<p>My club just set up a TNC for use with D-RATS. But we're not using the AX25 option. We're just starting testing with it. Our goal is to eventually have 2m/440 packet nodes as well as D-STAR tie-ins. We're also looking to make use of the Winlink 2000 functionality.</p>
<p>I totally understand what Dan is saying about old TNC technology. But I also share some of Jason's points. This stuff is out there and unused (TNCs/packet equip). My club had a packet cluster back in the day and that equipment has just sat there (antennas/coax/radios/TNCs). With some minimal investment and cleaning up we're trying to make some good use of this again. </p>
<p>As for Jason's digipeater ideas, I personally have conflicting feelings on this. I think it's a great idea, technologically... being able to bring in the APRS users into D-RATS. But I also share Dan's sentiments here... I wouldn't want to have non-APRS stuff on the APRS channel. I do like Dan's idea about a quick and dirty way to accept APRS position reports into D-RATS. I think that would add some quick value. However, in Jason's situation I would rather see a way to get those APRS users onto a separate D-RATS freq. But if the APRS users have fixed frequency transmitters... ugh. Round and round :). UNLESS Jason could set up a digipeater which listened on 144.39 but transmitted on the D-RATS freq... that way the APRS data makes its way to the D-RATS side.</p>
<p>?? </p>
<p><blockquote type="cite">On Jun 14, 2012 10:46 AM, "Dan Smith" <<a href="mailto:dsmith@danplanet.com" target="_blank">dsmith@danplanet.com</a>> wrote:<br><br><p><font color="#500050">> 1) Is there a way to repeat APRS position reports onto a D-RATS net? For
> example, if I have some...</font></p>No, D-RATS currently doesn't understand anything about raw APRS itself.<br>
The APRS spec is fairly messy and properly parsing the hundreds of<br>
variations is a lot of work that I haven't seen the need to add. I may<br>
add basic parsing (i.e. just lat/lon/symbol) at some point, but it's not<br>
currently supported.<br>
<p><font color="#500050">
> 2) Is there anything "bad" about using a TNC connected to 144.39,
> setting the PATH to some WIDE...</font></p>Well, it depends on your infrastructure, users, and other such factors.<br>
Around here, you'd become rather unpopular extremely quickly if you did<br>
this.<br>
<br>
You should note that D-RATS' support for using TNCs is really basic and<br>
certain things won't work properly, such as transferring any block<br>
longer than what the TNC can handle. TNCs have different limits<br>
depending on model, age, and the mode you put them in. D-RATS was<br>
designed for D-STAR radios, which can stream data continuously, and thus<br>
it doesn't currently have the necessary logic to arbitrarily break<br>
things up into tiny pieces for digest by a 1980's-era device. Most chat<br>
messages are small enough and the file/form transfers already break<br>
things up so you just have to make sure the block size settings are such<br>
that they'll never get too large for the TNC.<br>
<br>
The TNC and AX.25 support are mostly tools for gaining acceptance and<br>
doing testing at the moment. I'm not sure if anyone is really using it<br>
effectively for production work. Maybe someone will speak up here and<br>
prove me wrong. My real point is: make sure you test what you're<br>
planning to do before you commit to doing it :)<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
--<br>
Dan Smith<br>
<a href="http://www.danplanet.com" target="_blank">www.danplanet.com</a><br>
KK7DS<br>
<br>
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<br></blockquote></p>