[FADCA] Results of Six Weeks Packet Training

[bud Thompson]

On October 5th I started a packet/WL2K training 'correspondence' course via
e-mail.

The 'E. Central Florida E-mailers' toped out at 43 on the course e-mail
list.  Assignments were posted by e-mail about one every week or so.
They may be reviewed at

http://www.k1kwg.net/n0ia/

scroll down to PACKET LESSONS.

Participants worked at their own pace and fired questions and results of
completion of assignments back to me via e-mail which I tried to answer in
less than six hours! By assignment three these e-mails were going through
the WL2K radio system.

On Nov 19th we held a hands-on get together workshop.  Here are the results:

REPORT ON HANDS-ON PACKET/WL2K WORKSHOP
AT THE SEMINOLE COUNTY EOC
NOVEMBER 19, 2005

Eighteen hams participated in the E. Central Florida Packet/WL2K workshop on
Saturday November 19, 2005 at the Seminole County EOC using 15 portable
packet stations.  Several of the more experienced packetters were available
to help with loading software and getting equipment interconnected.  These
18 are from a larger core group that started participating in "Learning
Packet and E-mail over Ham Radio" using a 'correspondence' type course via
internet e-mail on October 5th.  In this short period of time, this group,
plus five others who could not make the workshop now have established packet
stations and are configured for WL2K e-mail.

Due to the breadth of types and age of laptops, operating systems, and
experience level of the operators the workshop was like teaching grades one
through six in a one room school!  With the help of N3PPC, K1KWG, WB4IMI,
NA6P, W5TWR, and others who are at the "6th Grade" level, all software was
loaded on all machines to the limit of the hardware and OS of the machines.
Those who had to take their laptops home to do remedial work on hardware,
etc. will be able to get the packet and WL2K software working in short
order.

Ed, W5TWR, demonstrated his portable digital package which included both HF
Pactor and vhf/uhf Packet.  Ed explained how the Airmail program is used on
HF to bridge the "Last Mile" across distances of hundreds of miles to link
to a WL2K PMBO.  The system is nearly fully automatic, employing a
propagation program to predict the most likely HF bands for the distance,
time of day, and Solar Flux Index (SFI.)  No matter that the HF antenna at
the EOC left a lot to be desired, on-the-air demos were not to take place on
this day as the SFI was very low (71) and there had been a major solar
disturbance that shut down a lot of HF services around the globe.

For those in E. Central Florida who have not completed (or not yet started)
the six-assignment course, it is never too late to finish or start.  Just go
to http://www.k1kwg.net/n0ia/ - scroll to PACKET LESSONS and start where you
left off or at the beginning.  If you are not on the original E. Central
Florida E-mailers e-mail list, drop me a note at
budthompson at cfl.mail-block.com and let me know you are starting in.  We now
have a lot more experienced help available!

73,
bud N0IA
386 574 4124
386 956 0386 Sprint Cell