TIPS ON BUYING AND PREP OF THE USED AEA PK232MBX TNC
By Scott Duckworth NA4IT / AAV4WF

(1) BUYING ONE…DON’T GET BURNED!

(a) If it is an all “red” led unit, make sure it is a true Pactor MBX. The firmware
must be 7.0 or greater, and when accessed in a terminal program, make sure
it WILL go into PACTOR mode.

(b) The “red, green, yellow” led model is a true MBX with 7.0 or greater. Just
make sure it does work!

(2) PREPPING A PK232MBX FOR USE

(a) Pop the hood, or look in the hole in the bottom and make sure the battery
jumper is OFF. Just remove it and put it back down on one pin only.

(3) TESTING A PK232MBX FOR VERSION AND FUNCTION

(a) Do (2)(a) above FIRST! Then, hook up power (must 13V at 1 amp or greater,
most wall warts WILL NOT run a PK232MBX reliably) and serial cable.

(b) Start Hyperterminal in Windows. Do the following:

(1) For New Connection name type PK232MBX and click OK.

(2) Select “Connect Using” for the com port the TNC is connected to and
click OK.

(3) Select 9600, 8, NONE, 1, NONE and click OK.

(4) Now, turn on the TNC. After a few seconds you should have only the
BAUDOT light lit, and a series of CCCCCCCCCCCCCCC, once you do,
hit “Shift, 8” on your keyboard. The TNC should respond with something
like:

PK-232M is using default values.
AEA PK-232M Data Controller
Copyright (C) 1986-1993 by
Advanced Electronic Applications, Inc.
Release 01.DEC.93
Ver. 7.0
PACTOR S/N 11992
cmd:

(5) Your firmare version will be listed after “Ver.”. If it is version 7.0 or
greater, type “PACTOR”. And you should see

Opmode was PAcket
Opmode now PACTOr

(6) If this test was sucessful, you are the proud owner of a PK232MBX that
WILL do Pactor I. Now type “PACKET”, then “RESET” to make ready to
setup your PK232MBX with Airmail2000. Use the Airmail2000 setup guides
to do this.

If you are a MARS member and do not have the Pactor Firmware 7.0 on your PK-232 MBX model modem, please contact AAT4GM for additional information.