From: Digestifier To: Linux-Misc@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu Reply-To: Linux-Misc@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu Date: Tue, 6 Sep 94 18:13:26 EDT Subject: Linux-Misc Digest #718 Linux-Misc Digest #718, Volume #2 Tue, 6 Sep 94 18:13:26 EDT Contents: Amateur Radio Software for Linux List (Terry Dawson) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.announce From: terryd@extro.ucc.su.oz.au (Terry Dawson) Subject: Amateur Radio Software for Linux List Reply-To: terryd@extro.ucc.su.oz.au (Terry Dawson) Date: Tue, 6 Sep 1994 17:44:53 GMT Linux Amateur Radio Software List Terry Dawson, VK2KTJ, terryd@extro.ucc.su.oz.au v1.2 04/09/94 It is hoped that this list will assist Amateur Radio operators in finding and trying the various amateur radio software that has been written for, or ported to Linux. It is also hoped that as a conse- quence of this information being available that more amateur radio operators will choose Linux as the platform of choice for their exper- imentation, and that software developers will choose Linux as the platform for their software development, further expanding the role of operating systems like Linux in the Amateur Radio field. 1. Introduction. This is the second release of this list. The list was prompted by comments that had been expressed in the various Linus newsgroup about the number of amateur radio operators that were involved with Linux. It seemed to me that I was catching snippets of information here and there relating to development efforts taking place, but I never really knew where to locate either the person responsible for a particular piece of software, or the software itself. The list is quite small with only a few entries, but I'm hoping that people will contribute to the list as new software becomes available. I feel though that the items listed are an excellent base to build on, as they represent the various ways in which software can be developed for Linux for use in Amateur Radio. I'd originally considered limiting the scope of this list to non- commercial software only, but have subsequently changed my mind. Taking a serious look at most amateur radio fields shows that most good developments are those that are designed by individuals and that commercial entities have taken up and disseminated to the mass market. I'd like to see the same happen for Linux support for Amateur Radio software too. 2. Contributions/Updates etc. I'd like for this list to be as complete and up-to-date as possible. So I'm keen to hear about any developments or products that I don't already know about, or that the entry is obselete or outdated for. What I'd like as a minimum set of requirement would be something like the following: Name The name of the software in question. Author Who wrote, or ported the software. An email address, or some other means of contacting them is also essential. Description A single line description of what the software does. Status An indication of the software's status. Is it still in testing? Is it a production release? Is it still in the design stage? System requirements What does the software require to run? Does it require X- Windows? Does it need a soundcard? Does it need a certain version of kernel? Does it need other software to support it? Detail I'm not keen on including a large amount of detail on each piece of software as this would consume a lot of time reading and trying to keep up to date. So instead what I'd like to list is what makes this software unique, anything special about it. Perhaps its most outstanding features, that sort of thing. Where and How to obtain it. If the software is freely distributable then ftp details would be great. If it is commercial software then the name of the company distributing the software, and an address or telephone number. If it is available only by some other means, say mail order, then details on where and how to obtain it. Licensing/Copyright etc. Is the software Copyleft? Copyright? Shareware? Public Domain? Restricted in use in any way? Don't worry if you don't know all of these details, just send me what you do know and I'll list what I can. I'd rather have an incomplete listing than no listing at all. Please mail any contributions to: terryd@extro.ucc.su.oz.au or terry@orac.dn.itg.telecom.com.au I'd list a packet radio address too but I'm not properly operational again yet after moving house. 3. Discussion relating to Amateur Radio and Linux. There are various places that discussion relating to Amateur Radio and Linux take place. They take place in the comp.os.linux.* newsgroups, they also take place on the HAMS list on niksula.hut.fi. Other places where they are held include the tcpgroup mailing list at ucsd.edu (the home of amateur radio tcp/ip discussions), at Club meetings and on-air of course. To join the Linux HAMS channel on the mail list server, send mail to: linux-activists@niksula.hut.fi with the line: X-Mn-Admin: join HAMS at the top of the message body (not the subject line). To join the tcpgroup send mail to: listserver@ucsd.edu with the line: subscribe tcpgroup in the body of the text. Please remember that the tcpgroup is primarily for discussion of the use of advanced protocols, of which tcp/ip is one, in Amateur Radio. Linux specific questions should not go there. 4. Where to obtain new versions of this list. This list will be periodically posted to the comp.os.linux.announce newsgroup, and to the HAMS list on niksula.hut.fi. It is also available from the following World Wide Web sites: makes it available at the following three locations: www.com (http://www.com/linux/radio/index.html), www.hboc.com (http://www.hboc.com/linux/index.html) and www.lan.com (http://www.lan.com/linux/index.html). John Gotts N8QDW makes it available at: www.engin.umich.edu (http://www.engin.umich.edu/~jgotts/linuxhamsoft.html). Alan Hargreaves VK2KVF makes it available in Australia at: www.dap.csiro.au (http://www.dap.csiro.au/RadioLinux). will be making it available sometime shortly. Please let me know if you'd like to make it available somewhere too. 5. Satellite The following software is for use in experimentation with Satellite communication. 5.1. MicroSat Ground Station Software Author John Melton, G0ORX/N6LYT, g0orx@amsat.org Description Microsat Ground Station software. Status ALPHA. Version 0.6 recently released. System requirements Alan Cox's kernel based AX.25 support ver 1.1.12 or better. X- Windows. OpenLook libraries if you want to compile the source. Detail This software allows you to use a KISS tnc to directly communicate with the Microsat series of satellites. It provides an XView based X-Windows interface, and allows you a comprehensive range of means of interacting with the satellite. The software should work with any window manager. The software provides the following programs: xpb broadcast monitor directory directory list viewer downloaded downloaded file list viewer viewtext uncompressed ASCII text file viewer upload message upload application message message preparation application Where and How to obtain it. John's software is available from: ftp.ucsd.edu (ftp://ftp.ucsd.edu/hamradio/packet/tcpip/incoming/microsat-0.6.tar.gz) or ftp.funet.fi (ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/ham/satellite/microsat/microsat-0.6.tar.gz). Please check for new versions. Licensing/Copyright etc. Unknown. John supplies source and is inviting others to assist in developing the software. Contributed by: John Melton, G0ORX/N6LYT and Alan Cox, GW4PTS 6. Shack Automation Software for simplifying tasks in the shack. Examples might include software for controlling the newer breed of radios, logging programs, QSL database, or antenna rotation. 7. Packet Radio Software for use in conjunction with, or for facilitating packet radio. 7.1. Kernel Based AX.25 networking. Author Alan Cox, GW4PTS, iiitac@pyr.swan.ac.uk Description Software that allows the Linux Kernel to perform AX.25 networking. Status ALPHA. Quite stable though. System requirements Linux kernel 1.0 or later. Detail Alan's software provides the programmer with a berkeley socket based interface to the AX.25 protocol. AX.25 sockets can opened for either connected, or connectionless modes of operation. Support to allow tcp/ip over AX.25 is provided. The user applications has been Jonathon G4KLX. The software comes in two parts, a kernel patch, and the user programs. The user programs included are: axadd to manipulate the AX.25 ARP table. axattach to convert a serial device into a KISS device. axl an AX.25 listener designed to start a PMS when it receives an incoming connection. The PMS is still very new. axsetcall to change the callsign of a port. beacon generated beacon messages every 30 minutes. call A linemode AX.25 connection program. Call allows you to make connections to other AX.25 nodes. It provides file transmit and receive capabilities, and newer versions allow YAPP binary file transfers. listen a demonstration of how to use intercept AX.25 frames at the raw packet level. Useful as a building block for packet tracing for example. Where and How to obtain it. There are a number of different versions of the software. You must choose the one that suits your version of Linux kernel. The software is available from: sunacm.swan.ac.uk (ftp://sunacm.swan.ac.uk/pub/misc/Linux/Radio/) More detail on where and how to obtain the software is provided in the plain text version of the NET-2-HOWTO (ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/howto/NET-2-HOWTO) or if you have WWW access at: NET-2-HOWTO via WWW (http://sunsite.unc.edu/mdw/HOWTO/NET-2-HOWTO.html). Licensing/Copyright etc. Most of the software is Copyleft, some of the software is Copyright by the Regents of University California Berkeley, and small portions of the user programs are Copyright Phil Karn KA9Q, whose copyright allows unrestricted use by Amateur Radio, Educational Institutions and Commercial KA9Q OEM license holders. Contributed by: Terry Dawson, VK2KTJ. 7.2. JNOS Author Brandon Allbery, KF8NH, bsa@kf8nh.wariat.org Description Brandon ported JNOS to Linux. His port is currently of the 1.09 (aka 1.08df) release of JNOS. Future versions will probably be based on Doug Crompton's evolution of 1.08df. Brandon suggests that JNOS for Linux is primarily of interest to people with existing DOS-based NOS configurations (especially server/switch configurations) who wish to switch to Linux or to escape the 640K barrier. Status The current version is ALPHA.4. Brandon is still tracking down bugs, as well as evolving new features. System Requirements. Any version of Linux along with ncurses 1.8.1 or 1.8.5 (the latter is preferred). Optionally you will require Linux networking (at least loopback) and slattach (kernels pre-1.1.13 or post-1.1.20 required for this). Detail If you include the Linux networking code in addition to JNOS, you can link the two by a slip link running over a pty, so that Linux can provide services to your radio users. In this way you can easily add servers without having to build them into JNOS itself. Brandon has supplied the following list of known bugs: o some servers seem to be causing unexplained exits. o PPP is reported not to work in ALPHA.4, although it worked in ALPHA.3. o BBS forwarding when convers is compiled in but not configured causes core dumps. o the finger server is getting bad filenames. o the bbs W command is case-munging filenames. Where and How to obtain it. You can obtain JNOS for Linux ALPHA.4 at: ftp.ucsd.edu (ftp://ftp.ucsd.edu/hamradio/packet/tcpip/linux/j109lxA4.tgz) ncurses is available on most Linux ftp sites. Licensing/Copyright etc. Brandon's modifications to JNOS are public domain. Most of the pre-existing NOS code is copyrighted and restricted to non- commercial use by the various contributors from Phil Karn on. Contributed by: Brandon Allbery, KF8NH 7.3. N0ARY Packet BBS for UN*X Author Bob Arasmith, N0ARY, ported to Linux (and others) by Bob Proulx, KF0UW, rwp@fc.hp.com Description A packet bbs implemented under UN*X. Status ALPHA. Bob is running version ARY-0.9 on both Linux and HP-UX. The next version from N0ARY which is called 4.0 is in alpha test/development release. Bob has not been able to bring this online yet and is still running 0.9+kf0uw mods. Bob has about half it working with Alan Cox's AX.25 kernel which would be the desirable combination. System Requirements. Linux installation, C Compiler, plus HAM radio TNC hardware. Detail This bbs has an excellent packet user interface. It has a compatible set of commands with the RLI bbs so users will be familiar with it immediately. It then extends the command set to be a very nice natural language style interface (e.g "list at allus about KPC-3"). Many csh style bang commands are supported. Also included is a mail interface to provide a packet to internet gateway. Currently you need to customize the source code for your installation so you need some C programming proficiency. Where and How to obtain it. For a Linux version or for Linux information send mail to rwp@fc.hp.com. For a SunOS version contact bob@arasmith.com. This code is not packaged for distribution yet since it is not past the alpha stage of development. Licensing/Copyright etc. Copyright by Bob Arasmith, N0ARY, but freely redistributable. Contributed by: Bob Proulx, kf0uw, rwp@fc.hp.com 7.4. MBL/RLI message to NNTP and email converter. Author SM0OHI, pme@it.kth.se Description Software that will convert incoming MBL/RLI messages into either NNTP or RFC-822 formatted mail messages. Status Development, not yet released. System requirements Unknown. Detail This software would be ideally suited to those who want to establish a mail and news gateway between conventional tcp/ip networks and the amateur radio mail network. Where and How to obtain it. Not yet availale. Licensing/Copyright etc. Unknown. Contributed by: SM0OHI 7.5. Single floppy disk AX.25 router. Author Alan Cox, GW4PTS, iiitac@pyr.swan.ac.uk Description A single floppy disk version of linux with enough software to allow a PC to act as an AX.25/IP router. Status Development, not yet released. System requirements. As for any Linux system a 386SX class PC or better. Detail No detail yet. Where and How to obtain it. Not yet available. Licensing/Copyright etc. Unknown/Undecided. Contributed by: Terry Dawson, VK2KTJ 7.6. Wampes A port of Wampes to Linux. Could someone send me details of the latest wampes release please ? 8. Morse Code Software for use in conjunction with, or for facilitating Morse communication. 9. AMTOR Software for use in conjunction with, or for facilitating AMTOR. 10. PACTOR Software for use in conjunction with, or for facilitating PACTOR. 11. Slow Scan Television Software for use in conjunction with, or for facilitating Slow Scan Television. 12. Facsimile Software for use in conjunction with, or for facilitating Facsimile. 13. Design and Construction Software to assist in the design and construction of amateur radio related things. Antenna, Circuit Board, Filter, and QSL card design packages are all good candidates for this section. 13.1. Software Oscilloscope Author Jeff Tranter, Jeff_Tranter@Mitel.COM Description Scope is a simple software emulation of an oscilloscope. It graphically displays voltage as a function of time. Status ALPHA. First release. System requirements Sound card with input capability supported by the kernel sound driver. SVGALIB is used to do the display work. Detail Scope uses the /dev/dsp device to take audio in from the soundcard and displays it on the screen in a manner similar to an oscilloscope. Jeff claims Scope was written more for amusement value than for any serious purpose. Where and How to obtain it. You can obtain source, makefile and man page for Scope from: sunsite.unc.edu (ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/circuits/scope-0.1.tar.gz) Licensing/Copyright etc. GNU Public License. Copyleft. Contributed by: Terry Dawson, VK2KTJ 13.2. irsim Author Dmitry Teytelman, dim@leland.stanford.edu Description An event-driven logic-level simulator for MOS circuits Status Version 8.6, production. System Requirements X-Windows. Detail irsim is an X11 based simulator for MOS circuits. It has two simulation modes, either switch where each transistor is modelled as a voltage controlled switch, or linear where each transistor is modelled as a resistor in series with a voltage controlled switch, and each node has a capacitance. Where and How to obtain it. You can obtain irsim from: sunsite.unc.edu (ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/circuits/irsim.tar.z). Licensing/Copyright etc. Freely Redistributable Contributed by: Terry Dawson, VK2KTJ 13.3. Spice Author University of California, Berkeley, ported by eoahmad@ntuix.ntu.ac.sg Description Spice is an analog circuit emulator. Status Stable release. Last fortran version produced. System requirements Unknown. Detail Spice allows you to design and test circuits in a computer modelled environment to see how they will behave without having to touch a soldering iron, or solder. Where and How to obtain it. You can obtain version 2g6 of Spice from: sunsite.unc.edu (ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/circuits/spice2g6.tar.z) Licensing/Copyright etc. Copyright held by University California, Berkeley. Freely redistributable. Contributed by: Terry Dawson, VK2KTJ 14. Training/Educational Software to assist in education or training for amateur radio. Morse Code tutorials, technical examination database, Computer Based Training software, and the like are listed here. 15. Miscellaneous Software that I couldn't put anywhere else. 15.1. SunClock Author John Mackin, john@cs.su.oz.AU Description A clock that will show you instantly what parts of the globe are exposed by sunlight and what parts aren't. Status Released. System requirements. X-Windows. Detail sunclock is another of those desktop gadgets that most people think look nice but really don't have a lot of use for. I use sunclock to obtain an at-a-glance indication of the time anywhere in the world. In its iconic form it sits in a small Mercator projection. When maximised it produces the same image but obviously larger with slightly more detail. It also displays the date, local time and UTC. sunclock actually calculates mathematically what parts of globe are sunlit and which aren't, it seems quite accurate, so long as you assume the earth has no atmosphere. Where and How to obtain it. I haven't seen any precompiled sunclock binaries for Linux about, so check your nearest archie server. sunclock compiled straight out of the box for me. Licensing/Copyright etc. Public Domain and may be freely copied as long as the notices at the top of sunclock.c remain intact. Contributed by: Terry Dawson, VK2KTJ 15.2. Xearth Author Kirk Lauritz Johnson, tuna@cag.lcs.mit.edu, modified by Dimitris Evmorfopoulos, devmorfo@cs.mtu.edu. Description A rotating earth for X-windows root window. It has real life shading, and options for geostatic view, and non geostatic view. A prettier and more modern version of sunclock but requires a bit more processing power. Status released, stable. System requirements. X-Windows. Detail xearth is much like sunclock except that it draws a view of the earth onto your root map in blue and green, as the earth would be viewed from space. You have a number of options in determining the behaviour of the view. You can either have it so that the same part of the earth is displayed, and the sun rotates, so you'll have varying light and shadow on the display, or you can have it shown as if you were travelling with the sun, so the whole of the globe is visible, and the earth rotates. You can specify the latitude/longtitude that will be the centre of the display. xearth is also capable of producing gif and ppm graphics output, so you can generate custom graphics of the globe. When run as your root map, you can adjust the interval of time between updates. On my 486SX25 you notice a small degradation in performance when it is recalculating, but it's not annoying. Where and How to obtain it. A precompiled xearth binary is available from: sunsite.unc.edu, or the source can be obtained from just about any X11/contrib directory. Try export.lcs.mit.edu if you can't find it elsewhere. Licensing/Copyright etc. Copyright (C) 1989, 1990, 1993 by Kirk Lauritz Johnson. The copyright notice included states that xearth is freely redistributable so long as the copyright notice is left intact, and be included in documentation. Contributed by: Alan Cox, GW4PTS. -- Send submissions for comp.os.linux.announce to: linux-announce@tc.cornell.edu Be sure to include Keywords: and a short description of your software. ------------------------------ ** FOR YOUR REFERENCE ** The service address, to which questions about the list itself and requests to be added to or deleted from it should be directed, is: Internet: Linux-Misc-Request@NEWS-DIGESTS.MIT.EDU You can send mail to the entire list (and comp.os.linux.misc) via: Internet: Linux-Misc@NEWS-DIGESTS.MIT.EDU Linux may be obtained via one of these FTP sites: nic.funet.fi pub/OS/Linux tsx-11.mit.edu pub/linux sunsite.unc.edu pub/Linux End of Linux-Misc Digest ******************************