Radio and rails...

I actually achieved something. Makes a change! At this stage I must state that I overlooked the fact I have an FTM100 and it has a suitable interface! Ok, no way I am going to fiddle soldering a 10-pin mini-DIN plug even if I had one, so I ordered a CT167 cable from www.JGTech.com which arrived within two days. I already had a stock of D9 plugs. With the NinoTNC connected to the Windows PC the APRSIS32 software could send and receive APRS to/from my FT2D (no APRS activity round here other than a receive-only igate). But packet was a tad more problematic. I wanted to use the Windows PC + Signalink + FT817 setup which means using QtSoundModem on the PC, but I also needed a program to talk to the TNC. QtTermTCP will via KISS but neither the Mac or Linux version had KISS anywhere to be seen, only AGW. And any mix of QtSoundModem and QtTermTCP on the Windows PC generally resulted in nothing talking to anything, which is probably my fault but it definitely got in the way. So... I set up an old Pi 3B with the LinBPQ software, connected the NinoTNC / FMT100 to…

After a brief expedition to Write Freely I have moved back to Wordpress. I had kept a copy of the old Wordpress site so actually moving was not that bad other than adding in 4 or 5 posts and associated images...

See, I built it! And it works. The 3D printed case needs a bit of tidying but is perfectly functional. All I need now is a radio to use it with plus probably re-use one of my spare Pi 3B cards to drive it.

Note to self... stop collecting bits for projects and start building instead! Just in, this PCB and chip for the TARPN NinoTNC. Described as a multi-speed, multi-protocol USB-KISS packet radio interface this comes as a very nicely made PCB and PIC plus a bill of parts complete with Mouser part numbers and a spreadsheet that loads into Mouser to make a complete order. This will be a fun build. The TARPN website also has full ordering and step by step construction details. Neat!

Messing around with packet today via the FT817 and Windows 10 PC. I'm getting used to two programs, WinRPR which supports Robust packet, and, of course, UZ7HO's SoundModem. There was a lot of APRS activity via RP on 10.1473MHz USB and it all decodes nicely in WinRPR. Then on to SoundModem on 14.105MHz LSB (Network105). There were a few more decodes since I took the screenshot. My next step is to find a client to tx APRS.