Category: Pd9q

Direwolf <> AEA PK88

Posted onAuthorPD9Q2 Comments

144.800Mhz @ 1200Baud (Test on 03-29-20 11:00 (rx only))

Today I did a reception test with the AEA PK88 and Direwolf. I must say that I am impressed with the PK88. This is the best test I have done so far. Now the conditions were not optimal, there is very little traffic at the time. So I will probably test it again at a busier time. Even now I let the reception run for half an hour.

So we missed 19 packets out of a total of 211 packtes from Direwolf. This compared to the tnc3s that missed 73 out of 219 packets from Direwolf.
Below again the TNC3s comparison with Direwolf.

It is nice to see that this AEA PK-88 performs so well after all these years and different owners.

The last week I save all the Aprs traffic I receive and post it on a blog. You might like to take a look there. https://pd9q.blogspot.com

News from the TARPN front.

Posted onAuthorPD9QLeave a comment

I received a nice email from Tadd KA2DEW, there is a lot of development in the NinoTNC. Read the great news below.

We fixed the FTDI USB problem with the NinoTNC board by putting a USB-B socket on the PCB and a Microchip USB IC. This actually cut the parts cost by a few $. We’ll have the boards for sale on ETSY in April. Go to Etsy.com and search for TARPN. If the search doesn’t come up, then it isn’t listed yet. Our plan is to take orders in advance of shipping, and prime the pump with 200 boards ordering in early April with 3 weeks to get the boards into stock. At a time closer to ship time we’ll order programmed PIC CPUs with the latest firmware. When we get down to 50 or so in stock, we’ll order more. Because we’re running on out-of-pocket funding for the boards and CPUs, there may be some out-of-stock issues, but the price is right so hopefully people will smile and deal with it.

The new board is called the N9600A3. The last version was the A2, a black PCB with a 2-bit dip switch and the FTDI module on headers. The new board is the A3 blue PCB with USB B connector and a 4 bit dip switch. The new switches will be used to select more bit-rates. We’re not ready with anything new yet, but hopefully by the time the board ships? We’re likely to have 1200, 2400, 4800 and 9600 for FM and maybe some support for HF via SSB. Just like the A2 board, this one will come with IL2P Forward Error Correction mode which is a very efficient packet encoding providing Forward Error Correct in the same length packet as an AX.25 packet. (Full disclosure, as I understand it, packets with > 64 payload bytes will grow larger than AX.25 but small payloads result in shorter than AX.25 packets).

The NinoTNC A3 will come with a over-the-USB bootloader to update the firmware over USB, and we’ll be shipping a free Raspberry PI Raspbian application to boatload the TNC from a hex file. The hex file will be shipped for free one way or another. TARPN node ops will just do an UPDATEAPPS command on the TARPN scripts.

There is much software support to write for this which is not yet done. Our crack firmware and software teams are busy busy busy. Even though we’re not going to be ready with updated software in time we wanted to rush the A3 out there to solve the availability problem with the FTDIs. In addition we discovered that the tolerances for the Micro USB plugs and sockets are so bad that many people are breaking the FTDI modules plugging and unplugging. That’s not good. It’s easy to work-around but ugly. The A3’s USB-B connector is a much better deal.

See our news and info page starting at http://tarpn.net/d

Like before, we won’t be taking profit from this, and we’ll be selling the PCB + CPU for well under $10 on ETSY. Search on ETSY for TARPN. If it isn’t coming up, then we’re not ready to take pre-orders yet. It should be ready in early April. The news and info page will be updated when we get the store back up and when we have a clue about shipping this. We’ll also be posting a new A3 assembly link with access to the new bill of materials.

If you are interested in this, you should also sign up for the email reflector. http://tarpn.net/t/nino-tnc/email_reflectors.html

Tadd — KA2DEW

Direwolf <> Symek Tnc3s

Posted onAuthorPD9Q1 Comment

144.800Mhz @ 1200Baud (Two tests one on 03-23 and one on 03-24 (rx only))

The first test I did was of course not entirely fair, different antennas were used and different transmitters/receivers. Now I made a setup with the same antenna and the same receiver, so with the same audio input.
First the setup, as a computer(if I haven’t lost it.some where) I use a Raspberry PI 2B+, as a sound card I use an Fe-Pi Audio Z V2. As a receiver I use a Realistic pro 2006. It is an old receiver but still works 100%. The antenna is a x50 from Diamond. Of course the Tnc3s from Symek, and Direwolf from John WB2OSZ. I use Kissutil from WB2OSZ, this allows me to connect to Direwolf and the Tnc3s as well as save the received Frames. This makes comparing easy/easier.

Now I have made two start files, one for Direwolf and one for the Tnc3s. I start these in different terminals. I do this manually, so there is a slight delay in starting up.

/home/aprs/direwolf.sh

#!/bin/bash
# Start kissutil on Direwolf kiss port 8001
# Let it run for 30 minutes and kill the process
# Start options "timeout -s 9 1800 ./direwolf.sh"
#
# Kissutil for Direwolf save to /home/aprs/rec-direwolf
/usr/local/bin/kissutil-direwolf -o /home/aprs/rec-direwolf
#

/home/aprs/tnc3s.sh

#!/bin/bash
# Start kissutil on the /dev/ttyUSB0 for the Symek Tnc3s
# Let it run for 30 minutes and kill the process
# Start options "timeout -s 9 1800 ./tnc3s.sh"
#
# Kissutil for the Tnc3s save to /home/aprs/rc-tnc3s
/usr/local/bin/kissutil-tnc3s -p /dev/ttyUSB0 -s 38400 -o /home/aprs/rec-tnc3s
#

I start the scripts with the option “timeout” now I can specify the time how long the script runs.
Example. “timeout -s 9 1800 ./tnc3s.sh”
In this comparison, both scripts run for 30 minutes. 1800 Second. Now it is time for the comparison.

With the command “ls -A | wc -l” the number of files in the directory are counted. (Frames received.)

03-23-2020

03-24-2020

Here you can see the difference between the received frames of the Tnc3s and Direwolf. There is a difference of 73 and 125 missed frames from the Tnc3s. I tried something with the reception levels of the Tnc3s. It is To soft – Ok – To hard, there is little difference between To soft and Ok and To hard.

I did some tests with the amount of calls received. Just for fun.

NinoTNC arrived.

Posted onAuthorPD9Q2 Comments

A while ago I wrote something about the NinoTNC.

The NEW… NinoTNC form TARPN

There are some Dutch Radio amateurs who have ordered them.
Now I came across some pictures of a Dutch Radio Amateur who own and build the NinoTNC.

Impressive……

Pinpoint Windows Aprs Client

Posted onAuthorPD9Q1 Comment


I was playing with uiview32, but I was very bothered by the map that comes with uiview32. So I went looking for another Aprs client for windows. I ended up at PinPoint. In PinPoint you can choose from 40 different Map providers. Very nice.

I am satisfied with how it works. It is clear and fast. Only found out if at “Tools> Options” something changes you have to close the program and restart. There is also something disturbing, if you close the program and restart you have lost the received aprs messages. Very annoying.

http://www.pinpointaprs.com/

Ax25-apps, Ax25-tools, Ax25-utils, Libax25

Posted onAuthorPD9QLeave a comment

Please use the latest version, this prevents irritation and annoying things that you do not understand.

Ax25-Apps
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 185677 Mar 8 14:25 ax25-apps-0.0.1.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 196284 Mar 8 14:25 ax25-apps-0.0.2.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 197901 Mar 8 14:25 ax25-apps-0.0.3.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 198064 Mar 8 14:25 ax25-apps-0.0.4.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 207347 Mar 8 14:25 ax25-apps-0.0.5p2.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 207624 Mar 8 14:25 ax25-apps-0.0.5.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 273846 Mar 8 14:25 ax25-apps-0.0.6.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 462058 Mar 8 14:25 ax25-apps-0.0.8-rc1.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 430456 Mar 8 14:25 ax25-apps-0.0.8-rc2.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 469313 Mar 8 14:25 ax25-apps-0.0.8-rc3.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 442172 Mar 8 14:25 ax25-apps-0.0.8-rc4.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 479590 Mar 8 14:25 ax25-apps-0.0.8-rc5.tar.gz

Ax25-Tools
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 515474 Mar 8 14:25 ax25-tools-0.0.10-rc1.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 381575 Mar 8 14:25 ax25-tools-0.0.10-rc2.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 370079 Mar 8 14:25 ax25-tools-0.0.10-rc3.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 364332 Mar 8 14:25 ax25-tools-0.0.10-rc4.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 372851 Mar 8 14:25 ax25-tools-0.0.10-rc5.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 162320 Mar 8 14:25 ax25-tools-0.0.1.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 176989 Mar 8 14:25 ax25-tools-0.0.2.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 234032 Mar 8 14:25 ax25-tools-0.0.3.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 230243 Mar 8 14:25 ax25-tools-0.0.4.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 230243 Mar 8 14:25 ax25-tools-0.0.5.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 251941 Mar 8 14:25 ax25-tools-0.0.6.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 254019 Mar 8 14:25 ax25-tools-0.0.8.tar.gz

Libax25
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 103151 Mar 8 14:25 ax25-lib-0.0.1.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 122941 Mar 8 14:25 ax25-lib-0.0.2.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 123970 Mar 8 14:25 ax25-lib-0.0.3.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 143265 Mar 8 14:25 libax25-0.0.10.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 231325 Mar 8 14:25 libax25-0.0.11.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 361613 Mar 8 14:25 libax25-0.0.12-rc1.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 332178 Mar 8 14:25 libax25-0.0.12-rc2.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 359045 Mar 8 14:25 libax25-0.0.12-rc3.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 335535 Mar 8 14:25 libax25-0.0.12-rc4.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 360123 Mar 8 14:25 libax25-0.0.12-rc5.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 122442 Mar 8 14:25 libax25-0.0.4.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 129510 Mar 8 14:25 libax25-0.0.5.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 130198 Mar 8 14:25 libax25-0.0.6.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 131177 Mar 8 14:25 libax25-0.0.7.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 264673 Mar 8 14:25 libax25-0.0.9.tar.gz

Ax25-Utils
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 282655 Mar 8 14:25 ax25-utils-1.3.30.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 155821 Mar 8 14:25 ax25-utils-1.3.80.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 246854 Mar 8 14:25 ax25-utils-2.0.12c.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 204439 Mar 8 14:25 ax25-utils-2.0.12.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 359082 Mar 8 14:25 ax25-utils-2.1.22b.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 346153 Mar 8 14:25 ax25-utils-2.1.42a.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 344332 Mar 8 14:25 ax25-utils-2.1.42.tar.gz
-rw-r–r– 1 pd9q pd9q 21657 Mar 8 14:25 ax25utils.tar.gz

FBB-PK232 in host-mode

Posted onAuthorPD9QLeave a comment

 

If you plan to use a PK-232 with this software, you must make some changes.
You must have a P in "Type host mode". For example:

 #
 #TNC NbCh Com MultCh Pacln Maxfr NbFwd MxBloc M/P-Fwd Mode Freq
 1    7    1   1      230   4     1     10     30/60   UPYW 433.650
 2    1    3   1      80    2     1     5      17/30   GPW  15/20m
 #

 Example of INITTNCx.SYS for PK-232:

 UNMAIL v LA7QR   means Unproto MAIL v LA7QR
 RY10               "   Retry 10
 MN6                "   Monitor 6
 MC6                "   Mcon 6

 Example of MAINTx.SYS for PK-232:

 UR1
 CTBBS ($c) was shut down for service $d $T.

 PK-232 host-mode commands (from F6AIW) :

 8B 8BITCONV AU AAB      AB ABAUD    AG ACHG     AA ACRDISP
 AK ACRPACK  AT ACRRTTY  AE ADDRESS  AD ADELAY   AI ALFDISP
 AP ALFPACK  AR ALFRTTY  AL ALIST    AM AMTOR    AC ARQ
 AO ARQTMO   AS ASCII    AY ASPECT   AW AWLEN    AV AX25L2V2
 AX AXDELAY  AH AXHANG   BA BAUDOT   BE BEACON   BI BITINV
 BK BKONDEL  BT BTEXT    CL CANLINE  CP CANPAC   CX CASEDISP
 CU CBELL    CC CCITT    CF CFROM    CB CHCALL   CD CHDOUBLE
 CH CHSWITCH CK CHECK    CQ CMDTIME  CM CMSG     CI CODE
 CN COMMAND  CE CONMODE  CO CONNECT  CY CONPERM  CG CONSTAMP
 CI CPACTIME CR CRADD    CT CTEXT    CW CWID     DS DAYSTAMP
 DA DAYTIME  DC DCDCONN  DL DELETE   DF DFROM    DI DISCONNE
 DW DWAIT    EA EAS      EC ECHO     ES ESCAPE   FA FAX
 FN FAXNEG   FE FEC      FL FLOW     FR FRACK    FS FSPEED
 FU FULLDUP  GR GRAPHICS HB HBAUD    HD HEADERLN HI HID
 HO HOST     HP HPOLL    ID ID       IL ILFPACK  IO IO
 JU JUSTIFY  KI KISS     LR LEFTRITE LO LOCK     MX MAXFRAME
 MB MBX      MC MCON     MD MDIGI    MM MEMORY   MI MFILTER
 MF MFROM    MH MHEARD   MN MONITOR  MO MORSE    MP MSPEED
 MR MRPT     MS MSTAMP   MT MTO      MA MYALIAS  ML MYCALL
 MG MYSELCAL MK MYALTCAL NE NEWMODE  NO NOMODE   NR NUCR
 NF NULF     NU NULLS    OK OK       OP OPMODE   PA PACKET
 PL PACLEN   PT PACTIME  PR PARITY   PS PASS     PX PASSALL
 PE PERSIST  PP PPERSIST PC PRCON    PF PRFAX    PO PROUT
 PY PRTYPE   RW RAWHDLC  RB RBAUD    RC RCVE     RE RECEIVE
 RX RXREV    RD REDISPLA RL RELINK   RS RESET    RP RESPTIME
 RT RESTART  RY RETRY    RF RFEC     SE SELFEC   SP SENDPAC
 SI SIGNAL   SL SLOTTIME SQ SQUELCH  SR SRXALL   ST START
 SO STOP     TB TBAUD    TC TCLEAR   TM TIME     TR TRACE
 TW TRFLOW   TI TRIES    TD TXDELAY  TF TXFLOW   TX TXREV
 UN UNPROTO  UR USERS    US USOS     VH VHF      WI WIDESHFT
 WO WORDOUT  WR WRU      XW XFLOW    XM XMIT     XO XMITOK
 XF XOFF     XN XON

FBB7.0.9 released

Posted onAuthorPD9Q1 Comment

@Bug Bash

Trying BBSURO:N1URO-4… <Enter> aborts.
Virtual circuit established to BBSURO:N1URO-4
[FBB-7.0.9-AB1FHMRX$]
{PROTUS-4.1á2}

There has been quite a bit of activity on the mail list or Fbb in the last 2 weeks. Some bugs have been fixed by Dave, now the Protus C_Filter and the G0LGS M and F Filter are working properly again.

Last release

https://sourceforge.net/projects/linfbb/files/fbb-7.0.9.tar.gz/download

Brian N1URO has written some installation script for Protus and G0LGS filters and has been working on the translation of the Spanish Protus files.

The appropriate Filters can be downloaded from the links below.

https://ham.packet-radio.net/packet/f6fbb/tools/g0lgs-filters-701-0.60.tgz
https://ham.packet-radio.net/packet/f6fbb/tools/protus4-eng.tar.gz

Or

ftp://n1uro.no-ip.org/pub/hamradio/packet/fbb/utils/g0lgs-filters-701-0.60.tgz
ftp://n1uro.no-ip.org/pub/hamradio/packet/fbb/utils/protus4-eng.tar.gz

They are currently working on getting rid of some Bugs that cause some errors with Fbb ping and the ReqDir server.

Thanks to Dave, Stewart G0LGS, Brian N1URO, Bernard F6BVP, Paul G4APL and Tom SP2L

Great work, Thank you

Changelog…..

7.0.8-beta9 (f6bvp, Dave van der Locht)
– [r176] fbblog files renamed from 0 to 52 for week number
fbb log displayed calling executable script /usr/local/bin/fbblog
– [r177] Some functions are done via system() calls. However, observed return value
is invariably -1 while it should reflect the result of called program.
It happened because the SIGCHILD signal handler was set to SIG_IGN.
Fixed at the beginning of the main function in xfbbd.c.
Dave van der Locht 2019-12-14

7.0.9 (Dave van der Locht)
– [r178] beta9 was hanging. xfbbd.c patched.
1) Return value of system() is always -1 due to SIGCHLD signal was ignored.
2) Added ‘fail-safe bypass’ in case call_nbdos() couldn’t find the command/executable to run.
3) Replaced system() with popen() in the call_nbdos() function to fix the problem with
response text from a c_filter not coming through.