newbie question - hamlib and gMFSK

I have finally successfully installed gMFSK and hamlib, but gMFSK doesn't seem to recognize that hamlib exists. No options for configuration under preferences.

Hamlib works, as I can use rigctl and query the TS-570DG and get frequency and mode.

Any thoughts? I'm trying to move completely away from the Microsoft environment in the shack, and this seems like a critical step. I am very much the newbie with linux - not much beyond the ./configure|make|make install stage. I'm using Mandrake 9.2 in a triple boot environment (DOS/Win98/Linux).

If there is a more appropriate forum for the question, please advise.

de N5NW (Marty)
Bellbrook (Dayton), Ohio

Marty,

Hi. I'm relatively new to the ham/linux game myself, but I have a pretty long experience with hamming and Linux separately.

The general state of Linux stuff for ham radio is primitive, IMO. The linux-ham group apparently originated to serve the "ham" extensions to the Linux kernel -- mainly AX.25 -- which are now pretty dated. (The group will correct me if I'm wrong!) However, this group may be a good way to reach the "right" kind of folks. You may also have discovered http://radio.linux.org.au .

Hamlib seems to be an effort to make a device-independent layer between rigs, with various interfaces, and rig-control software. Coverage is incomplete, and there don't seem to be many software packages built to use hamlib.

I have been using KPSK and gMFSK with some success, and also jLog software (Java). These are all self-contained packages with their own audio and/or rig interfaces -- no relationship to hamlib.

I have written some Python-based software to operate the PSKmeter device and for Orion rig control (www.aa6e.net/aa6e), but again no connection with hamlib.

The reality seems to be that the intersection of Linux and ham radio is a great place to be if you're a programmer or experimenter, but the vast ham market share is in the Windows world. It takes a pretty farsighted developer to put in lots of time to make advanced (user friendly, device independent, multi-mode) software for Linux when nearly all the potential users are on Windows. So, we have MixW, MultiPSK, etc. for Windows and nothing similar AFAIK in Linux.

I wish it were otherwise, and I'm doing my small part.

73, Martin, AA6E

Hold it, timeout ;-)

gMFSK does indeed use hamlib to display true frequencies in the waterfall display and to send accurate qso data to xlog, that also supports hamlib.

I tried to think of a reason to include this work into hamlib, but I guess pretending a PSKmeter is a rig simply won't fly.

Try the latest gMFSK: while perhaps not as "spiffy" as MixW, it does work quite well, it is free&free (as in, GPL) and its author is very responsive to suggestions and bugreports.

B73,
Andrea.

Homepage: http://andrea.borgia.bo.it     /    Amateur radio: IZ4FHT
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Sorry! I wasn't aware of that option in gMFSK. (It's nice to read the freq., but not essential.) Hamlib 2.3 apparently doesn't have Orion support, which is what I need. I took a quick look at the code to see what to do to add a new rig, but it's not completely trivial. I wonder if it wouldn't have been possible to implement most of a rig's personality in a higher-level way -- in table- or rule-driven form. (Like sendmail -- not! :-)

The hamlib / gMFSK / xlog philosophy looks like a good one, as long as we are in the "Unix" world. One might wish for a true cross-platform solution, but that's harder.

Cheers,
Martin

I take very slight offense to your comments. ;-)

Have you seen Xastir, which is one of the premier APRS apps, which runs on multiple OS'es? Yea, we run on Windows now too, but only through the Cygwin emulator, so it is really still a Unix app under the hood.

http://www.xastir.org

You can compare it to the other APRS apps here:

http://www.eskimo.com/~archer/aprs_capabilities.html

--
Curt, WE7U archer at eskimo dot com
Arlington, WA, USA http://www.eskimo.com/~archer
"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!"

Curt,

Sorry to give any offense, slight or otherwise. My remarks came from a search for keyboard/digital Linux software for PSK, RTTY and related modes. I just don't find anything that compares feature-wise with leading Windows apps. That's not surprising, given that the Linux market is small and that we Linux folks are likely to want software that is "free as in beer" and "free as in speech".

[Personally, I'd be willing to pay for good Linux products. However, if I develop Linux-specific ham software, it won't be for profit or for glory in the larger ham world.]

I confess to near total ignorance of APRS, but I'm glad to hear of good work being done there.

In a way you prove my point, however. I wouldn't count Cygwin support as "Windows compatibility". [Although I have claimed that Python support is. Go figure.] IMO, we need to use wxWidgets (wxwindows.org) or similar cross-platform GUI framework to get apps that work nicely across Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms. (Java is an alternative, too.) We can handle the GUI part, but does anyone have a cross-platform soundcard strategy?

73, Martin, AA6E

;-) I was just kidding. Just making sure you knew of other quality stuff that's out there.

You should try Xastir hooked up to an internet port just to see what's out there. I'm involved in firenet also, where we have an alternate network that we use to plot both APRS trackers and weather/fire/river gauges, quakes, etc. firenet.us port 2023. Your map will really light up if you connect there.

We have a Java application at work that our group wrote. Runs on Solaris, WinNT, Linux, and now WinXP. Wonderful language for our automated testing.

I agree with you that Cygwin isn't Windows compatibility. It's a hack. A useful hack, but a slow one. Most Windows people won't go through the hassle, but for Unix people who are stuck on Windows at work, or have other restrictions here and there, it's a useful tool.

I'm not sure that Xastir could try for a native Windows port without a heck of a lot of work. We use so many of the Unix system calls that aren't supported well (or at all) on Windows. We're multi-threaded too. Currently we use the Motif widget set, and it would be a big hassle to even change to a new widget set. I'm the main GUI guy (and threads guy, and mutex locks guy, and topo map guy).

Soundcard... Depends on what you're after. We support some limited uses of AGWPE. We can also use the soundcard interface to do packet. Windows people can also use AGWPE.

If you're talking someone universal uses other than packet, can't help you there. Sorry.

--
Curt, WE7U archer at eskimo dot com
Arlington, WA, USA http://www.eskimo.com/~archer
"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!"

I was wondering what it would take to write a cross-platform soundcard application for PSK31, RTTY, etc.

I have found PortAudio (www.portaudio.com), which might be an API to build upon.

-Martin

Hi Martin,

http://hamlib.org/app.html

It's up to you to add more ;-)

gMFSK relies on Hamlib. I'd be happy to help authors of KPSK/jLog/.. to integrate with Hamlib.

Next version of Hamlib will have basic support for the Orion rig, I've just added it in CVS of Hamlib tonight :-)

Do you want to be the maintainer of this backend?

FYI, Hamlib has also a Python wrapper.

73,
Stephane - F8CFE

hamlib support can be enabled/disabled from the preferences panel only if gMFSK has been built with hamlib option turned on. Quoting from memory, the ./configure script in gMFSK sources automatically detects hamlib's presence during build, but you might always add --enable-hamlib to be on the safe side.

My ham radio activity is supported entirely by Linux: hamlib, xlog (with
hamlib support), gMFSK (with hamlib support) plus cwdaemon for fun and
occasionally the soundmodem to test the ax25 connection to my club's
cluster node. I have installed qsstv also, but it didn't interest me enough to bother to really test it.

Nothing bad with being a newbie, but you're past that stage if you're already comfortable with building from sources 8-)

I think this list is appropriate enough, but just in case you want something a bit more focused you should try xlog-discussion and hamlib-developers (see websites for links).

B73,
Andrea.

Homepage: http://andrea.borgia.bo.it     /    Amateur radio: IZ4FHT
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?