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Subj: TNC 2 PARAMETER SETTINGS AND MEANINGS
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TNC 2 PARAMETER SETTINGS AND MEANINGS

Thomas A. Moulton, W2VY

The Radio Amateur Telecommunications Society
206 North Vivyen Street
Bergenfield, NJ 07621

(201) 6874630

ABSTRACT or printer. Many CRTs have special
functions that are selected with

This paper will describe the sequences that start with ESC (SW.
command set for the TNC 2 and help the To avoid this you should set ESCAPE ON.
reader set the parameter values. Some old terminals do not support lower

case. This is not a real problem. If
INTRODUCTION you turn LCOK OFF then all text sent to

the terminal will be converted to upper
The commands will be discussed in case. With most printers you will want

groups of related commands. The groups to turn BKONDEL OFF so you can read
are: Terminal, Monitor, Link, Command, what you are typing even if YOU
Special features and Utilities. The backspace over it. Th& will print a \
values that parameters should be set to for each backspace you type instead of
will fall into four catagories, backing up and replacing the unwanted
Don? touch, Set and forget, character with a space,, This is up to
Experimental and As you wish. your own personal preference.

TERMINAL INTERFACE There is a command to reprint your
terminal input buffer. This command is

The first parameters that will be set by the REDISPLAY parameter. The
set from this grloup are: PARITY, AWLEN, default is $12 which is a CTRL-R
ECHO, and AUTOLF. (CONTROL KEY and R KEY depressed at the

same time, the control key is like the
The default parity is even with 7 shift keYI l To delete th.e last

bit bytes. First try to match these character typed you can type a CTRL-H
with your terminal or terminal program. (DELETE OFF) or a RUBOUT (DELETE ON) .
If this still gets errors, garbage Usually one of these is what is sent by
characters or error messages from your a terminal when the BACKSPACE, RUB,
terminal program, try for no parity, DELETE or left arrow key is typed. It
(PARITY 0 or 2) and MARK or SPACE or NO is usually found in the upper right
parity in the terminal program. portion of the keyboard (Not part of

the numeric keypad). If you want to
The ECHO is easy, if you don? see delete the entire input buffer you can

what you type turn echo ON (Default). type the CANLINE command, which is
If you SSEEEE DDOOUUBBLLEE turn it off. usually set to CTRL-X.
The AUTOLF is used to add a line feed
after the carriage return sent to the SENDPAC is the command that forces
terminal so the lines don't over print. the data in the input buffer to be
If the text is double spaced then placed in a data frame and on the out-
AUTOLF needs to be turned off. going queue. This is normally set to

CR (SOD). A frame will also be
If you are using a printing formatted and queued when the input

terminal YOU may have to set a few buffer gets more than F'ACLEN characters
special parameters dealing with how in it. This can be used to your
physical printing terminals work. The advantage, if you set SENDPAC to CTRL-A
older printers &ed time to physically you can then type many lines in one
move to perform a linefeed  or carriage frame. This will reduce the number of
return. To create this delay it is packets you send. When you do send,
common pratice is to send the ASCII NUL you will generally send full packets.
character ($00). To add nulls after a If you then type CTRL-X you will only
linefeed turn NULF on; to add nulls delete the last line you typed. If you
after a carriage return (most common) type the CANPAC character you will
turn NUCR on and set the number of cancel the current packet, (i.e., just
nulls with the NULLS command. the packet that hasn't gone to the

output queue yet). If you use this
To insure that long lines of text mode you may want to turn CR off, this

get printed correctly, you should set will make the TNC not add the sendpac
SCREENLN to the width of your terminal character to the out going data. In

5.19



some ses you m,aY need to add a If you want to change the command
line feZi. after CR in the outgoing data, character, to the ASCII ESC character,
YOU can do this by turning LFADD on. enter COMmand  $lB. If you want to go

from cmd mode to convers mode enter
When the TNC is sending to you too CONVers. The NEWMODE  command will have

fast, you can stop it by typing the the TNC re-enter command mode when the
STOP character (CTRL-S) and you can link disconnects if it is set ON. If
restart it with the START character NOMODE is ON, the only way to change
(CTRL-Q). If you need to type any of modes is by explicit command.
these characters you can use the PASS
character (default CTRL-V), sometimes When you are using a BBS, you may
refered to as the quote character. find that you are able to connect
For instance, if you wanted to send a directly to it, but when activity
CTRL-A you, would have to type CTRL-V increases YOU need to use the
CTRL-A; obviously, to send a CTRL-V you digipeater. Instead of having to
would type CTRL-V CTRL-V. disconnect and reconnect, you can enter

command mode and issue a RECONNECT
MONITOR command with a mor'e  reliable path.

The easi est way to find out wh0 in While you are in command mode
your area i S on packet or what BBS received data will be printed only when
systems are around is to monitor the
channels mo1stly 145.010 MHZ but also YOU are not typing, this can be

overridden by setting FLOW OFF. If you
030, 05 b, 07 0, 090, as we11 as 220 MHZ want to verify what you have typed YOU
in some areas . can hit the Redisplay command (CTRL-R)

to see your input buffer.
The default monitor mode serves

well for this purpose. You may want to When sending data to the TNC, such
change some of the parameters once you as sending a file, the TNC should be
know what facilities are in your area. able to flow control (or stop) the
To only see beacon messages turn MALL computer. There are two ways of doing
OFF. If you want to watch all types of this. If XFLOW is on it will use XON
frames you can turn MCOM ON. If you and XOFF as start and stop characters
want to monitor while you are connected for the data going to the TNC, as START
you can turn MCON ON (if you really and STOP were for data going to the
want!). terminal. If XFLOW is off, the TNC will

use hardware flow control, using the
There are two commands to help the RS-232 RTS (Reguest To Send) and CTS

formatting of the monitor data. To (Clear To Send) to start and stop data.
remove the digipeat path turn MRPT OFF,
you can also have the frame header and For file transfers that are not
the text on seperate lines if you turn strictly text files the transparent
HEADERLN ON. If the real-time clock is data mode is used, in this mode there
set you can have the date and time as is no line editing or delete. You can
part of the header with MSTAMP ON. enter transparent mode with the TRANS

command, or by having Conmode set to
COMMANDS Trans. There are two ways to return to

command mode while still connected,
The first thing you MUST change is send a break signal to the TNC, or by

MYCALL, set it to your callsign. Now entering three COMMAND characters in a
you can attempt to establish a link to row with idle time before and after
another station. Select the strongest them, a delay of more than CMDTIME
digipeater you hear and try to connect seconds. This is like the common
to yourself. If the digipeater in your smart telephone modem attention signal.
area is WlAW-2 then you should type
C mycall VIA WlAW-2; if everthing is To have the most transparency you
working correctly YOU should be should run with TRFLOW and TXFLOW both
connected to yourself. When you get OFF, which means you are using hardware
the ***CONNECTED message you will flow control both ways. When using the
change from command mode (with the cmd: software flow control you must use the
prompt) to the mode determined by the PASS character (CTRL-V) to send the XON
CONMODE parameter, the default is or XOFF as data, which is a problem for
CONVERSe  mode. You can type and talk most terminal programs.
yourself (exciting huh?). When you are
done, disconnect by typing the COMmand In many easels 100% transparencyis
character (CTRL-C). You will receive not really needed, some word processing
the command prompt (cmd:) and should files only need to insure 8 bit data
enter D (DISCONNECT). After a few and don't use many control characters.
seconds YOU will get the message To provide for this and allowing the
***DISCONNECTED. You can connect to local editing yo'u can set AWLEN 8 and
other stations in a similar fashion, 8BITCONV ON.
see the manual for more details.

520



seconds and PACTIME AFTER n,
LINK PARAMETERS forward

data after n seconds of no new data.
The latter is the more commonly used

The timers associated with the form, for BBS and other computer
links can make or break the network. generated data.

The TXDELAY is the time required to The PASSALL  option is generally
get your transmitter to send a stable not usefull, except for debugging.
signal plus the time for most receivers Ignoring the CRC defeats mast of the
to produce audio plus the time required purpose of having an error free link.
for the modem to detect your tones.
The default is usually ok, but please The RESPTIME parameter is a timer
feel free to adjust it if needed, the used to help insure that a station does
shorter the better. not transmit an acknowledgement too

early. It% default is 1.2 seconds
If you are using a voice repeater which should be fine for all cases.

YOU will then need to set AXDELAY  to
account for the key up time of the The RETRY counter is important. It
repeater. The next timer comes after should be short for BBS forwarding (3
the data is sent, FRACK is a gauge of at the most), the concept is that if
when the acknowledgement should return. the link is shakey don't bother causing
This is based on the number of more interference. It should be longer
intermediate stations. FRACK should be for users and user initiated file
left alone at this time. There may be transfers. The TRIES command can be
some networks where it should be used to view and optionally change the
changed, leave that to the local current retry counter, without changing
management bodies to investigate. the value of RETRY.

The timers for deciding when to The CHECK timer is used to keep in
send are also very important. When touch with the true status of your
listening to the channel there is a link. If no packets are received from
minimum time ylour  TNC must wait before the station at the other end of the
it can transmit. This is called DWAIT, link within the time specified by CHECK
or Digipeater WAIT time, it is to give parameter, then the TNC will take
the digipeater a chance to repeat a actions based on the AX25L2V2  flag. If
packet. The value this is set to AX25L2V2 is ON then the TN@ will send a
depends on what your TNC is going to be supervisory packet (RR) to verify that
used for. When digipeating no wait is the other station is still connected.
included. For interactive QSOs the If no acknowledgement is received
default of 16 (160 ms) is good. The within the retry counter number of
lower priority traffic, such as file tries or if the AX2522V2  flalg is off
transfers and BBS sites should have a your TNC will send a DISC frame to
longer DWAIT. It is suggested that 240 clear the connection.
ms and 320 ms be used for these types
respectively. The MAXFRAME  parameter sets the

maximum number of data frameIs that ca'n
When the DWAIT has been satisfied, be outstanding at a given time. The

your TNC then can start a transmit default is 4 and should be fine for
sequence. The transmitter is assumed most applications.
to be on after TXDELAY has elasped. If
DWAIT + TXDELAY is greater than AXHANG The UNPROTO is a destination and
then the TNC must transmit to satisfy digipeater path that beacons and other
the AXDELAY. Then the data can be data sent while not connected are
sent. routed to. To enable your transmitter

you should set XMITOK ON.
When operating in full duplex,

FULLDUP ON, the DWAIT is ignored, since The MYALIAS command is an
YOU are transmitting on a different interesting one. It can be used to set
frequency. a call or name to be used as a

digipeater. The alias can only be used
The maximum ammount of data for digipeating. We could use RATS as

contained in a frame is set by PACLEN. an alias, in order to keep legal you
The default is 128, but it is perfered must insure that you properly identify
that 256 byte data fields be used the station, this can be done with HID
(PACLEN 0). The larger packet sizes ON, which will send an ID frame every
can be taken advantage of if you only 9.5 minutes of activity. An ID frame
forward data when you have a full is simply a frame with the TNC call/R
packet or new data is not being typed. sent to the UNPROTO address.
To do this you can set SENDPAC $01
along with CR OFF and CPACTIME ON. UTILITY COMMANDS
PACTIME specifies when data should be
forwarded. There are two options: The real-time clock is based upon
PACTIME EVERY n, forward data every n the CPU clock. Since they vary I the



CLKADJ parameter is used to compensate a message in my buffer. YOU can have
for the difference. You should adjust the connect messages time stamped if
the clock speed (aka crystal frequency) the clock is set and CONSTAMP  is ON.
to keep most of the spurs away from the
packet channels as much as possiable. When your station is operating in
Many times Murphy will put the spur unattended mode, YOU might want to
right on 145.010 MHZ! ignore frames from the local BBS. You

can do this by using BUDLIST OFF and
The clock is set with the DAYTIME LCALLS set to the BIBS callsign. These

command in the format YYMMDDHHMM. The options can be very useful1 in
date can be displayed in two formats filtering unwanted data from your
depending on the setting of DAYUSA. If capture buffer.
DAYUSA is on the date is in the form
mwdd/YY  l If it is OFF the format is The default setting of the TNC
dd-mm-yy. only allows one co:nnection  at a time.

This can be changed by changing the
The TRACE mode is used for number of USERS. The default is 1.

debuging problems between TNCs. It is When it is any other value an incoming
useful1 if you are familuar with the connection request is assigned the
protocol and various formats. The lowest free stream Ior port. Ports are
frames are broken down in Hex and numbered from A to J. The STREAMSW
ASCII. command sets the character that is used

to mark a stream identifier. The
The internal modem is aligned with default is $7C (!). When new data is

the aid of CALSET and CALIBRATE received it is marked with the stream
commands. Full details on calibration switch character followed by the stream
is in the operators manual for the TNC. identifier (A-J). This may also

include the stations callsign  i f
The DISPLAY command is used to STREAMCA is ON. In order to help keep

display sets of or all the parameters. it clear where a stream begins you can
The RESET command will reset the bbRAM have the TNC double the stream switch
to the defaults, all customization will characters it prints, (ex. !!A:W2VY:  hi
be lost. The RESTART command will there). The stream switch character is
perform a power on reset. also used to specify which you want to

send a line to, (ex. !A Hi Tom).
SPECIAL FEATURES

Any of the links can be= made
Some of these features are very perminate with the CONPERM option.

basic and don't really fit under this This is stream dependent, if this is
catagory, but they are higher level set ON the link will never enter the
functions and belong as user services disconnected state. The CSTATUS
or features that you could do by hand command is used to display the status
or with a computer. of all streams. Including a P if the

link is marked as perm.
The MHEARD list is a list of

stations that frames have been heard. SUMMARY
The date and time is recorded. This
list can be cleared with the MHCLEAR The commands are summarized on the
command and is displayed by entering following page, including the default
MHeard. values. Some of these parameters may

be removed as more powerful1 networking
The BEACON option should not be protocols are developed for the TNC 2.

used on a regular basis. It causes New commands and features will be
unwanted interference and are not added.
needed.

The TNC 2 and it's clones are
When a station connects to your going to be the %mart modemsff  of

TNC you can have a canned message sent radio. With the larger population of
to them if CMSG is ON. A common packeteers  packet radio is going to be
message is CTEXT I'm not here now leave advancing very quickly in the next

year. Enjoy!

Command Default Description
-w-m--- ------- ------1---11-----------------------------------------
8bitconv OFF Strip high-order bit when in convers mode
AUtolf ON Send Linefeed  to terminal after each CR
AWlen 7 Terminal character length (7/8)
Ax2512v2 OFF Run as version 1.0 of AX.25
AXDelay 0 (O-180 * 0.1 set) Voice Repeater keyup delay
AXHang 0 (O-20 * 0.1 set) Voice Repeater hang time
Beacon E O Every/After O-250 *lO sec.
BKondel ON Send BS SP BS for each DELETE character

5.22



BText (120 char) Text to be sent for a beacon
BUdlist OFF Stations in Lcalls are ignored
CALibra Used to calibrate the builtin  modem
CALSet Used with CALibrate
CANline $18 (Control-X) The Line Delete character
CANPac $19 (Ctrl-Y) Cancel current character
CHech 30 (O-250 * 10 set) Idle link time out
CLKADJ 0 (O-65535) Real time clock adjustment constant
CMDtime 1 (O-255 set) transparent mode escape timer
CMSG OFF Don't send CTEXT when user links to your TNC
COMmand $ 0 3 Char to escape from CONVERS mode to command mode
CONMode CONVERS (or TRANS) Mode to enter when link established
Connect Establish Link with station via optional stations
CONOk ON Allow stations to establish a link with your TNC
CONPerm OFF If ON always keep this link up (never Disconnect)
CONStamp OFF If ON print date & time stamp on connect messages
CStatus Prints the status of all links (Str%eams)
CONVers Enter Converse mode from command mode
CPactime OFF Don? forward data based on timers (see Pactime)
CR ON Append a Carriage Return to each data packet
CText (120 Ch) Connect Message Text (see CMSG)
DAytime Date and time for real time clock
DAYUsa ON Print date as mm/dd/yy  instead of dd-mm-yy
DELete OFF The character delete is BS ($08) not DEL ($7E')
DIGipeat ON Allow stations to use you as a Digipeater
Disconne Request a link disconnect from the other station
Display (Async/Character/Id/Monitor/Timing)  Parameters
DWait 16 (O-250 * 10 msec) Delay to let digipeater repeat
Echo ON Echo characters typed on keyboard to terminal
Escape OFF Don't translate ES@ character ($lB) to $ ($24:)
Flow ON Don't print to terminal while user is typing
FRack 3 (l-15 set) Time needed to ack a packet per station
FUlldup OFF Operate in Simplex mode
HEaderln OFF Print the frame header and text on the same line
HID OFF Don? send an ID packet every 9.5 mins when active
ID Force an ID packet (UI frame Via UNproto path)
LCALLS (O-8 calls) to receive or ignore stations (BUDLIST)
LCok ON Do not convert lower case to UPPER CASE on terminal
LCSTREAM ION Convert the stream select specifer  to Upper case
LFadd OFF Add a Line Feed after each CR send to the terminal
MA11 ON Monitor data frames as well as beacons
MAXframe 4 The window size for outstanding frames
MCOM OFF Monitor only data frames instead of all types
MCon OFF Don? monitor frames when linked to another station
MFilter Up to 4 characters to be removed from monitored data
MHClear Clear the calls Heard list
MHeard Display the calls heard and date/time if clock set
Monitor ON Monitor mode on - see BUDLIST, MALL, MCON, MSTAMP
MRpt ON Display the digipeater path in monitored frames
MStamp OFF Monitored frames are Not time stamped
MYAlias An identifier for a digipeater
MYcall NOCALL The station callsign  for ID and linking
NEwmode OFF The TNC acts like a TNC I for changing modes
NOmode OFF If ON allow explicit mode change only
NUcr OFF Don't send NULLS ($00) after a CR
NULf OFF Don't send Nulls after a LF
NULLS 0 (O-30) Number of nulls to send as requested
Paclen 128 (O-255,0=256) size of the data field in a data frame
PACTime After 10 (Every/After O-250 *lOO ms) Data forwarding timer
PARity 3 (even) (O-3) Terminal parity 0,2=None l=odd 3=even
PASS $16 (CTRL-V) char to allow any character to be typed
PASSAll OFF Accept only frames with valid CRCs
RECOnnect Like Connect but to restablish a link via a new path
RED&play $12 (CTRL-R) char to print the current input buffer
RESET RESET bbRAM PARAMETERS TO DEFAULTS
RESptime 12 (O-250 * 100 ms) minimum delay for sending an ACK
RESTART Perform a power on reset
RETry 10 (O-15) maximum number of retries for a frame
Screenln 80 (O-255) Terminal output width
SEndpac $OD (CR) Char to force a frame to be sent
STArt $11 (CTRL-Q) the XON for data TO the terminal
STOp $13 (CTRL-S) the XOFF for data TO the terminal
STREAMCa OFF Don't show the callsign  after stream id

5.23



STREAMDbl OFF Don't print the stream switch char twice (!!A)
STReamsw $7C (!) Character to use to change streams (links)
TRAce OFF Hexidecimal trace mode is disabled
TRANS The TNC enters Transparent data mode
TRFlow OFF Disable flow control to the Terminal (Trans mode)
TRIes (O-15) set or display the current retry counter
TXdelay 30 (O-120 * 10ms) Keyup delay for the transmitter
TXFlow OFF Disable flow control to the TNC (Transparent mode)
Unproto CQ Path and address to send beacon data
Users 1 Sets the number of streams (links) allowed
Xflow ON XON/XOFF Flow control enabled instead of hardware
XMitok ON Allow transmitter to come on
XOff $13 (CTRL-S) Character to stop data from terminal
XON $11 (CTRL-Q) Character to start data from terminal

5.24


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