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Autoinsert of my signature lines trashed the original reply to your
post. Here it is again with the sig at the bottom where it should be
and some slight changes in comments.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Chris Kantarjiev wrote:
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">I just met Alan K6LSU, who would like to set up
a digi at his QTH above
<br>
Oakhurst (looking south towards Fresno, unfortunately, which means he
<br>
may have a hard time hitting an igate ... one problem at a time).
<br>
<br>
He's got a varied assortment of old gear: a Kantronics "KAM" TNC, a
<br>
Toshiba Satellite laptop (Win98). He's got a Kenwood TM-731 dual-bander
<br>
for the radio.
<br>
<br>
I'm pretty sure that the KAM won't digi by itself
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
It does digipeat standalone. For a home station first-hop fill-in
digi, just set the alias to WIDE1-1
[Actually the KAM has the *SAME* digipeat firmware as the KPC3 (not
plus) Ver 7.2; i.e. highly obsolete for today's WIDEn-N "New Paradigm
standards, but completely adequate for a simple home fill-in digipeater
in standalone mode. And the firmware rev is irrelevant when the TNC is
under control of an external computer in KISS mode. ]<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">, though it appears to implement KISS in almost
all versions of the firmware (according to the Kantronics website).
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
Yes it does do KISS. I have a KAM with both ports running that is
creating these maps on my webserver:
<br>
<br>
Continental HF 30M: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://wa8lmf.dyndns.org:14439/">http://wa8lmf.dyndns.org:14439/</a>
<br>
LA Area VHF: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://wa8lmf.dyndns.org:14439/mapVHF.htm">http://wa8lmf.dyndns.org:14439/mapVHF.htm</a>
<br>
The AGW packet engine splits the KISS data stream from the KAM into two
virtual steams for use by two copies of UIview running on the same PC.
<br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">What might he run? Digined, perhaps?
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
Or UI-View which implements a very intelligent configurable
digipeater. (As with any PC-based digipeater application, the computer
must have acces to the raw packets which means running the TNC in KISS
mode. ) You could have UIview access the KAM in KISS directly, or
arbitrated by AGWpe which always places TNCs in KISS mode. <br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">He's got
<br>
the TNC hooked up to the mic connector ... I don't know how much he
<br>
cares about using it for voice on the local repeater, too.
<br>
<br>
It appears, too, that there may be some problems with getting the
<br>
unsquelched audio through that connector - does the KAM do software
DCD?
<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
Yes it does. You have to initially run the unit in the command mode
(i.e. not KISS) with a basic ASCII terminal like HyperTerm, to command
DCD to soft. There are three options: NONE (default), SOFT, or
EXTernal hardware detect (i.e. sense the squelch/"busy" light in the
radio.
<br>
<br>
You can then let your digipeater application or AGW set the TNC to KISS
mode. Whatever DCD mode was selected remains active. <br>
The main issue is that the audio level on the Kenwood mic jacks is very
low.
<br>
<br>
<br>
The messiest part of dealing with the KAM is that there are <b class="moz-txt-star"><span class="moz-txt-tag">*</span>two<span class="moz-txt-tag">*</span></b> TNCs in the box (one 1200-baud VHF
and one 110/300 baud HF unit). Every command for things like
callsigns, DCD mode, etc has to have two arguments, for the two sides
of the unit. For example "MYCALL WA8LMF-3/MYCALL WA8LMF-5" .
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite"><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.radiomods.co.nz/kenwood/kenwoodtm731.html">http://www.radiomods.co.nz/kenwood/kenwoodtm731.html</a>
seems germane...
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
What the notes are saying is that the audio at the mic jack is
low-level unquelched un-de
-emphasized raw discriminator audio; i.e. the perfect place to connect
a TNC. <br>
You <b class="moz-txt-star"><span class="moz-txt-tag">*</span>have<span class="moz-txt-tag">*</span></b> to connect a TNC here for 9600 baud
operation. But it's also an advantage to connect here for 1200 since
the front panel volume and squelch controls won't affect how the TNC
receives. <br>
<br>
<br>
The main dis-advantage is that the raw discriminator output is
low-level (about 50-100 millivolts) and may need an audio pre-amp to
keep the KAM happy. [The KAM does have an internal jumper for
selecting audio de-emphasis when connected directly to discriminator
audio rather than a speaker.] You may have to hack resistors on the
KAM VHF input to raise the audio sensitivity, or throw together a basic
op-amp audio preamp to boost the receive audio 5-10x so the KAM works
reliably.
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
--
<br>
<br>
Stephen H. Smith wa8lmf (at) aol.com
<br>
EchoLink Node: 14400 [Think bottom of the 2M band]
<br>
Home Page: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://wa8lmf.com">http://wa8lmf.com</a> --OR-- <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://wa8lmf.net">http://wa8lmf.net</a>
<br>
<br>
NEW! World Digipeater Map
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://wa8lmf.net/APRSmaps">http://wa8lmf.net/APRSmaps</a>
<br>
<br>
JavAPRS Filter Port 14580 Guide
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://wa8lmf.net/aprs/JAVaprsFilters.htm">http://wa8lmf.net/aprs/JAVaprsFilters.htm</a>
<br>
<br>
"APRS 101" Explanation of APRS Path Selection & Digipeating
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://wa8lmf.net/DigiPaths">http://wa8lmf.net/DigiPaths</a>
<br>
<br>
Updated "Rev H" APRS <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://wa8lmf.net/aprs">http://wa8lmf.net/aprs</a>
<br>
Symbols Set for UI-View,
<br>
UIpoint and APRSplus:
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
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<br>
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<br>
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<br>
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