Using a PDA with the TM-D700 or TH-D7 / Using the D700 Packet Mailbox

Using a PDA with the TM-D700 or TH-D7
Using the D700 Packet Mailbox

Using a PDA with the TM-D700 or TH-D7 - This is about using the Palm M105 PDA as a dumb terminal to send and receive packet with specific Kenwood rigs. The TM-D700 is a mobile or fixed two-band Ham FM transceiver with a built in TNC for packet or APRS. The TH-D7 is an HT with similar features.

I remembered a packet station with a Palm and an HT in QST. A search for "palm packet" on the ARRL web site brought up a 1999 article which suggested using "SimpleTerm", a 7 kb freeware dumb terminal program for the Palm OS. Their download no longer worked, but TUCOWS had it. If you have a serial DB9 plug on your Palm HotSync cradle or cord, all that is needed to connect to the D700, or most other TNCs, is a DB9 null modem from Radio Shack. A null modem is back-to-back plugs with a signal path turn-over. I had to swap the screws and nuts on the null modem flanges to match the D700 and the cable. Palm used to make a "modem" cable which already had the signal turn-over, eliminating the null modem. I found no current modem cables, but I bought a Micro Innovations, Palm compatible, hot sync cable for $9.95 that is more convenient to carry and use for this than the stock cradle.

Set up SimpleTerm after it is up on the PDA, the same way you would any program. Tap the Menu icon, then Options, then Settings. For a normal D700 or D7, set Bits=8, Parity=N, Baud(k)=9.6, Xon/Xoff=off, and RTS/CTS=off.

Once I got the PDA working with the D700, the D7 was quite easy. The D7 uses mini-stereo phone jacks for both the GPS and PC connections. I found that the DB9 cord I had made up to connect my GPS to the D7 now works perfectly between either hot sync cable and the D7 PC jack. I had originally intended to rewire the aftermarket hot sync cable to do away with the null modem, but no null modem was required with the D7 cable. Rewiring the hot sync cable would have required a null modem with the D7, so I left things the way they were.

Despite the Palm having a small screen, received line lengths are adequately long. SimpleTerm is strictly for live "keyboard" input, no file transfers. I am sure that there are suitable dumb terminal programs for the Pocket PC OS, if not already with it.

You are not going to be able to burn up the airwaves with long packet messages with a keyboardless touchscreen PDA. It's main uses are to monitor packet transmissions, setup TNC functions, such as the mailbox, and compose short emergency messages without setting up a cumbersome laptop in a mobile-at-rest situation. The available outboard keyboards, except one, use the port otherwise used by our serial cable, without providing another connection. The one exception is a "wireless" keyboard in the new Radio Shack Catalog that uses the IR facility on newer Palm PDAs. Whether it would work with the rest of the combination will be a matter for future investigation by someone that doesn't mind that it costs $99, which is more than I paid for the M105 PDA, new.

I want to thank John Austin, N6SEX, for loaning me his older PalmPilot Professional with its HotSync cradle, which accepted the SimpleTerm program, and performed just like the M105. Besides verifying that this setup is possible with various models, it gave me terminals on the D700 and D7 at the same time so they could "talk" to each other.

Using the D700 Packet Mailbox - When I first talked about using the Palm as a small portable terminal for the Kenwoods, Walt May, KA7STK, an IRLP friend in St. George, Utah, came through the packet network to the Sacramento Valley, looking to see if I had a mailbox on. This pointed out my ignorance about how well the network still works, and about the mailbox in the D700.

You can read through the manual several times and not see how to activate and use the packet mailbox. It is mostly there, but I had to read up on the subject before I knew what I was looking for. The following assumes that you know how to issue commands to the TNC at the cmd: prompt. (Strictly GUI users need not apply.) The BOLD characters are the commands to be sent to the TNC. The CAPS are the mandatory part of the command, and the lowercase can be ignored.

If the TNC has not been used for packet, set MYcall W6XXX-7 using your call and whatever SSID (-7) you want from 0 to 15. No SSID is equal to zero. Then assign a call to the mailbox with MYMcall W6XXX-8 using your call and any different SSID. The mailbox will not function until you command MBod ON.

If a station connects to my mailbox, the following will be received (note that the SSID is ignored):

Welcome to W6TEE's message board
System Ver 1.50 112864 Bytes free
CMD(F/K/M/R/W/B/H/?)>

If an H or ? is sent, the following help menu is received, explaing the mailbox commands. (I have left the "English" intact.)

Commands

W(rite) = Type W (callsign)<cr> to begin message entering.
Subject: = Header (max 30 characters) are entered after the prompt: "Subject". Ending the header with a carriage return <cr>.
Message: = Message are entered after the prompt: "Message". Ending each line with <cr>. You terminate with either a <cr>/EX<cr> or <cr><ctrl-Z><cr> to the indicate end of your message.
B(ye) = Type B<cr> to DISCONNECT.
F(ile) = Type F<cr> to show the latest 20 messages.
L(ist) = Type L<cr> to show the all messages.
M(ine) = Type M<cr> to show latest 20 messages (to or from you). Subsequent F or M command will show next 20 active messages.
R(ead) = Type R n<cr> to show the number n message.
A(bort) = Type A<cr> to Abort.
J = Type J<cr> to show connect stations.
K(ill) = Type K n<cr> to delete the number n message (only to or from you).
H(elp) or ? = Type H<cr> or ?<cr> to display this.

When a B is sent to disconnect, the following is received.

Thank you CU AGN 73

I tested the message writing function and it works, but I didn't think it necessary to show it here. The command description above is adequate. Messages can also be written and read from your terminal connected to the D700. See the WRITE, FILE, LIST, MINE, READ, and KILL TNC commands in your manual. A specific callsign with the WRITE command will allow only that station to read the message.

Once the mailbox is set up, it will stay in operation anytime the rig is on and the TNC is enabled in packet mode, as long as the TNC isn't caused to reboot. A terminal need not be connected to the D700 for the mailbox to receive mail or have mail read on the air.

Using a PDA with the TM-D700 or TH-D7 Using the D700 Packet Mailbox

Using a PDA with the TM-D700 or TH-D7
Using the D700 Packet Mailbox