EasyPal Does More Than SSTV
A few years ago, I took the ARRL emergency communications course, and that was the first time I had ever considered that digital modes have a significant role to play during an emergency. Many types of communication modes are better suited for relaying a list or spreadsheet than voice transmission. Lists of names and addresses, medical supplies, and sets of detailed instructions are examples. Also, some agencies have their own forms that they may want used and sent. I began to envision an agency official handing me a USB memory stick and asking me to transmit the Word document that was on it. I began to search for possible software that could meet these requirements for our DuPage County ARES, Illinois group.
EasyPal Does It
Vern Schultz, K9LAE, told me about EasyPal. It was being used by many operators for SSTV, but what it really does is send files. It sends jpg, txt, doc, xls, and pdf files, just to mention a few. This sounded like a great fit for our ARES requirements, so Vern and I began to run EasyPal through its paces to see what we could do with it.
Our first test was to send a jpg file. We found we could send any size jpg file in about 2 minutes with SVGA quality. EasyPal automatically reduces the file size to something sensible before sending it. For example, I loaded a 1.16MB picture into EasyPal. The program reduced it to a 27k jpg file and transmitted it in 121 seconds. This meant we could take a picture of a situation in the field with a smartphone or a digital camera, load it into a laptop, and transmit it in 121 seconds to our base of operations. This would certainly fill one of our requirements.
Next we wanted to try sending a document saved in the txt format. I copied a weather bulletin from the National Weather Service and saved it as a text file. EasyPal transmitted the 1.85KB file in 23 seconds. This represented another requirement we could check off as being met.
A Microsoft Word document (doc file) was next. I created a one-page document with boldface, italics, underlining, indented bullets, and different sized and colored fonts. EasyPal sent the 16.7KB file in 102 seconds - complete with the original formatting. No need to rearrange the text to resemble the original document.
If it worked this well for a doc file, what would it do with an xls spreadsheet? To find out, I created a spreadsheet with a list of Shelter Numbers and types of supplies. It was an inventory of available supplies and their locations. The totals for each type of supply appeared at the bottom of each column. EasyPal sent this 16.5KB spreadsheet in 97 seconds, and not only was the spreadsheet formatted exactly like the original (same column widths, same color fonts, same boldface formatting), but the arithmetic calculations still worked!
We continued our testing with a pdf file of our local Severe Weather Liaison Repeater Template. It's a 13.7 KB multi-color diagram including various shapes, colors, and text. EasyPal sent the file in 87 seconds with every bit of received information an exact duplicate of the original file.
But Wait, There's More
EasyPal also has several standard forms built into the program. There's a blank free-form screen for entering text. This could be used for strategic conversations between EasyPal-enabled field units. There's also a form resembling an ARRL Radiogram, an ICS-213 form, an ICS-213 (ARES Version), an ICS-213-1 (a more casual version of an ICS-213 form), and a MARS form. They all have proper formatting and blanks, which can be filled in at the sending station and printed at the receiving station. Any of these forms can be sent in under 30 seconds. A version of EasyPal that is currently under test includes a Chat function with a free-form text message, which also indicates the call sign of the station sending the message. All sent and received messages are automatically stored in EasyPal folders for retrieval if needed later.
And, if one of the EasyPal stations has access to the Internet, any of the field stations can send and receive email - with attachments - through that station (called an EasyPal Repeater). What a great bonus feature this is.
Under the Hood
EasyPal is a digital soundcard program that interfaces directly with your PC or laptop. It's a single program that uses the DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale) modulation format. It will work on HF, VHF, and UHF, and we have used it successfully through local VHF and UHF repeaters. The program uses interleaved Reed-Solomon Forward Error Correction. We chose to use the SignaLink external soundcard because it's easier to adjust levels and delay.
Conclusions
EasyPal is easy to use - and it's free. The author, Erik Sundstrup, VK4AES, has been very responsive to our inquiries and requests. We are thankful for his interest and support. There are several sources of information on the Internet with instructions for using EasyPal, but some of the information is for earlier versions of the software. We wound up writing our own EasyPal User's Guide for our ARES group, which can be downloaded from dupageares.org/memberresources.html (click on EasyPal User's Guide). We conducted a Saturday morning workshop to train ARES members from four counties, and we now use EasyPal to send a practice ICS-213 (ARES Version) message on alternate dates for our EmComm net. Soon we will be conducting an all-digital monthly EasyPal net. The latest version of the EasyPal software is always available for download from www.vk3evl.com.
If you're looking for a single software tool that will send your served agency's files, take a look at EasyPal. It exceeded our expectations in being able to send messages quickly, in a wide variety of formats. - Ed Worst, K9EW, Westmont, Illinois, www.k9ew.us