GAARES-P2P NET SUMMARY FOR MAR 16, 2025 (A pdf of this document is attached to the posting on gaares.groups.io and has a screenshot for the quiz answer.)
David – ND1J operated WG4PTP today and thanks to Murdock W4JNR, who was the alternate. The weather system that moved through Georgia early this morning resulted in low net participation, today. The 80m session was cancelled the night before, due to expected weather. However, 80m was opened this morning for optional check-ins. Due to the weather, storm reporting was also added as an option. No received messages reported any damage but a couple stations did have power outages.
NET SUMMARY:
This week, everyone had a chance to practice filling out a Winlink Check-out form and transmitting it to WG4PTP. Those of you planning to participate in the GA AUXCOMM COMMEX next Saturday should be all set for the checkout process there.
Now you should all know how to correctly fill out both a Winlink Check-In form and a Winlink Check-out form because they are basically identical. It just takes a few minutes to go through the detailed instructions and review the screenshots to make sure you message looked like the one published. You also now have an appreciation for how long it takes to transmit forms. For some, it was several minutes. For those who have licensed Vara and good signal conditions, it took about 1-2 minutes to send. I documented 14 of the incoming messages. Of those, the longest took 8:09 to transmit the message. The shortest I observed was 17s and right above that, a 20s, and a 26s message. Having a Vara license really makes the difference over unlicensed for the same conditions. Make sure your Vara registration code is in the Vara HF TNC Setup or you will not get the increased speeds.
Once again, we had stations stepping on top of stations already connected to WG4PTP. This slowed many transmissions down dramatically. I swear, I am going to brush up on my 20+ wpm CW skills and start decoding your callsigns!
MAR 16 NET STATISTICS:
Callsigns checking in today: 28
Check-in msgs – 80m: 11
Check-in msgs – 40m: 25
Total Check-in msgs: 36
Message Analysis:
This week, the expected check-in message for one band was the large message containing the Winlink Check-out form.
Callsigns sending the full Check-out form message: 22 of the 36 total check-in messages
Callsigns sending a PERFECT message of the 22 above: 8
As you can see, many of the 22 messages had errors, despite detailed instructions.
Callsigns with message dated before current day: None
Callsigns using Grid Square: NONE! Excellent!!
MSGs addressed to WG4PTP, rather than the correct GAARES-P2P: 1
Callsigns with Lat/Lon errors: 1 (Lon was East, hence in Eastern Hemisphere)
Common errors in the long check-in message were:
- No Setup header data
- Wrong Event/Exercise ID,
- TO block addressed to WG4PTP rather than the instructed WX4AUX
- Initial Operator block – do not use initials of individual, use callsign of operator
- Location: no city and state
- Comments: the comment required in the instructions was missing. That comment was supposed to be: Checking out and will attempt other SOC
On the map below, click on your station to see how your check-in message and location rated. If you would like to get feedback on specifics of your message, just email me directly to nd1j73@gmail.com and I’ll be happy to provide details for your message(s) in a private email.
AARES-P2P NET MAP LINK for 2025-03-16:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1Of3XV9m_8m873raOZ4FPNk47oyd-j9o&usp=sharing
ORANGE SQUARE ICONS – 80M CKINS
PURPLE DIAMOND ICONS – 40M CKINS
RED STAR – 40M NCS WG4PTP (DAVID ND1J)
This week’s map has both 80m and 40m check-ins combined.
To FILTER to one layer (40 or 80), UNCHECK the box for the band you don’t want.
To find your info, click on the down caret left of “All Items” in each of the 80m & 40m map layers at left side of map for a dropdown of each station. Click on your callsign for each band to see how you did on location and check-in message.
FUN QUESTION OF THE WEEK:
Which of the choices below describes the way(s) to verify the Vara TNC bandwidth is really set correctly? (This situation is applicable to all Vara operations, both RMS & P2P.)
A. Using the Vara TNC (Modem) window to confirm the desired bandwidth
B. Using the Session window to check the number selected in the bandwidth dropdown box (to the right of the Dial Freq).
C. Using the data displayed in the session info area of the Session window to verify the session bandwidth
D. Either A or C
E. All of the above
ANSWERS:
A. Correct – This is the only way to be sure you are on the correct bandwidth.
B. Incorrect – Regardless of what shows in the bandwidth dropdown menu, the Vara TNC may be at a different bandwidth.
C. Incorrect – Regardless of what shows for bandwidth setting in the session window, the Vara TNC may be at a different bandwidth.
D. Incorrect
E. Incorrect
Admittedly, this week’s question was a really difficult one. Logic would make most of us come to the conclusion that choice E (ALL) is the good answer. Those of you who attended the Winlink P2P training session last week in Forsyth heard me discuss this, where I gave an illustration in the Powerpoint presentation. That slide is shown below to prove the answer.
QUIZ RESULTS:
Answers reported in check-in messages today are below. If you sent more than one check-in message, we counted your answer only once. If you submitted messages with different answers, we took the answer in your final message.
A 3 (18%)
B 0
C 0
D 3
E 11
Total callsigns that gave an answer: 17
Callsigns that did not give an answer: 11 – unusually large number of stations
Explanation of screenshots:
In the box above, there are two screenshots. The lower half is the active session window and the upper half is a screenshot of the Vara HF TNC window for that same session.
In the Session window, you see the Bandwidth dropdown box says 2300 (oval in magenta). This illustrates quiz answer choice B.
In the data area of the session window (magenta box with rounded corners), you can see on the first line that when the session opened, the “bandwidth set to 500 Hz”. On the last line of the session window, the bandwidth is now “set to 2300”. This illustrates quiz choice C.
Now for the Vara HF TNC Window: The TNC bandwidth is 500 Hz, as seen in the box with 500 shown and also the narrow space between the two vertical red lines on the waterfall, again 500 Hz, despite what we saw in the session window. This illustrates Quiz choice A.
As you can see, the Vara HF TNC Window is the only way to confirm what the actual bandwidth is. This is why it is so important to check there before starting a transmission. You cannot rely on the “bandwidth set at ….” data in the session window to always be correct in the TNC. Many of you may have come across this situation in your P2P work but just never noticed it.
In the case shown above, why is the session window wrong? The answer is because we have told Vara P2P sessions to use a maximum signal bandwidth of 500 Hz. We set that in the Session Settings> Vara TNC Setup menu. That setting, which we all use in our GAARES P2P operations, prevents the session dropdown window from changing the bandwidth above 500 Hz, even though we select 2300 in the session dropdown window. It displayed 500, we changed it to 2300, and the session data printed out that it was now at 2300 but it really isn’t.
We have to look at the Vara TNC window to see what the real bandwidth is.
Thanks to EVERYONE for participating. If you have any questions about P2P, please send them to me. I may be able to incorporate them into a weekly training session. I hope you found this week’s net informative and helpful. Participate in the GA AUXCOMM COMMEX next Saturday morning, Mar 22nd, 1000-1200.
73,
David – ND1J
GAARES P2P Net Manager