Email Over Radio Project

[VA3KOT John]

Objective: To develop a technique for reliably transmitting electronic mail over radio.

Purpose: In the event of a localized failure of the Internet an email could be sent by radio to an area where Internet is available and then forwarded through the Internet to its intended destination. Email traffic sent could be text, a spreadsheet or an image.

Introduction: There are three principal methods of sending email traffic over radio in the Amateur Radio Service:

1. Winlink
   
2. PSK Mail
   
3. NBEMS (Narrow Band Emergency Message Service)
   

It is acknowledged that there are other solutions available. For example SailMail (for unlicensed marine operators - based on Winlink) and, in a similar vein, SMS texting over APRS. There is also CW-based Radiograms sent through the National Traffic System. This study confines itself to traffic sent using digital modes over amateur radio frequencies that can be directly ported to the Internet for forwarding using any email client software.

This is an ongoing GBARC club project. Progress will be reported via updates to this post and comments appended to this post. The initial project members are Marvin VE3VCG and John VA3KOT. Team membership is open to any other radio amateurs who do not necessarily need to be members of GBARC. The only qualifications for joining the team are HF capability with a computer/radio interface and a willingness to experiment.

Reports:
[001] 21 January 2021 NBEMS Transport Mechanism Trial
VE3VCG and VA3KOT successfully completed a mid-day NVIS QSO between Paisley, ON and Owen Sound, ON on a frequency of 3.580MHz using PSK-125. The mode was switched to PSK-250 and then to PSK-500. 100% two-way copy was achieved with all three modes. As the data rate increases the connection bandwidth also increases, so it was determined that PSK-125 will be sufficiently fast for the purpose of the trial.

[002] 26 January 2021 ARQ Connect Trial
VE3VCG and VA3KOT reconvened on the air to continue testing. First step: reproduce previous session - FAIL. We could not see each other's signals on the waterfall. Solution: one of the two stations was not transmitting on Upper Sideband! Fixed. Next step: attempt a connection using FLARQ. Just like in the old AX25 packet days, stations can communicate either in connected or unconnected modes. To access an AX25 Bulletin Board the two stations must be connected, but to send unconnected packets to APRS no connection is necessary. The same applies to NBEMS. In order to send and receive email or files the two stations must be connected using the ARQ protocol. Unfortunately, our two stations would not connect. We determined that propagation conditions were too poor for a robust connection. Also, NBEMS does not enforce mode and speed changes to accommodate poor conditions. However, PSKmail does have a more rigorous ARQ connection protocol. Next step: install PSKmail.

[003] 27 January 2021 PSKmail Install
VA3KOT installed the PSKmail Java Client software and successfully tested its ability to use FLDIGI to transmit using PSK-125R mode on a frequency 3588.5KHz. VE3VCG is still working on his installation (while painting his house!). Next step: attempt a client-to-client connection. If successful, attempt a client to server connection. There are very few servers in North America so it may be necessary for one or both of us to install the PSKmail Server software.

[End of Reports]