A new version of fldigi was released on December 25th, followed hours later by a bug fix. That prompted me to some more experimenting with D-RATS and fldigi. I already have D-RATS and fldigi set up on my desktop computer. (Add a network connection to D-RATS and set the address to 127.0.0.1, port 7322.) I set up a laptop computer with the same arrangement. I used two audio cables to cross-connect the line-in and line-out on the two computers. I selected BPSK250 as the modem in fldigi on both computers (this is about the same speed as 300 baud packet). I was able to send D-RATS text and messages between the two computers using fldigi as the transport medium. I have not, as yet, tried this on radios, but I am confident that I will, in the future, have it working. After I reached that point, I reasoned that the D-RATS repeater could also make a network connection to fldigi. Well, it works. I was able to make messages coming into a ratflector be re-transmitted by fldigi.
Did I mention I have a TNC running on a Ratflector too? I recently acquired a MFJ1270X, which is MFJ's version of the TNC-X. It's virtually plug and play. If you order the optional cable, it plugs into packet ready radios. There is only a transmit level control to adjust in the TNC. Mine is the USB version and it was recognized as a serial port device. Go to D-RATS preferences and add a connection to a KISS TNC. Plug in the COM port number and set the speed to 9600. Set the speed jumper in the TNC to match. This is where it gets complicated... There is a bug in the D-RATS software that puts the wrong data in the config file when connecting a TNC. You must manually edit the file to correct it. It is a hidden file, so you must first instruct you computer to show hidden files. Now search for d-rats.config for D-RATS, or repeater.config, for the repeater. Open it with a text editor. Look for a line like this:
True,<type 'type'>:COM3:0,9600,False,False,TNC
Delete the?<type 'type'> and insert tnc, like this:
True,tnc:COM3:0,9600,True,False,TNC
Save the file and re-start D-RATS.
I hope this will encourage D-RATS users to try it on radios, as it was intended.
Patrick
N3TSZ
Patrick Connor
Brad Morris