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--- blog:2019-09-07:monitoring_winlink_messages [2019/09/08 06:59] – ve7hzf
+++ blog:2019-09-07:monitoring_winlink_messages [2020/08/07 13:03] – external edit 127.0.0.1
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-====== Monitoring Winlink Traffic ======
+====== Monitoring Winlink Traffic (UPDATE) ======
-To over simplify things a bit, there's a debate right now about Winlink with respect to our inability to monitor traffic between other parties.  When someone sends you a message over the air, you receive it in your inbox, but other hams watching the exchange will only be able to see the callsigns involved, the subject line, and a few other things.  The body of the message, though, will appear to them as a compressed mess of gibberish.
+See [[#Oct_17_Update |update below]].
+To over simplify things a bit, there's a debate right now about Winlink with respect to our inability to monitor traffic between other parties.((See: this [[https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/telecom/wireless/is-ham-radio-a-hobby-a-utilityor-both-a-battle-over-spectrum-heats-up |IEEE Spectrum post]]))  When someone sends you a message over the air, you receive it in your inbox, but other hams watching the exchange will only be able to see the callsigns involved, the subject line, and a few other things.  The body of the message, though, will appear to them as a compressed mess of gibberish.
 Winlink has a document that:
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 >The FCC should require all digital codes to use protocols that 'can be monitored in entirety by third parties with freely available, open-source software.'(([[https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/telecom/wireless/is-ham-radio-a-hobby-a-utilityor-both-a-battle-over-spectrum-heats-up |Is Ham Radio a Hobby, a Utility... or Both? A Battle Over Spectrum Heats Up]], July 8, 2019))
-That sounds very reasonable.  In principle, you can easily imagine that if a program like Winlink can easily decompress a message for one recipient, it could just as easily decompress all the messages it hears.  It would simply be a matter of managing these messages in a way that is easy for the user to filter what is theirs and what isn't.
+That sounds very reasonable.  In principle, you can imagine that if a program like Winlink can easily decompress a message for one recipient, it could just as easily decompress all the messages it hears.  It would simply be a matter of managing these messages in a way that is easy for the user to filter what is theirs and what isn't.
 Well, it seems that there's been some progress in decoding over-the-air messages recently:
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 Check out [[https://forums.qrz.com/index.php?threads/decode-off-the-air-winlink-message-request-for-programming-help.668470/page-10 |this thread]] to follow the ongoing development.
+===== Oct 17 Update =====
+From [[https://qrznow.com/pactor-developer-scs-announces-monitoring-software/ |qrznow.com]]:
+> SCS, the company that created PACTOR, has [[https://www.p4dragon.com/en/PMON.html |unveiled software]] that offers the ability to monitor the content of PACTOR 1, 2, and 3 transmissions over the air. The free PMON software runs under the Linux operating system. A software version to monitor PACTOR 4 is scheduled to become available next year.
+>
+>[...]
+>
+>According to SCS, only minimal hardware is required to use PMON. The equipment complement includes a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ (minimum) computer and a USB sound device. [...] The German company says PMON now makes this possible without a modem and adds the ability to decode B2F/LZHUF-compressed messages — Winlink email and others.
+Again, my personal view is that it's pretty cool that third parties are finally addressing this issue, but Winlink should be forced to offer this feature in their program so that everyone can monitor every winlink message they can hear on the air right out of the box.  --- //[[ve7hzf@rbox.me|Patrick, VE7HZF]] 2019/10/17 07:23//