Longjidin's Kg Lengkong to Bukit Lada

HF Email

Posted in HF Email by longjidin on December 2, 2008

Basics

You have a remote place without telephone and you want to connect viaInternete-mail. You want to use HF e-mail. You will need a radio transceiver,antenna,modem, as well as a computer, cables and software. You will also need agreed frequencies, probably some kind of license to operate radio equipment and compatible HF modems at each end. A number of service providers can provide this service already. Some I have found are listed below. When considering options in this area, it would be wise to at least consider e-mail over satellite phone – phones now cost about $4,000 and calls are $2.50 per minute. Also Inmarsat has announced e-mail services on their C-terminal range. In ranges of less than 50km, VHF radio is an
option and is probably cheaper and faster. New GPMCS systems like Iridium and Globalstar may offer data services too.

Service providers (in no particular
order)

Fastest comm mode Client software Gateway / hub software Minimum hardware costs Software costs Monthly costs Traffic costs

Non profit providers
WFP (Uganda) (private,
non-profit)		 Codan 9002 cc:mail cc:mail about $6,000 ? n/a n/a
MAF (non-profit) Pactor-1 cc:mail cc:mail+”Mlink” ? ? ? ?

Commercial providers
RadioMail (Wilken Uganda) Clover 2000 Barrett 923 Barrett 923 about $7,500 full base station about $7,500 full base station Signup: $250 $150 per month $0.24 above 100kb per month
Bushnet (Uganda) Codan 9002 cc:mail “bushpoll” $6,300 ? different options (from $0.30 per kb) to $500 per month unlimited about $0.30 per kbyte
Bushlink (Tanzania) SCS PTC-II Pegasus mail + PMFIDO FIDO node+Bushlink PTC-II modem: $985 $250 $40 $0.20 per kbyte sent/received
DTS (Benin) Clover-2000, Clover-500, Pactor-1 and Pactor-2 DTS DTS $4,000 $50 unlimited
Sistec (Angola) Colver-2000, Pactor-1, SITOR SISDATA 2000 derived from DTS $50 unlimted
Globe Wireless (USA) Clover
P-SeaMail SITOR? $149.95
Message Center, Inc (USA) SITOR
Bernradio (Switzerland) Clover-2000, Pactor-2, Pactor-1, SITOR DTS + fax, telex, snail mail gatway DTS: CHF 500 10 CHF low traffic, 50 CHF per month high traffic 0.30 CHF per 100 chars
Pinoak
(USA)		 “Podlink f” modem looks like a PTC-II? Podlink F $1,720 hardware and software $1,720 hardward and software $275 per year $0.95 per kilobyte

Modem and “mode”  choices

As a very crude guide, you will need at least Pactor 1 to do any reasonable amount of e-mail. Pinoak has a description of various HF data modes at http://www.pinoak.com/p_tech.htm. A very basic summary of that paper is that PACTOR 2 outperforms PACTOR 1, CLOVER, G-TOR and AMTOR. I haven’t yet found a clear comparison of CLOVER-2000, Codan 9002, and other faster modems. However, many other factors come in
including performance under bad conditions, medium distance compared to inter-continental distances, long files compared to short files, lenght of handshaking, external/internal compression, binary files vs ASCII files etc etc. A comparison of Clover 2000 and Pactor 2 is at: http://www.halcomm.com/clvr2k.htm

As you might imagine, the perfomance of the modes is somthing of considerable importance, if not controversy, between the vendors. Any modem to be used with “normal” e-mail software will obviously benefit from built-in compression in the protocol, although external compression can be used before transmission as is commonly done in fidonet.The confusing number of open/licensed/other “standards” is, I venture, a pity, and holds back the potential of the technology. At the risk of getting ripped apart by the experts, I try a list here. Most of these speeds are those provided by external experts, checked against what the vendor claims.

Mode           Maximum speed and comments

SITOR ARQ       100 bits/second Open standard, upper case only, no error correction

CCIR-476        Same as SITOR

AMTOR           Same as SITOR

PACTOR-1        200 bits/sec

G-TOR 300 bits/sec

PACTOR 2        508 bits/sec

Clover-400      600 bits/sec

Clover-500      750 bits/sec

Clover-2000     3000 bits/sec (minus overhead:1936 bits/second uncompressed)

Codan 9002      2400 bits/sec + built-in compression = 6000 bits/sec or 1475 bits/sec                 uncompressed
Mil-std-110     open standard

Fed-std-1052

Stanag 4285???

Rohde&Schwartz  2700 bits/sec

All speeds quoted not considering compression where possible.

Popular modems

Modem prices usually include software.

There is a difference between the SCS PTC-II Pactor-2 and the Swiss PTC-II Pactor-2 modes from chuemperlin. The Swiss version is somehow encrypted, leading to the mode being known as “private” mode (also known as UN(DP) mode, thanks to adoption by parts of the UN). I have not listed SITOR compatibility,
which many of these modems have, as it would be a pretty unsatisfactory
mode for any serious amount of e-mail.

Model Price Pactor 1 Pactor 2 Clover-500 Clover 2000 Codan Suitable transceiver
SCS-PTC II $985 yes yes no no no
Codan 9002 see note no no no no yes Codan 9360
Swiss-PTC-II 2850 CHF yes yes no no no
SCS PTCPlus yes no no no no
Barrett
923		 see note yes no yes yes no Barrett 550 (base station $3395)
HAL
DSP-4100/2K 		$1795 yes no
HAL DSP-4000/2K (internal
card)		 $1495 yes yes yes no
HAL DSP-4000/2K with FSK
(internal)		 $1620 yes yes yes no
http://www.halcomm.com/p38.htm
HAL P38 (internal card)		 $350 yes no yes no no
Kantronics Kam+ $350 yes, also G-TOR no no no
Datron/Transworld ? yes no

notes:

Swiss-PTC may offer AT-commands like the Codan 9002 in an upcoming
version.

Refer to a Codan dealer for exact prices, but a complete base
station
including modem, transceiver and antenna would start at no less than
$6,300

Barrett 923 complete base station withj modem comes at about
$7,500

Do it yourself software
options

These packages may allow you to put together your own HF radio – Internet
e-mail service just for your own organization or as a service provider.

Software:
Wavemail
Compatible with:  Swiss PTC-II

Comments:         new,
internet mail gateway called wavenet expected soon

Further info:     http://www.schuemperlin.com

Software:
DTS/EURAF
Compatible with:  Most modes

Comments:         $4,000
per client

Further info:     http://dtsdata.intnet.bj

Software:
F6FBB
Compatible with:  Packet and Pactor II

Comments:         Freeware
BBS (DOS/Windows/Linux) - internet gateway?

Further info:     http://www.f6fbb.org

Software:         Any
Compatible with:  Codan 9002

Comments:         modem
takes AT commands

Further info:

Software:
UN/OCHA/UNOG
GL-Plus+Perl scripts

Compatible with:  Swiss PTC-II
Comments:         Used
in Central Africa - gateway in Geneva

Further info:     Contact sjacobson@unog.ch

Software:         Barrett
923

Compatible with:  Clover 2000, Pactor 1
Comments:         Client
and hub/gateway, derived from DTS

Further
info:
e-mail: aburt@dial.pipex.com

Software:
Winlink/Netlink

Compatible with:  Pactor 1 and 2
Comments:         BBS +
internet gateway (freeware/shareware)

Further info:     http://www.win-net.org

Software:
Airmail

Compatible with:  SCS PTC-II, Kam+
Comments:         BBS +
internet gateway (freeware/shareware)

Further info:     http://www.win-net.org

Software:
KA9Q/TNOS/JNOS

Compatible with:  Pactor 1?
Comments:         Complex
OS-based idea, mainly used for packet radio

Further info:

Software:         Rhode
& Schwartz Message Handling Software PostMan

Compatible with:  R & S XK2000 transceiver with built-in
GM2100 modem
Comments:         TCP/IP
over HF

Further info:     http://www.rsd.de/PRODUKT/239a.htm

Further Information

Providers:

Manufacturers:

Software

General information

  • Clover bibliography:

    http://www.halcomm.com/clvrbibo.htm

  • Pactor Primer: http://WinLink.org/AirMail/pprimer.htm
  • Ham radio FAQ: http://www.mv.com/ipusers/wd1v/hamradio.faq.html
  • Yahoo: http://www.yahoo.com/News_and_Media/Radio/Amateur_and_Ham_Radio/
  • www.hfradio.com
  • http://www.teleport.com/~moana/radio-email.html

    • Mailing lists

  • Linux-Hams might be useful for Linux types
  • VITA runs a mailing list called Gateway
    on this topic: contact listproc@vita.org
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