Specifications

The second packet in the above examples is a response to the first.

p1 WA7GCI*>N7ALW (UA)

In this case we see that WA7GCI is sending to N7ALW by the order of

the callsigns. This packet acknowledges the Connect request as shown

by the "(UA)" which stands for Un-numbered Acknowledge.

One benefit of packet radio is that packets can be relayed or

"digipeated" by stations on the same frequency. In fact, packets can

be relayed by up to eight stations to reach a distant station that

cannot be heard directly. In practice, digipeating through many

stations does not work very well, but you will often see packets

digipeating through one or two stations to reach their destination.

The packet shown below is an example of a digipeated packet.

p1 K6RFK>N7ALW*>N7GMF:

Goodnight John, its been nice talking to you.

This packet originated from K6RFK and is being sent to N7GMF but is

"Digipeated" through the station N7ALW. We also see that this packet

contains data by the text "Goodnight John...". Another thing that

should be noticed in this packet is the asterisk (*) in the first

line. The asterisk tells which station was actually heard sending the

packet. In this case, we can see that we actually heard the

digipeating radio station N7ALW. Without the asterisk, we could not

tell whether the transmission came from radio station K6RFK or N7ALW.

More will be discussed about digipeating later, but the above example

is typical.

The following packet is a data packet from N7ALW to WA7GCI.

p1 N7ALW*>WA7GCI:

Hi Bob, how are you this evening?

Remember that in the first example we saw the two stations Connect.

Now that they are connected, they may exchange data packets.

The following packet is a Beacon packet from KD7NM. Since we see the

packet is addressed to "MAIL" we know KD7NM is probably a Packet

Bulletin Board System (PBBS).

p1 KD7NM*>MAIL:

Mail for: K6RFK N7ML

The data section of this packet says "Mail for: K6RFK N7ML". This

Beacon lets people know that K6RFK and N7ML have mail waiting on the

KD7NM PBBS without having to connect.

1/93 4-7