Greetings,
Just thought I would share something of possible interest
to the rest of you. Here's an email (further below) that
I sent out to our local group of packeteers ..
Best regards,
Maiko Langelaar / VE4KLM
<<<< start of email >>>>
Just an update. Over the course of the last week I put
together a rather interesting system (I think so anyways).
I figured I'd pass this along to the rest of you incase
it sounds interesting.
I got an old 386-16mhz PC in a 14x18x6 case, running MS-DOS
6.22 currently off a hard drive. Once I'm happy it is
working, I'll replace the hard drive with a floppy disk /
ram disk setup instead, like I currently use at home.
I'm running PC/FlexNet Digipeater software in DOS,
controlling the TNC (thanks Chris :-) using a 6PACK eprom
I burned using my eprom programmer (thanks Bill :-) The
MFJ1270B is powered by the PC PSU itself !!! (12 VDC
between yellow and black), and is also mounted inside the
PC case. The PC fits nicely in the old PKT fridge (cabinet),
leaving me with 2 shelves to put other goodies on down
the road.
The only *external* component (outside the PC case) is
the old VE4PKT 2 meter radio, which is ALSO POWERED by
the PC PSU unit (hey, they are rated for 8 amps in some
cases, so why not). Seems to work so far. Werner, thanks
for the spare PSU units, since I blew one of mine trying
to build this thing :-)
A nice little system that seems to be working pretty good
so far. NO EXTERNAL POWER SUPPLIES NEEDED !!! I love it.
It needs some more tweaking, and configuration. I'll
probably put a faster CPU/Board in there, but so far so
good.
The new digipeater is connectable just like a Node. It
has CONVERS and TALK capabilities, so packet users can
connect direct to it and have group conversations, 256
channels, or just direct conversations between users
connected to the node.
It also has a MH (mheard) feature, so finally we can keep
track of who the active users are in our area. Lately
that feature is not required :-)
This has been running at the PKT site since yesterday
morning. It's experimental of course, but just the
beginning.
That's all for now. Next step, all the *paper work* ...
Maiko
<<<< end of email >>>>
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