1986 - Palomar Amateur Radio Club

BYTES IN PIECES
By Paul Williamson , KB 5MU
HOW TO BE A LID ON PACKET RADIO
Afte r years of practice, we all know how to be a lid on a repeater or on
the l ow b ands. With the advent of packe t radio, and its new operating
t e chniques and practices, many of us have been for ced to improvise . So to
help get you started, here are a few of the many tried-and-true techniques
o f packe t lidsmanship.
Be acon . Don't bother to wait for something worth beaconing about, just
type in whatever comes to mind. Beacon eve ry minute or t wo, to insure that
the c hannel is so clogged with your message that nobody will miss it. Make
your beacon as long as possible. If at all possibl e, beacon through a long
cha in of digipeaters. Don't even think of turn i ng off t he beacon when you
leave the shack. And when all else fails , inc l ude a bell in your beacons.
A judicious combination of these beaconing t echniques could win you a place
i n the Lids ' Hall of Fame.
Work dire ct on a busy channel. Make sure you always converse at length
o n t he long-haul frequencies' of 145.01 and 145. 05. This insures that any
of the folks who need to use the digipeaters will know you are there. To
be doubly sure, transmit long text files . And by all means, do it between
7 a nd 1 0 p.m. when the channels are busiest .
Read long files from distant mailboxes . Agai n, the key is to do it
during "prime time". This is best i f the same f i les are available on a
near by mailbox on a local frequency. Don't bother to capture the file in
memo r y or on disk; just download it three or four times instead.
Whe n you have exhausted these techniques, donlt forget that many of the
o l d, f amilia r techniques can be use d on packet radio. Tell off- color
j okes . Interrupt conversations. Over modulate. Make endless test transmiss
ions . The poss ibilities are endless.
SCOPE USPS 076530, published monthly by
the PALOMAR AMATEUR RADIO CLUB, INC.,
3716 Bluebird Canyon Rd., Vista, CA 92084 .
Subscription: $3.00 per year. Second
Clas s Postage paid at Vista, CA 9208 3 .
POSTMASTER : Se nd changes to: SCOPE,
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SCOPE - APRIL '86 PAGE 12