Re: [amsat-bb] MIR Digi

["Bill Jones" <wejones@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I have been told that the MIR digi is OFF now because users are still
> trying to CONNECT TO EACH OTHER instead of using the much more effecient
> UI frames.  STATION-to-STATION connects via MIR digi must be avoided.
> 
> Do NOT connect to anyone but the MIR BBS if you want to use it.  If you
> want to esperiment with another user and no one is logged on,  Just send a
> UI frame. If you see it, then your friend did also.  It is FAR more
> effecient that way.

Although I agree with this for the most part, believe it or 
not there are occasionally times when almost no-one is 
using the MIR. At times like this 2-way digipeat connects 
are easy and quite efficient. Rather than trying to 
establish arbitrary rules, it seems better to just appeal 
to people to use common sense. Actually, the big problem I 
have seen with people trying to do station to station 
connects via the MIR is that most people have a long 
connect message that gets triggered when someone tries to 
connect, and LONG packets are hard to get through on the 
MIR.  What usually happens is that one station will connect 
to another, getting the initial ack back, but then tries to 
send the connect message, which won't go through, and the 
thing hangs up trying to get the long packet through, each 
station sending RR's back and forth. If people would take 
out the long connect message they would have a much better 
chance. Of course, if the freq is busy, as it usually is, I 
agree completely that this is not a good idea, but if the 
freq is not busy, it can save some confusion, because you 
can't allways rely on the assumption that if you see your 
packet bounce that the other station did, since some times 
the mir antennas are not favorable in certain directions. I 
have often had situations where I would see my packets 
bounce but the station on the other end didn't see many of 
them, and I wasn't able to see his some of his packets. 
Because of this it is often advisable to send packets twice 
to insure that they are seen on the other end.


> We must some how educate users to the basics of digipeater operations that
> on a satellite, attempting to CONNECT to another station via the DIGI is
> about the worst thing you can do.  It will rarely be successful and it may
> take DOZENS of packets and dozens of ACKS just to get ONE line through.

I agree that it will rarely work but I think the education 
that is needed is recognizing when it will work and when it 
won't, and why.  The simplest way for people to get 
educated is to see all the packets, but unfortunately, many 
people who use the MIR have their TNCs set to not display 
all the book-keeping packets, ie all the dms, rrs and the 
like.  Because of this, they are unaware of what is going 
on. They hear a lot of packet activity but don't see 
anything on the screen.  If they would see all the book-
keeping packets, both when connected and unconnected, it 
would soon be obvious why certain things are less 
efficient. Actually, the biggest problem with the MIR is 
not the occasional person who tries station-station 
digipeating connections, but the people who send out dozens 
and dozens of connect requests to the PMS, despite the fact 
that someone is already connected. Probably 80% of the 
packets sent out by MIR are DM's, ie busys, to people 
trying to connect when it is already connected. This is a 
REAL waste.  Of course, it is understandable when the 
connected station is nearly finished, since if you wait for 
the logged off message, you will never have a chance to get 
in, but when you see the RR,P numbers increasing, it means 
that the connected station is still communicating, and you 
shouldn't try to connect. If you see a "D" packet or an 
"RR,F" packet going to the connected station, things are 
getting close to ending.  If so many stations weren't 
sending useless connect requests, there would be plenty of 
bandwidth for more useful packets, even occasional digipeat 
connects.




  
+----------------------------------------------+
| Bill Jones, N3JLQ,Sweden, Maine  Zone 4 1/2  |
| wejones@megalink.net                         |
| http://www.megalink.net/~wejones             |
+----------------------------------------------+
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