[OZAPRS] QRPBBB - Netnews over APRS/Packet

[Chris Baird]

It is with great hesitation that I mention a project that's looking
for participants: it's called QRPBBB, The QRP Bulletin Board (Bodged).

Basically, it distributes Netnews Newsgroups, the 1980s-90s thing,
over Radio, in an APRS-compatible format to exploit the Digipeater
network to find other sites/stations when local packet activity is
nil.[*1]

The software is a few Python scripts that manage the decomposition of
postings into packets and reversing this at the other sites. It most
certainly requires a Highly Skilled Human who can manage a Unix system
running a Newsserver (INN 1.7.2 and 2.6.3 have been tested), and some
means for delivering packets to /var/spool/packet-- KISS TNCs and
Direwolf setups are included. But I want to mention the code isn't
complicated at all-- it's all very homebrew, and getting others being
able to do new things with it is also a goal.

Obviously, this isn't about tunneling raw Usenet over APRS. Like past
networks like BOFHNet and Usenet-2, this is exclusive from Usenet,
with its own newsgroups and distributions, but is otherwise still
netnews. And like those two previous networks, it implements automatic
filtering to /enforce/ message quality standards to ensure the APRS
network isn't spammed with needless traffic (..from users whose
Smartphones never told them what a "byte" is..) Old Timer
net.etiquette is the go.


* Advantages of QRPBBB over existing Packet BBS systems

- Greater range by utilizing the digipeater network.
("QRPBBB sees a lack of activity as damage and routes around it." to
munge the Gilmore quote..)

- QRP/"Baofeng" accessible for most. Not the "100 watts or go home"
that was VK2EHQ[*2] and other's experience running PBBS in the 1990s.

- Decentralized and distributed. It is less affected by a single site
going permanently offline.

- Multicasting. All local stations copy content at the same time,
making efficient use of the frequency.

- Sites don't need to prearrange access with another site to
participate.

- You can write messages in emacs or vi just like a civilized Unix
user, and all the highly capable newsreading software is there.

- It is uncomplicated Open Source software. You don't need to
understand the Python language to comprehend what's it's doing
(*cough* I'm not an experienced Python programmer..) And the QRPBBB
scripts themselves don't care how the traffic in /var/spool/packet/
gets there. It could certainly be adapted to be a BBS for D-Star/DMR
data messaging, LoRa, pigeons...

- Provides facilities for portable operation. Normally a site would
schedule its message management once an hour or so, however a /P can
send trigger commands for immediate attention.

- Activity such as Contests could be conducted through newsgroups.
There is an RFC currently being written on how to best implement human
and automatic exchanges. (Ross Hull excludes Repeater contacts though,
foo. Let's make our own competitions..)

- It caters for several level of traffic throughput (APRS, 1200 baud
simplex, high-speed simplex) through to the use of the "Distribution"
header. You could post large articles like the ~26kB/800 line WIA Text
News Broadcast, Images, or even Video, with the appropriate
distribution, and those posts won't be sent over the slower links.

- The early Usenet worked with conditions not unlike how this operates
(if not worse: once-a-night 1200 baud dial-ups, magtapes shipped via
post) ...and yet it became a highly productive global community. The
store-and-forward process should make it possible to create a
decentralized bulletin board system of national scale exclusively with
amateur radio.


* And why you shouldn't just immediately react negatively to the idea

*He's trying to experiment with me APRS network! Where's me gun?!*

- The frobs are in there to manage how much and when traffic is
transmitted, and there are numerous mandated limitations (line length,
etc.) to keep packet sizes small and collisions minimal.

- The protocol tries to use as few packets as possible, while
preserving plain-text monitoring of the traffic.

- The digipeater network is actually the last resort. Operators are
expected to use another frequency and go simplex (w/ its better
throughput!) to other local stations when they exist. Digipeater path
selection is also used to limit packet range to the necessary minimum.
Discovery of nearby sites is logged, and commands exist to search for
local sites.

- This is still an Amateur Radio activity with Humans of considerable
technical proficiency (Unix system administrators!) at the control.

- Excluding 'unsound' sites, or even being just selective over what
traffic your site accepts is in there.

- As already mentioned, there's practically a "twit filter". Those who
just can't be bothered giving their messages the highest possible SNR
get their posting dropped and an email from an angry computer telling
them off.

- Unix systems perform Seppuku if a Facebook user approaches them.


Please figure out what this link is about, and go from there:
http://o6veojxrfutdwwsriyxbsgimvrnwyzpezexo2g6q4pknutzvibt3rbqd.onion/index.html

I'd like to get QRPBBB started with few old Usenet/Unix veterans, then
being gradually more open to prevent the "Eternal September" issue
from a flood of new users ignorant of the established net.etiquette.
(Throwing 21st Century Netizens at it right away will undoubtedly
crash, burn, and get demands for the QRPBBB project to leave the APRS
in short order..)

Other notes:

The APRS network around Sydney & Newcastle sees about 90 packets an
hour from 9pm-6am, and peaks at around 200 packets between 9am-5pm.
That suggest to me that QRPBBB overs with a WIDE1-1,RFONLY path should
be one packet every 120 seconds during on-peak (making it ~30 minutes
to broadcast a complete message), and perhaps every 60 seconds at
night. That 120s between overs still permits ~45 posts per day
distributed across a region. What exactly is the region is decided by
the judicious use of WIDE and path routing. I'd imagine there would be
one site in an area that broadcasts with a WIDE2-2 path only a few
times a day, while the others in the surrounds use WIDE1-1 (if that)
more regularly.

Currently it's still a very manual process of operation due to being
in the development phase, and tests while portable requiring things be
done then and there, but being more cron-friendly and automatic is an
intention.

You can most certainly email me if you're keen to also see this
working. I don't do Github or the like.

--
Chris,, <vk2cjb at gmail.com>

[1] I live only 45kms from VK2EHQ's PBBS, yet can't ping it or the
VK2RAG pdigi because there's a trillion tonnes of mountain in the
way...
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJMtY979MXQ