Narrow Band Emergency Messaging System (NBEMS)

The Narrow Band Emergency Messaging System (NBEMS - pronounced "N-beams" in the trade) is a suite of software programs designed for point-to-point, fast, error-free, emergency messaging up to or over 100 miles distant, and takes up a very minimum of space on the ham bands.  The system is designed primarily for use on the two-meter band, or on HF with NVIS antennas, where there is a minimum of fading (QSB) to slow down message transfers.  Two meters has the advantage that distances long enough to span disaster areas of up to 100 miles can be dependably done with small, portable antennas.  In hilly regions, if two meters is not workable over the distances required, NVIS antennas on HF can be employed instead.

Fldigi

Fldigi, the Fast Light Digital modem application is a free and open-source program which allows an ordinary computer's sound card to be used as a simple two-way data modem.  The software is mostly used by amateur radio operators who connect the microphone and headphone connections of an amateur radio SSB transceiver or an FM two way radio to the computer's headphone and microphone connections. This interconnection creates a "soundcard defined radio" whose available bandwidth is limited by the soundcard's sampler ate and the external radio's bandwidth. Such communications are normally done on the shortwave amateur radio bands in modes such as PSK31,MFSK, RTTY, and Morse Code. VHF and UHF frequencies. Using this software, it is possible for amateur radio operators to communicate worldwide while using only a few watts of RF power. Fldigi software is also used for amateur radio emergency communications when other communication systems fail due to natural disaster or power outage. Transfer of files, emails, and FEMA ICS forms are possible using inexpensive radio hardware

Disaster relief services

The software is also utilized by some organizations for both routine and disaster/emergency relief services.

• Multiple state and county Emergency operations centers
• Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES)
• Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES)
• Civil Air Patrol (CAP)
• SATERN, the Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network
• SKYWARN a program of the National Weather Service (NWS) whose mission is to collect reports of localized severe weather.

The Fldigi Suite

The "Fldigi Suite" consists of the Fldigi modem and all extension programs released by the same development group. These extensions add more capabilities to Fldigi such as verified file transfer and message passing. Interconnecion between these programs and the Fldigi modem is made over TCP/IP port 7322.

Flamp - file transfer program

Flamp implements the Amateur Multicast Protocol by Dave Freese, W1HKJ and is a tool for connectionless transferring of files to multiple users simultaneously without requiring any existing infrastructure. The program breaks a given file into multiple smaller pieces, checksums each piece, then transmits each piece one or more times. When all parts are correctly received the sent file is re-assembled and can be saved by receiving stations. This program is useful for multicasting files over lossy connections such as those found on high frequency or during emergency communications.

Flarq - modem/ARQ

Flarq implements the ARQ specification developed by Paul Schmidt, K9PS to transfer emails, text files, images, and binary files over radio. This protocol is unicast and connection-based. The software seamlessly integrates with existing email clients such as Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, and Sylpheed.

Flmsg - Forms Manager

Flmsg allows users to send, receive, edit, and create pre-formatted forms. Such a system speeds the flow of information during emergency communications. The software has a number of forms built-in including FEMA ICS forms, MARS reports & messages, Hospital ICS forms, Red Cross messages, IARU and NTS messages.

Flwrap -file encapsulation / compression

Flwrap is a tool for the sending of files using a simplified drag and drop interface. Data compression is available also, which reduces data transfer times.

FLNet - Voice Net Controller Database / check-in application

FLNet assists net control operators in keeping track of multiple stations during digital amateur radio nets.

FLLog - Same data file as FLdigi

FLLog is a logging software which keeps track of conversations between amateur radio operators in a database format known as ADIF.

FLWkey - modem program for the K1EL Winkeyer series

FLWkey is a simple interface to control an external piece of hardware called a Winkeyer. This is a morse code keyer which is adjustable via computer commands over .

Flcluster

Flcluster is telnet client to remote DX cluster servers

Flrig - rig control program, cooperates with FLdigi

FLRig is a component of the FLDigi suite of applications that enables computer aided control of various radios using a serial or USB connection.

Using FLRig in combination with FLDigi, events such as frequency, power level, receiver gain and audio gain may be adjusted from the computer automatically or by user intervention.

Software Architecture

For simple keyboard-to-keyboard communication Fldigi can be operated using just the main window. For more complex uses or file transfer external programs can be attached to the internal TCP/UDP ports 7322 (ARQ), 7342 (KISS), and 7362 (XML-RPC).

The image below helps to illustrate the interconnections and signal-flow within the Fldigi architecture.