[Pactor] MixW Pactor Settings?

[Gary V. Smith]

Hi Dale,

Maybe you've answered my issue.  Although I was certain that Jim or Nick 
said in an e-mail that MixW's Pactor mode would work in both I and II, that 
may not be quite true.  We use Pactor II in MI Army MARS.  As you mentioned 
below I am able to get 100% copy/print on initial connections, but after 
that it's usually hit and miss.  I'll get some complete sentences and some 
partials and sometimes the underscore symbol, which I understand indicates 
that it wasn't able to translate.  I should test the RX on some amateur 
Pactor frequencies to see what results I get.  Our Pactor network members 
use both Airmail and WinLink, however WinLink is considered more 
user-friendly by most.  But, the rub there for me is that both require a 
TNC.  That's my problem, because I can't afford to have one of my TNCs 
upgraded at this time, so right now I'm unable to compare or operate Pactor 
in that mode.  That's why I've been trying to get MixW's RX-only feature to 
work better.

Thanks for your help.

73,
Gary - KD6RXT / AAM5MI



>Hi Gary and the group, I have used MixW to monitor the band at the same 
>time that I'm running Airmail using a split screen.
>
>http://digitalhamradio.org/airm_mixw.gif  I posted a screen shot of the 
>two programs running together.
>
>MixW does do a nice job monitoring Pactor I and it will often print the 
>call of a Pactor connect request before my MFJ 1278B will.
>
>If you were using MixW to monitor random Pactor signals you found on the 
>HF bands chances are good they were running Pactor I with binary 
>compression or maybe even Pactor II. MixW can only decode Pactor I ASCII 
>text.  All Pactor I and II connections start out as Pactor I ASCII then 
>switch to a higher level depending on the equipment on both ends of the 
>connect. This is important to understand because you will only be able to 
>print the first part of a Pactor connect if the stations you are 
>monitoring are running Pactor I or II with compression.
>
>If you fish around for a while you should be able to find stations that 
>are only running Pactor I ASCII and if you do you should be able to print 
>lots of the exchange.
>
>I hope this helps,
>
>Dale kf4sir