Jnos and QtSoundModem

Today I was playing with Jnos, on my main system I have BPQ32 running with Direwolf and QtSoundModem. BPQ32 uses the Kiss port on Direwolf and the AGW port on QtSoundModem. Now I know that Jnos can easily handle the AGW interface/driver, so I linked Jnos with the AGW poort of Direwolf.

attach agwpe agw 44.137.31.70 8000
ifconfig agw description "AGW - 1200 baud port"
ax25 hport agw on
trace agw 0111

Direwolf is running on 144.850Mhz 1k2 and 430.950Mhz 9k6

Now I thought it would be nice to hook Jnos to QtSoundModem as well. But BPQ32 already uses the AGW port of QtSoundModem. Now I had read that Maiko VE4KLM had written a Kiss over tcp/ip for Winrpr. Who doesn’t dare don’t win. Here we go.

QtSoundmodem is running on 14.102Mhz 300Baud with 1100Hz on the left channel and 2000Hz on the right channel.

Autoexec.nos

attach winrpr qt0 44.137.31.76 8105
attach kiss qt0 1 qt1
#
ifconfig qt0 description "Kiss tcp/ip port 14.102Mhz 1100Hz"
ifconfig qt1 description "Kiss tcp/ip port 14.102Mhz 2200Hz"
trace qt0 0x211 qt0.log 1000
trace qt1 0x211 qt1.log 1000
#
ax25 hport qt0 on
ax25 hport qt1 on

The winrpr is the kiss over tcp/ip driver of Jnos. It`s written to use with Winrpr.

jnos> ifconfig  
qt1      IP addr 44.137.31.67 MTU 256 Link encap AX25
         Link addr PD9Q-1   BBS PD9Q   Paclen 256   Irtt 5000
         BCText: PD9Q Jnos Packet BBS/Gateway
         flags 0xcb0 trace 0x211 netmask 0x00000000 broadcast 0.0.0.0
         sent: ip 0 tot 0 idle 0:00:01:51
         recv: ip 0 tot 0 idle 0:00:01:51
         descr: Kiss tcp/ip port 14.102Mhz 2200Hz
qt0      IP addr 44.137.31.67 MTU 256 Link encap AX25
         Link addr PD9Q-1   BBS PD9Q   Paclen 256   Irtt 5000
         BCText: PD9Q Jnos Packet BBS/Gateway
         flags 0x400 trace 0x211 netmask 0x00000000 broadcast 0.0.0.0
         sent: ip 0 tot 0 idle 0:00:01:51
         recv: ip 0 tot 0 idle 0:00:01:51
         descr: Kiss tcp/ip port 14.102Mhz 1100Hz

Some trace of the tun0 interface, there is traffic back and forward from Jnos to the remote QtSoundModem.

Mon Feb 21 15:34:09 2022 - tun0 sent:
IP: len 40 44.137.31.67->44.137.31.76 ihl 20 ttl 254 prot TCP
TCP: 1025->8105 Seq x1040001 Ack x3bf15fb1 ACK Wnd 5840

Mon Feb 21 15:34:13 2022 - tun0 recv:
IP: len 159 44.137.31.76->44.137.31.67 ihl 20 ttl 64 DF prot TCP
TCP: 8105->1025 Seq x3bf15fb1 Ack x1040001 ACK PSH Wnd 64240 Data 119
0000  ....n......b...a..033  .IR2UFV-15  00:00:06:12  14.1033  .IW7DVM
0040       00:00:08:37  14.1033  .SM7PET+    00:00:12:36  14.

Mon Feb 21 15:34:13 2022 - tun0 recv:
IP: len 159 44.137.31.76->44.137.31.67 ihl 20 ttl 64 DF prot TCP
TCP: 8105->1025 Seq x3bf15fb1 Ack x1040001 ACK PSH Wnd 64240 Data 119
0000  ....n......b...a..033  .IR2UFV-15  00:00:06:12  14.1033  .IW7DVM
0040       00:00:08:37  14.1033  .SM7PET+    00:00:12:36  14.

Mon Feb 21 15:34:13 2022 - tun0 sent:
IP: len 40 44.137.31.67->44.137.31.76 ihl 20 ttl 254 prot TCP
TCP: 1025->8105 Seq x1040001 Ack x3bf16028 ACK Wnd 5840

Here is a trace of the log file (trace qt0 0x211 qt0.log 1000)

Mon Feb 21 15:25:03 2022 - qt0 recv:
KISS: Port 0 Data
AX25: UT1HZM->SM7PET I(P) NR=2 NS=3 pid=Text
0000  00 a6 9a 6e a0 8a a8 e0 aa a8 62 90 b4 9a 61 56  .&.n .(`*(b.4.aV
0010  f0 4d 69 6e 65 2c 20 4c 3e 20 43 61 6c 6c 2c 20  pMine, L> Call, 
0020  4c 3c 20 43 61 6c 6c 2c 20 4c 40 20 3d 20 4c 69  L< Call, L@ = Li
0030  73 74 20 74 6f 2c 20 66 72 6f 6d 20 6f 72 20 61  st to, from or a
0040  74 0d 20 20 20 4c 4c 20 6e 75 6d 20 3d 20 4c 69  t.   LL num = Li
0050  73 74 20 6d 73 67 20 6e 75 6d 2c 20 4c 20 6e 75  st msg num, L nu
0060  6d 2d 6e 75 6d 20 3d 20 4c 69 73 74 20 52 61 6e  m-num = List Ran
0070  67 65 0d 20 20                                   ge.

Mon Feb 21 15:25:17 2022 - qt0 recv: 
KISS: Port 0 Data 
AX25: IW7DVM->APRS v WIDE3-3 UI pid=Text
0000  00 82 a0 a4 a6 40 40 e0 92 ae 6e 88 ac 9a 60 ae  .. $&@@`..n.,.`.
0010  92 88 8a 66 40 67 03 f0 21 34 30 32 33 2e 32 38  ...f@g.p!4023.28
0020  4e 5c 30 31 37 31 37 2e 31 31 45 2d 48 46 20 42  N\01717.11E-HF B
0030  65 61 63 6f 6e 20 31 34 2e 31 30 35 20 4c 53 42  eacon 14.105 LSB
0040  20 33 30 30 62 64 20 2d 20 54 61 72 61 6e 74 6f   300bd - Taranto

Connect from my Jnos system to UT1HZM on port qt0 (qtsoundmodem 300Baud 1100Hz port)

Mon Feb 21 15:08:33 2022 - qt0 recv:
KISS: Port 0 Data
AX25: UT1HZM->PD9Q-15 I(P) NR=0 NS=0 pid=Text
0000  00 a0 88 72 a2 40 40 fe aa a8 62 90 b4 9a 61 10  . .r"@@~*(b.4.a.
0010  f0 55 54 31 48 5a 4d 7d 20 57 61 69 74 2e 2e 2e  pUT1HZM} Wait...
0020  0d                                               .

Mon Feb 21 15:08:33 2022 - qt0 sent:
KISS: Port 0 Data
AX25: PD9Q-15->UT1HZM RR(F) NR=1
0000  00 aa a8 62 90 b4 9a 60 a0 88 72 a2 40 40 ff 31  .*(b.4.` .r"@@.1

Mon Feb 21 15:08:38 2022 - qt0 recv:
KISS: Port 0 Data
AX25: UT1HZM->PD9Q-15 I NR=0 NS=1 pid=Text
0000  00 a0 88 72 a2 40 40 fe aa a8 62 90 b4 9a 61 02  . .r"@@~*(b.4.a.
0010  f0 4b 52 53 3a 55 54 31 48 5a 4d 2d 35 7d 20 43  pKRS:UT1HZM-5} C
0020  6f 6e 6e 65 63 74 65 64 20 74 6f 20 42 42 53 0d  onnected to BBS.

Mon Feb 21 15:08:39 2022 - qt0 sent:
KISS: Port 0 Data
AX25: PD9Q-15->UT1HZM RR NR=2
0000  00 aa a8 62 90 b4 9a 60 a0 88 72 a2 40 40 ff 41  .*(b.4.` .r"@@.A

Now the trace of port qt1 (tail -f qt1.log)

Mon Feb 21 15:22:31 2022 - qt1 sent:
KISS: Port 1 Data
AX25: PD9Q-15->TEST SABM(P)
0000  10 a8 8a a6 a8 40 40 e0 a0 88 72 a2 40 40 7f 3f  .(.&(@@` .r"@@.?

Mon Feb 21 15:22:31 2022 - qt1 sent:
KISS: Port 1 Data
AX25: PD9Q-15->TEST SABM(P)
0000  10 a8 8a a6 a8 40 40 e0 a0 88 72 a2 40 40 7f 3f  .(.&(@@` .r"@@.?

Boooommm Crashed……dammmm

It went so well. But now Jnos crashed. The winrpr driver is probably not written for two ports. Receiving is fine, but a packet that leaves the system on port qt1, Jnos can’t handle that.

So I removed this line (attach kiss qt0 1 qt1) from autoexec.nos and Jnos is running just fine. It is a pity that it only runs on 1 port, and that is the same as the AGW port. Maybe Maiko VE4KLM will look at it again.

Direwolf Vs QtSoundModem (part 2)

Rx Only

Okay, that was a bit of a disappointment. I ran the test at 14.1022Mhz on 300 Baud. I think the conditions were very bad in those 24 hours.

For the test I use Kissutil.

https://www.mankier.com/1/kissutil

kissutil  can be used interactively for troubleshooting a KISS TNC. It is usable with direwolf and other generic KISS TNCs connected to a serial port. It can also be used as an application interface where each side places files in a directory for the other to process.

First I wrote two start files for the test.

Direwolf.sh

#!/bin/bash
cd /home/niels/testbed/
./kiss-direwolf -p 8009 -o /home/niels/testbed/rec-direwolf

Qtsm.sh

#!/bin/bash
cd /home/niels/testbed/
./kiss-qtsm -p 8105 -o /home/niels/testbed/rec-qtsm

The test ran for 24 hours, which is 86400 seconds.

timeout -s 9 86400 ./qtsm.sh

After 24 hours I can start counting the received frames.

As you can see this is very disappointing. Now I understand that the focus of QtSoundModem is more in the HF area. With a difference of 4 frames, the difference between Direwolf and QtSoundModem is minimal. In fact, too few frames were received in the 24 hours to make a good comparison. Is my opinion.

The next test we will try on 144.800Mhz the local Aprs frequency.

Direwolf Vs QtSoundModem (part 1)

This is about RX and not TX.

This has caused some headaches. I want to use one trx and one antenna for this test. (Icom 7300 and a Hyendfed)Now the problem is that Direwolf and QtSoundModem both use the sound card. Now you can’t both use the same sound card at the same time. So we will have to use two virtual sound cards and route the audio to these sound cards.  For this I use “pactl” with this I can manipulate the PulseAudio server.

pactl load-module module-virtual-sink sink_name=direwolf
And
pactl load-module module-virtual-sink sink_name=qtsoundmodem

Actually we are making a virtual audio card for Direwolf and QtSoundModem. Now we need to route the Audio from the input to the virtual audio card. This is possible with PavuControl.

Setup Direwolf

ADEVICE pulse
ACHANNELS 1
CHANNEL 0
MYCALL N0CALL
MODEM 300 1000 1200
AGWPORT 8008
KISSPORT 8009

Uhmmmmm port 8001.  I don’t understand that yet, in the config it really is port 8009.

Setup QtSoundModem

 

Now I haven’t fully read up on PulseAudio and pactl and the virtual cable/cards. Perhaps my wording and references are not quite correct.

Now I have the opportunity to test…..

Bpq32 with QtSoundModem and Hamlib

Yesterday I added 2 HF ports to my Bpq32 Node / BBS. I have chosen to use QtSoundModem and Hamlib. QtSoundModem is a Linux port or Soundmodem from UZ7HO. I use Hamlib/rigctld to take control of the Tranceiver. QtSoundmodem and Hamlib run on a different Raspberry than the BBS and Node.

After some testing I found out that I need Hamlib version 3.3 to control the icom 7300. The versions 4.0 and 4.1 do not work for me. Apparently the icom 7300 is not being initialized. Can’t actually find out why this is. With the command “rigctld -l” you get a list of which tranceivers are supported.

So I need number 373 for the Icom 7300.

/usr/local/bin/rigctld -m 373 -r /dev/ttyUSB0 -s 19200 -T 44.137.31.76 -t 4532 &

In the QtSoundModem.ini I have in the [Init] section.

HamLibHost=44.137.31.76
HamLibPort=4532
PTT=HAMLIB
PTTBAUD=19200
PTTMode=17

Now the bpq32.cfg

PORT
 PORTNUM=4
 ID=14.1022 +1100Hz
 DRIVER=UZ7HO
 CHANNEL=A
 PACLEN=80
 CONFIG
  ADDR 44.137.31.76 8101 ; AGW port of QtSoundModem
  BEACONAFTERSESSION
  MAXSESSIONS=5
ENDPORT

PORT
 PORTNUM=5
 ID=14.1022 +2000Hz
 DRIVER=UZ7HO
 CHANNEL=B
 PACLEN=80
 CONFIG
  ADDR 44.137.31.76 8101 ; AGW port of QtSoundModem
  BEACONAFTERSESSION
  MAXSESSIONS=5
ENDPORT

With Hamlib it is also possible to control the TRX from Bpq32. I immediately added a Robust 300 packet port to Bpq32 with rig control. Here is an example.

PORT
 PORTNUM=3
 ID=Robust 300 ;(RPR Packet)
 TYPE=EXTERNAL 
 COMPORT=/dev/ttyUSB0
 SPEED=38400
 DRIVER=SCSTracker
 INTERLOCK=3
 CONFIG
 RIGCONTROL
HAMLIB 44.137.31.76:4532
15,14.1022,USB,F1,R1,H1
15,7.04510,USB,F1,R1,H1
****
WL2KREPORT PUBLIC, api.winlink.org, 80, PI8LAP-10, JO11VN, 00-23, 14102200, ROBUST, 25, 35, 3
WL2KREPORT PUBLIC, api.winlink.org, 80, PI8LAP-10, JO11VN, 00-23, 14102200, PKT300, 25, 35, 3
WL2KREPORT PUBLIC, api.winlink.org, 80, PI8LAP-10, JO11VN, 00-23, 144850000, PKT1200, 10, 20, 5, 0
WL2KREPORT PUBLIC, api.winlink.org, 80, PI8LAP-10, JO11VN, 00-23, 430950000, PKT9600, 10, 20, 5, 0
;#
  M UISC
  O 4                   ; MAXFRAME
  F 190                 ; FRACK
  T 8                   ; TX Delay
  FORCE ROBUST
  USEAPPLCALLS          ; Accept connects to all APPLCALLS
  BEACONAFTERSESSION    ; Beacon after session
  %L 1500               ; Centre Freq for Normal Packet (Default is 1500)
  @I 64                 ; Paclen = 60
  %T 1                  ; TX Autotracking 1 = on
  %N 10
  %B 300
ENDPORT

/var/log/syslog

Apr  4 16:34:41 pi1lap : Initialising Port 01     TCPKISS IP 127.0.0.1 Port 8001 Chan A
Apr  4 16:34:41 pi1lap : Initialising Port 02     TCPKISS IP 127.0.0.1 Port 8001 Chan B
Apr  4 16:34:41 pi1lap : Initialising Port 03     SCSTRK /dev/ttyUSB0
Apr  4 16:34:41 pi1lap : Initialising Port 04     UZ7HO Host 44.137.31.76 Port 8101 Chan A
Apr  4 16:34:41 pi1lap : Initialising Port 05     UZ7HO Host 44.137.31.76 Port 8101 Chan B
Apr  4 16:34:41 pi1lap : Initialising Port 06     ASYNC /dev/ttyUSB1 Chan A