Northeast Ohio Packet Radio

Black River Radio Ops, OhioAPRS Network and others are experimenting with packet radio on 145.01 Mhz. Mostly for fun, but also for potential adoption for ARES / Emergency Communications use.

Most nodes are -7 and BBS/PBBS are -1. RMS gateways are -10, Chat servers -11.

AB8M and KM8V did a Winlink & Packet presentation for Cuyahoga County ARES recently. Click here to watch the replay.

Tune to 145.01 and listen for beacons to see who you can hear. Most stations are sending a beacon every 10 minutes.

Click here for information on how to join the Black River Radio Ops Monday Packet / Winlink Net

That net and others are listed on the KM8V Net Calendar.

I would also invite you to follow the Black River Radio Ops page on Facebook for information and updates.

To connect to the BBSes via a node, if you can’t hear them directly, first connect to the NODE-7, then to the BBS. For example:

Connect to N8LXY-7 with “C N8LXY-7”. And then when you get the node prompt, connect to the KM8V BBS with “C KM8V-1”. You can do this in your terminal program from your TNC, or with EasyTerm using Direwolf or a soundmodem. If you are using Winlink Express, you can use a connect script to route through a node.

To connect using a digipeater, you can do something like: C KM8V-1 v KC8NZJ. Most node callsigns (e.g. W8EDU-7) should also digi. Note that using a node is more efficient and reliable than using a digipeater, and should be used if possible.

Note: Many of my beacons are using pretty long digi paths. This is not generally a good practice, but I’m doing it for the time being so that new stations tuning in will see them.

Some stations on the air:

Some useful links:

Ohio Packet Mailing List – groups.io
Winlink Express
UZ7HO Soundmodem and Easyterm
RMS Simple Terminal
Direwolf Sound Card Modem
BPQ32 BBS/Node Software
W8EDU CWRU Packet Station Information
June 7 2020 Cuyahoga ARES Packet Presentation