D-RATS

Dan Smith - KK7DSDayton D-STAR Forum 2010

Goal

All-in-one tool for D-STAR data ops

Make the data channel useful

Oriented at EmComm

No dependence on infrastructure

Originally targeted for simplex

All network interaction at endpoints

Interface with existing technologies

Misc changes in 0.3.x

New user interface Message routing Multiple ports

Connect any number of radios, TNCs, network connections all at once

Messages route between ports KISS TNC support AGWPE support (in progress) Plugin API

Messaging

Free-form multicast chat messages

Checksum-protected

No ACK/NAK from remote stations (yet)

Chat room and “private” chat

Structured messages (Forms)

Use XML to convey structure and content

XSL at the endpoints for presentation

Messages can contain attachments

Automatic message routing support

Email-like interface

Messaging

Email gateway

Rich forms go as HTML emails

POP3 gateway for remote mail checks

WL2K gateway

Any internet-connected station can gateway

Experimental RMS packet client

Seamless and bi-directional

SMTP/POP3 servers integrated

Paclink-like functionality

Files and Images

Arbitrary file transfers with sliding window, compression, and resume

“File server” for remoteretrieval

Integrated resize/resampleof image files

Block size and windowscaling

Positional Awareness

Captures and sends ICOM GPS/GPS-A strings Distance and direction calculation Integrated (free!) map display External GPS to multiplex the port Moving stations updated in real-time

Ratflector

Connect to other D-RATS users via Internet

Easy and clean for testing

Data-only reflector

Configure D-RATS radio port for one of:

Network port on ref.d-rats.com, port 9000

Network port on ref.d-rats.com, port 9000

User-run ratflectors too!

In the last month, 487 unique callsigns

274 Unique Stations from around the world

Implementation

Written in Python/GTK

Runs on Linux, Mac, and Windows

Full session stack protocol

OpenStreetMap.org for free maps

Availability

Windows: Installer executable Linux: .deb, .rpm

APT and Yum repositories available Thanks to Mike, N0SO!

MacOS: .app (and one-time base package)

References

D-RATS Website http://www.d-rats.com

D-RATS Mailing List