As those who were listening last night know, we did our initial effort on the net in trying a little NBEMS messaging using fldigi. Two stations did some transmitting while one more was receive only. The three of us were pleasantly surprised at how successful we were. Everyone else just thought it was noise. Hopefully it raised some interest in the groups members. The plans are to provide initial training at the next meeting at the end of April. Also, Dennis, AI8P, wants to try it as part of the towpath drill at the end of May.
For those interested, some links for information on NBEMS and where to download the open source fldigi software are:
www.w1hkj.com - where to download the software
www.panbems.org - great reference material
www.midcoastdigiham.belljar.net - reference material on digital modes including fldigi/NBEMS
NBEMS appeared in the August 2009 QST on page 73 and June 2010 QST on page 76.
My thanks to Matt, W8DEC, for inviting us to the training District 10 sponsored on NBEMS and fldigi and to Harry, W3YJ, for his excellent presentation on the topic. Much of the material on the PA NBEMS web site is Harry's creation.
After years of complaining about the "digital mode de jour" approach being pushed for amateur emergency communications, I now think NBEMS has the potential to acheive sufficient addoption by the amateur community that it would be useful in an actual emergency. While it is being pushed for emergency communications, fldigi itself provides many of the digital modes such as CW, RTTY & PSK that are in everyday ham use so it is not just an EMCOM program.
As it says on the the WPA NBEMS web site:
The NBEMS/FLDIGI software is the perfect package for digital emergency communications because it is:
- FREE!
- Easy to configure
- Easy to use
- Easy to modify and standardize
- Works on Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, Linux and Mac systems
- Usable without the need for additional/complex/expensive hardware
zeke, AB8OU
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