[HiDARG-MEMBERS] Wires-X node use... A brief note.

[John Britt Baldwin]

I was on the Fusion/C4FM/Wires-X net last night and there were some
questions about connecting to local Wires-X nodes and the rooms therein.
So for new folks trying to get onto wires-x I thought I would throw out a
quick and VERY BASIC guide to playing around with wires-x for the first
time.  For this example I will use my own node which can be connected to on
145.525 simplex.  My QTH is located at about 4500" elevation and I have
pretty good coverage of the Bend/Redmond/Prineville area so it's a good bet
that you can use my node. There are other folks with open nodes in our
area, and maybe at some point HIDARG can post a list of local open
node freq's on the website. Not to mention that hopefully someday the
fusion repeater will get the internet and will turn into a node itself.
   Anyway........Yeasu has done a great job to make their "proprietary"
version of digital FM easy to use.  Setting up a node is usually plug and
play unless you are using some sort of hotspot and then you may be looking
at some configuration.  But for now we'll assume the user just has a
Yeasu radio and would like to play around with Wires-X using local nodes.

1st:
       Find a local node or repeater freq, tune to it properly, put your
radio in digital (DN) mode and listen for traffic. If your radio has a nice
and large touch screen display continue onto step 2.
If you have a radio that doesn't have a full display you are basically just
listening to that node, or to the room that node happens to be connected
to.  Throw your call sign out and see what happens. You can change rooms
with DTMF codes but that will require you to go online and find the room #
you are trying to connect to and then enter the DTMF code.   So if your
radio doesn't have a great display, you can still change rooms, but you'll
have to figure out how to via DTMF codes.

2nd:
     Find the Wires-X button on your radio and push it.  (if the freq you
are using has traffic at the time it's won't connect or send you data so
wait for a brief pause in communications and try again)  When it connects
you should hear some beeping and if you have full display it will tell you
what node you are connected to, the room that the node may or may not be
connected to, as well as call sign info, etc. At this point (depending on
your radio) you should be able to follow the menu options on your display
to connect, disconnect, and search for rooms you might want to try.  You
don't have to worry too much about disconnecting from the room when you're
done because it will eventually time out and go back home automatically.
Although I think it's polite to disconnect to minimize the node owners data
usage...

Most nodes have a TOT (timeout timer) and will connect back to the owners
(home room of choice) after a certain period of time.  For instance, my
node has a TOT of 60min and will then return back to the SKYHUBLINK (46361)
room.  If you time out and want to go back to the room you were in, you
will have to reconnect to it.  So, if you only put your radio in digital
mode and tune to 145.525 simplex, you will MOST LIKELY be listening to
SKYHUBLINK (skyhublink.com) or America Link (21080).  There are rooms all
over the world though!

Make sure and read about C4FM/wires-x on the Yaesu site, and you can also
go to c4fm.xyz and get active node and room numbers, etc.

And that's about it......  Have fun!

73,
John, KJ7OIV
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