Hi all. Does anyone know If and When radiomirror will suport
baycom serials or soundcards ?
Thanks de sv1emu

wrote in message
...
Hi all. Does anyone know If and When radiomirror will suport
baycom serials or soundcards ?
Thanks de sv1emu

Funny you should ask! I exchanged e-mail with John Hansen W2FS, the author
of the RadioMirror multicast software on this subject about a week ago. I
was asking for a critique on an idea I had to put RadioMirror on a
soundcard, while optimising it for HF use at the same time. John said that
he has moved on to hardware projects and does not program as much as he used
to. He gave me his blessing to modify or even re-write RadioMirror, and
offered access to his source code.

USPN http://www.uspacket.net recently advertised on E-Ham.Com in the
digital forum for a Windows psk programmer. The theory here is to use
multiple psk streams, each time-staggered so that the seperate multicast
streams provide fills for each other's data blocks much faster than having
to wait for the entire file queue to go around, as we do now with a single
data stream. The multiple streams will also increase overall throughput, as
the system will be decoding files from several data blocks at once... Cute,
huh? At this point we are thinking of maybe four or five streams, making the
signal about the same overall width as HF Packet. One idea we are kicking
around is an extra psk stream that makes it possible to QSO with the
operator of the RadioMirror server, while it is transmitting data.

As we know from playing with Q15x25 mode, we can go up to 15 psk streams if
we want to. - I think that four or five would do just fine though for HF,
and it most definately will be less controversial. Four of five streams
gives us the same bandwidth as a traditional HF Packet signal.

Here's why I am looking at psk streams:

* PSK software exists that decodes up to ten streams at once, so we know
that we can do multiple streams. Actually, Q15x25 decodes 15 psk streams at
once.

* PSK works well with low power on HF, something to consider for a multicast
transmitter which is on the air full-time. The PSK streams will give better
range and coverage on HF than packet could ever hope to provide. -
Especially at the reduced power that goes along with continuous-duty
transmission.

* PSK is in the soundcard domain... DLL's exist that make it easy to write
psk programs, so much of the work is already done.. - You just inject your
multicast data into the streams instead of input from the keyboard. Having
the client programs run from a soundcard will go far in making RadioMirror
usable by a larger number of hams.

* PSK can run full-time. RadioMirror must go in fits and starts (1kb
packets) simply because it uses KISS mode and the Packet protocol. There
will be no need for a psk version to ever go off the air, even for a second.
This should make it much easier on the transmitter, and will give you a
cleaner signal with less fluctuation. A clean signal is a big deal on
something like this.

So I am sorry to say that no soundcard alternative exists right now, but if
we can find the right Windows psk programmer, there is a chance at having a
soundcard version that will be usable on all ham bands, including HF.

I think we can reasonably assume that a multi-psk version of RadioMirror on
HF will move data much faster than anything available today, including wide
modes like PACTOR III, CLOVER, and Q15x25 mode. - And it will do it the same
chunk of spectrum a single Packet QSO takes up. The fact that not one, but
an unlimited number of receiving stations will be able to simultaneously
decode a multicast transmission will revolutionize HF digital
communications. - No joke!

In the mean-time, you might ask the authors of MIXW, the fine multimode
soundcard program if they would consider supporting RadioMirror client.
Those folks are pretty good about that kind of thing.

Charles Brabham, N5PVL
Director: USPacket.Net
http://www.uspacket.net

wrote in message
...
Hi all. Does anyone know If and When radiomirror will suport
baycom serials or soundcards ?
Thanks de sv1emu

Funny you should ask! I exchanged e-mail with John Hansen W2FS, the author
of the RadioMirror multicast software on this subject about a week ago. I
was asking for a critique on an idea I had to put RadioMirror on a
soundcard, while optimising it for HF use at the same time. John said that
he has moved on to hardware projects and does not program as much as he used
to. He gave me his blessing to modify or even re-write RadioMirror, and
offered access to his source code.

USPN http://www.uspacket.net recently advertised on E-Ham.Com in the
digital forum for a Windows psk programmer. The theory here is to use
multiple psk streams, each time-staggered so that the seperate multicast
streams provide fills for each other's data blocks much faster than having
to wait for the entire file queue to go around, as we do now with a single
data stream. The multiple streams will also increase overall throughput, as
the system will be decoding files from several data blocks at once... Cute,
huh? At this point we are thinking of maybe four or five streams, making the
signal about the same overall width as HF Packet. One idea we are kicking
around is an extra psk stream that makes it possible to QSO with the
operator of the RadioMirror server, while it is transmitting data.

As we know from playing with Q15x25 mode, we can go up to 15 psk streams if
we want to. - I think that four or five would do just fine though for HF,
and it most definately will be less controversial. Four of five streams
gives us the same bandwidth as a traditional HF Packet signal.

Here's why I am looking at psk streams:

* PSK software exists that decodes up to ten streams at once, so we know
that we can do multiple streams. Actually, Q15x25 decodes 15 psk streams at
once.

* PSK works well with low power on HF, something to consider for a multicast
transmitter which is on the air full-time. The PSK streams will give better
range and coverage on HF than packet could ever hope to provide. -
Especially at the reduced power that goes along with continuous-duty
transmission.

* PSK is in the soundcard domain... DLL's exist that make it easy to write
psk programs, so much of the work is already done.. - You just inject your
multicast data into the streams instead of input from the keyboard. Having
the client programs run from a soundcard will go far in making RadioMirror
usable by a larger number of hams.

* PSK can run full-time. RadioMirror must go in fits and starts (1kb
packets) simply because it uses KISS mode and the Packet protocol. There
will be no need for a psk version to ever go off the air, even for a second.
This should make it much easier on the transmitter, and will give you a
cleaner signal with less fluctuation. A clean signal is a big deal on
something like this.

So I am sorry to say that no soundcard alternative exists right now, but if
we can find the right Windows psk programmer, there is a chance at having a
soundcard version that will be usable on all ham bands, including HF.

I think we can reasonably assume that a multi-psk version of RadioMirror on
HF will move data much faster than anything available today, including wide
modes like PACTOR III, CLOVER, and Q15x25 mode. - And it will do it the same
chunk of spectrum a single Packet QSO takes up. The fact that not one, but
an unlimited number of receiving stations will be able to simultaneously
decode a multicast transmission will revolutionize HF digital
communications. - No joke!

In the mean-time, you might ask the authors of MIXW, the fine multimode
soundcard program if they would consider supporting RadioMirror client.
Those folks are pretty good about that kind of thing.

Charles Brabham, N5PVL
Director: USPacket.Net
http://www.uspacket.net