Looking for Packet Radio Software

Looking for Packet Radio Software

[john paterson]

Hi, all...

I just joined the mailing list. I have looked through a lot of the archives
and not found the information I am looking for, so I will try here. I have a
computer running Ubuntu 10.04 and would like to use it for packet radio. I
have tried Airmail and Outpost Packet Manager, both in Wine, but neither
works well. Airmail works for one interchange then apparently messes up the
the TNC (a KPC3), so that I have to reset the TNC to use it again on
Windows. Outpost PM seems to communicate with the TNC OK, in the serial
terminal, but never shows outgoing or incoming characters in the terminal
window, and does not properly communicate with the TNC when trying to
send/receive from the packet manager.

Can anyone help me with the proper setup for Airmail or Outpost PM, or
suggest other terminal software for packet operation with a KPC3 TNC?

Thanks in advance..

73 de John, KC5LAA

Re: Looking for Packet Radio Software

[Dave Platt]

john paterson wrote:
> Hi, all...
> 
> I just joined the mailing list. I have looked through a lot of the archives
> and not found the information I am looking for, so I will try here. I have a
> computer running Ubuntu 10.04 and would like to use it for packet radio. I
> have tried Airmail and Outpost Packet Manager, both in Wine, but neither
> works well. Airmail works for one interchange then apparently messes up the
> the TNC (a KPC3), so that I have to reset the TNC to use it again on
> Windows. Outpost PM seems to communicate with the TNC OK, in the serial
> terminal, but never shows outgoing or incoming characters in the terminal
> window, and does not properly communicate with the TNC when trying to
> send/receive from the packet manager.

I spoke with Jim Oberhofer KN6PE a couple of months ago about
using Outpost on Linux.  He said that he'd heard from several
local hams in who have succeeded, using an older version of
WINE, but that the current version of WINE doesn't work as
well.  I don't recall the specific details of the versions.

http://www.outpostpm.org/support.html may have some hints.

http://www.danplanet.com/home/85-radio/82-outpost-on-linux-with-wine
suggests a workaround, using a local Telnet proxy.

Re: Looking for Packet Radio Software

[Mike McCarthy, W1NR]

I am not up on the latest Ubuntu package management but try adding this
repository and browsing through the packages available for native Linux
packet software rather than the "wine" method.

http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/hamradio:/debian/xUbuntu_10.04/

If they are the same packages they build for openSUSE then you will find
a number of programs that utilize the built in AX.25 stack in the kernel.

Mike, W1NR


On 08/16/2010 12:47 PM, john paterson wrote:
> Hi, all...
>
> I just joined the mailing list. I have looked through a lot of the archives
> and not found the information I am looking for, so I will try here. I have a
> computer running Ubuntu 10.04 and would like to use it for packet radio. I
> have tried Airmail and Outpost Packet Manager, both in Wine, but neither
> works well. Airmail works for one interchange then apparently messes up the
> the TNC (a KPC3), so that I have to reset the TNC to use it again on
> Windows. Outpost PM seems to communicate with the TNC OK, in the serial
> terminal, but never shows outgoing or incoming characters in the terminal
> window, and does not properly communicate with the TNC when trying to
> send/receive from the packet manager.
>
> Can anyone help me with the proper setup for Airmail or Outpost PM, or
> suggest other terminal software for packet operation with a KPC3 TNC?
>
> Thanks in advance..
>
> 73 de John, KC5LAA
>
> --
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-hams" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>   

Re: Looking for Packet Radio Software

[Bob Nielsen]

It sounds like there may be an issue with going in and out of KISS mode, but there are many Linux applications for packet radio.  For straight terminal operation (non-KISS), you could even use minicom (which I was using 15 years ago).

There is a large list of Linux ham radio applications with links (not necessarily up-do-date, however) at 

http://radio.linux.org.au

73, Bob N7XY

On Aug 16, 2010, at 9:47 AM, john paterson wrote:

> Hi, all...
> 
> I just joined the mailing list. I have looked through a lot of the archives
> and not found the information I am looking for, so I will try here. I have a
> computer running Ubuntu 10.04 and would like to use it for packet radio. I
> have tried Airmail and Outpost Packet Manager, both in Wine, but neither
> works well. Airmail works for one interchange then apparently messes up the
> the TNC (a KPC3), so that I have to reset the TNC to use it again on
> Windows. Outpost PM seems to communicate with the TNC OK, in the serial
> terminal, but never shows outgoing or incoming characters in the terminal
> window, and does not properly communicate with the TNC when trying to
> send/receive from the packet manager.
> 
> Can anyone help me with the proper setup for Airmail or Outpost PM, or
> suggest other terminal software for packet operation with a KPC3 TNC?
> 
> Thanks in advance..
> 
> 73 de John, KC5LAA
> 
> --
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-hams" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html

Re: Looking for Packet Radio Software

[David Ranch]

Hello John,

Depending on your needs, there is a lot of good packet software out 
there for Linux (a previous post to the linux.au site is great).  With 
that said, there isn't a native Outlook for Packet application out there 
like Outpost.  A buddy of mine did get that working under Wine after a 
bit of work.  If you're interested in finding out what he did to get it 
working, I can get you in touch with him.   For me, I use a combination of:

Packet TNC
  - HF: Soundmodem software TNC in KISS mode
  - VHF: Kenwood D710

Applications:
  - HF: fldigi / WSJT  (I'm also working on setting up pskmail
  - VHF packet: Linpac
 
I have a bit of a hacky Journal following all this that I hope to clean 
up.  It might be helpful to you..

    http://www.trinityos.com/HAM/index-ham.html#centosdigitalmodes

--David



john paterson wrote:
> Hi, all...
>
> I just joined the mailing list. I have looked through a lot of the archives
> and not found the information I am looking for, so I will try here. I have a
> computer running Ubuntu 10.04 and would like to use it for packet radio. I
> have tried Airmail and Outpost Packet Manager, both in Wine, but neither
> works well. Airmail works for one interchange then apparently messes up the
> the TNC (a KPC3), so that I have to reset the TNC to use it again on
> Windows. Outpost PM seems to communicate with the TNC OK, in the serial
> terminal, but never shows outgoing or incoming characters in the terminal
> window, and does not properly communicate with the TNC when trying to
> send/receive from the packet manager.
>
> Can anyone help me with the proper setup for Airmail or Outpost PM, or
> suggest other terminal software for packet operation with a KPC3 TNC?
>
> Thanks in advance..
>
> 73 de John, KC5LAA
>
> --
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-hams" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>   

Re: Looking for Packet Radio Software

[Bill V WA7NWP]

> It sounds like there may be an issue with going in and out of KISS mode,

Airmail uses Kantronics Host mode.   On the windows side, I've found
Airmil to be fairly reliable for bringing the TNC out of host mode
when exiting.

> 73, Bob N7XY

Re: Looking for Packet Radio Software

[Ray Wells]

All,

I had mixed success with a variety of packet programs under Debian Linux 
v4.3

1. Xarpm - native Linux Winpack look-alike. I found the program slightly 
unstable, incomplete, but looking promising. The installer was, in my 
opinion, very convoluted. The author appears to have done a disappearing 
trick but there is a list on Yahoo.

2. Tsthwin (registered) - had it working under Wine but there were mail 
issues. The author has vanished.

3. TSTHOST (DOS) - had this one working under DOSEMU

4. LinKT - native Linux packet terminal program. Eventually managed to 
get it to compile and it worked ok. There is still reference to it on 
www and the source is still available.

5. Winpack - never managed to sort out the dll's it needed in Wine. Each 
time I imported dll's from Windows, it wanted more. I gave up.

6. Linpac - native Linux terminal program with mail facilities. It's a 
CLI program but runs in a terminal ok. The mail program disconnected 
after the first packet exchange with a bbs. I spent many hours looking 
at source code for answers but I'm not a programmer. Others reported the 
same issue. No support since about 2002 but source still available.

7. TPK - should have worked in DOSEMU but kept failing and I abandoned 
it through lack of time.

8. TNT/DPBOX - native Linux, stable. I looked more at the bbs side as a 
replacement for fbb. Very complicated configuration file, made a little 
worse at times by the German/English conversion and, some use of German 
terminology. That's not a complaint, just an observation. I think the 
TNT/DPBOX combination had more future than any of the others. The 
program offers some advanced features such as broadcast mode for mail 
exchange.

There may have been others but the memory battery went flat a long time ago!

Ray vk2tv


On 17/08/10 07:07, David Ranch wrote:
>
> Hello John,
>
> Depending on your needs, there is a lot of good packet software out 
> there for Linux (a previous post to the linux.au site is great).  With 
> that said, there isn't a native Outlook for Packet application out 
> there like Outpost.  A buddy of mine did get that working under Wine 
> after a bit of work.  If you're interested in finding out what he did 
> to get it working, I can get you in touch with him.   For me, I use a 
> combination of:
>
> Packet TNC
>  - HF: Soundmodem software TNC in KISS mode
>  - VHF: Kenwood D710
>
> Applications:
>  - HF: fldigi / WSJT  (I'm also working on setting up pskmail
>  - VHF packet: Linpac
>
> I have a bit of a hacky Journal following all this that I hope to 
> clean up.  It might be helpful to you..
>
>    http://www.trinityos.com/HAM/index-ham.html#centosdigitalmodes
>
> --David
>
>
>
> john paterson wrote:
>> Hi, all...
>>
>> I just joined the mailing list. I have looked through a lot of the 
>> archives
>> and not found the information I am looking for, so I will try here. I 
>> have a
>> computer running Ubuntu 10.04 and would like to use it for packet 
>> radio. I
>> have tried Airmail and Outpost Packet Manager, both in Wine, but neither
>> works well. Airmail works for one interchange then apparently messes 
>> up the
>> the TNC (a KPC3), so that I have to reset the TNC to use it again on
>> Windows. Outpost PM seems to communicate with the TNC OK, in the serial
>> terminal, but never shows outgoing or incoming characters in the 
>> terminal
>> window, and does not properly communicate with the TNC when trying to
>> send/receive from the packet manager.
>>
>> Can anyone help me with the proper setup for Airmail or Outpost PM, or
>> suggest other terminal software for packet operation with a KPC3 TNC?
>>
>> Thanks in advance..
>>
>> 73 de John, KC5LAA
>>
>> -- 
>> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-hams" in
>> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
>> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> -- 
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-hams" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>

Re: Looking for Packet Radio Software

[Douglas Cole]

Hi John, I have been using LinKt under OpenSuSE for many years with
consistent success, it is a graphical 'split-screen' terminal
interface and will talk to the kissmode connected tnc or soundmodem
interface. I normally leave it running 24-7 and have yet to have it
lock up on me.


Doug
N7BFS



On Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 9:47 AM, john paterson <jpaterjr@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi, all...
>
> I just joined the mailing list. I have looked through a lot of the archives
> and not found the information I am looking for, so I will try here. I have a
> computer running Ubuntu 10.04 and would like to use it for packet radio. I
> have tried Airmail and Outpost Packet Manager, both in Wine, but neither
> works well. Airmail works for one interchange then apparently messes up the
> the TNC (a KPC3), so that I have to reset the TNC to use it again on
> Windows. Outpost PM seems to communicate with the TNC OK, in the serial
> terminal, but never shows outgoing or incoming characters in the terminal
> window, and does not properly communicate with the TNC when trying to
> send/receive from the packet manager.
>
> Can anyone help me with the proper setup for Airmail or Outpost PM, or
> suggest other terminal software for packet operation with a KPC3 TNC?
>
> Thanks in advance..
>
> 73 de John, KC5LAA
>
> --
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-hams" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>



-- 
Douglas Cole

The main things which seem to me important on their own account, and
not merely as means to other things, are knowledge, art, instinctive
happiness, and relations of friendship or affection.
  - Bertrand Russell
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Re: Looking for Packet Radio Software

[Robert Steinhäußer DL1NC]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 745 bytes --]

Hi all,

I'm currently the author of LinKT, since Jochen DG6VJ and Hans-Peter
DG4IAD had no more time for the project a couple of years ago.

LinKT is a KDE3 application that uses Linux' kernel AX.25 interface
(i.e. no TF host mode or Kantronics host mode). Check the project pages
at http://linkt.de and https://sourceforge.net/projects/linkt/.

Since the major distributions (esp. Gentoo, which I use) have dropped
KDE3 support I can't test any changes on this code base. And because I
almost haven't received any feedback, I never really started a KDE4
port. Too much other stuff to do...

How many people out there still run LinKT? Are you interested in a KDE4
port? Can you help develop or test? Please contact me.

73, Robert DL1NC/N9KBK


[-- Attachment #2: Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 198 bytes --]

Re: Looking for Packet Radio Software

[john paterson jr]

Thank you all for your great suggestions. I have a lot of
experimenting to do with all that information. I'll let you all know
if and when I get something working for me. I may also ask other
questions and/or clarifications from time to time.

Thanks again,

73 de John KC5LAA

Re: Looking for Packet Radio Software

[Curt, WE7U]

On Tue, 17 Aug 2010, john paterson jr wrote:

> Thank you all for your great suggestions. I have a lot of
> experimenting to do with all that information. I'll let you all know
> if and when I get something working for me. I may also ask other
> questions and/or clarifications from time to time.

FYI:  There's some good info in the Xastir Wiki "HowTos" section for
getting AX.25 and/or Soundmodem going quickly, not Xastir-specific:

     http://www.xastir.org

--we7u

Re: Looking for Packet Radio Software

[Douglas Cole]

I am currently running OpenSuSE 11.2 on my amateur packet pc, and have
been getting my install files from the download.opensuse.org location.
I am not sure who is building the rpm's there but they work.

I would be happy to test, but I am just an long-term Linux end user
and do not have any programming skills.

I will try and help, as I really appreciate and use LinKT  though I
use it in XFCE

Doug
N7BFS

On Tue, Aug 17, 2010 at 10:26 AM, Robert Steinh‰ufler DL1NC
<robert@steinhaeusser.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm currently the author of LinKT, since Jochen DG6VJ and Hans-Peter
> DG4IAD had no more time for the project a couple of years ago.
>
> LinKT is a KDE3 application that uses Linux' kernel AX.25 interface
> (i.e. no TF host mode or Kantronics host mode). Check the project pages
> at http://linkt.de and https://sourceforge.net/projects/linkt/.
>
> Since the major distributions (esp. Gentoo, which I use) have dropped
> KDE3 support I can't test any changes on this code base. And because I
> almost haven't received any feedback, I never really started a KDE4
> port. Too much other stuff to do...
>
> How many people out there still run LinKT? Are you interested in a KDE4
> port? Can you help develop or test? Please contact me.
>
> 73, Robert DL1NC/N9KBK
>
>
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Re: Looking for Packet Radio Software

[Curt, WE7U]

On Tue, 17 Aug 2010, Douglas Cole wrote:

> I am currently running OpenSuSE 11.2 on my amateur packet pc, and have
> been getting my install files from the download.opensuse.org location.
> I am not sure who is building the rpm's there but they work.

Add this to your repositories in yast:

http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/hamradio/openSUSE_11.2/

That includes many of the up-to-date ham radio packages for SuSE
11.2 (which is what I run, although I just downloaded the 32 and
64-bit DVD images for 11.3).  I wouldn't run the Xastir package from
there (too old, but that project goes along pretty fast sometimes),
but all of the other packages including the ax.25 tools I get from
there.  The fldigi package there is updated very often.

-- 
Curt, WE7U.                         <http://www.eskimo.com/~archer>
    APRS:  Where it's at!                    <http://www.xastir.org>
   Lotto:  A tax on people who are bad at math. - unknown
Windows:  Microsoft's tax on computer illiterates. - WE7U.
The world DOES revolve around me:  I picked the coordinate system!"

Re: Looking for Packet Radio Software

[Ray Wells]

Robert,

There's no packet activity around here but I still maintain axudp links 
to my old forwarding partners. I'd be happy to test a KDE4 version of LinKT

Ray vk2tv

On 18/08/10 03:26, Robert Steinhäußer DL1NC wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm currently the author of LinKT, since Jochen DG6VJ and Hans-Peter
> DG4IAD had no more time for the project a couple of years ago.
>
> LinKT is a KDE3 application that uses Linux' kernel AX.25 interface
> (i.e. no TF host mode or Kantronics host mode). Check the project pages
> at http://linkt.de and https://sourceforge.net/projects/linkt/.
>
> Since the major distributions (esp. Gentoo, which I use) have dropped
> KDE3 support I can't test any changes on this code base. And because I
> almost haven't received any feedback, I never really started a KDE4
> port. Too much other stuff to do...
>
> How many people out there still run LinKT? Are you interested in a KDE4
> port? Can you help develop or test? Please contact me.
>
> 73, Robert DL1NC/N9KBK
>
>    

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Re: Looking for Packet Radio Software

[Douglas Cole]

I too have since upgraded my desktop pc to openSuSE 11.3 and it works
very well, but have not made the plunge on my packet pc since I wasn't
sure there were packages available in the ham repo' yet.

I will give it a try this weekend, thanks Curt for the info :)

Doug
N7BFS

On Tue, Aug 17, 2010 at 9:18 PM, Curt, WE7U <curt.we7u@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 17 Aug 2010, Douglas Cole wrote:
>
>> I am currently running OpenSuSE 11.2 on my amateur packet pc, and have
>> been getting my install files from the download.opensuse.org location.
>> I am not sure who is building the rpm's there but they work.
>
> Add this to your repositories in yast:
>
> http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/hamradio/openSUSE_11.2/
>
> That includes many of the up-to-date ham radio packages for SuSE
> 11.2 (which is what I run, although I just downloaded the 32 and
> 64-bit DVD images for 11.3).  I wouldn't run the Xastir package from
> there (too old, but that project goes along pretty fast sometimes),
> but all of the other packages including the ax.25 tools I get from
> there.  The fldigi package there is updated very often.
>
> --
> Curt, WE7U.                         <http://www.eskimo.com/~archer>
>   APRS:  Where it's at!                    <http://www.xastir.org>
>  Lotto:  A tax on people who are bad at math. - unknown
> Windows:  Microsoft's tax on computer illiterates. - WE7U.
> The world DOES revolve around me:  I picked the coordinate system!"
>
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Re: Looking for Packet Radio Software

[Curt, WE7U]

On Wed, 18 Aug 2010, Douglas Cole wrote:

> I too have since upgraded my desktop pc to openSuSE 11.3 and it works
> very well, but have not made the plunge on my packet pc since I wasn't
> sure there were packages available in the ham repo' yet.
>
> I will give it a try this weekend, thanks Curt for the info :)

I didn't say I had upgraded to 11.3 yet, I've only downloaded the
DVD images and checked the md5sum.  I still have to write either a
full DVD or a network boot CD for each and then start installing.  I
have five machines total to do.  I'll probably start with the laptop
since it's non-essential.

I don't know if the ham packages have caught up to 11.3 yet.  Change
the last part of the URL I posted to 11.3 and see.

--we7u