WELCOME TO NBEMS TRAINING 1 NBEMS - AL0Y Passaic County ARES DEC - November 19, 2017
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR: Name: Aly Badawy Callsign: AL0Y Was licensed under N2SHO previously! ARES District Emergency Coordinator for Passaic County ARRL Official Relay Station RRI registered Digital Traffic Station First licensed in October 2016 NCS for Passaic County ARES, Wayne township OEM Emergency Team, Big Apple NTS traffic net 2 NBEMS - AL0Y Passaic County ARES DEC - November 19, 2017
TODAY S AGENDA: What is traffic? Examples of traffic (Radiograms, ICS-213, CSV, etc) Phone Vs. Morse Code (CW) Vs. Digital What is NBEMS? What is FLDIGI? NBEMS protocols (MT63 and Olivia) FLmsg and Data verification Installing and using FLDIGI Suite Questions and Answers 3 NBEMS - AL0Y Passaic County ARES DEC - November 19, 2017
SO, WHAT IS TRAFFIC? Traffic in radio is a terminology that refers to any message that is exchanged/broadcasted during a given air time In amateur radio, traffic always has a sender and a recipient In Amateur Radio, emergency communications are either TACTICAL or FORMAL traffic TACTICAL messages are: real-time, often urgent, unstructured and informal, the source station usually speaks directly to destination FORMAL messages are: written when submitted and delivered, has strict form and formatting, may include routing information, unlike tactical messages, must arrive unchanged 4 NBEMS - AL0Y Passaic County ARES DEC - November 19, 2017
EXAMPLES OF FORMAL TRAFFIC - RADIOGRAM A Radiogram is a formal written message, passed from origin station to recipient The radiogram form is designed by the National Traffic System (NTS) which is part of the ARRL May be relayed from one station to another until it reaches the destination. Has a specific format Must arrive to recipient unchanged Can be relayed in different modes: Phone, CW, Digital 5 NBEMS - AL0Y Passaic County ARES DEC - November 19, 2017
EXAMPLES OF FORMAL TRAFFIC - RADIOGRAM 6 NBEMS - AL0Y Passaic County ARES DEC - November 19, 2017
EXAMPLES OF FORMAL TRAFFIC - ICS 213 Incident Command System Form 213 (general message) is a formal written message, passed from origin station to recipient Was designed by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and was not intended to be read over the air Like radiograms, it has a specific format When relayed over the air, you may add operator notes like al0y message no. 11314 count 27 to facilitate error correction, indexing and tracking 7 NBEMS - AL0Y Passaic County ARES DEC - November 19, 2017
EXAMPLES OF FORMAL TRAFFIC - ICS 213 8 NBEMS - AL0Y Passaic County ARES DEC - November 19, 2017
TRAFFIC HANDLING MODES (PHONE, CW, DIGITAL) Phone (voice speaking) mode is the simplest and easiest mode to relay messages on the air. Needs pro-words and phrases to facilitate passing the message Initials E O C, Figures 1 2 3, Amateur call KD2MEN, Mix group 24mm Terri, I spell, Tango Echo Romeo Romeo India John was, Correction, I say again, John will Roger (means I received your transmission in full) Affirmative (yes), Negative (no), Say again (asks the sender to repeat last transmission) Requires clear voice and good microphone usage: No over deviation No traveller talker 9 NBEMS - AL0Y Passaic County ARES DEC - November 19, 2017
TRAFFIC HANDLING MODES (PHONE, CW, DIGITAL) CW requires knowledge of Morse code by both sending and receiving stations Errors in messages can happen when code for characters is similar. Specially with numbers Beginner stations may have errors due to bad fist. For example: spacing and timing can change the meaning of a word, or sentence WE GOT HERE WE GO THERE 10 NBEMS - AL0Y Passaic County ARES DEC - November 19, 2017
TRAFFIC HANDLING MODES (PHONE, CW, DIGITAL) Digital modes requires the use of computers to convert text to sound (encode/modulate) and to convert sound into text (decode/demodulate) Dial up internet used (sound medium: phones) to send and receive digital information (hence, the word modem) The use of computers makes digital modes very robust, quick, and can be automated Some digital modes have error detection/correction mechanisms Examples: Packet, Pactor, PSK31, and NBEMS 11 NBEMS - AL0Y Passaic County ARES DEC - November 19, 2017
WHY DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS? Some communications may not be suitable for phone or CW What if you have been deployed to a shelter and you are required to pass: A roster of evacuees Required prescription medications Directions to a disaster scene The needs of our serviced agencies have changed There is an increasing need for data communication Error detection and error correction 12 NBEMS - AL0Y Passaic County ARES DEC - November 19, 2017
WHAT IS NBEMS? NBEMS = Narrow Band Emergency Messaging System NBEMS philosophy: Keep it simple (requires only a radio and computer) Keep it cheap (runs on any computer / any radio) Doesn t depend on infrastructure (no internet) Uses open source software (free) Make it fun to use 13 NBEMS - AL0Y Passaic County ARES DEC - November 19, 2017
WHAT IS NBEMS? Consists of several programs: FLDigi Fast Light Digital modem application The core of NBEMS (performs the encoding and decoding) FLmsg Messaging application that incorporates different messaging forms for send and receive via FLDigi FLwrap: Allows files to be embedded (wrapped) into a message and incorporates a checksum for data integrity FLamp: Transmits one or more messages (or files) in one or more transmitting iteration 14 NBEMS - AL0Y Passaic County ARES DEC - November 19, 2017
HOW DOES FLDIGI WORK? 15 NBEMS - AL0Y Passaic County ARES DEC - November 19, 2017
HOW DOES FLDIGI WORK? FLDigi uses the computer s sound card to generate and decode digital signals FLmsg talks to FLDigi to send and receive messages All work is done by the computer and FLDigi (no need for external TNC, or extra devices) Audio from computer goes into the radio microphone for transmission Audio from radio goes into computer s audio input for decoding 16 NBEMS - AL0Y Passaic County ARES DEC - November 19, 2017
HOW DOES FLDIGI WORK? There are many ways to connect the radio to the computer Signalink USB to radio (if the radio has a USB interface) Acoustic Coupling Could be all you have, when deployed in a field Hold radio mic to computer speaker Hold radio speaker to computer mic Do manual PTT 17 NBEMS - AL0Y Passaic County ARES DEC - November 19, 2017
NBEMS PROTOCOLS The are many operating modes (protocols) for use with NBEMS, the most popular ones: MT63 Olivia R PSK Popular PSK-31 may be good for non-emergency contacts, but it doesn t have error detection/correction 18 NBEMS - AL0Y Passaic County ARES DEC - November 19, 2017
NBEMS PROTOCOLS - MT63 MT63 is the most versatile mode, great for FM emergency communications Fast: requires about 40 seconds to send 1KB text file (about 300 words per minute) Very resistant to noise can lose up to 25% of signal and still copy Can deal with background noise in a field or in a busy EOC 19 NBEMS - AL0Y Passaic County ARES DEC - November 19, 2017
NBEMS PROTOCOLS - MT63 MT63-2000L is the standard for EmComms 64 tones at same time over 2000 Hz bandwidth with long interleaves Offset frequency is always set at 1500 Hz Data redundancy in time and frequency Works very well with acoustic coupling and background noise Used in ARES Simulated Emergency Tests, and Red Cross drills 20 NBEMS - AL0Y Passaic County ARES DEC - November 19, 2017
NBEMS PROTOCOLS - OLIVIA Olivia is the preferred mode for HF communications Works well under poor signal conditions, can make contact below noise floor Doesn t require precise tuning Standard is Olivia 8/500: 8 tones in 500 Hz bandwidth In poor conditions, use 16/500: 16 tones in 500 Hz bandwidth Always use USB even on 40 and 80 meters 21 NBEMS - AL0Y Passaic County ARES DEC - November 19, 2017
FLMSG FLmsg is used to send formatted messages: NTS radiograms ICS form 213 Weather reports Spreadsheets in CSV format Integrates checksum verification for sent/received messages Automatically opens received messages (can walk away from station and come back to retrieve the received messages) 22 NBEMS - AL0Y Passaic County ARES DEC - November 19, 2017
FLMSG 23 NBEMS - AL0Y Passaic County ARES DEC - November 19, 2017
DATA VERIFICATION AND CHECKSUM FLmsg and FLwrap inserts a computed checksum value in the message Receiving station also computes checksum on the incoming message or file Checksums are compared to confirm integrity of data If the checksums are identical, message was received with no errors (100% copy) If checksums are not identical, receiving station asks for message to be re-transmitted Allows multiple stations to receive and confirm 100% copy 24 NBEMS - AL0Y Passaic County ARES DEC - November 19, 2017
DATA VERIFICATION AND CHECKSUM Example for a wrapped message with checksum:... start [WRAP:beg][WRAP:lf][WRAP:fn 20171118-011218L-16.b2s]<flmsg>4.0.3 :her_fm:21 N2SHO 20171811061221 :hdr_ed:21 N2SHO 20171811061221 <blankform> :mg:90 This is a test message to show the checksum being calculated and wrapper into the message. [WRAP:chksum 76B7][WRAP:end]... end Note the WRAP beg and end delimiters Also note the checksum, it is: 76B7 25 NBEMS - AL0Y Passaic County ARES DEC - November 19, 2017
DOWNLOADING FLDIGI FLdigi suite works on Windows, MacOS, Linux FLdigi: https://sourceforge.net/projects/fldigi/files/fldigi/ FLmsg: https://sourceforge.net/projects/fldigi/files/flmsg/ FLamp: https://sourceforge.net/projects/fldigi/files/flamp/ FLwrap: https://sourceforge.net/projects/fldigi/files/ flwrap/ 26 NBEMS - AL0Y Passaic County ARES DEC - November 19, 2017
ARES NBEMS & FLDIGI TRAINING DOWNLOADING FLDIGI 27 NBEMS - AL0Y Passaic County ARES DEC - November 19, 2017
FLDIGI CONFIGURATIONS: 28 NBEMS - AL0Y Passaic County ARES DEC - November 19, 2017
FLDIGI CONFIGURATIONS: 29 NBEMS - AL0Y Passaic County ARES DEC - November 19, 2017
FLDIGI CONFIGURATIONS: 30 NBEMS - AL0Y Passaic County ARES DEC - November 19, 2017
FLDIGI CONFIGURATIONS: 31 NBEMS - AL0Y Passaic County ARES DEC - November 19, 2017
FLDIGI CONFIGURATIONS: 32 NBEMS - AL0Y Passaic County ARES DEC - November 19, 2017
FLMSG CONFIGURATIONS 33 NBEMS - AL0Y Passaic County ARES DEC - November 19, 2017
FLMSG CONFIGURATIONS 34 NBEMS - AL0Y Passaic County ARES DEC - November 19, 2017
DIGITAL TRAFFIC ON REPEATERS Always Identify your station before and after transmission State the used protocol State the nature of the traffic State how long will the message take to transmit Invite all stations with digital capabilities to copy the message Thank the repeater owners for the use of their equipment 35 NBEMS - AL0Y Passaic County ARES DEC - November 19, 2017
THANKS FOR ATTENDING! 73 DE AL0Y 36 NBEMS - AL0Y Passaic County ARES DEC - November 19, 2017