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Hi folks,<br>
<br>
I've been a Linux person for many years, and also an Asterisk user
for many years, and the prospect of integrating these two with my
amateur radio hobby has me excited. I have been studying sample
config files and source code, but am nevertheless a bit confused.<br>
<br>
I have a RigExpert TI-5 interface, which could be thought of as a
more featureful version of a SignaLink USB. I'll give more details
on my setup below, but basically what I have is:<br>
<br>
<ul>
<li>A full-duplex ALSA device, in which the receive frequency is
mapped to the right channel, and the transmit frequency to the
left. (Though I think I can make it such that a program that
opens the device in mono mode will get the right thing.)</li>
<li>The serial interface to the rig is at /dev/ttyUSB0</li>
<li>Control is at /dev/ttyUSB1. In specific, DTR must always be
off, and RTS must be raised to key PTT.</li>
</ul>
Other audio interfaces to this system, whether on Linux or Windows,
operate quite nicely with this setup. svxlink is another
Linux-based repeater project that runs well. Echolink runs fine
under VirtualBox, etc.<br>
<br>
Getting the audio into Asterisk shouldn't be a big deal. After all,
chan_alsa ought to be able to do that right off. So now I'm on to
the app_rpt configuration. I think I can figure most of it out, but
the bit I haven't been able to figure out yet is PTT keying. I
can't seem to figure out how it indicates PTT in what seems to be
the something of a default config, nor how I might get it to raise
RTS for me.<br>
<br>
My particular setup -<br>
<br>
You might think of it logically as two transceivers connected to two
SignaLink USB devices. In reality, it's just a Kenwood TS-2000
connected to a RigExpert TI-5.<br>
<br>
One feature of this radio is that it has two fully-independent
transceivers, and is capable of full-duplex operation so long as
each transceiver is tuned to a different band. So, for instance, I
can have an input frequency on the 2m band, an output frequency on
the 70cm band, and I have an instant repeater... just with a 300MHz
offset ;-) In fact, the radio has a built-in repeater feature,
although it is extremely limited in features.
<br>
<br>
Furthermore, the TS-2000 has separate audio outputs for both
transceivers, and it can keep one of them open even while it's
transmitting on the other transceiver.
<br>
<br>
The RigExpert USB interface takes these separate audio outputs from
the TS-2000 and maps one to the left audio channel and the other to
the right audio channel as it feeds them to the PC. The RigExpert
is also capable of full-duplex operation. So I tell something like
svxlink that my transmitter is on the left channel, the receiver is
on the right channel, and there we have it: instant homebrew
repeater, completely full-duplex, like a regular repeater in every
way except the unusually large offset.
I'd like to be able to do the same with Asterisk.<br>
<br>
Thanks for any ideas,<br>
<br>
-- John<br>
KR0L<br>
<br>
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