VK3UR Testing
Hardware / OS:
- Radio Equipment: Icom IC-2820H
- Operating System: Win XP SP2
30-Apr-2008 (part 2)
Version 0.1.16b1
If you have multiple paths defined in repeater.exe and one of them is not reachable then D-RATS does not appear to allow any connection to repeater.exe to be established.
Example: Repeater.exe was configured to run COM1 for RF and net:...ka7vqh... KA7VQH was offline at the time and when I started D-RATS, configured to run through repeater.exe, the client would respond "Unable to connect ((10061, 'connection refused'))".
When the invalid path was removed then D-RATS successfully connected to repeater.exe .
The only indication in repeater.exe that the link to ka7vqh had not been established was that the net path did not appear in the Monitor window.
We probably also need to test the scenarios of repeater.exe going offline at the non-originating end to see what happens and then restarting repeater.exe at the non-originating end to see what happens as this could be critical if the application is being used to pass important traffic across multiple repeater sites.
30-Apr-2008
Version 0.1.16b1
D-RATS:
The corrupted tab label issue remains (at least on my system) (sorry Dan).
When in map mode if a station(s) are deselected they are automatically become selected after a few seconds.
The openstreetmaps interface is working well, but still relatively slow to load even with an ADSL2+ connection running at 20MBPS.
I like the addition of the map scale. Thanks Dan. The addition of a "Zoom To" function would be good.
Every time a change is made to the "Auto QST Settings" D-RATS tries to establish a new session with to repeater.exe. Sometimes this works, other times it indicates that it couldn't "connect", requiring a maual connection.
Still seeing an error message when D-RATS is closed.
Repeater.exe
Successfully linked 2 D-RATS repeaters together (VK3UR and KA7VQH). Traffic originated through the VK3RBA B 70cm D-Star repeater in Ballarat, Australia is relayed out on 2m via KA7VQH and vice-versa.
25-Mar-2008
Version 0.1.11
Installed version 0.1.11 using the new Installer program and it happily overwrote the 0.1.10 version. No complaints and very painless.
D-RATS:
The corrupted tab label issue remains (at least on my system) (sorry Dan).
The Current Altitude field does not appear to be saved when D-RATS is exited / restarted. The Latitude and Longitude fields are saved correctly.
Addition of a static GPS field is GREAT!!! I just need to wait for the next tropospheric duct to open so that I can confirm if it has been picked up from my local D-STAR repeater (100 miles away) and relayed through the DPRS gateway.
The mapping worked well, once I converted my location details from deg,min,sec into deg,dec-mins. It would be great to be able to zoom in/out.
I setup a 2nd client on the network proxy with different location details and the parsing of the GPS data, extracting distance and bearing appears to be working well. Both machines show the same distance apart with the appropriate 180 deg bearing difference. Will look forward to seeing it with some live traffic.
Repeater.exe:
Repeater / Proxy settings are saved in this version. Thanks Dan.
Not sure of the syntax for entering an external net address so tried using the format net:domain_name:port Even though I entered some incorrect addresses I didn't get any feedback indicating there might be an error. Dan can you please confirm the syntax.
If anyone else wants to try connecting to my system set the address on your D-RATS client to net:www.daves-portal.com:9000 This might also work from the repeater network path, subject to the correct syntax.
Monitor window is still displaying multiple Connected Paths if the D-RATS client disconnects / reconnects.
Thanks for inserting the CR/LF in the Traffic Monitor as it is easier to read.
More to follow when I've been able to undertake some more tests.
20-Mar-2008
Version 0.1.10 (updated Win32 package including repeater.exe)
Managed to get the network proxy function working quite easily so that multiple computers around the house could share access to the radio. Very pleased that I could also enter a real world resolvable name as well as IP address. Thanks for the repeater configuration help file, that helped heaps...
Suggest that the repeater Traffic Monitor forces a carriage return/line feed at the end of each entry which would make it easier to follow. Inclusion of a time stamp would also be great. Also the ability to scroll up/down the list would be useful.
The repeater.exe application does not appear to save any settings on exit, so serial port and identification information need to be manually entered each time the application is started. It would be very useful to save this information so that it is automatically populated.
I didn't appear to be able to delete a serial port once it was entered into repeater.exe (therefore required close / restart of the repeater application).
It would be useful if there was a drop down list to select the serial port (in the Windows version). I had to manually enter COM1 to select it (fortunately this worked).
It appears that the Connected Paths portion of the repeater monitor window only updates / refreshes when a new connection is established. If a D-RATS session is disconnected or closed the network information does not appear to change.
Interesting to note is that internal LAN connections are displayed in the Connected Paths window with their internal IP address, however if you designate a real world address in D-RATS that it displays as the router address. It would be very useful if next to the network address the callsign defined in D-RATS was also displayed. This would help identify any potential problems.
I'm waiting for a bit of tropospheric ducting to occur before I can see some real world traffic across it, but so far this feature looks great!!!
19-Mar-2008
Version 0.1.10
Thanks for adding the callsign Lookup button to QRZ.com. That appears to be working well. Thanks Dan.
Still seeing some corrupted callsigns with strange characters appearing within the callsign, but don't know if you've looked at that problem with this release.
Haven't got the fogiest idea how to set up the network proxy or repeater application, but interested in playing with that, across my LAN, if there were some basic instructions.
I've observed some of the GUI distortion, appearing at the bottom of the Advanced Tabs, again. I hadn't noticed this in ver 0.1.9, so not sure if you've made some changes here.
11-Mar-2008
Version: 0.1.9
The addition of callsign highlighting for Australia (VK) within version 0.1.9 appears to be working well (thanks Dan), although I've noticed that the "[", the "]" and the "\" characters are also being included in some callsigns when there is corrupted data. Example VK3U[R or VK3UR].
It is also a bit frustrating that the D-Star standard doesn't appear to perform any CRC on callsigns as some incorrect callsigns are being displayed as valid stations when there is corruption in the data stream. Note: This is not a problem with D-RATS, but it becomes more obvious when viewing the "Callsigns" window.
The auto sorting of the "Callsigns" window is working well for both Callsign order and last heard order (thanks Dan).
2-Mar-2008
Version: 0.1.8
The only callsign currently being seen is my own, VK3UR, as I am not in range of much D-Star activity.
The new callsign detection / collection / highlighting feature recognises the callsign K3UR, not VK3UR, and only highlights K3UR. Additionally the collection screen only displays K3UR.
I suspect that the search string may only be looking for valid US callsigns.
D-RATS Version: 0.1.8 Callsign Detection / Collection / Highlighting features: