[FADCA] Fpacnode (E. Central Florida Report)

[Jerry DeLong]

Bud, and the rest of the Group,

> Jerry  -  So far as I can I was the only person to respond at all with
> comments to your original note:

> and so far as I can tell you were the only person to respond to my
> report which I re-titled
> 
>     Re: [FADCA] Fpacnode (E. Central Florida Report)

This is part of the problem good people have lost interest because they
don't understand and have been mislead for too long.
 
> So, in the overall scheme of things there may not be anyone on the
> FADCA list other than the two of us who has enough interest to even
> comment.  That is valid reason for neither of us to spend much time on
> this thread if you are bailing out.  My interest is not in convincing
> you to do something you do not want to do.

Our interest are the same to build a community Network for HAM radio and
I am not bailing out. I am just not going to show support for a ROSE type
Network in Florida. I don't want to spend my retirement cleaning a ROSE
Network that should have been scraped year ago. 

In about 25 more years I will be at retirement age. 

Like *most* this is not a hobbies to stroke my ego I would like my son to
become the third generation HAM in my family and continue using the networks
we built. At age 16 he is already a C programmer and will have a lot to
offer the HAM community.

This year as I was on my quest to see what other community were doing for
their HAM radio networks I noticed something. The Networks are now starting
to out live the men that created them. 
    
 
> My interest is in building a local packet network for anyone who cares
> to use the WL2K SYSTEM for e-mail for EMCOMMs.  Local in my case is
> FADCA District #5 covering five counties in E Central Florida.  In the
> process anyone who can get on packet can use the network for anything
> they want to.  We have two County EOCs and five City EOCs on the
> network 24/7 using WL2K clientwear and providing TelPac Gateways so
> there is valid and rewarding reason for me to continue - in addition
> to my being retired - what else would I do with my time but bug K4GBB
> with Linux stuff?  (When Linux /FPAC gets stable I'll have to find
> something else to bug Charlie with.)

Sorry Charlie... 
 
> Simply providing SMTP mail using ham radio to get to an internet
> server does not meet my requirement as the WL2K is a SYSTEM (operative
> word)   that we have been promoting around the Land.  To be sure, it
> has caught on in other places more than in Florida!

TCPIP work well over RF and has for many years so if TCPIP work on RF
so does SMTP. ;)

> If the local network can link to others in the state by RF (we now go
> into District 7 to the north by RF and District 3 via internet in the 
> south) - good deal - but they will have to be COMPATIBLE.

COMPATIBLE! Please define this as it seem you really lack the knowledge
to know what is compatible. Linux has native support for all HAM radio
protocols. So a single node using Linux can talk to just about anything. 

> That is why I have no interest in moving away from the legacy ROSE/FPAC 
> protocol at this time since that is all that anyone else is using (or was)
> on the original Florida Layered Packet Network.

Fpac is a modified version of LinuxNode which also supported ROSE protocol.
LinuxNode is now called URO node and is currently be maintained by Brian
Rogers N1URO. This is an easy replacement for Fpac and can be setup with
SMTP and TELNET. 


> Frankly I could care less

I know this is the problem....

> about linking with FRANCE as a requirement for a Local Network  - a
> neat thing to do - but anyone can telnet around the world or use VOIP
> to get DXCC!  Don't get me wrong - w/o the "French Connection"  we
> have, we would not be working with Linux FPAC - that is from where
> much of the Linux grunt work comes.

Here again is a problem we are so concerned about stroking our ego that
we some time forget we need users for these systems. This is the stuff
user want to play with and when you have users again our networks have
a better chance of growing. 
 
> It is a case of 'Going home with the one that brung you to the Dance.'
> No sense changing horses in the middle of the dance floor.

I disagree I am 30 years younger than you, and it's my generation that
going to clean-up this mess later. 

 
> Adding to this complex state of affairs - It will be a long time
> before Linux-based clientware is accepted for wide-spread EMCOMMs use
> to the extent that Windows clientware is. - A fact we have to deal
> with.

Agreed... 

> Of course we could build a Local network using faster and more modern
> protocols - but how can we sell something more expensive (and likely
> complex) when we can't sell something that should be relatively
> familiar and cheap?  Remember - only you and I have made any
> response/contribution to this thread in five days with perhaps 30 or
> more people getting the e-mail through the reflector.

We are HAMS we buy and trade at swap meets, newer is not always better... I
prefer stable and working 100% to newer.
 
> The sites in which I am involved could all support something new -
> such as D-STAR or P25 - or something yet to be proposed.  If interest
> and funds were available the sites would be ready to go.  If a site is
> Linux FPAC then the computer will be there if needed for the change
> over - to what ever new or legacy OS is required.  Additional antennas
> for backbones on different bands than 9.6kb could be added, etc, etc.
> Until then an analog two meter radio of almost any vintage and a
> $30-$50 TNC from a hamfest or the bedroom closet is all the hardware a
> budding user needs to use the Local network and gain access to WL2K
> Telpac Gateways or other services two, three, or four LANS away when
> needed.

> >> How many more years Bud.
 
> Who knows?  I've been working on this project here since 1999 when I
> inherited management of two nearly defunct ROSE switches (Orlando and
> DAB) and we now have a network from Melbourne through to
> Jacksonville - albeit not without holes as reported.  The Jacksonville
> group may soon add two sites westward toward Gainesville where there
> is a new EMCOMMs group now starting out - and that group and the Ocala
> Group to the south are in communications - though not yet on
> backbones.  The next group that is making plans is in The Villages
> and - once operational - could link to Lake County - which is not
> officially on the network, but has a Telpac and X1j node hanging
> around the Orlando LAN - oppps... I just described the N. Florida Loop
> from Orlando through DeLand to DAB to STA to OPK to Middleburg, to
> Keystone to Gainesville to Ocala to The Villages to Eustis to Deland
> and back to Orlando.

That's my point, if I recall in 1999 most of the Florida ROSE network 
Stilled worked. Look at it today...

> >Also as far as I know there are only 3 people in our community that
> >can even maintain a Fpacnode and I am one of them.
> 
> That is one reason I'd like to see you keep on keep'n on - Linux Gurus
> with interest in Ham Radio at the level needed for these upgrades are
> hard to find.  Every Ham Community needs at least one - and where we
> have a Ham Community that wants to support a switch but has no Guru -
> we need Linux Gurus from elsewhere to pitch in and work with them via
> the internet.

More on this when I reply to Ray who asked the million dollar question.
 
> I often think about that - but at my age I've got at least five more
> and maybe ten more years to play with this.

Use them wisely Bud...


Best regards, Jerry DeLong, KD4YAL