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THS - TNC Hostmode Server ========================= HB9CVV August 1989 Version 2.50 THS is a Packet Radio terminal program for the IBM-PC. THS reqires one of the following devices: - a TNC-1 with the WA8DED V1.3 Software. - a TNC-2 with the WA8DED V2.3 software. - a DRSI PC*Packet Adapter and the DRSI supplied TNC driver software. Major features of THS are: - user configurable comm-port, colors and texts - split screen operation - command and parameter entry in windows - extended help functions - review of received text - printing and snapshooting the review-buffer - logging (capturing) to file - online printer support - send text from file - binary file transfer using YAPP protocol - multi-channel operation - heard list showing the path - Net/Rom frames are decoded - wordwrapping is available - temporary exit to DOS - built-in message editor - support for screens up to 80*60 - 16550A Chip support with FIFO The list of current revisions of THS version 2 is found at the end of this document. THS has been developped on a 386-AT with VGA under IBM DOS 3.3. Tests have been run on PC/AT's and PC/XT's with EGA, CGA and Hercules cards, and under different versions of IBM DOS 3.x. THS may run or may not run on other hardware, and on earlier or other versions of the operating system. Tests show that on ordinary PCs running at 4.77 Mhz the program overhead is too high to serve a 9600 baud line, if you experience RS-232 port overrun errors, you must reduce the baud rate to 4800 baud, or even 2400 baud. However 8 Mhz or 10 Mhz PCs run well with 9600 baud lines. PC-ATs have no problems. THS will not run under the pseudo multi-task shells like Desqview or Windows. The memory requirements of THS are about 360 kB. In these days, where 640kB memory is standard, this should not be much of a problem. If you can start THS, but get once the message "TERMINAL ERROR: cannot open a window" you do not have enough memory to run THS. It is possible to reduce the memory requirements of THS by reducing the window sizes. The minimum requirements will be about 250kB. THS covers my needs for packet radio so I implemented the features which I wished to have, and did not bother to fit all tastes and to match all possibilities. THS may well be not adequate for your requirements, please remember however that you are not forced to use it, nor did you have to pay for it. THS is not copyrighted, I release it to the Public Domain. Any positive feedback is welcome, note however that I feel no obligations of any kind. 1. Principles of Operation. --------------------------- THS runs the TNC software exclusively in HOST mode, which permits a maxiumum of control and cooperation. THS is written in TURBO-C and uses a realtime kernel called CTASK. CTASK is public domain software written by Thomas Wagner, Berlin, West-Germany and is found on BIX (a truly remarkable piece of software !). The internal implementation of THS in form of five concurrent tasks. This permits full parallel service of communications control, screen, and keyboard - you will never notice delays when you type (opposed to other similar programs). The windowing system is implemented using the VITAMIN C library (with some modifications), a commercially available software library. Vitamin C permits writing to non-active windows, so scrolling in an underlying window is possible. This feature, together with the real-time operation, permits to continue the receiving and displaying of received packets even when support windows (e.g. help windows or parameter dialog windows) are opened. 2. Installation. ---------------- It is expected that you are familiar with the operation of a TNC containing the WA8DED control software and with the documents describing that software. THS consists of the following files: THS.EXE TNC Hostmode Server. THS.CFG Configuration file. THSHELP.MSG Help file. THSHELP.IDX Index file. THS.DOC Document file The first four files must reside in the same directory. Before you can run THS, you must edit the configuration file THS.CFG to reflect your environment, and possibly you might have to configure your TNC also. The syntax to call THS is: "THS [filename]" where filename is the name of a configuration file. If filename is omitted, THS will use the default, THS.CFG. 1.1 The configuration file THS.CFG. ----------------------------------- THS reads the configuration file whenever you start THS. The configuration file contains information about hardware and software parameters. If this information is not accurate, THS will be unable to proceed. NOTE: THS does not do any consistency checks or range checks when reading from the CFG-file. You must not omit lines, or use parameters with values other than specified in this chapter. Here is an example of a configuration file: ---------------------<beginning of file>----------------------------- HB9CVV-02 2 Device is TNC-2 with 2.3 0x2F8 Address of TNC COMPORT 3 Interrupt of TNC COMPORT 9600 Baudrate 1 Printer number (LPT1) 1 Use direct video I/O Operator ist OFFLINE, your message will be recorded - vy 73 de Peter. *** Peter - Qth: Port/Biel - JN37OC *** 07,00,07,00,00,02,01,15,07,00 Receive (upper, permanent) 07,00,07,00,00,02,01,15,07,00 Transmit (lower, permanent) 04,07,07,04,03,00,07,00,04,15 Statusline (middle, permanent) 01,11,01,11,01,11,01,02,07,04 Immediate command entry 01,15,01,15,07,00,00,14,01,14 Opening, THS-Help, Review 01,11,01,11,03,00,03,01,07,00 Parameter Dialogs 01,11,01,11,01,15,01,11,07,00 Activity during YAPP xfer 00,02,00,02,01,14,00,00,07,00 Parameter Dialog Help Line 01,11,01,11,01,15,01,11,07,00 Parameter Dialog Extended Help (File) 01,11,01,11,01,15,01,11,07,00 Other 00,11,03,11 Channel indicator attributes & echo text #Name & Qth My name is Peter, the qth is Port near Biel/Bienne #The Rig The rig here is: Program : THS (TNC Hostmode Server) Computers : PC/AT, 3MB RAM, 80 MB harddisk. 386AT, 4MB RAM, 150 MB harddisk. TRX : Ten-Tec Paragon, 100W IC-271H, 100W TW-4100E 45W Antenna : Remotely tunable GP for HF 2*11 element Yagi (2m) 19 element Yagi (70cm) TNC : TNC-1 with WA8DED V1.3 TNC-2 with WA8DED V2.3 DRSI PC*Packet Adapter %T 40 $C DK1SL VIA HB9F HB9W $C HB9SDD $C HB9PQX VIA HB9CTU }0,200,200,200,100,100 ------------------------<end of file>-------------------------------- The first line contains your call. THS sends an 'I'-command followed by this callsign string to the TNC on channel 0 during the initialization. No comments are possible on this line. The second line defines the device type: '1' for TNC-1 with WA8DED V1.3, '2' for TNC-2 with WA8DED V2.3, and '8' for the PC*Packet Adapter. The numbers are not validated by THS, specifiying another number will leave the system inoperable. The third line defines the address of your communications port. You must specify it in this hexadecimal presentation (0xhhh). THS will detect and report the access of a non-existent commport. (Standard values are 0x3F8 for COM1 and 0x2F8 for COM2). This line is meaningless if the device is type 8 (PC*Packet Adapter), it must exist however. The forth line defines the interrupt number of your communications port. (Standard values are 4 for COM1 and 3 for COM2). This line is meaningless if the device is type 8 (PC*Packet Adapter), it must exist however. The fifth line defines the baud-rate for the communications port. It must of course match the baudrate you selected for the TNC. This line is meaningless if the device is type 8 (PC*Packet Adapter), it must exist however. *** NOTE: If THS is unable to contact the TNC, a wrong commport address and/or interrupt, or a wrong baudrate could be the cause. The same is true if you get permanent RS-232 error reports from THS after startup. The sixth line defines the printer number (printer port). Legal values are 1 to 3, for LPT1, LPT2 and LPT3. Printer output to printers connected to serial lines is not possible. The seventh line defines the video access. A '1' is used for direct video i/o, and should be used for all video cards other than CGA. If a value of 1 causes snow or other visual effects, switch to a value of 2. This changes THS to use retrace synchronisation - which is requred for older CGA cards. The eighth line contains your connect message. The line may not exceed 72 characters, if it does then the line is truncated. This line is loaded into the TNC whenever THS is started. You can however alter your connect message any time with the ALT/U (Unattended Mode) command. The ninth line contains your beacon text. The line may not excced 72 characters, if it does, then the line is truncated. You can alter the beacon text with the ALT/B command. The next ten lines specify the colour attributes of all windows. The scheme is: +------------------------------------ Border, background | +--------------------------------- Border, foreground | | | | +------------------------------ Title, background | | | +--------------------------- Title, foreground | | | | | | | | +------------------------ Text, background | | | | | +--------------------- Text, foreground | | | | | | | | | | | | +------------------ Inactive Input field, background | | | | | | | +--------------- Inactive Input field, foreground | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +------------ Active Input field, background | | | | | | | | | +--------- Active Input field, foreground | | | | | | | | | | 07,00,07,00,00,02,01,15,07,00 Receive (upper, permanent) 07,00,07,00,00,02,01,15,07,00 Transmit (lower, permanent) 04,07,07,04,03,00,07,00,04,15 Statusline (middle, permanent) 01,11,01,11,01,11,01,02,07,04 Immediate command entry 01,15,01,15,07,00,00,14,01,14 Opening, THS-Help, Review, Editor (Note 1.) 01,11,01,11,03,00,03,01,07,00 Parameter Dialogs 01,11,01,11,01,15,01,11,07,00 Activity during YAPP xfer 00,02,00,02,01,14,00,00,07,00 Parameter Dialog Help Line 01,11,01,11,01,15,01,11,07,00 Parameter Dialog Extended Help (File) 01,11,01,11,01,15,01,11,07,00 Other The numbers are decimal. THS does not validate the range. 1.) An error in this version limits the foreground color for the editor to black... Number Foreground Backgrround 00 BLACK BLACK 01 BLUE BLUE 02 GREEN GREEN 03 CYAN CYAN 04 RED RED 05 MAGENTA MAGENTA 06 BROWN BROWN 07 LIGHTGRAY LIGHGRAY 08 DARKGRAY | 09 LIGHTBLUE | 10 LIGHTGREEN | 11 LIGHTCYAN |- as above, blinking 12 LIGHTRED | 13 LIGHTMAGENTA | 14 YELLOW | 15 WHITE | Line twenty (this line is new in version 2) must contain four or six numbers. The first four numbers defines the attributes for the channel indicator. Please refer to the discussion of channels below. The first two numbers in this line define the color attributes of the on-screen channel, the next two numbers define the attributes for an off-screen channel which has received data. Of the two number pairs, the first is the background attribute, the second is the foreground attribute. In the example, the statusline text attributes are "03,00" which means 'black on cyan'. The example line 20 is: 00,11,03,11,02,00 Channel indicator attributes & echo text which reads: the number of the on-screen channel is 'lightcyan on black' (00,11) - and the number of a off-screen window which has received data is 'lightcyan on cyan' (03,11). The third number pair defines the attributes for the transmitted text in the receive window, and may be omitted. The text you type is echoed in the lower (transmit) window. When you send the text by typing a carriage return, the text is moved to the upper (receive) window, and the transmit window is cleared. THS uses different attributes so you can easily distinguish the text which you sent from the text you receive. By default, the text sent has the same text and background color as the received text, but is intensified. This is what you get if you do not specify the third number pair. If you do, THS will use these attributes. Example: if you have defined 'green on black' for the text- and background-color of the receive window, which is the number pair 00,02 and you want your text reversed, not intensified, then define 02,00 here. The next lines are optional and are composed of four different types of strings: - (#) text strings and titles for text strings. - (%) initialisation command strings. - ($) online command strings. - (}) THS parameters The text strings are assigned to the function keys F01 to F10 in the sequence they appear in the configuration file, when you press such a function key, THS sends the associated text string to the TNC. By pressing ALT/F THS shows the titles of the text strings in a window box. The line with a hash-sign (#) in column one defines the title which can contain up to 30 charcters. Everything exceeding 30 characters is cut off. The lines following the title line until the next title line, or the end of the file form the text string. The length of all text strings together is limited only by the available memory space. The text strings are intended for reasonable sized texts like station descriptions etc.. Up to ten #-lines are possible. If you specify more that ten #-lines, they are ignored. You can also specify up to 10 lines with percent (%) sign in column one. The text following the percent sign must not exceed 40 characters and is sent as a command to channel zero when THS loads the TNC parameters during startup. This is done after THS has sent the default set of parameter commands and so allows the user to override the default parameter set of THS. This set is described below. You should however take some care - the contents of the %-lines are sent unconditionally to the TNC and must be a valid command to be effective. A %-line should contain also only meaningfull commands which do not interfere with THS operation. It makes no sense to have a line like: %MN to disable monitoring, because this obviously would disable THS' heard-list feature. It could make sense however to increase the TXDELAY if your rig requires it. The $-lines must also contain valid TNC commands. Up to 20 lines not exceeding 72 characters are possible. They are stored by THS and presented together with a selection character when you press ALT/W. When you press the selection character or move the bar to the desired entry, then the associated string is sent as a command to the on-screen channel. The $-lines are intended to build a call-sign directory for connects, you may however use other commands there as well, so it is called "Command String Directory". The }-line allows you to modify the THS configuration. This line is optional. The format is: }a0,b0,b1,b2,b3,b4,c0,d0,d1,e0 RS-232 control line usage: a0 If a0 is zero, then THS ignores the RS-232 control-lines (DCD, RTS, CTS). This allows just a 3-wire (TXD, RXD & GND) connection to the TNC. Note however that in this case THS cannot detect if a TNC is offline, and will always enter the TNC-initialisation routine. The default is non-zero. Column size of the virtual receive windows: b0 to b4 b0 to b4 define the number of lines in the virtual receive windows for channels zero to four. This defines how many lines are available for reviewing. The minimum value is 40, the maximul value is 200. The default is the maximum for all windows. Software delay: c0 c0 is a time value in microseconds for a software delay loop and is effective only if the device is a PC*PA. THS will wait c0 microseconds before every access to the TNCTSR. This may be required on very fast machines (e.g. 386 machines with cache). The range of c0 is 0 to 5000, the default is zero. If you ever experience a THS error report (a window appearing in the top half of the screen) with the PC*PA, then you should experiment with this value. Start with c0 = 1000. Note that higher values may degrade the performance of THS however. Editor window size: d0, d1 d0 and d1 define the editor window size, columns and rows. The range for d0 (column) is 64 to 79, and includes the window border. If a given value exceeds one of the limits, then the according limit value is taken. If you omit this parameter, or specify a zero, then the default value of 76 is taken. The range for d1 (row) depends on the size of the (upper) receive window, which itself depends on the number of lines of your current video mode. The range if from half that window to full size minus one. For the standard 25 line mode, the range is 10 to 20, also including the border. The default here is the lowest value, i.e. half the size of the receive window. Filter received characters: e0 e0 determines the initial value of the FILTER variable, see the description of the ALT/T command. A zero disables the filtering, a one enables it. The default (e.g. if omitted) is zero. 2. Starting THS. ---------------- When started, THS saves the current screen and presents three basic and one opening window. The basic windows are the receive window, the status line (window) and the transmit window. The basic windwos are always present. THS has three major modes: dialog mode, review mode and binary file transfer (YAPP-)mode. The initial mode is dialog mode. Note that THS will determine the current number of rows used for the screen, and will adjust its windowing system accordingly. To prevent overrun errors on the RS-232 port, THS disables the functions of the CAPS-lock, NUM-lock and SCROLL-lock keys when it used with external TNCs connected to COM-ports with standard serial communications controller chips. Such controller chips are the 8250, 16450 and 16550 chips. The 16550A chip has a built in FIFO (a 16 byte hardware data stack) and interrupt servicing of this chip is far less critical. The Dual Async Adapter/A from IBM in PS/2 Microchannel models is supposed to use 16550A chips. For Industrial Standard Bus machines it is possible to simply replace the 8250/16450/16550 chips on the serial adapters with a 16550A chip to benefit. THS will detect a 16550A chip and enable the FIFO (If the PC*PA is used, no interrupt timing problems exist because the PC*PA's driver is polled). The opening window presents information about the (hardware) state of the communications port, and informs you about the efforts of THS to contact the TNC. For external TNC's, THS follows the guidelines of KB5MU's "WA8DED Host Mode Guide" for the initial contact to the TNC. For the PC*Packet Adapter, THS expects to find the TNC in terminal-mode, not in host-mode. Please note that when THS exits, the TNC is always switched to terminal-mode. If THS fails to contact the TNC properly, check the hardware parameters (comm-port address, irq, baudrate on the THS side, and baudrate on the TNC side). After a correction, a new try should be made only after a hardware reset on BOTH sides. Note that the standard connection to an external TNC is by a RS-232 cable which has the lines 1 to 8 and line 20 connected. This permits THS to check the control signals to determine if the TNC is switched on or not. If you disabled the use of the control lines in the configuration file, THS is unable to detect an offline TNC immediately and will start the host resync pass (which then will fail). THS also sets the parameters of the TNC (indicated by the message "loading TNC parameters". The callsign from line one of the CFG file is always set first, followed by the connect message and the beacon text line (from lines 8 and 9 of the CFG file). Next, THS enables full monitoring but excludes monitoring of the own frames, i.e. frames from and to this callsign. Finally, the following commands are sent if the device is an external TNC: "Y 4", /* Enable all four channels */ "F 4", /* Frame acknowledge (seconds) */ "N 10", /* Number of tries (0=forever) */ "O 4", /* Number of outstanding I frames */ "P 64", /* P-persistence value */ "R 1", /* Repeater enabled */ "T 40", /* Transmitter delay 400mS */ "U 0", /* Unattended mode disabled */ "V 2", /* Version 2 protocol initiated */ "W 10", /* Slot time interval (100ms) */ "X 1", /* Transmitter PTT disabled/enabled */ "@D 0", /* Full duplex disabled/enabled */ "@T2 100", /* Timer T2 interval (1000ms) */ "@T3 18000", /* Timer T3 interval (6 min) */ "@V 0" /* Callsign validation disabled/enabled */ "P 64 and "W 16" are sent only to TNC-2's, for a TNC-1 with WA8DED software version 1.3, a "W 16" is sent instead. The following commands are sent to a PC*Packet Adapter: "Y 4", /* Enable all four channels */ "U 0", /* Unattended mode disabled */ "V 2", /* Version 2 protocol initiated */ "X 1", /* Transmitter PTT disabled/enabled */ "@V 0", /* Callsign validation disabled/enabled */ "P 0 1 64 10 4 4 10 100 18000 40", "P 1 1 64 10 4 1 10 100 18000 30" Next, for all TNCs, the %-lines read from the CFG file are sent to allow an overwrite of the THS defauts (see also the description of the configuration file above). If you want to accept less than four connect-requests to you, you can alter this either online with the "Yn" TNC-command in a command window (see the description of the immediate-command-entry below), or use the Y-command in a %-line in the configuration file. E.g. %Y2 to accept only two connect requests (from different stations). THS finally comes up with channel ONE on-screen. 3. Operating THS. ----------------- After a succesful contact with the TNC, you will see the three basic windows: the receive window, the statusline window and the transmit window. The presentation of the channels. --------------------------------- The TNC software permits up to four different and independent channels for simultaneous connections to different connectees. These channels are channels one to four. Channel zero is the unconnected channel which also receives all monitored frames. There is one receive window for each channel. On screen, there is only space for one receive window at a time. This receive window is called the 'on-screen window' and the channel which it presents is called the 'on-screen channel'. To switch between the channels, you use the left-arrow and right-arrow keys. On the left side of the statusline is the channel indicator, the string "01234", representing channel 0 to 4. The on-screen channel is indicated in INVERSE video. The number of a off-screen (i.e. invisible) channel which receives data from the TNC changes to BOLD. This is the indication that there is unseen activity on that channel. You can look at that window simply by making it the on-screen window with the left/right arrow keys. Note that these attributes (INVERS and BOLD) can be changed for your taste in the configuration file. The on-screen receive window. ----------------------------- In the on-screen receive window you will see everything which is received from the TNC on the associated channel - with the exception of packets during a binary file transfer (these go, of course, to a file). If you want to review text which has scrolled off the screen, press ALT/R or Up-arrow. During review, the TNC input to the on-screen channel (only) is halted. You should not leave THS in review mode for a long time if there is packet activity on the reviewed channel because the TNCs buffer may overflow and cause loss of data. The status line. ---------------- The status line presents actual information about the link, the date, and the time. There are two flavours of the status line which can be toggled by the <INS>-key. The default is a line like: 01234 | NS:00 UA:01 TRY:01 | INFORMATION TRANSFER | PL | 05-AUG 23:46:45 | | | | | || | | | | | current link stare || date & time | | | current try number |logging is ON | | current number of unacked frames printing is ON | current number of transmitted frames not sent. channel indicator NOTE: UnAacked frames have been sent (once). NSent presents the number of present but unprocessed frames in the TNC. Please refer to the 'L'-command of TNC's document. The second flavour is a line like: 01234 | DK1SL VIA HB9VC HB9PUO | PL | 05-AUG 23:46:51 | current connect state. If the connected-state string length exceeds the available space, it is truncated. The status line is always updated realtime (unless the receive window is being reviewed). You can observe the quality of the link by watching the time and number of tries used to acknowledge data frames. The transmit window. -------------------- The lowest three lines are the transmit status window, and all what you type for your qso is echoed here. You send the entered text to the on-screen channel as usual by pressing the ENTER-key - the transmit window is cleared and your text is moved to the receive window using bold characters to easily distinguish between received text and text sent. Note that these attributes (default: BOLD) can be changed for your taste in the configuration file. If your on-screen channel is 1,2,3 or 4, and you are not connected, then the TNC simply discards your input. If you did select channel 0, the text is send out UNPROTO (i.e. in an UI-frame) via the UNPROTO path. The Commands ------------ We distinguish between 'normal' keys and 'special' keys. Special keys are all keys not found on the main key field of the keyboard (i.e function keys, keypad keys) and all ALT-key combinations of normal keys. You use the normal keys for data entry, all special keys cause THS to perform some special function. The following special keys are used to control THS (and the TNC) in dialog mode: ALT/P Device Parameter Setup Menu ALT/T THS Parameter Setup Menu ALT/C Connect Menu ALT/D Disconnect ALT/U Unattended Parameter Menu ALT/G Show Unformatted Heardlist ALT/H Show Formatted Heardlist ALT/V View DOS Directory ALT/L Logging (capture) ON/OFF ALT/J Printer ON/OFF ALT/S Send an ASCII file ALT/R Review Received Text ALT/F Review Function Key Setup ALT/B Beacon Text ALT/W Command string directory ALT/K Call Editor PgUp Binary File Upload (YAPP) PgDn Binary File Download (YAPP) <INS> Toggle Status Line Display CTRL/ESC Direct Command Entry ALT/E Temporary exit to DOS ALT/X Exit THS With the exception of the function keys proper, pressing an 'unused' special key causes the pop-up of a window which presents the above information, this is to inform you about the 'used' special keys. NOTE: All pop-up windows will disappear after some seconds. You can also close the window by any keystoke. ALT/P TNC Parameter Setup Menu -------------------------------- The Device Parameter Window is shown, and THS first reads the current value of all the parameters. You then may alter one or more parameters (use the up- and down-arrow keys to navigate, and press F10 when you are ready to apply the changes. THS sets all parameters and re-reads them. If you specified a parameter to a value outside the permitted range, you will see that your change has no effect. You leave the TNC Parameter Setup by pressing ESC. Reading and writing the parameters is done concurrently with other activities of course. For your assistance, a one-line explanatory text is presented for each parameter. If you need further help, you may press F1 to get a more detailed help information. Most parameters are common to all channels. For all parameters which are unique for each channel, only the on-screen channels parameter is influenced. NOTE: If you change parameters and do not press F10 (the 'apply changes' key) before you press the ESC key, then nothing is applied. NOTE: If you change the HDLC baudrate for a PC*Packet Adapter, the you MUST execute a TNC reset (via the ALT/T menu) next to make it effective. ALT/T THS Parameter Setup Menu -------------------------------- The THS Parameter Setup Menu operates like the TNC Parameter Setup menu. This menu is used to modify software parameters of THS rather than software parameters of the TNC. You can: - enable or disable timestamps on monitored frames (link status messages are always stamped). - enable or disable if you want to hear 'bells' sent to you from a connected station (you will never hear bells from monitored stations) (BELL). - enable or disable if you want to hear a bell when you get a connect (CBELL). - set the packet frame length for binary transfers (PKLEN). - set the maximum number of pending frames for transfer bursts (MAXPFRAM). - reset the PC*Packet Adapter. (Not available for external TNCs. To reset such a TNC, exit THS, power off/on the TNC and call THS again). - enable or disable word wrapping (WORDWRAP). - define the window which gets the monitored frames (MWINDOW). By default, this is window zero (because channel zero is the monitor channel. You can however route all monitored frames to another channel window of your own choice. - filter out non-printable charcters (FILTER). If this is enabled, only BELL, HT, LF, VT, FF, CR and the characters with ASCII values from 0x20 to 0x7E are displayed as is, the filtered charcter are shown as a small solid rectangle. If you use a national character set, MFILTER should be disabled. PKLEN needs an explanation. Obviously, whenever you send a file (ASCII or binary), THS could send that file faster than the TNC is able to send packets, so we must slow down somewhere or the TNC's buffer would overflow. Of the link state parameters which are readable from the TNC, there are two values which determine the number of packets which the TNC has already got for transmission: the number of transmitted, but unacknowledged frames, and the number of sent (sent-to-the-TNC) frames not yet transmitted. The sum of these to numbers is MAXPFRAM. You may use this parameter together with PKLEN to tune the filetransmisson speed to the quality of the packet link. The maximum numbers permit the highest possible speed but requires a high quality link. This also implies that the radio channel is almost exclusively used by the file-transfer, leaving no room for other stations. ! Don't do it on 'the qso channel' ! If you cannot withstand to do a filetransfer when you have a miserable link, or if you insist to do a filetranfer on a channel with activities of other stations, then use the minimum values. In this case you will only have one short packet outstanding and your TNC will wait for the acknowledgement before sending out the next. ALT/C Connect Menu -------------------- The Connect Menu lets you enter the destination callsign and ssid, up to eight digipeaters, and the PC*Packet Adapter's port number. Again, press F10 to execute the command. Pressing ESC exits the connect menu and removes the window only. On channel zero, this sets the UNPROTO path. ALT/D Disconnect ------------------ This causes a disconnect command for the TNC immediately. If you are not connected, you will get a small TNC status window for a few seconds which tells you the TNC's return: CHANNEL NOT CONNECTED. ALT/U Unattended Parameter Menu --------------------------------- Much like the TNC Parameter Setup menu, you can enable and disable unattended operation here, and specify the connect-message. ALT/H Formatted Heardlist ALT/G Unformatted Heardlist ----------------------------- A window is presented with the Heardlist. This is a list of the most recent stations heard, sorted by descending time (i.e. last heard on top). The list can contain up to 30 different call signs, the vertical window size adujsts to the number of call signs but only up to 12 calls. If more than 12 calls are available, you can scroll with up and down with the arrow keys. You also can scroll in the vertical direction if an entry is larger than the vertical window size. The window will stay on the screen 60 seconds if no action is done. If you used ALT/H you get exactly what you would have to use for a connection to such heard call. If you pressed ALT/G instead of ALT/H you get a heard-list which contains the uninterpreted (unformatted) lines, i.e. exactly the monitored headers as received by the TNC. You will see a bar on the first entry which moves when you use the up-arrow or down-arrow key. When you position the bar on a line, and press F10 or <Enter> then a connect command is send to the source call sign in the line, using the indicated path. Any key other than the arrow keys, F10 or Enter removes the Heard-list window. Please note the following: The connect feature works also when you use the 'unformatted heard list' window. If a source call sign is heard via a NetRom node, it makes no sense to connect it this way. Also note that the heard list gets not updated when you switch monitoring off by a TNC command. The heard list processing is done by THS, *NOT* by the TNC - consequently it will work only (a) when THS is active and (b) when THS gets the required information from the TNC. ALT/V View DOS Directory -------------------------- You are asked for a file specification, and will get the directory information. ALT/L Logging (capture) ON/OFF -------------------------------- Logging means writing out to a file everything which appears on the screen for the logged channel. Logging is done on an individual channel basis, i.e. you must enable and disable logging for each channel independently. When you press ALT/L and logging is currently off for the on-screen channel, THS asks you for a filename. THS gives you a filename which is made up of the current date and time. If you want to accept this, simply press ENTER, otherwise specify your own filename. The extension of the filenmane is always "CAx" where x is the channel number. The file will be created in the current directory, on the current drive. If the file already exists, then THS-writes are appended to the existing file. If logging is already on, you will be asked if the logfile should be closed. The letter "L" appears on the right hand side of the statusline when logging is enabled. Logging is a channel attribute, so logging continues for a channel as long as logging is enabled for the channel, regardless if the channel is on-screen or off-screen - until you disable it. ALT/J Printer ON/OFF ---------------------- Toggle the printer output on or off. Because you have multiple channels but only one printer, you can always print only one channel. When you press ALT/J and printing is currently off for the on-screen channel, then from that moment this channel (and only this channel) will be printed. Printing continues when this channel goes off-screen. The letter "P" appears on the right hand side of the statusline when printing is switched on, and only one channel will show the "P". Note that when you are printing, and your printer goes offline by any reason, THS will detect this and switch printer output OFF but will not hang. Please also note that THS has an internal 1024 byte printer buffer, so with slow printers, the printer may continue to print out buffered characters for a while after you disabled printing. Also, when you print a busy channel with an almost maximum dataflow of almost 1200 bps on the HF side, your printer should be able to print at least 100 characters per second (!) continuously. ALT/S Send an ASCII file -------------------------- You can send a file containing text only when you are connected. When you press ALT/S you are asked for the filename, and if the file exists THS sends it out. You will see the lines transferred to the TNC in the receive window using bold characters, just like you had typed in the contents of the file. You are also informed about how many lines the file contains, and how many lines have been transferred. Please refer to the description of ALT/T for parmeters influencing file transfers. Note: during ASCII file sends you cannot switch the on-screen channel. ALT/R or Up-Arrow Review Received Text -------------------------------------------- ALT/R lets you review the received text which has srolled off the screen. When reviewed, the on-screen channel is polled, but all other channels are. THS' review buffer is 200 lines for each channel. You can print the entire review buffer (that is, the used part if it is not filled up) by pressing ALT/J. You can also write the review buffer into a file. The file is written in the current directory on the current drive; the filename is generated by the current date and time, with the extension "SNP". ALT/F Review Function Key Setup --------------------------------- ALT/F shows the titles of the text strings which can be called pressing the function keys. Please refer to the description of the THS configuration file. If you have not used all function keys, pressing an unused function key will also show this window. ALT/B Beacon Text ------------------- ALT/B shows the beacon text and lets you modify it. Whenever you press Enter or F10, the beacon text is sent (once) via the UNPROTO path (see ALT/0). ALT/W Command String Directory -------------------------------- Please see the description of the $-lines in the configuration file. ALT/K Call Editor ------------------- ALT/K calls the message editor. First you are asked for a filename, then the editor loads the file into the editor window. If no such file exists, you are asked if the file should be created. For a description of the editors keys, press the F1 help-key please. When you exit the editor with the ESC-key, you are asked if the file should be saved. If you agree, you can for example next send the file with ALT/S. If you do not want to save to a file, the editor window is closed and the next time you recall the editor, you are immediately back where you left. Note however that for to send the file, it must first be saved. PgUp Binary File Upload (YAPP) PgDn Binary File Download (YAPP) ----------------------------------- Pressing PgUp or PgDn will start a binary file transfer using the YAPP protocoll as created and specified by Jeff Jacobson, WA7MBL. THS is compatible with all programs which have 'YAPP' implemented. Furthermore, the hostmode of the WA8DED software permits better control in the event link difficulties occur. For example, a disconnect during a file transfer is immediately recognized and the transfer is stopped without sending the remainder of the file out via the UNPROTO path. Also, you can abort (cancel) transfers by ALT/A. Note however that the cancellation will take some time, because the TNC must first send out all pending frames until the cancel request frame can be sent, or a incoming cancel request can be acknowledged. This can be a severe problem when you have a bad link, but in this case you anyhow should better not use automated transfers. Or have at least set the THS parameters accordingly - see the description of ALT/T. In case of a bad link, you should also use AX25 level 1, not level 2. At any time you can disconnect by ALT/D - this breaks the link but also flushes the TNC's buffers immediately. Aborting a transfer by ALT/D is preferable to ALT/A. You can also kill a transfer with ALT/K. This is disconnects the link and reconnects after THS has switched back to dialog mode. THS uses the following timeout parameters: (1) The sender will try to trigger the receiver (Send-Init) six times in intervals of 20 seconds before timing out. (2) The receive time-out (waiting for a YAPP packet) is 120 seconds. You are able to modify the TNC or THS parameters during ongoing YAPP transfers - the THS help window (which is called with an arrow-key, for example) will show you which keys have effect during YAPP transfers: ALT/P TNC Parameter Setup Menu ALT/T THS Parameter Setup Menu ALT/D Disconnect ALT/A Cancel Transfer <INS> Toggle Status Line Display All other keys are ignored during a YAPP binary transfer. It is not possible to switch the channels during the transfer. Before entering YAPP transfer mode, THS modifies the MAXFRAME parameter of the TNC to the maximum value of 7, sets RESPTIME to zero and disables monitoring. The previous values are restored when YAPP transfer mode is left. This gives a maximum thoughput (and requires a high quality link). You should realize that if you have a quality link on a busy channel, the other hams will surely not enjoy your transfers. A certain amount of througput control is done with the MAXPFRAM parameter, see ALT/T. <INS> Toggle Status Line Display ---------------------------------- See the description of the status line above. CTRL/ESC Direct Command Entry ------------------------------- When pressing CTRL/ESC, you get a command window and a "CMD>" prompt. Everything you enter is sent to the TNC as a command on the on-screen channel. The syntax required is the command syntax of the WA8DED software. If the TNC returns a message as an answer to your command, this message is displayed. You terminate the command entry by another ESC or by ENTER. The direct or immediate command entry window call has been changed from ESC to CTRL/ESC because ESC is commonly used by THS for escaping a window. ALT/E Temporary exit to DOS ----------------------------- When you press ALT/E then THS suspends itself and calls a second command processor (i.e. COMMAND.COM). THS is completely inactive until you type EXIT to the DOS prompt. This also means that the TNC is NOT polled, and all incoming frames remain buffered in the TNC. You should return back to THS as soon as possible because the TNC's buffer are limited and you will loose information if the TNCs buffer overflow. All files which have been opened by THS remain open when THS is suspended, you must NEVER change disks if your logfiles are on removable disks ! NOTE ---- Exit to DOS requires DOS 3.20 or higher. ALT/X Exit THS ---------------- The ultimate key. You will be asked for a confirmation. Anything else but a 'Y' or 'y' will leave you in THS. If THS exits, it clears the screen and returns with your familiar DOS prompt. However, THS may also report a number of device i/o errors when it exits. A device i/o error results when one of several consistency checks on the message blocks received from the device fails. When such a failure occurs, THS flushes the current message and continues. You shoud normally not get any report at all. Note that errors resulting from the ACE chip ("RS-232 errors) are always reported (see below). Finally, the secret ALT-key: Whenever you give ALT/A, any incoming message to the currently selected window is accompanied by a deep summing tone. Another ALT/A disables the sound. There is no visible indication of ALT/A, because obviously there is an audible one. I often use ALT/A when my partner says "wait a minute", because I have no klicking relais in my TRX which would attract my attention after that minute. 4. Error Reports ---------------- Whenwever THS detects an error, it will open a window and display an error message and optionally parameters. Note that it is normally not possible to recover from these errors. The message types are "RS-232 Read error. Code received: 0xnnnn" - where: 0xFFFF timeout 0x02nn overrun error 0x04nn parity error 0x08nn framing error 0x10nn break interrupt. These errors (besides timeout) are signalled by the ACE chip (8250/16450), i.e. hardware error reports or faults. Parity and framing errors, or break interrupt indicate a chip problem, this could however be on either end of the serial line. Try to use another port on the PC, and/or reduce the transmission baud rate. 4.1. RS-232 Overrun Errors. --------------------------- Whenever you get an overrun error this indicates that the System is not fast enough to process the incoming characters. This can be solved by either reducing the frequency in which the incoming characters appear, i.e. by reducing the transmission baudrate, or by using a more sophisticated serial communications controller chip, or by increasing the CPU speed. Unfortunatly if the System has not enough time to process an incoming character timely this may be caused by other code which executes concurrently and which disables the interrupt recognition for a too long time period. Some sad examples: Pressing the CAPS-, NUM- and SCROLL-lock key of an enhanced keyboard cause the BIOS to toggle the LED status indicators, which is done with interrupts disabled (but takes far more time than other character processing) and immediately causes an RS-232 data overrun error, even on 10Mhz AT's with 4800 Baud to the TNC. THS disables the functions of the CAPS-lock, NUM-lock and SCROLL-lock keys when used with external TNCs (i.e. not when a PC*PA is used). The next problem of interrups-off-too-long is introduced by national keyboard drivers. ALL keyboard drivers from a DOS version higher than 3.20 exhibit this problem. You could disable this driver by CTRL/ALT/F1 which gives you the US keyboard layout, or try drivers from older DOS versions. Sorry again, but DOS is truly NOT designed for concurrency. Obviously, with the PC*PA you will not have any of these problems. Another solution is to replace the standard serial controller chips by a 16550A chip which has a built-in FIFO (a 16 byte hardware data stack). THS supports this chip, and the use of this chip generally solves all overrun problems. If THS detects such a chip, then you will see the string "FIFO:yes" in the opening window, and THS will not lockout the CAPS-, NUM- and SCROLL-lock keys. Otherwise, a "FIFO:no" is printed and the usage of these keys will be locked out. 4.2. Other ERRORS. ------------------ You will get other error reports following an RS-232 error report, because THS gets out of sync with the TNC. This is a dead end, you should exit THS (if you can do so still) or reboot the PC. 5. Decoding of Net/Rom frames. ------------------------------ THS decodes Net/Rom routing broadcast messages and the inter-node frames into a plain English text format. For an interpretation of the various variables shown, please refer to "Net/Rom Version 1.3 Documentation" from Software 2000 Inc. 6. Final Remarks. ----------------- I would be interested in your proposals and comments. Please note however that I will feel no obligation of any kind. I am a professinal software designer, but THIS is a hobby project. Finally, my address is: Peter H. Heinrich HB9CVV Allemendstr. 25 CH-2562 Port Switzerland. You can contact me on CompuServe [71470,32] and on BIX (phh) also. 7. Revision list. ----------------- (2.00) 01. Aug. 1988 Test release * First multi connect version * Restructuring of function tasks, using resources for synchronisation 2.10 20. Aug. 1988 Initial release 2.20 18. Oct. 1988 released * Heardlist (ALT/H, ALT/G) with connect to heard station * NetRom frame decoding 2.30 24. Dec. 1988 released * Exit to DOS (ALT/E) implemented 2.40 05. Feb. 1989 released * MWINDOW introduced: channel 0 input to selectable window. * Kill Yapp transfer (ALT/K) by disconnect plus reconnect * Yapp transfers optimized, enhanced window. 2.50 16. Aug. 1989 released * Message editor * screen support for up to 60 lines. * Support for 16550A serial communications controller * FILTER variable in ALT/T "*" denotes major addition and reason of version number change --------------------------- end of file ------------------------------------- so far.