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Using WinRPR with the BPQ32 switch.

WinRPR is a soundcard-based emulation of the SCS Tracker TNC. It supports WA8DED Hostmode and KISS interfaces,over either a serial port or a TCP connection. It can be used with BPQ's SCSTracker Driver in DED Hostmode over the serial interface or BPQ's KISS drivers over either serial or TCP. For UI based applications such as APRS either DED or KISS work equally well, but for connected mode packet the DED interface has performance advantages and the BPQ SCSTracker driver supports scanning using RIGCONTROL which the KISS driver doesn't. However as WinRPR is only available on Windows and some peope prefer to run their main node on Linux there is a need for a DED over TCP driver. The WinRPR driver in BPQ provides this. It is effectively identical to the SCSTRACKER driver, but with a TCP interface rather than serial.

WinRPR only supports PTT using either VOX or RTS or DTR on a serial port. If you have radio or sound card interface that supports these and you don't want to share the radio with other modes then there isn't a problem, but if either doesn't apply you can use the BPQ Rig Control's PTTMUX option, along with a com0com serial port pair. You could also use BPQRemotePTT to convert RTS changes to Hamlib/rigctld PTT commands.

Configuration

The configuration is basically the same as for the SCSTRACKER driver, but there needs to be an ADDR line at the start of the CONFIG section to define the TCP Host IP address and Port and optional PTT and PATH parameters. If a PATH is specified pointing to the WinRPR executable BPQ will start the TNC when BPQ starts. If PTT is omitted, VOX operation is assumed. If specified it defines how an associated RIGCONTROL will key the radio. If PATH is omitted, BPQ won't start the TNC, and you will have to run it before starting BPQ.

Typical first lines are:

ADDR 127.0.0.1 8001
ADDR 127.0.0.1 8001 PTT DTR
ADDR 127.0.0.1 8001 PTT CI-V (or PTT CAT)
ADDR 127.0.0.1 8001 PATH C:\WinRPR\WinRPR.exe
ADDR 127.0.0.1 8001 PTT CI-V PATH C:\WinRPR\WinRPR.exe

Other PTT options are PTT RTS, PTT DTRRTS, PTT CM108, PTT HAMLIB

If you are running the TNC on a different machine from the Node, you can use program WinmorControl.exe to start or stop the TNC on that machine. To enable this mode, run WinmorControl.exe on the remote machine and enter REMOTE: before the path to the TNC, eg

 ADDR 192.168.1.2 8001 PATH REMOTE:C:\WinRPR\WinRPR.exe

The rest of the config is the same as for the SCSTracker Driver

; Sample Config for a WinRPR Port

PORT
 ID=WinRPR
 DRIVER=WinRPR
 PORTCALL=GM8BPQ
 CONFIG
  ADDR 127.0.0.1 8001 PTT CI-V PATH C:\WinRPR\WinRPR.exe
  RIGCONTROL COM2 19200 ICOM IC7000 70

  DEFAULT ROBUST          ; Default mode is RP
  USEAPPLCALLS            ; Accept connects to all APPLCALLS
  BEACONAFTERSESSION
  %F 2000                 ; Centre Freq for Normal Packet 
  %B R300                 ; Robust
  
 ENDPORT

ENDPORT

3. Operation.

See the SCSTracker Driver documentation

John Wiseman GM8BPQ/G8BPQ
December 2020