Howdy Nolan, as you know I have been rather busy lately to say the
least. I hope you had nice Holidays, I did.
    I am still a bit busy but I have a few days to play and figured it
was time I popped back in here. I have just finished submitting a
major proposal to MCI International which is HF digital radio related.
If all goes as planned we will soon have some interesting international
worldwide digital traffic to monitor on HF, thanks to yours truely.
 (This is confidential info and I can not really elaborate yet)
        hint, hint...
     Well its time to bring this up again, Packet, Pactor, G-Tor and
Clover (ducking and running for cover) The reasons are 2 fold. one I
need some info and 2 I might have some new freqs in the near future
which our RTTY echo monitors can monitor . (More on this later)
    Anyway I know the rules of the RTTY Echo and no Packet radio
discussions is allowed. Although I am a Ham and use Packet radio
occasionally via HF/VHF/UHF Amateur Packet radio this is not my
interest at all for bringing this forbidden subject up. I have no
interest of posting or reading Ham Packet Radio discussions here on
this echo!!! In fact I have no interest in posting or reading any
Ham Packet Radio related messages anywhere!!! I am glad others here
feel the same!
    On the other hand,,,
    Through research I have been doing for a digital radio related
research project I have been working on for about 6 months, I have
discovered that the ITU (International Telecommunications Union, which
sets the international allocations for all of the worldwide radio
bands), has approved in some european countries etc. the use of Packet
radio for commercial communications. I would like to find out if anyone
knows of or has copied any of these stations??? IF so who are they,
where are they, what kind of traffic is being sent, and what modes are
they operating in, plus what are their baud speeds on HF???
    My interest for discussing this here actually does not really
relate to Packet Radio at all. But does relate to PACTOR, G-TOR and
CLOVER. These modes are similar to Packet radio but are actually not
Packet.
    Several of us have TNC's and decoders which can receive some of
these newer modes. Especially some of the folks on the echo who are
outside of North America or those here in North America who monitor
the rest of the world. Again I wish to say I have no interest in Ham
radio communications bands in these modes whatsoever!!!
    In the past, I have discovered in checking out the Fido Packet
Radio Echo, that they only are interested in Ham Related discussions
there which are mostly Packet radio related. They do not monitor
the digital utility bands like we do, but only Ham radio bands.
    Anyway could we discuss monitoring of commercial traffic stations
using PACTOR, G-TOR and CLOVER as long is we did not discuss any Ham
related topics or Ham monitoring on their allocated frequencies? I
have no problem of continuing the RTTY Echo Policy of excluding
"Packet Radio" discussions myself!
    But as digital radio is finally changing from using RTTY, Sitor
A&B, and all of the other modes we have been monitoring in really slow
50 to 200 baud digital modes on HF we might want to consider all modes
on HF that run over 200 baud.
    New info; a brand new satellite system has been launched and is
being tested over north america called SKYCELL. SKYCELL is owned by a
company called AMSC (American Mobile Satellite Company) SKYCELL using
both voice and digital communications. To access SKYCELL all that is
needed is a "SPECIAL HANDHELD transceiver" similar in size to a
regular cellular telephone. The SKYCELL cellular handheld phone will
first try to connect via regular cellular phone land stations and if
out of range to these stations will then automatically connect to the
SKYCELL satellite. SKYCELL satellite coverage will be all across
North America from Alaska across Canada all the way down to the Panama
Canal and out to 200 miles from shore on the West Coast (Pacific
Ocean) and the East Coast (Atlantic Ocean)
    However SKYCELL only covers the North American Continent, But in
1999 to 2001, Motorola will launch a new satellite system which will
be called INMARSAT-P. This is only about 5 years or so away.
    Inmarsat-P will completely revolutionize global communications.
Inmarsat-P allows worldwide global communications with a handheld
transceiver and a tiny antenna which will be similar to SKYCELL's
equipment.
    As you know most of the digital traffic on HF we try to monitor is
encrypted. Also it is getting really hard to find good stations to
monitor because more and more are switching to satellite. From the
research I have been doing it is apparent that Clover just might be
the next major protocal used for digital communications. I happen to
know that the US Government is already using it. On HF with data
compression Clover baud speeds can reach up to 1200 baud, plus voice as
well as all kinds of digital stuff can be sent with clover even in full
VGA color, even music can be sent as well as gif pictures and all kinds
of digital stuff including ZIP files. When running on VHF or UHF radio
Clover can run in excess of 110,000 baud. Pretty soon we are going to
be able to monitor satellites like SKYCELL and INMARSAT-P without a
dish antenna using a tiny antenna we can construct ourselves and using
a VHF or UHF receiver or a scanner.
    As for HF frequencies I honestly believe now from my research that
on HF over the last 6 months while I have been gone from this echo most
traffic in the very near future will also be in either PACTOR, G-TOR or
Clover modes. For the reasons stated above I think it would be wise to
now reconsider the echo rules to allow some of these modes to be
discussed here on the RTTY echo. But in keeping with tradition here on
the RTTY echo I encourage you to not allow amateur radio related
topics as there are other echoes where these topics are more
appropriate!
    73's de Reid, KE4KLV
... RYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRœ"4%FdW$%"5    AAAgggggghhh Damn Static !!  
--- GEcho 1.11+
(1:369/8)
---------------