Fw: [winlink-programs-group] Re: Digipeater Setup

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David Tanks

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Feb 19, 2020, 3:21:55 PM2/19/20
to Shenvalwinlink, Valleyhams
I asked the question on the above group in googlegroups.io. This answer was what I was looking for. No new hardware to buy, only an update to a program I already had, and make a couple changes to it.

By the way, some answered saying I had to have a TNC. A couple of hams, said when they saw this answer, that they did not know the program had that capability! So a lot of people learned something today!

Definitely something to make a note on for future reference!

David AD4TJ

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: 'John Wiseman' via Winlink Programs Group <winlink-pro...@googlegroups.com>
To: Winlink Programs Group <winlink-pro...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2020, 1:48:58 PM EST
Subject: [winlink-programs-group] Re: Digipeater Setup

UZ7HO Soundmodem can act as a Digipeater. Enable it by setting MyDigiCall in the AX25_A and/or AX25_B sections of soundmodem.ini

73,
John G8BPQ



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Mark Whitis

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Feb 20, 2020, 6:16:19 AM2/20/20
to David Tanks, Shenvalwinlink, Valley Hams
Use direwolf instead of UZ7HO.


 Direwolf
 UZ7HO
Free
 Yes
 Yes
Open Source
 Yes
 No
Cross Platform
 Yes
 No



Windoze
 Yes
 Yes
Mac OS X
 Yes
 No
Linux
 Yes
 No
Raspberry Pi
 Yes
 No
Chromebook
 possibly in linux mode
 No
Android
possibly in linux mode
 No
OpenWRT
 possibly *1
 No



Source Code
 Yes
 No



Emulate KISS TNC
 Yes
 Yes
Emulate SV2AGW packet engine (AGWPE)
 Yes
 Yes



Decode Performance
 Excellent
 Excellent
Digipeater built in
 Yes
 Yes
Internet Gateway built in
 Yes
 No
300 baud packet
 Yes
 Yes
1200 baud packet
 Yes
 Yes
9600 baud packet
 Yes
Yes
Works with Winlink Software
 Yes
 Yes
Works with SDR software
 Yes, documented
Works with APRS software
 Yes
 Yes
Multiple simultaneous Radios
 Up to 6
 2?
Multiple simultaneous soundcards
 Up to 3
 1
CW station ID
 Yes
 No
Synthesized Voice Station ID
 Yes
 No



GUI
 No
 Yes
Panadapter/Waterfall
 No (external)
 Yes
Terminal
 direwolf kissutil,
linbpq as TNC2 emulator with minicom
 Internal/external







*1 The sourcecode for Direwolf includes some defintions for OpenWRT on MIPS processor.    You would likely need to compile it yourself and you would need a router with a decent CPU

There is no need for a waterfall in Direwolf since you can run fldigi or any SDR software taking data from the same sound card and it will display a waterfall.    

LinBPQ running on top of KISS can emulate an old school TNC2 (i.e. add TNC2 commands) on a virtual serial port (psuedotty).   You can then connect to it using a terminal emulator such as minicom for the old school TNC experience.   Use simplekissinstall which includes this linBPQ configuration file (note: setup for raspberry pi).   The windows version BPQ32 can also emulate a TNC2.
   
But you are probably going to be runing an APRS or Winlink client on top of it rather than using old school packet.



Note that fldigi can also pretend to be a KISS TNC so you can use any of fldigi's modes.   flidigi is free and open source and runs on linux, mac, windoze and implements most digital modes except packet radio, WSJT modes (JT-65/FT-8), and weird propetary modes used by WinLink.  Supported modes include PSK-31, CW, Contestis, Domino, FeldHell, MT-63, Olivia, RTTY, THOR, THROB, MFSK, weather fax, slow scan, etc.


https://github.com/wb2osz/direwolf

There are no cross platform packet terminal programs that work with kiss tncs.  

APRSISCE/32 is a windoze program that is advertised to run under WINE on Mac OS and Linux (but not on arm machines like raspberry pi).  However YAAC is a cross platform program that runs natively.  Xastir runs on linux, or Mac OS and can run on Win10 in the windows subsystem for linux.  

The following software works with direwolf but is not cross-platorm and should be avoided:
  • APRSISCE/32 (does run in wine)
  • UI-View32
  • Winlink Express
  • SARtrack
  • UISS
Winlink modes:
  • packet : ok
  • PACTOR 1  hfterm on linux can send/receive pactor 1.
  • PACTOR 2/3 - receive only using PMON on raspberry pi ONLY.   commercial use not allowed.  No source code.  Can't be fixed when the company behind pactor decides not to maintain it.
  • wiinmor - windoze only.   Can run on WINE in Linux but not natively or on raspberry pi. 
  • ardop - there is a linux native softmodem called ardopc   Need to configure ALSA sound drivers to convert to 12000samples/second since most soundcards don't support that rate.   Runs on Linux or Windoze.

ARIM (Amateur Radio Instant Messaging) is a program that runs with ARDOP/ARDOPC  Linux.  Can run on windows using WSL.

Multiple programs can share one sound card using Jack on Linux, Mac OS X, Raspberry Pi, or Windoze.   Jack combined with JackTrip will also let you use a sound card attached to a remote computer.   Jack is a real time audio patch panel.   It will let you plug in DSP filters.   It can be used to connect your SDR software's demodulated audio to Direwolf/fldigi/WSJT-X/Audacity/etc.    Jack has plugins for filters and equalizers, mixers, and visualizers (oscilloscope, etc.), effects racks, playback, and recording.

You can also configure PulseAudio or ALSA on linux to allow sharing.  For ALSA, there is the dsnoop and dmix plugins.

Note that under linux, you don't traditionally have a terminal connecting to your TNC (although you can use linpac or LinBPQ as a TNC2 emulator).  So you don't see a lot of programs that provide that (not that there seem to be on windows either).   That is because linux is the only operating system that integrates packet radio/AX.25 right into the operating system kernel.   So your packet radio ends up being a network interface just like your ethernet and wifi.

Most of these commands are only available if you attach direwolf to the kernel AX.25 stack, except the ones that come with direwolf, linBPQ, the ARPS programs,  and the Winlink programs.
  • kissattach - use this to connect a kiss device (such as direwolf) to the kernel
  • mkiss - Some configurations have a dual port TNC (two radios) or multiple TNCs sharing a radio by adding a little information to the kiss packets to identify which radio.  The kernel has no support for this, but mkiss will demuliplex  this into separate psuedoterminals (virtual serial ports).  Since direwolf supports up to 6 radios, you will need to use this in some or all cases.
  • axlisten - snoop on AX.25 and show all packets with an optional timestamp.   You could run this inside an existing terminal or tab.
    • Pop up a dedicated terminal window to show packet activity using
      • xterm -hold -bg yellow -fg black -e "axlisten" &
    • Show activity that involves your callsign:
      • axlisten | fgrep -i "N0CALL"
  • beacon - send a message once every 30 minutes.   With "-s" option, it will send a message once.
  • bput, bget (axgetput) - send or receive files overpacket radio using #BIN, YAPP, or DIDADIT protocols.
  • mheard - list callsignqs recently heard
  • axports - list the ax25 ports
  • axcall - connect to another packet nod e(AX.25, NET/ROM, or ROSE)
  • ax25_call, netrom_call, rose_call, tcp_call -  like axcall, but more specific
  • axparms, axctl - setup
  • net2kiss - will create a virtual serial port with that you can send/receive kiss packets to/from a kernel ax25 driver   Use so a program that supports KISS can talk to kernel based AX.25 driver.   Used instead of kernel AX.25 stack.
  • kissnetd - creates a virtual network of AX.25 systems that use KISS.  Any real or virtual serial ports named on the command are connected together.
  • kissparms - dynamically configure KISS TNCs.  Since configuration commands without interupting the AX.25 data.
  • bpqparms  - tunnel AX.25 packets over ethernet
  • NET/ROM commands: nrattach, nrparms, netrom_call, netromd, nodesave
  • ROSE commands: rsattach, rsparms, rsdwnlnk, rsmemsiz, rsuplnk, rsusers
  • 6PACK commands: spattach, m6pack,
  • rxecho - echos AX.25 packets between interfaces.
  • ordinary network commands
    • ping - bounce test packets off a remote host
    • telnet - create a terminal connection over a TCP/IP network (virtual serial cable)
    •  route - setup routing commands
    • ifup/ifdown - turn network interfaces on and off
    • firewall configuration commands such as UFW or iptables
  • There are configuration files in /etc/ax25/
  • There are a few disadvantages of kernel based networking:
    • Any server that accepts packets/connections from any network interface will also be accepting them from the radio.  
    • Any program that broadcasts packets on every attached interface will send out the radio as well.   samba is an example of an offender.   It needs to be uninstalled or configured to only send via selected interfaces.
  • To install the AX25 utilities:
    •  sudo apt-get install -y libax25 ax25-apps ax25-utils ax25-xtools ax25mail-utils libax25 libax25-dev
    • sudo apt-get install -y linpac
    • sudo apt-get install -y xastir
  • Direwolf includes a number of utilite programs. 
    • kissutil (direwolf version 1.5 ) - connects to a KISS TNC, which may or may not be direwolf, over serial port or network.  You can type AX.25 packets starting with an uppercase letter or use single lowercase letter commands to set half a dozen TNC parameters (the same ones you can set with kissparams if it is connected to kernel.  Also can log packets to a file with optional timestamp.   kissutil --help or  :help inside kissutil
    • decode-aprs - convert raw APRS packets to human readable form
    • aclients, atest,, gen_packets,
    • log2gpx - convert direwolf logs (with APRS reports) coordinates into GPX waypoints at tracks for mapping.
    • text2tt, tt2text - APRS touchtone encoding/decoding
  • BBS programs: DPBOX, LBBS, N0ARY Packet BBS, Packet Cluster ode Software, http://www.linux-ax25.org/wiki/BBS,_Mail_and_Telnet
  • Node programs: Node, JNOS, NOS, TNOS, URONode
  • APRS programs:    Xastir, YAAC, marble (better map display, no sending messages). libfap6 (parsing library). aprsc, aprx, aprsc-eoss, aprsdigi
  • crossplatform winlink software: pat, paclink-unix/paclink, outpost, ardopc
  • hamradio-packetmodes - metapackage, installs:  aprsdigi, aprx, ax25-apps, ax25-tools, ax25-xtools, ax25mail-utils, direwolf, fbb, multimon, soundmodem, uronode, xastir
  • linBPQ  - linux version of BPQ32 Node, BBS and Chat Server components.  APRS is provided sepatately by BPQAPRS Also runs on Raspberry pi.    Allows computer to work as a NET/ROM node.   Runs as a daemon rather than interactively.


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Sent from smartphone.  Please excuse typos and transcription errors.

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