128 lines
6.0 KiB
Plaintext
128 lines
6.0 KiB
Plaintext
MiniSport Laptop Hacker - Vol 16 Oct 1993
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Copyright (c) 1993 Brian Mork -- "not to make money, but to keep it that
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way for others, too."
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>>> ADMIN
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Welcome back! Saudi Arabia was not so rewarding this time. I brought
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back rugs & gold, but the enforcement of the southern no-fly zone on Iraq
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has become almost routine. Forces are getting spread thin to other
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theaters, so I guess it's good that there's little unexpected activity in
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this arena. Remember, MLHacker is now distributed on several nets. Be
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sure to use the easiest method for you. I need to hear if R95 is working
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for you folks (the program used to split this issue into 2K parts). I
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want to get the $15 registration fee off to the Texas Packet Radio Socie-
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ty once "testing" is completed. I can even send binaries to you with
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this utility. You can get copies on disk of any software or text files I
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refer to by sending me a disk and SASE. I'll put a variety of other
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MLHacker related goodies on there, too.
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Please forward your MLH contributions--otherwise it's just me rambling
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about what projects I'm working on. My computer now has its own number
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(509-244-9260). Until I get everything "glued" together, it will be up
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intermittently accepting logins as an Internet host or FAX receiver. I'm
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available on Internet, Packet, or USMail, too (see below). Please, con-
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tribute!
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>>> TECH HELP REQUESTED
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I have the PMP (Poor Man's Packet) running in the modem slot of my Minis-
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port, thanks to the help of a local ham. The receive works fine, but
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upon transmit, the software chokes. I'm convinced that on the Minisport,
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the algorithms coded in C just aren't fast enough. Has anybody out there
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rewritten critical sections in assembly?
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Even *more* people have reported in with dead power supplies. This is
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the single biggest weakness of the Minisport. If you're an intrepid
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hacker who has figured out the power supply board or you're an insider
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with releasable information, please contact me. Thank you, Steve, for
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the info you've been able to forward.
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>>> RADIO SCANNING WITH COM2
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The previous issue quoted a segment by N9IYJ on how to turn your modem
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port into a second PC-compatible serial port. If you're really atten-
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tive, you've noticed that besides the MLH series, I just distributed re-
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views of Optoelectronics new counters onto the same nets that get MLH.
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Guess what? The data port on OE's 3000A and M1 counters are perfectly
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compatible with the MiniSport COM2 modem header! I just built another
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plug in board (the first being my Poor Man's Packet board) that hosts
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N9IYJ's circuit for a PC port, plus the feed through to a 1/8 phone jack
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to communicate with the counters. A little toggle switch selects which
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set of circuitry to use.
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I set about to write a program to acquire the data in order to avoid OE's
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steep price for the same. As I reduced the requirements to a flow chart,
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I realized the logic was trivial. The communication package I use has a
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script, or command language, that can do it with no normal "programming"
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on my part. Now I just run the terminal program, plug the MiniSport into
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the M1 counter I own, and run the command file. Admittedly, some ad-
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vanced features go away, but it cost NO programming effort and NO dol-
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lars. It generates a LOT of data, quickly! Feel free to expand the log-
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ic to your taste (e.g., check validity of the filename). Here's the Pro-
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comm equivalent:
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---------------------------cut here-------------
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set port com2 ;Minisport's modem header
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set baudrate 4800 ;3000A docs say 2400 baud. Typo?
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set parity none
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set stopbits 1
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set cr_in cr_lf ;map each inboudn CR to a CR/LF pair
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message "Enter filename for frequency data: "
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kflush ;flush the keybord
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get S0
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message "^MReceived filename:"
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message S0
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isfile S0
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if success
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message "Requested file already exists, appending data."
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endif
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message "ESC to terminate command script & not save data."
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message "Turn off meter or disconnect cable to terminate & save data."
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rflush ;flush the receive buffer
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log open S0
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if failure
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message "Can't open the requested file; exiting command file"
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goto exit
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endif
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request:
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transmit "^M" ;A "^M" generates a carriage return
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waitfor "^M" 3 ;Wait for the counter's CR
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if waitfor
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goto request
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else
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goto nodata ;to stop data collection, turn off meter!
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endif
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nodata:
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message "Incoming data timeout: saving previous data."
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exit:
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log close
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---------------------------cut here-------------
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The hardware to connect the M1 and the MiniSport is electrically trivial.
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Connect the 1/8 phone jack shield to Pin 4 of the Minisport modem header
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(see the numbering convention in MLHacker Volume 8). Connect the 1/8
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phone jack ring to Pin 7 of the header; phone jack tip to Pin 9.
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I post-process all my data with SuperCalc. From there it can be collated,
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sorted, plotted, averaged, etc. What can you do with this combo? Try
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parking your car across the street from the police station. Turn on the
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two battery powered units and read the newspaper for a few minutes. Save
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the data on disk and head home. Whip out SuperCalc (or Lotus or whatev-
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er) import the frequencies and manipulate to your heart's content. A
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histogram of how many hits on each frequency looks neat. The short stacks
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at frequencies different than what you know about deserve attention with
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your scanner. Voila!
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MLHacker isn't the place for the full story, but I figured since I en-
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joyed getting this system working, others might like to know about it.
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See the previously mentioned reviews for the full story on the counters.
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Internet and Compuserve have reviews on scanners, and I'm writing up
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procedures for the full data collection and processing to be release lat-
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er.
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73, Brian Mork (Opus-OVH) KA9SNF@wb7nnf.#spokn.wa.usa
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Internet BMORK@opus-ovh.spk.wa.us
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6006-B Eaker, Fairchild, WA 99011
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