On the 10 MHz backbone concept......
I would suggest contacting Bill Fisher KM9P at 404-564-0004 (Home) and speak
to him about his little software package for HF packet spotting. It's the
slickest application I've sen that will provide connectionless passing of DX
spots on HF.
The way I understand its function is as follows:
1) Each Cluster has a designated gateway or gateways for HF.
2) Each time a spot comes out on the local Cluster the gateway broadcasts
it n times, and I'm not sure if n is user-selectable or fixed in the
software. The setting that's typically used seems to work pretty well.
3) Gateways on other Clusters receive the broadcast (unproto) and then pass
it on to their respective local Clusters.
With Bill's software no connections are established on HF. Therefore, you
have no retry problems. Of course, you might occasionally miss a spot or two,
but who cares? It's only a hobby, after all. Besides, if connections are
established, retries would cause disconnects to occur and packets to be missed
anyway.
I used to run an HF PacketCluster gateway and know intimately how much
babysitting is required for the bloody things when actual connections are
established.
There are many other issues, of course, and frequency selection is among the
most critical.
--
Dave Pascoe KM3T
pascoe@rocky.gte.com
GTE/SCSD - Needham Heights, MA
(617) 455-5704
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