NCPACKET.net is presently a non-incorporated group in North Carolina.
It is the intention of the founders of this organization that hams in North Carolina and surrounding states will construct a Terrestrial Amateur Radio Packet Network, or TARPN which allows for multi-state email exchange and live chat across the entire region, and will completely avoid data traffic to and from commercial networks.
Mission Statement:
expand the ranks of Amateur Radio operators;
offer education in digital communications over radio;
build an impressive and fun Amateur Radio resource to attract people to our hobby;
work as a group on a long term, geographically large, technical project;
support (and guide) the TARPN group in its goals and use the TARPN group to make our project practical;
be available as a technical and communications resource in times of emergency.
We have a groups.io email reflector for NCPACKET. This email reflector is about building TARPN stations and linking TARPN ham participants. Please subscribe if you are in or within a couple of counties of North Carolina and wish to participate.
Off The Grid
Our separation from commercial networks will require manual cut and paste by a ham-in-the-middle for any traffic which bridges the divide.
Our participants and group members will enforce this requirement and will absolutely not do station remote control (of the packet station) via commercial means or perform automatic relaying of our content into commercial networks, including via VPNs.
Everybody you meet on the network will be actually on the Amateur Radio network.
All links of data into and out of our network will be by ham-in-the-middle.
Our networks will depend on Amateur Radio Operator controlled infrastructure, including HF, VHF, UHF, microwave and wired links.
We insist on separation from commercial networks and any other Amateur network which does not insist on separation from commercial networks.
Any bridge to commercial networks (or other merged networks) must be by ham-in-the-middle manual cut and paste.
No Internet required. No Internet desired.
Why Off The Grid?
It has been shown (to the founders) that packet networks which combine Amatuer Radio with Internet do not attract or promote Amateur Radio operation.
By cutting off the Internet connection we're forcing any station, who wants access to our group and our network features, to do the work required to gain an Amateur Radio connection to the network.
While this will discourage some potential Internet users, it has been shown to increase the amount of Amateur Radio participation involved in the network's operation.
Why TARPN?
TARPN has a very usable installation package which gives access to the powerful G8BPQ suite of tools with almost no learning or effort.
They have decent instructions and plans for hardware, including cabinetry.
TARPN is a colaberative group (which many NCPACKET people should participate in) which creates new solutions to make setting up a sophisticated, multi-radio, high performance, Amateur Radio packet switch easy, and inexpensive, for anybody.
What about Winlink and ARES and MARS?
There are many ways to use ham radio.
Most of them can co-exist in the same community.
Winlink is a system for connecting remote radio hams to an Internet email address, and for creating a common Internet email presence which can be accessed by hams from the Internet and from ham radio using various packet radio schemes.
Winlink does not specifically create a vhf/uhf packet radio network, or create a resource for training new digital networking technologists.
TARPNs are not particularly useful for Winlink and also don't compete for resources, much.
A single ham can do both a TARPN and be part of WinLink.
Just don't share the data back and forth except by cut and paste.
Amateur Radio Emergency Services : ARES can use a TARPN.
It may not be what they'd have designed, but if we have a state-wide TARPN, they may become interested.
Let's find out.
Warning:: Some organizations, in support of emergency preparedness, will pre-position club-owned or county-financed packet radio equipment including networking capability.
It has been the experience of some of our membership that government financed equipment often times is a dampener to Ham financial involvement.
Please do not ask for funding to build a TARPN.
TARPNs are supposed to be fun.
That they could become critical in times of emergency is just what Amateur Radio does.
It's not a reason for us to become non-amateur.MARS: Mecklenburg Amateur Radio Society located around Charlotte, has one of the few over-the-air packet networks in North Carolina, and it has been continuously running since the 90s.
The idea for using Raspberry PIs and TNC-PIs together with G8BPQ to create packet network nodes (which led to the creation of TARPN!) was presented to the TARPN founders by MARS members.
We have nothing but appreciation for the hard work members of MARS have put in to keep their system updated and operational.
That said, the scheme they have been using since the early 2000s may be counter productive if the goal is to get more people using and practicing Amateur Radio packet.
I think the goal of MARS is to maintain a capability to do messaging using Internet, with a fallback to packet radio.
The TARPN is not compatible with the MARS packet radio projects so long as they automatically tie-in to commercial networks.
However, there are plenty of radio resources and hams to permit both to coexist.
I'd like to think that if we get big enough across the state that the members of MARS will join us, hopefully without having to dismantle what they've maintained all these years.
How do we build the NCPACKET network?
There are two paths to take, depending on what TARPN nodes exist in your area.
If there are any TARPN nodes, make contact with the operators and see if they can find a way to get a link to you.
A link requires a pair of radios and TNCs, but we're on a pay-it-forward model mostly.
Anybody who already has a TARPN node will probably be eager to add new links, within limits.
If you are not in range of an existing TARPN node, consider building a couple of your own, even if just to run across your hamshack.
The cost of building 2 nodes on the bench are right around $200.
Getting them on the air to span a distance is where the expense lies because it takes antennas and coax.
It's all fun, and the unique TARPN-specific equipment is all resellable.
The TNC-PI we're mostly using comes as a the easiest soldered-kit known to man, for $48 or so, and once assembled is easily re-sold if you decide this was a bad direction to go.
If you can create a new TARPN network which is geographically separated from the existing networks, you'll also create a vacuum which will attract new node developers.
This is a very good thing.
It is quite fun and rewarding to be the key-stone to finally get two disparate networks to be connected.
Check out the shopping list.
Repeater Sites?
Almost anybody doing packet radio in the mountains is going to quickly turn to the idea of repeater sites.
Some of the people we'll attract to the hobby won't be 2-way radio/repeater professionals (no kidding, right?).
Click here for information about how to coexist with repeater sites.
Catawba Valley Hamfest, Morganton NC is late April 2019photos
Reidsville NC (Rockingham County ARC) is early May
Xenia OH (Dayton Hamvention) is mid-may -- Tadd will be there.
Durham NC (DFMA DurhamFest) is late May 2019photos
Salisbury NC (Rowan ARS) is July 6
NCPacket news
North Carolina Network Status as of May 6, 2019:
May 6, 2019
The good news is that we now have two substantial networks in North Carolina.
The bad news is that they are both half the size of what we had when we had only one network!
VON node is gone, and due to a lack of redundancy, the network is split.
AI4WV is moving to Chapel Hill.
VON will return at a new location but we're now short a Durham to Raleigh link!
We have two possible new nodes coming in the next month or so that might link the two network fragments.
Testing will tell!
SKIP node is returned.
MARKDM to ANOIA link is suffering.
ANOIA to ADRO is back up but needs adjusting. A signal generator and scope will need to come for a visit.
We've given up on the ANOIA 22 element beam project. We couldn't get the signal levels to be even as good as the high omni.
DAVID node is off temporarily. DAVID:N4DBZ joined the network a month ago with a temporary antenna. He's creating a new outdoor antenna setup.
Apr 25, 2019
SKIP node is still off.
MARKDM to ANOIA link is suffering.
ANOIA to ADRO is back up but needs adjusting. A signal generator and scope will need to come for a visit.
The plan for ANOIA is to add a 22-element yagi array to link to MARKDM, then use the high 2m omni for another future link
VON node is going away in a few weeks. AI4WV is moving to Chapel Hill. VON will return at a new location but we're now short a Durham to Raleigh link!
DAVID node is off temporarily. DAVID:N4DBZ joined the network a month ago with a temporary antenna. He's creating a new outdoor antenna setup.
Apr 6, 2019
ERECH node is now linked to AARONL.
Mar 21, 2019
AARONL node link to TADD is back up.
DAVID:K4DBZ-2 is now up, linked to AARONL.
Mar 19, 2019
ANOIA to ADRO down because of a TNC-PI i2c reset?.
Feb 25, 2019
SKIP node is removed from service to be rebuilt. It will come back as a 4-port node.
MARKDM to ANOIA link is suffering.
W4EIP and KM4JRH are now linked.
KEVIN link moved to TILL node.
AARONL node link to TADD broken. New coax for Tadd site shortly.
Jan 31, 2019
DANIEL to AARONJ link is now on its new frequency and tuned up very well.
W4EIP and KM4JRH are still looking at antennas to do their link.
FIN to KEVIN link is now excellent.
Jan 27, 2019
TADD-AARONL is now running PAR SM50 Moxon beams and the link is up to 10% NB and 2% Southbound.
DANIEL to AARONJ link is barely scratching by now. AARONJ needs some adjustments we think.
However, we're about to move that link from 145.75 to 147.585 to avoid some ham project in Clayton that
we didn't interfere with back when DANIEL yagi was facing west.
W4EIP and KM4JRH are still looking at antennas to do their link.
KEVIN:K4KDE node is now up.
FIN to KEVIN link needs improvement.
Work in progress
Jan 14, 2019
TADD-AARONL link still not working great.
We ordered a pair of Moxon beams, one for each end.
Maybe fix it this coming weekend?
FIN-AARONJ just needed adjustment and is working well again.
W4EIP and KM4JRH are working on antennas to do their link.
AARONJ:KF4EZU to DANIEL is working well now. AARONJ is now a 3 port FIN modbox
Jan 2, 2019
TADD-AARONL link isn't working very well. We need a mid-site maybe or better antenna at one end.
TILL is now linked to KILMER KM4JRH node.
The plan is that Mark will do a link to FIN on 927 and also a 2m link to W4EIP.
W4EIP and KM4JRH are working on antennas to do their link.
FIN-AARONJ is also not working well.
AARONJ:KF4EZU added a 2m port to try AARONJ to DANIEL instead.
December 6, 2018
KN4ORB, Aaron, joined us with a 6m link to TADD.
Aaron has an Austinantennas GP52 1/4 wave antenna hanging in a tree at 50 feet.
K4DSP, Doug, decided not to proceed.
Mark KM4JRH is taking over his link to TILL.
The plan is that Mark will do the link to FIN on 927 and also a 2m link to W4EIP.
W4EIP and KM4JRH are working on antennas to do their link.
November 26, 2018
KEN:AC4RD is back in the network via DANIEL but the FIN-DANIEL link is not working well.
There is some possibility that RF noise ingress is bugging the link.
K4DSP, Doug, is running a demo node off of TILL node.
If all goes well, that will become a 927mhz link from FIN to HALL:K4DSP.
November 11, 2018
MARKDM is working pretty well though we'll want to address this by Spring when leaves come back
DAVE:W4EIP and DANIEL:AG4DB are in the network.
W1KES is not in the network anymore.
GREG is looking to link to either KN4ORB or KM4IFU. Hopefully by Christmas
KEN node will be testing against DANIEL real soon.
ADAM is back in the network.
September 24, 2018
ADRO to ANOIA is back up
ANOIA has a 147.555 radio on the omni now, to link to MARKDM:KN4BTI, and 144.45 is linking to SKIP via a 4-element yagi
MARKDM is now on the air though link quality wasn't great. We'll try a different radio in a week.
SNELL is moving to Fuque Varina. He's actually in range of KK4QMB.
TILL to TADD is moving from 2m to 900Mhz. This will free up the 5-el 2m yagis at both sites for future links
August 18, 2018
DOUG to GREG is up
ADRO to ANOIA died. We don't know why yet. It's a good thing we now have ANOIA - SKIP - CHRIS - FFVC - ADRO as a backup.
July 26, 2018
CHRIS-to-SKIP is up on 441.025
July 19, 2018
CHRIS node is up with 1 link. Link CHRIS-to-SKIP may happen.
GREG was up and testing. Hopefully he'll be back. GREG links to DOUG.
DOUG node is on. He'll be linking to GREG
ADAM KM4DLS is off, hopefully for not very long.
We're working on nodes at GREG, DANIEL, MARK, KEVIN, SCRCCO.
There is thunder in the west. People are talking about starting one or more TARPN hatchlings in High Point through Boone.
June 9, 2018
ADRO is back
TILL now has 3 links, to FIN, VON and TADD
DOUG node is on. He'll be linking to GREG
ADRO site antenna is back up.
AC4RD:KEN is disconnected -- foliage killed the link. DANIEL node will serve in the middle when it comes on.
March 31, 2018
SCOTT off the air. Hasn't come back
GREG temporarily off the air.
VON is linked to TILL
ADRO site having antenna problems for a couple of weeks. Expected back after RARSfest.
AC4RD:KEN is on the network connected to TADD.
January 12, 2018
VON to TADD moved to 433.7Mhz
TADD to GREG added on 144.41
October 15, 2017
ADAM node is connected to FFVC node on 433.
SCOTT node temporarily offline due to in-house remodeling work
July 09, 2017
ANOIA is now linked to SNELL on 6m.
We're planning to replace VON to TADD with 433Mhz.
June 17, 2017
SCOTT node is up with 3 radios on 4 ports. 50.97 is linked to FFVC, and 145.75 is linked to SNELL.
I've decided that multipath is a big problem when working with Omni vertical antennas.
The link from VON to TADD and VON to FIN on 2m were both plagued with multipath.
Now I think the problem is that there is a water tower just hundreds of feet away from VON node and the path from the VON antenna up to the water tower and over to FIN or TADD is as good as the non reflected path.
Our solution is going to be to move VON to TADD to a pair of 10 element beams on 433Mhz.
That should fix it.
March 27, 2017
SKIP node is up with two ports. 144Mhz to ANOIA and 51Mhz to BRYAN
March 25, 2017
ANOIA node is up with two ports, 440Mhz to ADRO, and 145Mhz to SKIP
FIN and TILL link is now at 7% or so.
SCOTT node is coming soon. That will link into FFVC and bring SNELL back in the network.
March 5, 2017
K4RGN, TILL, has a new dual band corner reflector beam aimed at FIN.
This improved the situation.
We're at 15% retry rate now and working on a radio replacement, aiming at < 5% retry rate.
JENRET is off permanently. W4JSK:SCOTT node, coming soon, will take over the link to SNELL
FIN to AARONJ is working mighty well now.
FIN bought a 4-element yagi to link to AARONJ and this made a big difference.
Aaron KF4EZU did some work on the 6m radio at his end as well.
HANK node is going off the air. FFVC is now directly linked to VON node. HANK equipment will end up in another node shortly.
ANOIA:KW4KZ is still coming soon. Chuck has his GP15 up 80' in a tree and has tested it by talking directly to Billy KE4VNC on 2m.
He also was able to talk to FFVC and easily hear ADRO.
The plan is to tie ADRO to ANOIA on 440, and SKIP to ANOIA on 2m.
Then ANOIA may use 6m to talk west, possibly to KJ4OLI in Efland.
John, N4RMV, is looking to establish a node in Archer's Lodge, Johnston County.
Billy KE4VNC is working with him on antennas.
October 22, 2016
TILL node got a new antenna. This should improve the FIN to TILL 440 link.
FIN node got a new antenna for 6m FIN to AARONJ link, but that didn't help it enough. So Fin, NC4FG, got an even better 6m antenna. 4 element Arrow 6m yagi. Not up yet.
W4AUV. Dale, said he'd have a node if somebody wants to help with it. Dale's site would make a great midpoint and alternate path to the now weak AARONJ to FIN link.
The idea is to link Dale with AARONJ on 2m and TILL on 70cm.
KA2DEW put up a node at work called FFVC:KA2DEW-3 in RTP. That is linked to ADRO and to HANK.
DAVIS is off the air entirely. Charlie says he'll be back but he's repairing antennas on his tower.
ANOIA:KW4KZ is completely assembled except for stringing a tree. It turns out that node cannot talk to SNELL but it can talk to SKIP and ADRO. We're going to link them up.
VON to FIN never worked very well so we moved it to VON to TADD.
FIN 2m can now be used to expand, hopefully we can get a station in Cary to link to FIN
JENRET node, maintained by ka2dew, is off the air, maybe due to stress-broken coax. The run was hanging in free space for quite a distance. Bad
June 5, 2016
TILL node is up.
ANOIA:KW4KZ node is coming soon.
We're going to delete the 440 link from SKIP to ADRO and instead put CHUCK in the middle.
DAVIS to BILLY link is off the air, temporarily. WA3UTC:DAVIS took a lightning hit. It didn't hurt packet, but Charlie, WA3UTC, borrowed the packet node's coax to restore HF functionality
ANOIA:KW4KZ is also in range of SNELL so that may give us a complete loop.
March 29, 2016
KF4EZU:AARONJ node is up. FIN to KF4EZU:AARONJ on 50.99 horizontal and AARONJ to BILLY on 431.1 vertical, soon to be horizontal. Welcome Aaron!
March 20, 2016
Billy started working on a new plan for his link to FIN. The 6m link from BILLY to FIN has been unreliable. The new plan
involves getting a new site AARONJ:KF4EZU-2 on the air at Knightdale. Welcome Aaron. The 6m link moves from BILLY to FIN over to AARONJ to FIN.
AARONJ to BILLY is short range and can be done on 440. Hopefully that will be running in March. However, for much of January and February
the BILLY site was completely off-line, breaking the network into two pieces. As of Feb 29th, BILLY is back up in the old capacity of linking
to FIN and to DAVIS.
SAM:KM4WUF joined us with a 440 link to TADD. Welcome Sam!
VON:AI4WV - name Steve - joined us with a 2m link to FIN. Welcome Steve!.
HANK node is on-the-air linked into VON. Welcome Hank!
KEITH:W1KES joined us with a 2m link to ADRO. Welcome Keith. Keith is working with Chuck KW4KZ north-west of Durham, to do a 6m link between the two.
We have lost ERECH and BRYAN, at least for the moment.
Oct 11, 2015
Adding 4th port to ADRO to support KEITH node. JOE, KEITH, DOUG, CHUCK testing simplex paths and acquiring parts.
WILSON acquiring parts.
ADRO node rebuilt into Skip-box.
Oct 1, 2015
FIN to BILLY now reliable due to change of frequency and away from a noise emitter on 6m and improved antenna and RF susceptibility on both ends.
FIN to TADD now moved to 220 to eliminate in-band interference at TADD. This frees up the 2m rig at FIN.
As soon as we can we're moving the 2m link ADRO to DAVIS to 144.31 from 144.35. 144.35 is apparently co-opted for a Chinese satellite uplink.
Aug 30, 2015
Added FIN site. Link from TADD to BILLY replaced by TADD to FIN and FIN to BILLY
THEDON is up but we stole his 2m link at BILLY and will be moving THEDON over to BILLY or to DAVIS.
SCOTT and JEFF are now on-line but BRYAN got hit by lightning.
That should be back on shortly.
The lightning probably came in via the landline Internet provider and killed many items connected to the Ethernet including the HF rig and the Raspberry PI.
We're working on links west from ADRO and SNELL to eventually make a loop of the network, providing decent robustness.
Dave, W4VU has a node up west of Burlington that will hopefully be connected as part of the western plan.
Everybody on the list below has acquired Raspberry PI and TNC-PIs so they can connect to our network.
Some are working on antennas, others waiting for a neighbor to tie into.
