[nos-bbs] Update - JNOS and WinLink Interoperability

[Maiko Langelaar]

Good evening to all,

Just wanted to share some thoughts and the status on the latest
stuff going on with my attempts at integrating JNOS 2.0 with the
WinLink world.

I know some of you have sent me emails about other issues and stuff,
and I'm sorry for the long time it's taking me to answer them. I will
get to them as soon as I can find the free time. I'm a busy guy.

After seeing a recent power point presentation on WinLink from March
of 2008, it really dawned on me that I need to pay more attention to
how fast things are changing in our technological world.

Case in point :

    Telpac: Telnet-Packet gateway, connects packet radio
            to Internet PMBO - Obsolete

      PMBO: Participating Mail Box Office, connects
            Telpac to CMS server - Obsolete

Since 2008 or earlier, WinLink has moved to the RMS Model. For those
of you that are curious, I recommend reading the PDF entitled :

    PMBO is Dead

Just google the above phrase and read the PDF from the SOAPRA group.

In any event, I recently decided to run an RMS Packet Gateway here in
Winnipeg (VE4PKT-10 is the callsign). I figure I have the equipment, so
why not provide the service, in the remote chance someone will drive 
through the area and make use of it. But more important, I now have 
a test system of sorts to make sure JNOS can work properly with it.

The good news is that the latest version of JNOS 2.0 seems to do B2F
protocol very nicely with the new RMS Packet Gateway running here. I
initiated a mbox kick and 2 messages were picked off Winlink nicely
over RF, as well I was able to send a message to a particular call on
the winlink system. The B2F protocol stuff I think is more or less a
done deal, it's working pretty good, just a few minor things to do.

BUT, the 2 messages were SYSTEM messages, meaning they had multiple
recipients. After checking, JNOS only delivered the 2 messages to the
first recipient in each of them, not all of them like it should. So,
there is one of the things I have to deal with. Not quite there, but
getting there.

SO, if you have an RMS Packet gateway in your area, likely you will
be able to interact with it using the latest JNOS 2.0 (get the rsync
version, not the official version).

The real remaining issues to deal with at this point are Addressing
and figuring out how to deal with a system that does not really have
an AREA concept like NOS uses. There are some creative ways a few
people can deal with it, but it needs work as well.

Any comments or ideas are more then welcome.

LASTLY

I wanted to share my setup. I only have one radio, one TNC or Baycom
when it's not being repaired, and one VHF antenna at a height of 42
feet. I don't have the resources for another radio, so what I did was
setup a wired KISS link between my JNOS on linux and my Windows machine
running RMS Packet. On the JNOS side you can then use that really COOL
feature known as 'rxecho' on BOTH the vhf port and the wired kiss port
to allow the windows app to *share* the TNC, and it works very nicely.

The bonus is that both systems get the benefit of the high antenna.

Regards to all,

Maiko Langelaar / VE4KLM
http://www.langelaar.net