weechat-radio:$ Store and forward

1. Your own station

Every line is saved on your computer before it goes on the air, and stays there until someone answers it.

1. You send a line. It is stored first, so closing the program does not lose it.
2. If the channel is busy, the line waits for a gap (PTT shows wait), then goes after 15 seconds at most. Lines you send in the first 2 minutes after start wait until another station has been heard.
3. If no receipt comes back, the line is sent again: after about 45 seconds, then 90, then 180. Each retry uses a slower, tougher waveform. See weak signals.
4. After the last copy it waits two more 6-minute gaps, about 17 minutes in all, then shows [no]. A receipt that arrives later still turns it to [ok].
5. If the program restarts in that time, it picks the retries up where they stopped. A line older than one hour is not sent again.

A ! priority line retries faster (20 s, 40 s, 80 s) and a !! emergency line faster still (8 s, 16 s, 32 s). To stop every line still waiting, type /radio flush: they show [no] and are not sent again.

2. Stations in between

Any station on your frequency that hears your line keeps a copy and sends it on, so the other station does not have to hear you directly.

• Each copy carries a hop count: 3 for a direct message, 4 for !, 5 for !!, 6 for #bulletin and groups. Each station takes one off, and at 0 it reads the line but does not send it on.
• A station waits a short random moment before it sends. If it hears another station send the same line first, it drops its own copy, so the channel is not flooded.
• When you retry, the stations in between send your line on again. The receipt comes back to you the same way, hop by hop.
• A station does not carry a line once it is an hour old.

Your line shows [rl] when you hear a station carry it on. While a relay is carrying it, the line stays [rl] instead of [no] until its receipt arrives or it is an hour old. Maps and examples: hops.

3. The hub

The hub is the internet side. It keeps a direct message for a short time when the other station is not connected.

• A direct message for a station that is not connected is held for 10 minutes, up to 32 per callsign (the oldest goes first when that fills). It is delivered as soon as that station connects.
• Groups and #bulletin are not held. Someone has to be connected to get them.
• An internet-radio gateway that hears a Radio+ line hands it to the hub. Your line shows [gw]. A line sent in radio mode stays off the internet.
• The hub never keys a radio. A gateway puts a hub message on the air only when the station it is for was heard on that gateway's frequency in the last 10 minutes.

More on gateways and other bands: cross-frequency chat.

4. Email

Email is the part that waits longest. Nothing has to be on the air at the same time as the person writing to you.

• Sending from Radio+: the mail sits in your Outbox and goes to a mail gateway in pieces. The gateway keeps the pieces it has, so a retry sends only the missing ones. When it has them all it posts the mail through the hub. With Auto on, if that gateway does not answer, the mail moves to the next gateway heard.
• Receiving: mail to your callsign stays in your mailbox on the hub until your station fetches it. On Radio+, Check mail brings the list of waiting mail (subject and size) over the air, and Get brings one mail in. Nothing is sent over the air unless you ask for it.

Every step and status: email.

What the marks on your line mean

[..]

Waiting to go out.

[tx]

Sent on the air or to the hub. Retries run until a receipt.

[rl]

You heard a station carry it on. Not a receipt.

[gw]

A gateway handed it to the hub. Not a receipt.

[ok]

Delivered: a receipt came back.

[all]

Every member of a closed group sent a receipt.

[no]

Nobody answered in time, or the send was refused.

What it does not do

• It does not keep chat for a station that is off for the night. Over the air your station gives up after an hour; the hub keeps a direct message for 10 minutes.
• It does not hold group or #bulletin lines on the hub for people who are not connected.
• It does not change frequency or band to get a message through. Another band needs a gateway and the hub.

For anything that must wait longer than that, send it as email.