setting up Pat Winlink with G90 and Vara HF on Raspberry Pi

[Jon Lebon]

I am close to getting this to work and the last part is the radio is not transmitting.   Pat Winlink is connecting to the radio and changing the frequencies.

To start with I am starting Rigcltd with this command.  It was starting off getting stuck in transmit mode until the set rts and dtr to off.  Don't know if that is still my problem.

rigctld -m 3088 -r /dev/ttyUSB0 -t 4532 -vvvvv --set-conf=rts_state=OFF,dtr_state=OFF

This is the config file after the first part showing the settings for hamlib and VaraHF.

 "http_addr": "0.0.0.0:8080",

  "motd": [

    "Open source Winlink client - getpat.io"

  ],

  "connect_aliases": {

    "telnet": "telnet://{mycall}:CMST...@cms.winlink.org:8772/wl2k"

  },

  "listen": [],

  "hamlib_rigs": {

    "my-rig": {

      "network": "tcp",

      "address": "localhost:4532",

      "VFO": ""

    }

  },

  "ax25": {

    "engine": "linux",

    "rig": "my-rig",

    "port": "wl2k",

    "beacon": {

      "every": 3600,

      "message": "Winlink P2P",

      "destination": "IDENT"

    }

  },

  "ax25_linux": {

    "port": "wl2k"

  },

  "agwpe": {

    "addr": "localhost:8000",

    "radio_port": 0

  },

  "serial-tnc": {

    "path": "/dev/ttyUSB0",

    "serial_baud": 9600,

    "hbaud": 9600,

    "baudrate": 9600,

    "type": "Kenwood",

    "rig": ""

  },

  "ardop": {

    "addr": "localhost:8515",

    "arq_bandwidth": {

      "Forced": false,

      "Max": 500

    },

    "connect_requests": 10,

    "rig": "my-rig",

    "ptt_ctrl": false,

    "beacon_interval": 0,

    "cwid_enabled": true

  },

  "pactor": {

    "path": "/dev/ttyUSB0",

    "baudrate": 57600,

    "rig": "",

    "custom_init_script": ""

  },

  "telnet": {

    "listen_addr": ":8774",

    "password": ""

  },

  "varahf": {

    "addr": "localhost:8300",

    "bandwidth": 500,

    "rig": "my-rig",

    "ptt_ctrl": true

  },

  "varafm": {

    "addr": "localhost:8300",

    "rig": "my-rig",

    "ptt_ctrl": true

  },

  "gpsd": {

    "enable_http": true,

    "allow_forms": true,

    "use_server_time": false,

    "update_locator": false,

    "addr": "localhost:2947"

  },

  "schedule": {},

  "version_reporting_disabled": false

}

And finally the message at the bottom of Pat Winlink showing the connection.

2026/04/06 20:30:18 my-rig ready. Dial frequency is 14.107.50 MHz. 2026/04/06 20:30:18 Starting HTTP service (http://0.0.0.0:8080)... 2026/04/06 20:31:24 VARA modem (VARA HF v4.9.0) initialized 2026/04/06 20:31:24 QSY varahf: 14106.5 2026/04/06 20:31:27 Connecting to N3MEL-11 (varahf)...

Please let me know if there is something I need to change to make this work.

Thank you

Jon

[Dave Menges WB9TEN]

I think your Pat config file is correct. 

I have not used Rigctld by itself to command the radio. I have always used FLRIG with Rigctld. Please feel free to ignore my advice if you are going down another path. I think I tried to go direct to the rig from Rigctld as you would do with ARDOP, but I never made it work and I didn't make notes as to why or what happened. Also, I am not familiar with a G90. 

Start and setup FLRIG so that it is controlling your rig.

Start Rigctld with following command line:

rigctld -m 4

Start VARA and then start Pat.

The parameters -m 4 tells Rigctld to treat Flrig as the radio. Vara commands Rigctld and then data passes to and from the rig through Flrig over port "12345".

Hopes this helps.

73

Dave

[Jon Lebon]

I tried FLRIG first and gave up.  It works perfect with the radio and with WSJTX but could not get it to work with Pat Winlink. Would not connect at all.  Now that I think of it, I was using the rigctld -m 4 line as well.

I was not starting rigctld first though.  Do I need to do that with the  rigctld -m 3088 -r /dev/ttyUSB0 -t 4532 -vvvvv --set-conf=rts_state=OFF,dtr_state=OFF   command?

Thank you

[Dave Menges WB9TEN]

Not being familiar with your rig and not having success with that method, I will defer to those more knowledgeable.

[Jon Lebon]

I have gone back to using FLRIG with G90 and Digirig rather than trying Hamlib on it's own.  I ran rigctld -m 4.  Pat Winlink will set the frequency on the G90 but will not transmit. I can see the frequency change on both FLRig and the radio.  Everything looks normal.  It says it is trying to connect to the station but the radio does not go into transmit.   I am still missing something.  

In Pat Config should the VaraHF PTT be true or false?  I have tried both ways but neither works.  Or is there something in FLRig I have set wrong?

Thank you for any ideas.

[Dave Menges WB9TEN]

This is what my Configuration dialog looks like in Flrig. Note that my tty (serial port) has been named for my IC-7300. That was done with a UDEV rule so it that it always has the same name and avoids conflicts with the Direwolf tty that I use for Packet on a VHF radio.

I had followed an early Video that Jason, KM4ACK did before he automated the process with Build-a-pi and now 73linux.

The baud must match what you have set up in your radio. Again, not familiar with G90 so I don't know what it is capable of. Also, that 0x94 is the rig type. Flrig sets that automatically for most radios as it did for the IC-7300. It is probably different for you G90. I don' think the other serial parameters matter.