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② ************************************************************* * * * P A C K - E T - T E R M * * * * Version 3.0 ST * * * * Copyright 1986 * * * * By Charles W. Harrington * * * ************************************************************* PACK-ET-TERM USER GUIDE FOR THE ATARI ST July 15, 1986 COPYRIGHT Copyright (C) 1986 Charles W. Harrington, WA4GPF. Rights to sell are reserved. This program may be freely duplicated and distributed, but not sold without the prior written consent of the author, WA4GPF, Charles W. Harrington, 5634 Lesser Drive, Orlando, Florida, 32818. DISCLAIMER Charles W. Harrington, the author, makes no warranty as to to suitability of this software for any purpose. Further, the author reserves the right to revise this material at any time, without incurring any obligation to former users. The user assumes total responsibility for the use of the software, and agrees not to hold the author responsible for any loss connected with it's use. SOFTWARE LICENSE The author grants to the public, a limited license to use and reproduce this product, providing the terms of the license and the copyright are complied with. The user agrees that he will not attempt disassembly of this software, and that he will not alter it in any manner, without the prior written consent of the author. This license may be canceled or modified at any time, at the discretion of the author. CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Welcome to PACK-ET-TERM 1.2 Description of features 1.3 System Requirements 2.0 Getting PACK-ET-TERM started 2.1 Connecting the ST to the Tnc 2.2 Configuring the ST serial ports 2.3 Configuring the tnc 3.0 Getting to know PACK-ET-TERM 3.1 Help Screen 3.2 Terminal Mode Screen Display 3.3 Transmit Screen Operation 3.4 Receive Screen Operation 4.0 PACK-ET-TERM's Special Features 4.1 Connect State Display 4.2 <F1> - Load CQ Buffer 4.3 <Shift><F1> - Display CQ Buffer 4.4 <F2> - Auto CQ 4.5 <Shift><F2> - Send CQ Buffer 4.6 <F3> - Clear Transmit Buffer 4.7 <Shift><F3> - Clear Receive Buffer 4.8 <F4> - Load Transmit Buffer 4.9 <Shift><F4> - Load Receive Buffer 4.10 <F5> - Save Transmit Buffer 4.11 <Shift><F5> - Save Receive Buffer 4.12 <F6> - Display Transmit Buffer 4.13 <Shift><F6> - Display Receive Buffer 4.14 <F7> - Toggle the Transmit Buffer 4.15 <Shift><F7> - Toggle the Receive Buffer 4.16 <F8> - Send Transmit Buffer 4.17 <SHift><F8> - Send Receive Buffer 4.18 <F9> - Toggle Connect Message 4.19 <Shift><F9> - Toggle Connect Receive Buffer 4.20 <F10> - Load Connect Buffer 4.21 <Shift><F10> - Display Connect Buffer 4.22 <Alternate><c> - Toggle Connect Printer 4.23 <Alternate><d> - Display Bytes in Receive Buffer 4.24 <Alternate> - Display Information 4.25 <Alternate><r> - Toggle Receive Printer 4.26 <Alternate><s> - Time Stamps 4.27 <Alternate> - Display bytes in Transmit Buffer 5.0 PACK-ET-TERM 3.0 Operating Tips 5.1 Making a Connect Message 5.2 Loading and Use of Connect Message 5.3 Using Save to Receive Buffer if Connected feature 5.4 Using Connect Printer feature 5.5 Using Time Stamps 5.6 Downloading from a BBS 5.7 Uploading to a BBS 5.8 Making a Text File 5.9 Using a Configuration File 6.0 Other Uses for Text Files 6.1 Rig Information 6.2 Routing File 6.3 CQ Messages 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 WELCOME to PACK-ET-TERM version 3.0 Welcome to PACK-ET-TERM version 3.0 written by WA4GPF, Chuck Harrington. Because the author believes in Packet Radio and the Atari ST, you have received at no cost, a piece of software that the author believes is of commercial quality. Please feel free to give your friends a copy of PACK-ET-TERM 3.0, or upload it to favorite telephone BBS system. 1.2 PACK-ET-TERM version 3.0 features PACK-ET-TERM has a combination of features that you may not have seen in a packet radio terminal before. It takes advantage of some of the Atari ST's best features to give the average user a more enjoyable packeting experience. This program features a triple split screen display, with transmit and receive screens divided, and connect status and time displayed. The status of the various buffers and program features are also displayed, to remind the user of what the software is currently doing. PACK-ET-TERM 3.0 supports your printer with a "print if connected" feature; this is a great way to save only your connects to the printer. It is especially useful as a mailbox, allowing a station to connect and leave you a message. You may also save connections to a buffer, for the same purpose. A connect message is also provided, which may be used to prompt the connecting station to leave a message and disconnect, or may be used to send a greeting automatically when someone connects. PACK-ET-TERM 3.0 also supports text file transfers, and uses several buffers to make packeting easy for you. The receive buffer is 196K bytes in size, adequate for "all day" receive buffering, or the largest file transfers. A CQ buffer holds the text which is automatically sent, at the intervals you specify. The Connect buffer, holds the messages you want sent upon connection, and the transmit buffer allows you to enter from the keyboard, up to 8K of of text, to send or save to disk. PACK-ET-TERM 3.0 also has a handy time stamp feature, which supports the screen display, receive buffer, and the printer. The CONNECTED and DISCONNECTED times, are also printed in the status area of the screen. Best of all, PACK-ET-TERM 3.0 is designed to work with most TNCs, and provide all or most of the features discribed in this document, with no special interfaces or cables. The author hopes you enjoy packeting with your Atari St, and that you enjoy the features of PACK-ET-TERM. 1.3 System Requirements PACK-ET-TERM requires an Atari 520 or 1040 ST equiped with at least one disk drive and a Black & White or Color monitor. Since the software is written for the MEDIUM RESOLUTION mode (meaning an 80 charactor line!), the use of a TV set will not be possible. In addition, the program will not run on the early 520 STs without TOS in rom, unless they have the one megabyte upgrade. If there is any interest, the author will make available a version of the the software with smaller buffers, making it compatable with the early TOS on disk 520 ST units. PACK-ET-TERM is designed to work with your TNC. The program was developed with a TAPR type TNC-1. The software provides some features like the "Connect Message", which may not be required in some newer TNC units such as the TNC-2 types, which already have similiar features implemented in the TNC itself. The software will work with all TNCs, but the features utilized may vary. 2 GETTING PACK-ET-TERM STARTED 2.1 Connecting the ST to the TNC It is recommended that the RS-232 cable be prepared with the the following pins utilized on the DB-25 connectors: Pin 1 - Protective ground Pin 2 - Transmitted data Pin 3 - Received data Pin 4 - Request to send Pin 5 - Clear to send Pin 7 - Signal ground Pin 8 - Data carrier detect Pin 20 - Data Terminal Ready * You may use the mass terminated type DB25 connectors and connect all pins if you wish. 2.2 STEP TWO - CONFIGURING THE SERIAL PORTS (A) Establishing communication with the TNC The first thing that must done, is to configure the ST's VT-52 terminal emulator; this is done BEFORE you enter PACK-ET-TERM. We will establish communication between the VT-52 desk accessory and the tnc, and then save our preferences for future use. Select the VT-52 desk accessory from the DESK accessory menu; this puts you in the VT-52 terminal mode. Turn on your TNC; and check for the sign on message: EXAMPLE: TAPR packet radio ram length is 2000 cmd: * Your sign on message will vary, depending on your type of tnc. If you do not get the sign on message, then most likey the serial port of the ST is not configured the same way as the port of your tnc. To reconfigure the ST serial port, simply hit your help key from the VT-52 terminal mode, or select RS232 configuration, from the DESK accessory menu. Now that you have the RS232 PORT CONFIGURATION menu, you may easily alter the STs port settings as necessary to establish communication with the TNC. You will find additional information on this procedure in your TNC and ST owners manuals. (B) SELECTION the FINAL BAUD RATE PACK-ET-TERM supports 300, 1200, 4800, 9600 baud rates. You should select a baud rate that is comfortable for you. AT 300 baud you may get tired of watching the letters come to the screen one at a time. At 9600 baud, lines may be pushed off the screen before you have a chance to read them! Either 1200 or 4800, is probably the best baud rate for most operators; experiment with this and determine which baud rate is best for you. (C) SELECTION of PARITY Parity must be set to the same type as your tnc. (D) DUPLEX Duplex must be set to OFF for split screen operation. (E) Bits/Char Either 7 or 8 bits may be selected, depending on your current tnc "AWlen" (word length) setting. (F) STRIP BIT Strip bit should be set to off. (G) FLOW CONTROL - Xon/Xoff Xon/Xoff should be set to the ON position. (H) FLOW CONTROL - Rts/Cts Rts/Cts must be set to on, or to off, depending on the type of tnc which is being used. Improper setting of this parameter, will prevent the tnc from sending any charactors to your ST! (G) SAVE ST computers RS-232 settings Once your RS-232 settings are established, you should save them to your PACK-ET-TERM disk by selecting "Save DESKTOP" from the desktop menu. Your custom settings will be saved in the DESKTOP.INF file and loaded automatically at bootup. 2.3 CONFIGURING YOUR TNC FOR PACK-ET-TERM For proper operation of PACK-ET-TERM, it is important that the tnc is properly configured. The parameters of interest are listed below. AUtolf - Auto linefeed AUTOLF should be set to ON; your ST requires a linefeed from the tnc at the end of each line. BKondel - Delete on BKONDEL should be set to ON if you wish to use <Backspace> to delete characters and off if you wish to use the <Delete> key. CANline - Cancel line input charactor Canline should be set to $18, or Control X for proper Clr/ home operation. The Clr/Home key sends a Control X to the tnc. COMmand - Enter Command mode COMmand usually has a default setting of $03, or <CTRL-C>. It is recommended that you change this to $1b, or <Escape> for use with the ST. Use of <CTRL-C> on the ST will sometimes result in the unexpected exit from PACK-ET-TERM because of quirks in the ST's TOS operating system. Echo ON/OFF Echo must normally be set to OFF, for proper split screen operation. If Echo is ON, the characters you type will appear both in the transmit screen and the receive screen! You may wish to turn Echo on at times, to save a complete record of your QSO to the Receive buffer or to the printer, but normally, leave it off. Flow ON/OFF Flow ON will halt output to the screen any time you are in the process of typing, except when the transmit buffer is open; this feature is helpful to those of us that are a little slow at typing. When FLOW is OFF, lines of text may move off the screen and drop into the bit bucket, before you have a chance to read them. The author normally runs this parameter in the ON setting. SEndpac - Select send packet character Sendpac should be set to the default value of $0d or <cr>. Screenl - Screen length Screenl should be set to 0, for proper PACK-ET-TERM 3.0 printing to the receive screen. Since PACK-ET-TERM already keeps track of the length of your screen lines, any other setting may result in unwanted linefeeds! Lines will either be broken, or unwanted blank lines may be added to the receive screen. Xflow ON/OFF - Flow control Xflow should be ON, for proper operation of PACK-ET-TERM. In addition, Xoff and Xon, should be at their default settings of $13 and $11 respectively. ** A tnc configuration file may be designed and save to disk for later use; this feature is explained in the file transfer portion of the documentation. 3.0 GETTING TO KNOW PACK-ET-TERM 3.1 STARTING PACK-ET-TERM After communication has been established and the tnc properly configured for PACK-ET-TERM, you are finally ready to give the program a trial run. Make sure the time and date have been set with the CONTROL PANEL before running PACK-ET-TERM. Double click PACKET.TOS to start PACK-ET-TERM. 3.2 <HELP> SCREEN - COMMAND MENU The first screen you see after program execution, is PACK-ET -TERM's <HELP> menu. Look the menu over before hitting any key to enter into the terminal mode. You may see this help screen by touching the <HELP> key; touching any key when the menu is displayed, will return you to terminal mode. 3.3 TERMINAL MODE SCREEN DISPLAY In terminal mode, you will see PACK-ET-TERM's triple split screen. The top line of the screen is used for "connect status" and current time display. The center portion of the screen is the receive area, where received packets and messages from your tnc are displayed. The lower portion of the screen, or transmit screeen, displays the characters that are input from the keyboard. Notice the shaded line which separates the receive screen from the transmit screen; this is known as the "command line". PACK-ET-TERM will display errors and various prompts in the center of this command line. Also located on the command line are six status slots, three either side of center; these slots indicate the status of the buffers, and some of the program's special functions. These status messages are printed on the command line in unreversed video when active, forming slots. All slots are closed when until opened by the user. 3.4 UNBUFFERED KEYBOARD ENTRY - TRANSMIT SCREEN The cursor, which is an underline charactor, is located in the transmit screen area. When the transmit buffer is closed, ascii charactors are sent to the tnc one at a time as they are typed from the keyboard. Holding a key down, will result in an automatic repeat of the charactor. Also, the "key click" will be heard, assuming that it has not been turned off at the control panel, or that the volume is not turned down low. Typing errors may be corrected with the <DEL> key, assuming a carriage return has not been hit yet; once the return key is hit, no changes are possible, and the tnc will act upon what you have entered. If charactors entered from the keyboard, appear on the recieive screen as they are typed, either the ECHO parameter in the tnc is turned on, or the ST's RS-232 is configured for FULL DUPLEX rather than HALF; echo to the receive screen is not desirable during split screen operation. <CLR/HOME> will clear the transmit screen and send the cursor home, and send a Control-x to the tnc to cancel any characters typed since the last <Return>. 3.5 RECEIVE SCREEN OPERATION All ascii charactors sent by your tnc to the ST over the RS- 232 interface, will be displayed in the center or receive portion of the screen. You may pause the printing of new charactors to the receive screen by, using the <CTRL><s> key sequence; printing is restarted using the <CTRL><q> sequence. You may pause the printing of new characters to the receive screen during unbuffered keyboard entry, by setting the FLOW parameter in your tnc to ON. It should also be noted that the speed at which text is printed to the receive screen, may be altered for operator comfort by adjusting the RS-232 baud rate in the ST and tnc. PACK -ET-TERM will function at 9600 baud, but some people may not be able to read the text before it scrolls off the screen! Also, if AUtolf is not set to ON in the tnc, lines will print on top of each other in the receive screen. 4.0 PACK-ET-TERM's SPECIAL FEATURES 4.1 CONNECT STATE The CONNECT STATE display feature is one of the unique features of PACK-ET-TERM. When you become connected to a station, the connect message, along with the time will be printed in the upper left hand corner of the screen. In addition, the ST's bell will also ring to alert you to the fact that a connection has just been made. A typical connect message on a tnc-1 would be: *** Connected to WA4GPF at 18:04 On the tnc-2 types, the path will also be displayed: *** Connected to WA4GPF via ORL at 18:04 Either *** Connected or *** Disconnected messages will be printed by PACK-ET-TERM 3.0 to the "Connect state" area of the screen, all the way to the messages line feed! please note that in the case of multiple connects, the last connect or disconnected message received, will be the one printed in the Connect state area. Support for multiple connects is under consideration in future versions of this software , but is not implemented in version 3.0. 4.2 <F1> - LOAD CQ BUFFER The CQ buffer may be loaded from disk only. CQ messages are typed into the transmit buffer and then saved to disk. Hitting the <F1> key will bring the following prompt at the center of the command line: Load CQ Filename? You must now enter the filename of your CQ message. You may abort from entering a filename by hitting the <Esc> key. Please note that the CQ buffer will not hold messages longer than 160 bytes; very long CQ messages sent automatically would cause unnecessary QRM! Should you attempt to load a longer file into the CQ buffer, you will receive a "File > CQ buffer" message. If the file is successfully loaded, you will receive "n bytes in CQ buffer" at the center of the command line. 4.3 <Shift><F1> - Display CQ buffer The contents of the CQ buffer may be displayed by hitting the <Shift><F1> key sequence. If the buffer is empty, you will you will see a "CQ Buffer Empty" message at the center of the the command line. 4.4 <F2> - AUTO CQ AUTO CQ may be turned on by hitting function key <F2>. You will be prompted at the center of the command line: 1 to 9 minutes? You must enter a number between 1 and 9 minutes. If you enter <5>, AUTOcq5 will be printed on the command line in reverse at the AUTOcq slot; AUTOcq is now turned on. Every five minutes, the contents of the CQ buffer will be sent to the tnc; assuming no characters have been printed to the receive screen in 5 minutes! For example, lets say I have loaded my CQ message into the CQ buffer, and it is: CQ: This is Chuck in Orlando....k PACK-ET-TERM will send this message to the tnc every five minutes, provided that no characters are received at the RS-232 port! AUTOcq is sent after 5 minutes of no activity on the packet channel. Your tnc must be in converse mode, and your CQ will be sent as set in your UNPROTO parameter in the tnc. So every five minutes that elapses without channel activity, the above message would be sent: WA4GPF>CQ: CQ This is Chuck in Orlando....k Hitting the <F2> key again will reverse the AUTOcq slot printout, and disable the AUTOcq feature. 4.5 <Shift><F2> - Send CQ Buffer The contents of CQ buffer will be sent to the tnc without delay, when the <Shift><F2> key sequence is hit. If the CQ buffer is empty, a "CQ buffer empty" message will appear at the center of the command line. Functions F3 thru F8 concern various transmit buffer commands. It should be noted that shifting F3 thru F8, will do the same thing, but to the receive buffer. 4.6 <F3> - Clear Transmit buffer Touching <F3> will clear the contents of the transmit buffer. 4.7 <Shift><F3> - Clear Receive buffer Touching <F4> will clear the contents of the receive buffer. 4.8 <F4> - Load Transmit buffer You may load a file from disk into the transmit buffer, with the <F4> key. You will be prompted at the center of the command line for a filename. This buffer is 8K in size; should you need to load a larger file, you must use the receive buffer. If the file is too large or does not exist, you will receive an error message at the center of the command line. If the file is loaded, "n bytes in TR buffer" will be printed. PACK-ET-TERM will attempt to load the file from the same drive that was active when PACK-ET -TERM was loaded; disk IO to other drives is not supported. 4.9 <Shift><F4> - Load Receive buffer You may load a file from disk into the receive buffer, with the <Shift><F4> key sequence. You will be prompted for filename, at the center of the command line; <Escape> will abort the file load at this point. The receive buffer is 196K in size. If the load is successful, the "n bytes in Receive buffer" will print on the command line. 4.10 <F5> - Save Transmit buffer The transmit buffer may be saved to disk by hitting the <F5> key. You will be prompted at the center of the command line to enter the filename. If the file already exists, you will write the new file over it, and all previous data will be lost. If the file does not exist, it will be created. Before saving the file, you should make sure that certain that the disk has adequate room for the file, and that the disk is not write protected. You may obtain the number of bytes currently in the transmit buffer, by using the <Alternate> key sequence. After the file is saved, the number of bytes saved will be displayed at the center of the command line; this of course be the same as the number of bytes that were in the buffer at the time of the save. 4.11 <Shift><F5> - Save Receive buffer The Receive buffer may be saved to disk by using the <Shift> <F5> sewuence. You will be prompted at the center of the command line to enter the filename. If the file already exists, you will copy the new file over it, and all previous data will be lost. If the file does not exist, it will be created. Before saving the file, make certain that the disk has adequate room for the file, and that the disk is not write protected. You may obtain the number of bytes currently in the transmit buffer, by using the <Alternate><d> key sequence. After the file is saved, the number of bytes saved will be displayed at the center of the command line; this of course should be the same as the number of bytes that were in the buffer at the time of the save. 4.12 <F6> - Display the transmit buffer You may display the contents of the transmit buffer to the receive screen with the <F6> key. Files in the transmit buffer do not normally have linefeeds at the end of each line, and so this function generates a linefeed for proper display. Generally lines in this buffer are terminated with only a <cr>, because they were entered from the keyboard. 4.13 <Shift><F6> - Display the receive buffer You may display the contents of the receive buffer to the receive screen by using the <shift><F6> key sequence. If the buffer is too large to be displayed on the screen at one time, hitting any key will take you forward to the next screen. Unlike the display transmit buffer function, display receive buffer does not generate a linefeed and expects to have each line in the buffer terminated with a line feed for proper display. 4.14 <F7> - Toggle the Transmit buffer The transmit buffer is really a keyboard buffer. You may open or close it, by touching the <F7> key. The maximum capacity of the transmit buffer is 8,192 bytes. 4.15 <Shift><F7> - Toggle the Receive buffer The Receive buffer may be opened or closed using the <Shift> <F7> key sequence. Maximum capacity of the Receive buffer is 196,602 bytes. 4.16 <F8> - Send the Contents of the transmit buffer If you touch the <F8> key, the contents of the transmit buffer will be sent to the tnc. 4.17 <Shift><F8> - Send the Contents of the Receive buffer If you use the <Shift><F8> key sequence, the contents of the Receive buffer will be sent to the tnc. 4.18 <F9> - Toggle Connect Message Touching the <F9> key will enable the connect message if the connect buffer is not empty. CONmess will be reverse printed on the command line, indicating that the connect message feature is turned on. Hitting the <F9> key a second time will disable the connect message function. 4.19 <Shift><F9> - Toggle Connect receive buffer Using the <Shift><F9> key sequence will enable the CONbuff feature. When enabled, the receive buffer is automatically opened when a connect message is received. CONbuff is printed in reverse on the command line. Hitting the <Shift><F9> sequence a 2nd time will turn it back off. 4.20 <F10> - Load Connect buffer Touching the <F10> key will result in a prompt at the center of the command line for filename; enter filename of Connect message. Keep in mind that this buffer will accept files of 512 characters or less; attempts to load longer files into the Connect buffer will result in a "File > Connect buffer" error. 4.21 <Shift><F10> - Display Connect Buffer The key sequence <Shift><F10> will send the contents of the Connect buffer to the receive screen. 4.22 <Alternate><c> - Toggle Connect Printer The key sequence <Alternate><c> enables the CONprnt feature. When enabled, received text will be sent to the printer when the tnc is connected. Using the <Alternate><c> sequence a second time will turn the feature back off. 4.23 <Alternate><d> - Display Bytes in Receive Buffer Use of the <Alternate><d> key sequence will result in the number of bytes currently in the receive buffer being printed at the center of the command line. 4.24 <Alternate> - Display Information Use of the <Alternate> key sequence will display the author's copyright information on the receive screen. 4.25 <Alternate><r> - Toggle the Receive Printer Use of the <Alternate><r> key sequence will reverse the RECprnt message on the command line and send all received text to the printer. Using the key sequence again will disable RECprnt. 4.26 <Alternate><s> - TIME STAMPS TIME STAMP may be toggled on or off by using the key sequence <Alter><s>. Either Time Stamp ON or Time Stamp OFF will be printed to the center of the command line; although these status messages are not protected. When Time Stamp is ON, a time message will be printed at the beginning of any line sent to the receive screen, any line saved in the receive buffer, and any line sent to the printer. Example: 18:04>WA4GPF>FADCA: Try out PACK-ET-TERM 3.0 soon 4.27 <Alternate> - Display Bytes in Transmit Buffer The <Alternate> key sequence will display the number of characters currently in the Transmit buffer at the center of the command line. 5.0 PACK-ET-TERM OPERATING TIPS 5.1 Making a Connect Message You may make a connect message with this procedure: 1. Touch the <F3> key to clear the transmit buffer; you should see a "Transmit buffer cleared" message at the center of the command line. 2. Use the <F7> key to open the transmit buffer for typing from the keyboard; TR buff should be printed on the command line in reverse now. 3. Enter your connect message; end with the return key. Keep in mind that the maximum size of the connect buffer is 512 bytes; you will be able to type up to 8192 bytes into the transmit buffer, but attempting to load more than 512 bytes into the connect buffer will result in an error. Use backspace or delete to make corrections. 4. Use the <F7> key again to close the transmit buffer; you will see the TR buff slow on the command line unreverse, indicating that the Transmit buffer is closed. 5. You may display the contents of the transmit buffer to the receive screen with the <F6> key. 6. You may add to your connect message by repeating steps 2 thru 5, keeping in mind the 512 character limit! If you use the <Alternate> sequence, the number of characters currently in the Transmit buffer will be displayed at the center of the command line. 7. If you wish to change anything entered into the transmit buffer after the <Return> key has been hit, you will have to repeat steps 1 thru 5, retyping your message. PACK-ET-TERM version 3.0 does not have editing features beyond backspace / delete. 8. Save the message to disk by touching the <F5> key; you will be prompted for a filename. Type in a filename that means something, Example: greet.txt. Your message will be saved to disk with the number of bytes saved printed to the center of the command line. You now have your connect message stored for later use. For greater editing ability, use first word to create or edit your connect message; make sure the WP mode is off when you save your message to disk. 5.2 Loading and use of Connect Message You may load a previously created connect message into the connect buffer to be sent upon connection with this feature. 1. Touch the <F10> key; you will be promted for a filename to load the connect buffer. Enter greet.txt, from the previous example. PACK-ET-TERM loads the file from the disk and displays the number of bytes loaded at the center of the command line. 2. While holding the <Shift> key down, touch the <F10> key; your connect message will be printed to the receive screen. 3. Touching the <F9> key will enable the CONmess feature; CONmess will be printed in reverse on the command line. When a connection occurrs, PACK-ET-TERM will send the message that is in the connect buffer; your TNC MUST BE IN CONVERSE MODE for this to work properly! 4. Touching the <F9> key again will turn the CONmess feature back off and reverse the printing of the CONmess slot on the command line. Note: There is never a need to clear the connect buffer; loading a new connect message, will erase the contents of the previous message. 5.3 Using the Save to Receive Buffer if connected feature. You may automaically open the Receive buffer when a connection occurrs; to do this: 1. Hold the <shift> key down and touch the <F9> key. You will see CONbuff reversed on the command line now, and connects will be saved to the receive buffer. Later, you may read thru the receive buffer, or save the contents of the buffer to disk. This feature along with the connect message, is a handy way to create a mailbox. 2. Use the <Shift><F9> key sequence again to disable the CONbuff feature. CONbuff will become unreversed on the command line, indicating that it is now turned off. 5.4 Using the Connect Printer feature. You may automatically save receive text to your printer with the CONprnt feature. 1. Hold the <alternate> key down and touch the <c> key. CONprnt will be printed on the command line in reversed video, to remind you that it is turned on. This feature, along with the connect message, is a handy way to create a mailbox. 2. Use the <Alternate><c> key sequence again to turn the CONprnt option back off. CONprnt will become unreversed on the command line, indicating that is disabled. 5.5 Using Time Stamps Note: You must set the correct time of day from the control panel before entering PACK-ET-TERM. Time stamps may be added to the beginning of received lines with this feature. 1. Hold the <Alternate> key down and touch the <s> key; you will receive a Time Stamp ON message at the center of the command line. All received lines sent to the printer, the receive screen, or the receive buffer will have the time stamp at their beginning. This feature is very useful for unattended monitoring of packet activity. 2. Use of the <Alternate><s> sequence a second time, will disable the feature and send a Time Stamp OFF message to the center of the command line. 5.6 Downloading from a BBS Incoming text is always saved in the receive buffer. Lets say that we are connected to a bbs that has a file named tnc.doc, that we wish to download and save to disk; here is the procedure, a step at a time. 1. Clear the contents of the receive buffer by holding the <shift> key down and touching the <F3> key. You should get a Receive buffer cleared message at the center of the command line. Make sure Time Stamping is off! 2. Type in the command that starts the BBS sending the file but do not hit <return> yet! In the case of a W0RLI bbs it might be: D tnc.doc 3. While holding the <shift> key down, touch the <F7> key to open the Receive buffer; RECbuff should now be highlighted on the command line. 4. Now, hit the <Return> key. Your D tnc.doc is now sent to the BBS; your receive buffer is open! The bbs will send the text file, and you will see the file come to your receive screen. 5. After the file has been received from the bbs, use the <Shift> <F7> sequence to close the Receive buffer; RECbuff will become unhighlighted on the command line. 6. To find out how many bytes are in the receive buffer, use the <alternate><d> key sequence; the number will be printed at the center of the command line. 7. To save the receive buffer to disk, use the <Shift><F5> key sequence. You will be prompted for a file name; enter the filename: tnc.doc The file will be saved to disk; the number of bytes saved will be written to the center of the command line. If the number is less than the number of bytes in the buffer displayed in step 5, there was not enough room on your disk to save the entire file and you should insert another disk and resave the file. 8. You may print the downloaded file to the receive screen with the <shift><F6> key sequence. By hitting any key except <ESC> you may page through the file. If it is a long file, you may exit back to the terminal mode, by hitting the <ESC> key. 5.7 Uploading to a BBS You may send a file to a BBS with this procedure. The file may be in either the Receive or the Transmit buffers for an upload, assuming that the file does not exceed the maximum buffer size.(196K for the Receive buffer and 8K for the transmit buffer.) The following example loads the file into the receive buffer: 1. Look at the command line where it says RECbuff; if the RECbuff is printed in reverse, the receive buffer is open and must be closed with the <Shift><F7> key sequence. 2. While holding the <Shift> key down, touch the <F4> key; you will now be prompted at the center of the command line for the filename. Enter the name of the file on the disk that you wish to transfer and hit <Return>. When the file has been loaded the number of bytes in the Receive buffer will be printed at the center of the command line. 3. You may use the <Shift><F6> key sequence to see the file now in the receive buffer. If it is a long file and you do not care to page thru the whole thing, you may use the <Esc> key to exit. 4. Send whatever the BBS needs to upload a file, somthing like U tnc.doc. You will be told to send your file and terminate it with some character, <Control><z> on the W0RLI bbs systems. 5. Use the <Shift><F8> key sequence to send your file; you must be in converse mode! When all of the file has been sent to the tnc by PACK-ET-TERM, you will see a "Receive Buffer Sent!" at the center of the command line. 6. Send the end of file character, to let the BBS know that all of the file has been sent; the <Control><z> key sequence and a <Return> for a W0RLI bbs system. 5.8 Making Text file. You may easily create special files with PACK-ET-TERM which will make your packeting much more enjoyable. Lets review the use of the transmit buffer to create a text file: 1. Touch the <F3> key to clear the transmit buffer. 2. Use the <F7> key to open the transmit buffer. 3. Type in each line; ending each line with the <Return> key. 4. When your file is complete, reclose the transmit buffer using the <F7> key again. 5. Use the <F5> key to save your file to disk; give it a familiar name so that you may quickly recall it in the future. 5.9 Using a configuration file. 1. With the procedure given in section 5.8 we have created the following short configuration file and saved it under the file name of TNC1.FIG : MYCALL WA4GPF UNPROTO CQ VIA ORL AUTOLF OFF BK ON 2. You load the TNC1.FIG into the transmit buffer using the <F4> key. 3. Use the <Esc> key to return the tnc to CMD mode if necessary. 4. Transmit the file to the tnc by touching the <F8> key; the tnc should answer back as if you had typed the new paramters from the keyboard. 6.0 Other uses for text files 6.1 Rig Information 1. Using the method given in section 5.8, we have created the following file and saved it under the filename RIG Rig hr is a Kenwood TS-780 transceiver to a Ringo at 25 feet off the ground. I am also using the Atari 520 ST with PACK-ET-TERM software. Tnc is the TAPR-1. 2. Using the <F4> key we load rig into the transmit buffer. 3. Touch the <F8> key to send your rig information! 6.2 Routing file 1. Using the method given in section 5.8, we have made a routing file and save it under the name of UNJAX: UNPROTO CQ VIA ORL, OCF, GNV, JAX 2. We load UNJAX into the transmit buffer with the <F4> key. 3. With the tnc in CMD mode, we hit the <F8> key sending our new routing information to the tnc. 6.3 CQ messages 1. Using the method given is section 5.8, we have made a CQ file and save it under the filename of CQJAX: CQ CQ: This is Chuck in Orlando via ORL, OCF, GNV, JAX.....k 2. We load this message into the CQ buffer with by using the <F1> key. 3. The CQ to JAX may now be sent using the <F2> key. It is handy to create routing and CQ files ahead of time so that they might be quickly recalled and utilized when needed. You may also create a variety of Connect Messages for setting up mailboxes, greetings, etc. Build a library of routine text files and you will reduce your typing during packeting!