Packet Radio Broadcasts

What is a Packet Broadcast?

Broadcasting is the most public aspect of packet radio, requiring no connection from any listener. Its purpose it to let the network know you are "on the air" and ready to communicate. This invitation most frequently takes the form of a BEACON or an ID, an open format or "protocol," that may present information about the station, its location, its operator, the various frequencies available, even suggestions or instructions about how to identify your station resources. In short, almost anything that is appealing, polite, and within the bounds of civil human discourse!

But BEACONs may also serve a more tactical objective. They might, for example, indicate the potentially threatening weather conditions at a location, the operational status of the station itself, the changing location of a mobile packet station, recent notices that pertinent emails have been posted, and any emergency status bulletins or "situations" that operators on the net need to be aware of. These wider aspects of digital amateur broadcasting may find relevant application in the future, migrating from the well-known facilities found in APRS to the more conventional BBS and node applications such as JNOS, TNOS, or FBB...

What about ID's? You can think of these as a subset of the BEACON identifier, a more specific annoucement about the many ways other operators may reach you, as specified by the various SSID's of your station. Convention has suggested that nodes be indicated by a -7 appended to the callsign. Mail boxes and PMS's are usually tagged with a -1. Each network has its suggested SSID's to help organize the various resource types. And, NET105 is no exception, please see the Operational Guidelines for a more complete description...

Two lesser known and less frequently used identifiers, but certainly not any less important, are CQ's and Mail. The CQ identifier is typically not used on VHF nets, but is often seen on HF. Band conditions on HF can vary widely from hour-to-hour. Calling CQ might just snag that rare DX packet contact that you have been waiting for, for months. CQ's differ from BEACONs in that they explicitly request a "come-back" to the caller. (BEACONs, in contrast, "talk to no one and everyone" in blissfull oblivion.)

The MAIL broadcast function's first job is to list the callsigns of recipients at the station. This "heads-up" should alert the receivers that they need to login and pick up their mail. Most node applications can post a recipient list via the MAIL identifier, but not all choose this option. FBB often wraps it in a BEACON transmission... The MAIL identifier is also sometimes used to indicate how many users/operators are in conference, if that service is available at the broadcasting node.

In sum, broadcasting can be a powerful communications channel that is sometimes over-looked or under-utilized by the VHF and HF *NOS packet radio community which has become focused on the classical point-to-point QSO, or the BBS message handling formats. Balancing emergency operations with the "pursuit of the hobby" may include a future direction with wider implications for this most capable and readily available facility!