Name should be both your First and Last Name. Current SIGs include: NETSIG Regional Networking SIG BBSSIG BBS SIG HFSIG SIG on HF Digital Topics DSP-93 SIG for those that are building TAPR/AMSAT DSP-93 kits APRSSIG SIG on APRS ----- FTP users The TAPR Software Library is now available via anonymous FTP. You can access the library by ftp access to 'ftp.tapr.org' in the directory /tapr. Login in as 'anonymous', with a password of 'your_account@internet_address'. ----- Packet Radio and TAPR is on the World-Wide-Web! The series is accesible through the Packet Radio Home Page at this URL: http://www.tapr.org/tapr What's here? A page of links (the Home Page), the TAPR Home Page, a page of Packet Pioneers and Contacts, a hypertext packet primer and FAQ, and more. Thanks to Howie, N2WX, for his support and invaluable contributions of the TAPR page. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tucson Amateur Packet Radio 8987-309 E. Tanque Verde Road #337 Tucson, AZ 85749-9399 817-383-0000 (Tuesday - Friday 9:00-11:00am, 3:00-5:00pm CT) (15:00-17:00, 21:00-23:00 UTC) 817-566-2544 FAX Internet: TAPR@TAPR.ORG -------------------------------------------------------------------------