The default de-facto standard for email exchange over radio is UUCP, not Winlink. CODAN uses UUCP, for example. Winlink is just a simple (while useful, as you all mention) ham-radio focused protocol.
73s,
Rafael PU2UIT
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On 2/1/24 14:03, Dave, N1AI wrote:
On Thu, Feb 1, 2024 at 04:51 AM, Gordon Gibby wrote:
Thank you Gwen, for your question and your "user context" that
helps explain your question.
To say that "N3FJP is just a logger" seems somewhat similar to
saying "The Eifel Tower is just a monument."? ?N3FJP is widely
used by not just individuals but GROUPS of individuals,
* has specifically crafted uniquely intuitive interfaces for
each of a few dozen contests
* has multi-user simultaneous capabilities
* can interface with dozens of different radios to capture
frequency and mode information
and, most usefully,
* can control several different radios to actually send voice
messages or CW messages
As far as I know, the internal single-user sBitx logger has none
of those features at this time.
Our small club used N3FJP productively in the last Winter Field
Day and made use of all of those advantages, particularly the
ability to control radios.? So when in PHONE competition, users
could simply strike F1 and their CQ message would automatically be
transmitted, would pause a determined number of seconds, and then
repeat until they strike any key to enter a callsign.
In CW, I could strike F1 to initiate a CQ message, interrupt it by
entering VU2ESE, reply by striking F2 (giving back an
acknolwedgement and a full exchange) and then confirm receipt by
striking F4 and? automatically initiiate a new request for contacts.
I'm not a truly skilled user, but skilled users hit 60-100
contacts per hour with these type systtems....I'm more in the
20-30 range.? ? Our group expects to be in the top 4% of submitted
logs, and we're pretty happy with that since we had never done
that and had to build antenna multiplexers to operate three
100-watt radios simultaneously over the only coax the authorities
have penetrating their tornado-proof walls....
So if you want your radio to be competitive in the marketplace of
people who do Field Day or Winter Field Day yada yada yada....you
can't box yourselff out from these usetul systems, that are NOT
going to be running on raspberry pi's in the foreseeable
future....but are used by thousands to tens of thousands....
WINLINK is a 23+ year old radio email system that has basically
won the battle for higher speed digital ARQ (acknowledge-request,
a form of data integrity guarantee) communications in the USA
after a 2-year battle with people who wished to limit amateur
radio.? ?Most of their software (in current versions) is truly the
product one one man W4PHS.? ?It is the de facto standard for
100%-correct digital radio email the world over and moves
approximately 50,000 radio emails per month.? Their programming
staff of precisely 1? (and hopefully growing) is not going to be
able to address niche radios like the sBitx unless you make it
extremely easy, and by that, I mean "emulate something they
already address"? ?Radios for which they provide connections
include:? Barrett, Codan, Micom, a zillion Yaesu's, a zillion
ICOMs, Elecraft, Flex and Kenwoods.? ?Perhaps there is a quite
simple way to craft the recently created Telnet interface to
emulate one of those, at least for the basic functions?? ? I know
that for the uBitx I was able to craft an ICOM interface that
worked for my purposes.
The sBitx has orders of magnitude more programming "staff" than
either of those other systems....and if you wish to increase your
use-ability and market share, making life easier on others is a
good way to win friends and influence people!
Hope that helps explain it,
With all due respect, if these software packages are so monumentally important to you, your local club, and local and nationwide emergency response teams, why buy equipment that doesn't readily support those software packages?? Why not buy equipment that already does, instead of hoping that other people fill the gaps for you?
Why spend your time publicly putting pressure on other, mostly unpaid people, to do the work that is needed to resolve the problem of not having support for the exact software that you feel is so monumentally important on the exact platforms you choose to buy?
Don't the N3FJP and WINLINK authors deserve to be rewarded by you using their software on the platforms they chose to support, instead of being pressured to move it all to monumentally different platforms you chose to use, or provide and support mechanisms that enable it to be used on those other platforms?
Doesn't the sbitx platform deserve to be what it has been since you bought it, a unique platform for software and hardware tinkerers, instead of becoming just another box for other people's software to drive?
Aren't you really just looking for an IC-705 and a Windows tablet for EMCOM, and/or an IC-7300 and a Windows PC for Field Day, and not really looking for a platform to tinker with?
--
Regards,
Dave, N1AI
