Outpost Packet Message Manager

Platform Support

Serial Terminal Node Controllers (TNCs)

One of the critical design assumptions around Outpost was that it would (or could be made to) work with any TNC out there.  The TNC setup window allows you to either use the default TAPR2 TNC commands, or define a different set if your TNC requires that.  So far, all Outpost users have reported that the default command set has worked with what they have.  Needless to say, not all TNCs have been verified.

Confirmed Functional
Here's what has been observed or reported.

10/22/10: Per John, KG6EZX, "I made a TNC-radio cable, connected the PK-88 to my computer and radio, fired up Outpost and used the KPC-3 command set.  I made no changes to Outpost or to the PK-88.  It worked just fine.  So PakRatt is not required."

3/2005: You have to first load the TNC's with basic settings using AEA Pakratt... then they work fine with Outpost.

2. Notes on the Kenwood D700.  

8/8/08: Dave WB2FTX confirms that Kenwood TH-D7A(G) works fine with Outpost.

7/1/07.  Excerpts from the Outpost users group on the D700:  "The Kenwood Radios with the TNCs built in are only to be used for APRS they are not suitable for Outpost or Winlink in that configuration, but with the TNC turned off and a out- board TNC of good quality, the radio works very well."

Additionally, "The Tasco modem chipset used in the Kenwood and Alinco data radios have very limited buffers.  They were created to receive the relatively short APRS data streams.  For APRS and DXCluster messages, I think they work fine.  They are just unsuitable for general purpose packet messaging where the message size overloads the buffer."

Additionally, "Cannot handle frames larger than 255 characters in KISS mode.  It has no hardware flow control, while in TNC mode, so cannot be used for packet with terminal programs, since it is impossible to send Binary files, or long ASCII files.  If in APRS mode and a station sends a Beacon frame larger than 256 characters, the TNC resets itself. If this frame contains DX cluster info the transceiver gives up and switches off. They use a wrong connector type for the build in tnc serial port.  It is male but is wired as female!!!!  The good think is that behaves superb with an external TNC on 9600b. You must have in mind that needs a rather high output tnc.  It can be used with a txdelay up to 11.  Really fast VCO!!  It has a build in mailbox (American habit!!) with 128kb memory.  Imagine they waste so much memory for something that no one will ever use."

3. Notes on the Kenwood D7 Handheld.  

"Earlier versions of the D7A (not the D7AG) had a problem in KISS mode. Newer version support better the KISS mode, but still the lack of memory can cause problems. While in APRS mode if a station sends a Beacon packet larger than 76 characters the TNC locks and needs reset. Sometimes things are even worse, the whole transceiver needs RESET!!  Of course cannot support frames larger than 256 characters.  It is very sensitive to computer interference.  So put some ferrites to the serial port cable..."

4.  Notes on the Kenwood D710

30-Apr-09, The following is a note from Rick Muething, KN6KB, Winlink Development Team, in response to this radios' "KISS bug".  As posted to the BPQ32 yahoo group, Rick writes...

"The 710 “bug” is not a violation of the KISS protocol… it is the result of trying to use the same serial port for both a TNC and a Front panel control. The problem is when in KISS mode (which sends binary packets “encapsulated in the KISS protocol” it is possible to have the character sequence “TC 0<Cr>” as binary or character data within the KISS encapsulation. This sequence will be interpreted by the serial port controller in the Control head of the D710 as “escape to control mode” and which will switch the serial interface from TNC mode to front panel control mode. This can have disastrous affects when trying to transfer binary files using KISS.

"One solution would be to entice Kenwood to modify the firmware in the control head to having entered the KISS protocol to ignore all mode control commands including “TC 0<Cr>”. This would require using the standardized escape KISS sequence {0xC0, 0xFF, 0xC0} prior to any control panel commands and then re enabling KISS to continue TNC operation…This gets tricky and is very likely to impact existing programs that now work.

"The solution we used and which appears to work well and is solid is to escape the “C” character.  So when any data is sent to the TNC in KISS mode, if there is an ASCII “C” it is replaced by the sequence <0xDB>”C” which essentially escapes the “TC 0<Cr>” sequence.  The KISS protocol (in the D710’s KISS TNC implementation) removes the <0xDB> which is the frame escape so no modification of the transmitted data stream is actually made.  Thanks to Peter Woods for figuring this out."

5. Notes on KAM

Very early versions of this TNC apparently have problems.  For instance, for KAM firmware versions as early as v2.06, at least one user has reported receiving a INVALID STREAM messages when connecting to a telpac or RMS node, resulting in Outpost exiting unintentionally.  While complete testing has not been performed, early versions of KAM firmware may be problematic.  See the Kantronics/Firmware website for the history.

cmd: LFadd OFF

cmd: Streamev OFF

cmd: Streamsw 0

cmd: mcom off

cmd: mcon off 

See the TNC's users guide for details on these commands.

7. Notes on SCS PTC-II Controllers

The following information is from Jack VK4JRC and Lee KB9PIP:  Regarding the SCS PTC-IIPro.  See http://www.scs-ptc.com/download/manual39pro.pdf, page 143, where it states... "Packet-Radio with the PTC-IIpro will only function in conjunction with the optionally available Packet-Radio modules from SCS DSP module: for 300 and 1200 Baud AFSK as well as 9600 and 19200 Baud FSK (G3RUH compatible)."  That section also lists the packet commands and definitely does appear to imply that AX.25 packet can be supported with this DSP module.

There are 2 slots inside the Pro model, to fit up to 2 boards, run one at 1200, the other at 300 and make a gateway.  A cheaper modem would be the PTC-IIEx, which runs Packet, but has no gateway or transceiver freq control.

Additionally, per Wes KG6POV (2/6/10), "...  Outpost won't drive an SCS tnc directly. You need to use AGWPE.  I've got the PTC-IIex (with an RS-232 port instead of USB) but the AGWPE parameters should be similar (except perhaps for the com: port).  If you install agwpe, paste the these settings into the .ini file, open agwpe, and then open Outpost and select AGW-local as your tnc, it should work."

8. Notes on the Alinco with (Tasco) internal TNC 41

22-Dec-09, Glenn N3USP reports that, "the Alinco (Tasco) internal TNC 41, was limited on the RAM side;  I figured I would have problems, but I was easily able to connect to my KPC3+ through RF and receive many multi-page bulletins without difficulty. Obviously, I was unable to upload large files using the limited Alinco tnc,

9. Kenwood TH-D72

6-Feb-11, Bob W6AJO reports that  the TH-D72A appears to be have the same Tasco tnc as previous Kenwood radios. The good news is that it works well as a portable packet station when running in KISS mode (with AGWPE).  Bob's configuration:  Kenwood TH-D72A using internal tnc in KISS mode, Asus netbook (13hr advertised battery life), Win7 Pro, Outpost PMM, and AGWPE Pro.

10. Dire Wolf

9-Dec-2016, John WB2OSZ reports that the Dire Wolf software TNC now has connected AX.25 capability; Outpost can now use it as a higher performance drop in replacement for AGWPE.

Per the Dire Wolf website, "Dire Wolf is a software "soundcard" modem/TNC and APRS encoder/decoder. It can be used stand-alone to observe APRS traffic, as a digipeater, APRStt gateway, or Internet Gateway (IGate). It can also be used as a virtual TNC for other applications such as APRSIS32, UI-View32, Xastir, APRS-TW, YAAC, UISS, Linux AX25, SARTrack, RMS Express, and many…" See the installation instructions for setting this software up.

1. Problematic

AGWPE-supported TNCs

Verified Operating Systems

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updated:  May 23, 2013