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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: k4lmp on May 23, 2012, 08:37:07 PM
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Hello, all. As you may have noticed by my user name, I am a HAM Radio operator. I would like to run packet radio with my A2000. I have a bunch of TNC's, which is basically the same thing as a modem, except instead of connecting to a phone line, it connects to my radio. The DB25 male connector on my A2000 is what I need, so I'm good there. The question I have is what is a good terminal program to run, and what is the name of the serial port? For example, in Windows, it is COM1, COM2, etc. and in Linux, it is TTY0, TTY1, etc. What is it called on an Amiga, say running WB3.1 or ClassicWB? My TNC's use typical settings, usually 9600, 8N1. I have this setup on my Linux PC, and even on my C64 & 128. I would like to do this on Amiga, as well. I have searched, but found nothing.
Thanks,
Jeff
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http://www.g4dcv.co.uk/aarug/aarug.htm
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My preferred terminal emulator is Term (http://aminet.net/package/comm/term/Term) which should run OK on the A2000; there's little you can't do with it. The earlier version Term v3.4 is better for low end unexpanded Amigas.
The internal serial port can be accessed with serial.device and is unit number 0.
I used to use a packet radio modem on an A600 for sending 1200 baud data over radio networks, but forget what software I used. Obviously you need a bit more than just Term for this as something needs to operate TX key/PTT, etc. I've still got the config for AmigaTNC (http://aminet.net/package/comm/misc/AmigaTNC) so must have used that at some point. I've also got AmiCom, Packet-Point and ProfiPacket here so probably used one of those. They're all available from Aminet.
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I too like Term. It is a huge program however. There are time when I just load up Baud Bandit.
Term is PD (i am almost sure) but Baud Bandit was commercial. BB v2 pops up on ebay from time to time for cheap.
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Thanks for the info. Actually, a terminal program is all you need, as the TNC controls the PTT on the radio. I use a regular terminal program sometimes on my Windows PC. On my Linux machine, I have a terminal program that does TCP/IP, and I have 6 TNC's hooked up to a TCP/IP server, and just connect via IP to whichever port I have the TNC that I want to use connected to. I need to play around with it I guess on the Amiga.
Thanks,
Jeff
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I have used Terminus, its nice. If you plan to use serial a lot, it might be a good idea to get buffered port for higher speeds (and smaller CPU load?). there are some cards with that option.
on plain 68000 and built-in serial, I couldn't get more than 38400 stable.
probably even better would be if you can use parallel somehow.
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Well, for what I will be using it for, all I need is 9600. That is plenty fast enough, and is what I have all of my TNC's set for.
Thanks
Jeff
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there are some cards with that option.
on plain 68000 and built-in serial, I couldn't get more than 38400 stable.
I never had problems with http://aminet.net/package/comm/misc/ArtSer37_6
Although by the time I was using 115200, I may have had a 14 or 28mhz 68000.
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I never tried packet radio. I did love being online with Amiga and modem before the www. One of the other highly evolved term programs was NComm, http://aminet.net/comm/term/ncomm306.lha (The public key is available on aminet, too). It had all of the download protocals AND properly handles ANSI graphics. It was also relatively small and easy on system resources.
It may be worth your time to download one of the improved serial.device replacements as well. These were not only faster than the original Commodore version, they may have been more system efficient. I liked this one, http://aminet.net/comm/misc/New8n1.lha. IIRC, at least when using modems, it was advantageous to set the Amiga-to-modem baud rate higher than the max modem baud for best thru-put.
I'm curious how this turns out for you. Please report back when you get up and running.
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Well, I finally got to play around with my packet radio and my A2000. I had to wait until I got my Indivision ECS, as I moved my other flickerfixer to my A500. So I hooked up my TNC to the serial port, and downloaded a program called Terminus. It works pretty good. The only thing is it supposedly expires in 30 days. I am sure it can't be registered now. Other than that, everything worked fine. I connected to our local node, checked my email, connected to my BBS, all over my VHF radio using packet. Thanks for the help.
Jeff
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Well, I finally got to play around with my packet radio and my A2000. I had to wait until I got my Indivision ECS, as I moved my other flickerfixer to my A500. So I hooked up my TNC to the serial port, and downloaded a program called Terminus. It works pretty good. The only thing is it supposedly expires in 30 days. I am sure it can't be registered now. Other than that, everything worked fine. I connected to our local node, checked my email, connected to my BBS, all over my VHF radio using packet. Thanks for the help.
Jeff
I like NCOMM. You might try that package.
http://aminet.net/package/comm/term/NComm306PubKey
http://aminet.net/package/comm/term/ncomm306
http://aminet.net/package/comm/term/ncomm30