User s Guide Owl s Head ARES BBS & Winlink RMS November 17, 2014 Rev. 1.2

Transcription

1 User s Guide Owl s Head ARES BBS & Winlink RMS November 17, 2014 Rev. 1.2 This document provides information related to the use of the Owl s Head Maine ARES BBS and Remote Mail Server (RMS). The BBS is a full-service 24/7 node and bulletin board in Owl s Head with accommodation for one or more linked subsidiary full time or part time nodes. It includes a NET/ROM node with a BBS and Winlink Remote Mail Server. Access is via VHF packet and HF Winmor. The system is based on the BPQ32 software. The preferred client software is RMS Express. With RMS Express, equivalent BBS/RMS access by packet or HF Winmor is obtained with one program. This provides uniform store/forward capabilities across the state and regionally. Owl's Head Call Sign and SSIDs NET/ROM node BBS (packet and HF Winmor): Winlink packet (VHF) RMS: Winlink Winmor (HF) RMS: KB1TCE-7 (OWLSHD) KB1TCE-2 (BBSOHD) KB1TCE-10 (RMSOHD) KB1TCE-10 (RMSOHD) The BBS is for ARES/Emcomm use and access is restricted to Maine hams who are involved with emergency communications (ARES/RACES). Registration is required. Please provide call sign, name, town, county & Maine ARES district. We also welcome participation from our neighboring states and provinces. The Winlink RMS is public and is open to all ham Winlink system users. It operates in accordance with the Winlink/Amateur Radio Safety Foundation RMS guidelines for 24/7 operation. Frequencies HF Winmor 500 Mode (all USB dial): , khz. Corresponding center frequencies are , khz VHF AX.25 Packet, 1200 baud: MHz Client Software The recommended client software is RMS Express, developed and supported by the Winlink Development Team ( The software is free but a $39 donation is requested for the use of the Winmor virtual TNC. The donation goes to the Amateur Radio Safety Foundation. The software supports all current and planned modes for access to the Winlink system and the BBS. Compatible modes include VHF packet, Winmor, SCS Robust Packet and Pactor 2-4. RMS Express also supports telnet (internet) access to the Winlink system. For this BBS/RMS system, packet would be the preferred mode for those who have packet capability and who can reliably connect to the system either directly or through one or two of the several Maine digipeaters. HF Winmor would be the preferred mode for those who are outside of the area served by the packet infrastructure.

2 In addition to the helps at the Winlink site, Phil Sherrod, N4PHS has an excellent tutorial at In the case of packet, software such as Winpack or Outpost may be used as clients. However, these programs will not work with non-ax.25 HF packet modes such as Winmor and the instructions for use will differ from what is presented here. All connections to the BBS using RMS Express (including packet) are compressed using the B2 forwarding protocol. This shortens the transmission time. As of November 17, 2014, the BBS will also handle text attachments to personal messages and bulletins. This will only work when using RMS Express as the client program. Although telnet access to the BBS is possible, this feature is not enabled. A downside to RMS Express and the Winmor mode is that they only work in a Windows environment. The Winlink Development Team has recognized this as a shortcoming and crossplatform software is in active development. The BBS Server Software The Owl s Head BBS uses a Windows BBS program called BPQ32. This had its origins as a DOS program that was developed many years ago by John Wiseman, G8BPQ. John and a small team have continued the program s evolution and it is one of the few packet BBS programs that is in active development. It is extremely flexible and has many feature hooks, only some of which are planned to be used in this implementation. There is also a Linux version but the use of Linux is, at this time, limited by the Winmor TNC being Windows only. That will change over the coming year as a cross-platform successor to Winmor is being developed. RMS Express Overview This section does not purport to be anything more than the most cursory of overviews of RMS Express. The helps cited above should be consulted for details. Those document focus on using the Winlink system. Use with a BBS is different only in the addressing and connection schemes. That process will be detailed in this document. Download and install RMS Express and the ITS HF propagation program per the defaults. The software is currently at (You may need to use an ftp client or a browser ftp plug-in to retrieve the files.) Enter your information (call sign, name, grid, etc.) When you open RMS Express, it will look very much like an client such as Outlook, Thunderbird, etc. Composing a new message is done by clicking Message and then New. The image on the next page shows a message that is to be sent to the BBS KB1TCE-2 using packet.

3 The sender is AB1KI and the message is classified as a Winlink message (not Peer-to-Peer). Recipients are N1EP and KB1TCE. Once the message is composed, click Post to Outbox to put it in the queue for sending. The next step is to open a connect session. In the Open Session drop down, there are a number of session modes. Select Packet WL2K and click Open Session. To send the message to the BBS, click on Open Session. This will open the packet session and will connect to the TNC. If the TNC has not already been set up, click Setup on the session window. In this example, the connection will be made to KB1TCE-2 (the BBS) via the digipeater W1EMA-1. At this point, click Start to make the connection and send the message.

4 Packet BBS Addressing the Home Address Packet addressing is sort of like internet . It contains your user ID (call sign) and instructions on how a message is to be routed to you. Standardized addresses are required in packet networks for messages to move from one BBS node to another to get to their final destination. For packet the process is somewhat automated. For RMS Express, which is not a packet protocol, the process may involve some intervention by the sysop since automated HF forwarding is not permitted in the USA. Each user must associate with a specific BBS, presumably the one that you use most often. This is your Home Address or HA. At the present, there is only one BBS in the system. It s HA is: KB1TCE.#OHD.ME.USA.NOAM This decodes to the call sign of the sysop and his location i.e. Owl s Head, Maine, USA, North America. For N1EP, a user of this BBS, his full address would look like N1EP@KB1TCE.#OHD.ME.USA.NOAM. The user doesn t have to type in the whole string. It s programmed into the user configuration on the BBS. Posting Messages and Bulletins There are two types of messages personal (private) messages (known as p-mail) and bulletins. P-mail is person to person(s). To send p-mail using RMS Express with packet or Winmor, you simply address the message to the call sign of the recipient. This is the equivalent of the packet terminal command SP. Note: all interactions with the server are using WL2K mode, NOT peer to peer (P2P). For multiple addressees, separate the call signs by semicolons with no spaces. Example: To: kb1tce;ab1ki Note: The recipient of the message will have //WL2K in the subject line. This is a RMS Express feature that identifies s as being from the Winlink system. It has no function as part of the BBS so it may be ignored. It may be suppressed by going to Files Preferences and unchecking Add WL2K to the subject line of messages. Bulletins are messages to all or a subgroup and are sorted by the bulletin category. Examples would be ARES, DIST3, etc. Distributions can also be defined, e.g. ALL (everyone on the system), MAINE (only those in Maine) or DIST1 (only those in Maine ARES District 1). RMS Express also requires that the bulletin address line also have the command Bull/. This is the equivalent of the packet terminal command SB. Here are some examples:

5 (Sends to every registered user including any out-of-state partners) (Sends to every Maine registered user) (Sends only to ARES District 1 members) Distributions and Date Stamping If you send a p-mail message to multiple recipients, each recipient will be unaware of the others on the distribution. This can lead to confusion and needless forwarding. If sending a message to multiple recipients include a statement at the beginning of your text listing to whom the message is being sent. When a person retrieves a message, the date/time that the message was initially sent is not reported. If the date/time is important, include a statement in the message with that information.expiration of Messages and Bulletins Messages and bulletins are retained for 30 days. After that the messages are deleted from the system. Your client software (RMS Express) will keep the message on your computer for as long as you wish. Duplicate Messages When you compose and send a message, your client software generates a unique message id (mid). This becomes part of the message header. When you retrieve messages from a BBS, the client first examines the mids and then only retrieves the messages that aren t duplicates of what you have already received. In the case of RMS Express, these are contained in the file Mids Seen.txt which is located in the Data folder. Forwarding If/when implemented (applicable to where there are multiple linked nodes) Attachments The BBS can now handle attachments to messages. While binary files can be accommodated, please restrict the use to text files or to small (1-2 kb) binary files. A perfect application for this is for sending spreadsheets (.csv format) and Flmsg files. In the case of the latter, ICS, HICS, Severe Weather and Radiograms may be sent. Of course, the sending and receiving stations must have Flmsg installed on their computers. To send an attachment, simply click Attach on the RMS Express New Message screen. File attachments will only work with RMS Express as your client program. Using the RMS for Winlink Radio (KB1TCE-10) The Winlink system may be used to send to hams with Winlink addresses (e.g. kb1utd@winlink.org) or to commercial addresses. To send s using RMS Express,

6 simply address the to the recipient s call sign or to their commercial address. There is no need to add RMS: or SMTP: ). When you connect to the RMS, all messages in the RMS Express outbox will be sent and all pending messages will be received. If the local internet at KB1TCE is not working, you will receive a message in the session panel that a CMS is not available. You will then be disconnected. You have two options: Preferred: Connect to another RMS that has a functioning internet connection. Back up: Send your message to KB1TCE via the BBS requesting that the message be manually forwarded to a functioning RMS. I will then find a working RMS and send the message using the Pactor mode. Sending a Radiogram via NTS-Digital KB1TCE is a Digital Relay Station (DRS) in the NTS-D system. If you need to send a Radiogram, I will forward it into the system. Simply send the message to KB1TCE on the KB1TCE-2 BBS, preferably using the NTS-D format. At the minimum I ll need addressee name, mailing address and phone number, sender s name and phone number and message text. Please limit messages to the recommended 25 words. For information on filling out a Radiogram, see For information on how NTS-D Radiograms are formatted for transmission using Airmail, see Feedback Feedback is important. There is a lot of flexibility in the system and if it s not doing what you think it should be doing, let the sysop know. If you have feedback or suggestions on this specific document, please contact the author at shansen@belljar.net