You're in the UK, so the following rule applies under a standard
licence:
BR68 (this is the booklet you get with your 'Validation Document' that
makes up your licence), para 5(5):
Notwithstanding sub-clauses 5(1) and 5(2), the Licensee shall not
operate :
(a) a mailbox or bulletin board (each being a facility which receives
and stores Messages for or on behalf of other licensed amateurs for
retransmission at a later time on the request of (and to) the intended
recipient of the Message)
[(b) is about voice repeaters]
This is a *big deal* to your idea - your standard licence prohibits you
dealing with messages (including voice messages, as it happens) to other
amateurs on a 'store and forward' basis. The only way around this is to
apply for permission to run a digital bulletin board, which is done via
the Digital Communications Committee of the Radio Society of Great
Britain, and is implemented by the DCC, in consultation with the
Radiocommunications Agency, issuing a Notice of Variation to your
amateur licence. If successful, you will be given a GB7+three letters
callsign for the bulletin board.
If you hold a Novice licence, you are not allowed to run a BBS at all
(at least, I think this is right. I can't see the RA allowing a BBS NoV
on a Novice licence).
If you want the notes and application form, ring the RSGB, and ask for a
BBS application pack (you'll probably need to ask for what you want very
carefully - it isn't that common a request). You may well need to ask
for the Amateur Radio department from the switchboard. For the RSGB
contact details, look at http://www.rsgb.org
The procedures to be followed are strict - it involves all sorts of
complicated things. Unless you already have a good working knowledge of
packet radio, you're unlikely to succeed alone. If you can get an
application together with your local packet user group, and in
consultation with local sysops (even if they're only running AX25 BBSs,
because there are rules about the number of BBSs in a given area and so
on) you should stand a better chance.
For initial development, you could do without a BBS NoV, but you'll then
be limited to handling your own messages. If you get the system working
in this fashion, it will provide no guarantee of availability of a NoV
in the future.
N.B. I do *not* hold a BBS Notice of Variation - I am merely going by my
understanding of the system 'from the outside'.
You may or may not like this system. For long rants about the efficacy
and way that the NoV system works, look at uk.radio.amateur using
Dejanews. The debate goes on and on... <snore>
On the subject of unattended packet, paragraph 2(5) requires you to
notify all unattended operation of digital communications to the local
office of the Radio Investigation Service (RIS - though they've renamed
this now, IIRC). This permission is usually readily forthcoming, but you
may well have to make closedown arrangements.
There is a HTML version of BR68 available from the RA home page (as well
as a list of local RIS offices). Look at
http://www.open.gov.uk/radiocom/rahome.htm
(I have a feeling it's somewhere really silly in the Library - under
"Citizens Band" has been mentioned recently. If you've found a document
with the reference BR68 - not BR68/N which is for Novice Licences -
you've got the right thing).
Finally, regarding linking packet radio and the Internet:
It is the received wisdom that you cannot link the Internet to packet
radio legally in the UK. Web browsing and so on (apart from being
impossibly slow at 1k2, and none-too-quick at 9k6 - don't forget that
user channels are shared and are half-duplex anyway) would involved
carrying non-amateur originated (third party) traffic over amateur
radio, which is explicitly forbidden in the UK (BR68, para 1(4)). Unlike
the US, there is no circumstance under which third party traffic is
legal, except for the specific exceptions to do with 'Greetings
Messages' for club and special event stations, and operations for 'User
Services' (RAYNET type operation).
Email <-> packet is less clear, but it would only be legal to gateway in
the UK if there was a way of authenticating the person on the Internet
side as a licensed amateur. Even then, there might be further problems.
Many UK amateurs who use this kind of facility use a gateway in the US,
and rely on the amateur (pure AX25, at least in part) network to bring
the message back to the UK.
Please don't get me wrong - I'm not trying to pour cold water on your
ideas. I'm just trying to bring the licensing situation to your
attention. Also, IIRC, packet BBSs are required to link to other local
BBSs - which, in practice, means that you're likely to have to get busy
with AX25<->TCP/IP gatewaying!
Having poured out all that doom and gloom, I'm sure that another person
working to try and get a decent amateur TCP/IP network going in the UK
would be welcome. You'll need to interface with other people working on
this kind of thing. Watch out for bulletins to 'UKIP' on the packet
network, or alternatively join the UKIP mailing list (the details of
which escape me at the moment). You really are going to need some user
knowledge to be able to help with BBS type issues - why not get a couple
of old 386s, and set up TCP/IP over AX25 (under Linux, probably) between
them. One 'user' can be you - the other will have to be a willing local
amateur, unless you want to talk to yourself! Alternatively, you could
see if there's any possibility of working with your existing local BBS
sysop to add TCP/IP facilities to the existing setup, or replace the
current BBS software with a Linux based system.
On the subject of how the IP frames travel over the radio - they are
always encapsulated in AX25 datagrams (at least in conventional amateur
TCP/IP usage). However, the AX25 is often used 'connectionless' in
datagram mode, and the 'virtual circuit' facilities are not often used.
There's no easier way to understand this than to get it running 'on the
air' and watch the packet traces, interpreting them with whatever AX25
and TCP/IP documentation you can lay your hands on.
73 de David
-- David Wood, G0WZA terhi.victor@logonet.com