aprx.conf

[sm7...@gmail.com]

HI

I am new to APRX.

Have used WX3IN1 and some other softw before that (do not remember which). I have gotten the APRX to work (TX-igate + digipeat). But it behaves a bit different from WX3IN1 on the RF side. I am concerend it is me who has done something wrong. Can anyone email ne direct and I will send the aprx.conf to this helpful soul? Maybe we can find out what is wrong in my config.

sm7sjr (at) gmail.com

73 de SM7SJR, Bjorn

www.sm7sjr.se

[Max Harper]

I would post a copy of your aprx.conf file here for the collective to look at as well as what you are seeing that doesn't look right or just different.

Max KG4PID 

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From: "sm7...@gmail.com" <sm7...@gmail.com>
To: Aprx software <aprx-s...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 7, 2016 5:01 PM
Subject: [Aprx] aprx.conf

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[sm7...@gmail.com]

Thanks

Sorry about these stupid questions, but anyway.

Below is my APRX.conf

Q: I have put filter 200km on aprsis section. Shoudl this be on the digipeater section or? I really see no use of me sending out beacons on RF about stations a gazillion of miles away. Nor digipeating it (if there are conds).

Q: Compared to my previous WX3IN1 and UIVIEW setups, this setup sends out very little beacons. Why? (Which might not be a bad thing really, but anyway)

Q: When I send a beacon in my car with SM7SJR-9 I do not get a response on RF from this SM7SJR-2. Which I did with my previous setups. Why?

Yes the passcode is blanked out and I do have one callsign which I want to filter out completely since he is using WIDE 7-7. I have named it CALLSIGN below.

Q: I am not sure I need this: initstring "\x0dKISS ON\x0dRESET\x0d"   I am using this TNC: http://tnc-x.com/TNCPi.htm

tnx in advance

73 de SM7SJR, Bjorn.

******************************************

mycall  SM7SJR-2

myloc lat 5702.63N lon 01628.19E

<aprsis>

passcode ######

server   sweden2.aprs2.net

filter "m/200"     # My-Range filter: positions within 200 km from my location

</aprsis>

<logging>

pidfile /var/run/aprx.pid

rflog /var/log/aprx/aprx-rf.log

aprxlog /var/log/aprx/aprx.log

</logging>

<interface>

serial-device /dev/ttyAMA0  19200 8n1    KISS

callsign     $mycall  # callsign defaults to $mycall

initstring "\x0dKISS ON\x0dRESET\x0d"

tx-ok        true    # transmitter enable defaults to false

telem-to-is  true # set to 'false' to disable

</interface>

<beacon>

beaconmode both

cycle-size  20m

beacon symbol "I#" $myloc comment "PHG71684/RIP, Lemmy!"

</beacon>

<digipeater>

    transmitter     $mycall

<source>

      source         $mycall

      relay-type    digipeated # default mode is "digipeated"

      viscous-delay  0     # no viscous delay for RF->RF digipeating

      filter         -b/CALLSIGN*        # always block these

</source>

<source>                # APRSIS source adds a TX-IGATE behaviour

source        APRSIS

relay-type    third-party  # Must define this for APRSIS source!

via-path WIDE2-1

msg-path WIDE2-1

viscous-delay  5    # Recommendation: 5 seconds delay to give

filter         -b/CALLSIGN*        # always block these

</source>

</digipeater>

[Tom Hayward]

On Fri, Jan 8, 2016 at 1:39 AM, <sm7...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks
>
> Sorry about these stupid questions, but anyway.
>
> Below is my APRX.conf
>
> Q: I have put filter 200km on aprsis section. Shoudl this be on the
> digipeater section or? I really see no use of me sending out beacons on RF
> about stations a gazillion of miles away. Nor digipeating it (if there are
> conds).

With the filter in the aprsis section, you instruct the internet
server to send aprx only packets from stations that have transmitted a
position report within 200 km of your location. Once these packets
arrive at aprx, it continues to the other sections to decide what to
do with them. In your digipeater source aprsis section, you have it
set for messages only (default), so all but messages are being
discarded within aprx. You're asking the server to send you a bunch of
data and then discarding most of it.

Neither section needs a filter. The default (don't define a filter)
will only send messages for stations you have heard. For normal igates
(and combination igate+digipeaters), this is perfect.

> Q: Compared to my previous WX3IN1 and UIVIEW setups, this setup sends out
> very little beacons. Why? (Which might not be a bad thing really, but
> anyway)

You have it set to send one beacon every 20 minutes. What did you have
the WX3IN1 set to? How often do you want to beacon?

Note that beacons are only sent to RF interfaces, so you rely on other
igates to relay your beacons to the Internet. If you are the only
igate in the area, you will not see your beacons on the Internet.
Everybody in range on RF will see your beacon, however.

> Q: When I send a beacon in my car with SM7SJR-9 I do not get a response on
> RF from this SM7SJR-2. Which I did with my previous setups. Why?

I don't know, but there could be lots of factors. If you share the RF
log (from /var/log/aprx/aprx-rf.log), we may be able to see what is
going on.

> Yes the passcode is blanked out and I do have one callsign which I want to
> filter out completely since he is using WIDE 7-7. I have named it CALLSIGN
> below.

By default, aprx will not digipeat packets with more than 4 requested
hops. You don't need to manually police this by callsign. See section
2.3 for more information:
http://ham.zmailer.org/oh2mqk/aprx/aprx-manual.pdf

> Q: I am not sure I need this: initstring "\x0dKISS ON\x0dRESET\x0d" I am
> using this TNC: http://tnc-x.com/TNCPi.htm

Correct, this is unnecessary. There's an example aprx interface config
in the TNC-Pi manual:
http://tnc-x.com/TNCPi.pdf (page 23)

It is very simple and shows all you need is:

serial-device /dev/ttyAMA0 19200 8n1 KISS

The TNC-Pi is always in KISS mode, so no initstring is required.

Tom KD7LXL

[Max Harper]

Remove the "filter m/200" as it's not needed here.

I'm not sure if aprx will use the "filter -b/CALLSIGN" or not.

Since you have set "beaconmode" both' it will go out to RF and to the aprs-is. I like to set my location beacon to 'beaconmode radio' so that I know if my station is making it to another igate or not.

> Q: When I send a beacon in my car with SM7SJR-9 I do not get a response on
> RF from this SM7SJR-2. Which I did with my previous setups. Why?

First I would check the aprx rf log. Using the command

"less /var/log/aprx/aprx-rf.log | grep "SM7SJR-9"

will show if your mobile was recieved and then digied or not.

The command

"tail -n 100 /var/log/aprx/aprx-rf.log

will show the last 100 lines from the log.

In your car, do you receive the beacons from aprx?

If not, try listening to see if the radio is sending anything or not.

If the cabling is good, it may be that the receive or transmit levels need to be adjusted.

Max KG4PID

[Kenneth Finnegan]

> Q: When I send a beacon in my car with SM7SJR-9 I do not get a response on
> RF from this SM7SJR-2. Which I did with my previous setups. Why?

If you use any filters on an interface, aprx drops all packets not explicitly included by a filter. You have this:

 filter         -b/CALLSIGN*

This means aprx explicitly excludes this one callsign, then also excludes everything else since they don't match any inclusive filters. You probably want something like this:

filter -b/CALLSIGN*
filter t/*

Explicitly exclude the one callsign, then explicitly include all of every type of packet.

The relevant open bug report is here: https://github.com/PhirePhly/aprx/issues/11

--
Kenneth Finnegan
http://blog.thelifeofkenneth.com/

[sm7...@gmail.com]

TNX to all for the help. I ditched all the filter stuff and now I am on the right track. Happy APRSing!

73 de SM7SJR, Bjorn

 

[sm7...@gmail.com]

As a follow up. Say I just want to send out beacons (over radio) of stations within 200km radius. How do I set up such a filter rule? 

73 SM7SJR

Bjorn

<beacon>

beaconmode both

cycle-size  20m

beacon symbol "I#" $myloc comment "PHG71684/RIP, Lemmy!"

</beacon>

<digipeater>

    transmitter     $mycall

<source>

      source         $mycall

      relay-type    digipeated # default mode is "digipeated"

      viscous-delay  0     # no viscous delay for RF->RF digipeating

</source>

<source>                # APRSIS source adds a TX-IGATE behaviour

source        APRSIS

relay-type    third-party  # Must define this for APRSIS source!

via-path WIDE2-1

msg-path WIDE2-1

viscous-delay  5    # Recommendation: 5 seconds delay to give

</source>

</digipeater>

[ok2zo]

Dne pátek 15. ledna 2016 6:57:11 UTC+1 sm7...@gmail.com napsal(a):

As a follow up. Say I just want to send out beacons (over radio) of stations within 200km radius.

 

 

I would not do this, cause it can easily fill up the traffic on air! Maybe much smaller range could be acceptable, but there can be some objects/internet only stations/D* etc.., you may not want to send to air.. Anyway, t/m is good to have set.. messages within range set in aprsis section..

Hope my logic is o.k.? :-)

 

<aprsis>

filter "m/200"

</aprsis>

<digipeater>

      transmitter     $mycall

<source>

      source         $mycall

      relay-type    digipeated # default mode is "digipeated"

      viscous-delay  0     # no viscous delay for RF->RF digipeating

</source>

<source>                # APRSIS source adds a TX-IGATE behaviour

     source        APRSIS

     relay-type    third-party  # Must define this for APRSIS source

     filter t/m m/200

     via-path none

[Kenneth Finnegan]

No. There is no need to write a specific filter to RF-gate message packets. With no defined filters, aprx will intelligently RF-gate messages originating from the APRS-IS destined for stations which aprx has recently heard on RF. 

I would only add filters to RF-gate third party traffic from the APRS-IS to local RF for specific stations or objects which are beaconed online. For example, say a local club beacons their repeater to the APRS-IS, and you'd like to RF-gate that one specific object; that would be a laudable goal for specific RF-gate filters. 

I would go as far as discouraging any form of location-based RF-gating. If someone is using an APRS-IS tracker, it is unlikely there is added value in getting their location beacons on RF. If someone is using an RF tracker but is so far away that they can't reach the local RF network, there is definitely no added value in getting them on RF. Only use RF-gate filters to include specific objects which happen to originate from an APRS-IS client but would be useful to local RF-only clients (i.e. someone new driving through the area or locals who are interested in seeing weather station reports). APRX can take care of itself with regards to appropriately RF-gating message packets.

--
Kenneth Finnegan
http://blog.thelifeofkenneth.com/

--

[ok2zo]

Hm, I didn't know this Kenneth.. Anyway, after posting I've found my mistake also in the config..

This should work according Bjorn's question. Anyway, this cause really lot of traffic..

 

Anyway, Ken.. How about "via-path"? I have to set LOCAL, cause it always wants sth. If I keep it empty (whole line), the packet is send as "to APRS via (nothing)".

If use none, it's send "to APRS via NONE".. So for now i use LOCAL, as seen bellow..

<aprsis>

filter "m/200"

</aprsis>

<digipeater>

      transmitter     $mycall

<source>

      source         $mycall

      relay-type    digipeated # default mode is "digipeated"

      viscous-delay  0     # no viscous delay for RF->RF digipeating

</source>

<source>                # APRSIS source adds a TX-IGATE behaviour

     source        APRSIS

     relay-type    third-party  # Must define this for APRSIS source

     filter t/pos

     via-path LOCAL

     msg-path WIDE2-1

     viscous-delay  5    # Recommendation: 5 seconds delay to give

</source>
</digipeater>
 

[ok2zo]

oops.. I'm really tired.. objects are also possitioned..

the best is t/* as you described before.. but t/p is pretty enough for most used traffic..