
             Using the Wisconsin Network - Part 15
                     by Andy Nemec, KB9ALN


     In the last edition of our series, we talked about using
your local BBS, specifically listing and reading messages. We
noted that the great majority of the BBS's in Wisconsin are
"MSYS", and that the instructions that you get here will
probably apply when using your local BBS. Even if your BBS is
of a different type, they all operate in much the same manner.

     The same can be said of sending a message. No matter what
type of BBS you may encounter, the procedures regarding the
sending of messages are even more universal than the special
features encountered in the listing and reading of messages.

     One important item we touched on in the last installment
deserves review and elaboration. That would be your
hierarchical address. Remember, everyone who uses packet radio
and elects to send and receive packet mail has one. It is
derived from your call-sign, the call-sign of your home BBS, a
regional descriptor (optional), as well as state, country and
continent codes. For example, we will use my hierarchical
address to dissect and analyze. It is:

KB9ALN  @  KB9ALN   .#GRB  .WI   .USA   .NA  (or .NOAM)
  ^          ^         ^    ^      ^     ^
  |          |         |    |      |     Continent Code 
  |          |         |    |      Country Code
  |          |         |    State Code
  |          |         Regional Designator (Green Bay) 
  |          Home BBS call-sign
  My call-sign

     Note that each portion of the address is seperated by
periods. In actual practice, there are no spaces between each
part. It would really appear as KB9ALN@KB9ALN.#GRB.WI.USA.NA.

     This is important when you decide to send packet mail to
your buddy who might spend his winters in Florida. You need to
know his hierarchical address to send mail to him, and he needs
to know yours. Once you do, it is a simple matter to send him
a message. As with any other mailbox, you use the S command,
along with the hierarchial address. We will, for the purpose
of illustration, make up the following address -
W2XBY@W2XBX.#LI.NY.USA.NA.
which belongs to a mythical friend Joe-Bob, who uses W2XBX as
his home BBS in New York.

     So when you log onto the BBS and decide to send a
message, you would send this to the BBS:

 S W2XBY@W2XBX.#LI.NY.USA.NA

The BBS Would respond with:

 "Enter Title or City, State, and Postal Code:"

Where upon you might send "Hi, Joe-Bob!", or something similar.

     The City, State and Postal code reference is for sending
NTS traffic. It is not necessary for sending personal messages
when you know the hierarchical address of the recipient. Adding
the postal information may occasionally be helpful if the BBS
is a new one, or if you have an incomplete hierarchical
address.

     Once you have sent a title, type in the body of the
message and end it with a Control-Z key combination, or /EX on
a new line. That is all there is to sending a personal packet
message.

     Sending a "bulletin" message is not very hard, but
requires a little more thought. It is possible to send a
message to every BBS in a state, region, country or even
world-wide. One must use wisdom and logic when deciding just
how far you want to "flood" with a message.

     Most people use a flood message to advertise some piece
of amateur radio equipment for sale. Some play Chess by packet
radio, some develop special interest groups via packet, and
still others look for information or equipment.

     Logic and your knowlege of the rules should govern your
use of this powerful capability of the packet system. For
example, one would never try and sell a $5 item via a packet
message sent to every BBS in the country. Shipping cost may
make it seem like a silly effort, as sometimes it would double
the price of your $5 item. This also applies when it comes to
large or heavy items.

     Legalities also apply with Sale and Wanted-to-Buy items.
The same rules apply to packet sale ads as swap nets. It has
to be a piece of equipment normally used in amateur radio
operations. Another, more subtle legal aspect concerns
"broadcasting". Is your message of general amateur interest
intended to invite an answer, or is it a monologue directed to
no one? These are valid considerations that need to be
addressed when you start to send a "bulletin".

     That being said, we can now explore the options you have
at your disposal, and how to use them. There are a number of
"flood designators", and in Wisconsin we use RTWIS, DIST9,
ALLUSA, ALLCAN, or WW. RTWIS is a contraction for "Route
Wisconsin". DIST9 distributes your message throughout the 9
call area (Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana). ALLUSA
distributes your message to every BBS in the USA, ALLCAN to
every BBS in Canada, and WW to all networked BBS's in the
world. So, we do need to be selective when we route a flood
message.

     Now, to actually send a message in this manner. Let's say
we want to send a message throughout Wisconsin to everyone
interested in WAPR. When we get the BBS's command prompt, we
would type the following:

 S WAPR@RTWIS

and then wait for the "Title.." prompt, similar to the way we
would send a personal message. The difference is that we have
replaced the customary hierarchial address with a topic and a
"flood route designator". In this case, the subject is WAPR
and the flood route is RTWIS. You could just as easily send a
message to everyone interested in PACKET@DIST9, meaning that
your message to packet would be distributed throughout the 9
call-area.

     Once you send the body of the message, you would close it
in the same manner that you close a personal message.

     Choose your topics (and their abbreviations) with care.
You are allowed a mere 6 characters for a topic. Avoid
starting it with a number (like 4SALE).  Try to make it easily
recognizable, and pertitent to the subject at hand. This will
make your topic more readily understood, and the message more
likely to be read.

     This covers the very basic information you will need to
send packet mail of the most popular types. In the next part,
we will cover the MSYS Node operation, and the following part
we will have a "catch-all" session of odds and ends concerning
the finer points of BBS operation.

  ***End of Part 15***
