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Analogue Repeater
This is an analogue repeater control unit that runs under Windows and Linux. The analogue repeater includes most of the features expected of a repeater logic unit. The analogue repeater is customisable to behave in a number of different ways, and to mimic existing repeater logic units. Further provision is made with the analogue controller to include an external input from a program such as EchoLink or IRLP, or even the Dummy Repeater.
https://github.com/dl5di/OpenDV/wiki/Repeater-Software-Install
If you are using the sound card based repeaters you will need, as well as a PC, you'll also need a Velleman K8055 USB control board, or a URI USB combined audio card and ports, or a serial port, which handles all of the interfacing to the outside world, apart from the audio (except the URI USB). A serial port, real or virtual may also be used by the software to interface the analogue repeater to external programs or hardware.
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RF Squelch 1 and RF Squelch 2 are connected to a squelch output of the receiver, and are used to allow different squelch settings to be used for different access techniques. RF Squelch 1 is typically set to a lower threshold than RF Squelch 2 and represents the squelch used when receiving an input signal with the correct CTCSS frequency, RF Squelch 2 is used when accessing the repeater with carrier only and when starting the repeater up with a 1750 Hz tone and no CTCSS. In the absence of two squelch outputs, both should be connected together and switched as one. The software does its own audio muting so the radio does not need to control the audio itself unless it does already.
The External CTCSS Input is connected to an external hardware CTCSS decoder as provided on some receivers. The choice to use this, or the internal decoder along with RF Squelch 1 is determined by a setting within the GUI.
The External Squelch is used with external programs such as EchoLink or IRLP and is switched to indicate that audio is being received from this second source.
Unlike the RF Squelch, there is only one, and it is not expected that the input audio from the external source will have either CTCSS or a toneburst attached.
This input is also available from an optional serial port pin. It is probable that both programs will be running on the same PC and the serial port in question will be a virtual null modem cable rather than real hardware. An optional Battery Operation is provided so that the repeater can indicate to users that it is using batteries and therefore should be used sparingly. This is indicated by a change of the Ack as well as an entry on the status screen of the GUI.
The Disable input is used to set the repeaters in to Shutdown mode, and when released will restore it into Listening mode. This input can be used as either an external hardware shutdown facility. A more interesting use is to connect this input to an Active output of another repeater to allow for two repeaters (e.g. analogue and D-Star) to operate side by side. This would require two sets of audio cards and controller boards, as well as audio splitters/combiners. The outputs include two which represent the internal status of the software and two for controlling "transmitters", real or virtual.
The two status outputs are Heartbeat and Active, Heartbeat toggles every one second when the software is running correctly and is an indication of the health of the software. A lack of toggling of this line indicates that the software has hung and is in need of restarting.
Active goes high when the repeater transmits and for a period afterwards, this period being set within the configuration programs. In the analogue repeater this line does not have the delay when only sending the beacon. RF Transmit is to key the repeater transmitter, and is allied to the Squelch1 and Squelch2 input lines. External Transmitter is indicative that audio for transmission over the external system (EchoLink or IRLP for example), this output is also optionally available on the same serial port that as the External Squelch input.
The four remaining outputs, if supported, can be used to control external hardware, and are accessed from the GUI menu.
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The meanings of the pins are identical to those used on the analogue repeater apart from only having one transmit output and no external battery input. See the definitions above for more information about the pins that are used. The GMSK Repeater and DV-RPTR Repeater also have the option to use a Velleman K8055 as an external controller in order to interface to an analogue repeater controller to form a dual-mode repeater, and to offer control options for hardware.
The program is configured by choosing the Preferences option under the Edit menu entry at the top of the screen.
##The Callsign Tab This allows for the setting of the opening, closing, and the two beacon repeater callsigns or sound files. which are heard at intervals when the repeater is in use. Beacon 1 is only heard when the repeater is in use, while Beacon 2 is transmitted periodically when the repeater is not in use. For all of these settings, the CW may contains all of the letters and numbers as well as /?=, and space.
An option is to use pre-recorded WAV files instead of the internally generated CW. If using the internally generated CW then the choice on the left should be set to "CW Open ID", "CW Close ID", "CW Beacon 1" or "CW Beacon 1" as needed, and the text to be sent entered in the available text box, the keying speed (8-25 WPM) and the tone (500-2000 Hz) are settable. If a WAV file is to be used, it must be mono and sampled at 48000 samples per second, and the choice on the left set to "WAV Open ID", "WAV Close ID", "WAV Beacon 1", and "WAV Beacon 2" as needed. The file name and full path should be entered into the available text box, pressing the "Choose..." button allows a file to be selected from the file system to make life easier.
The first audio level is that used for the opening and closing/periodic and beacon when there is no other audio being transmitted by the repeater, while the second audio level is that used when the callsign is being transmitted underneath a relayed station. The audio level sliders operate in real-time on the levels sent out by the repeater to aid setting up, however the values will only be stored if the OK button is pressed.
##The Timers Tab
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#Running the Repeater
AnalogueRepeater.exe [-nolog] [-gui] [-logdir directory] [-confdir directory] [config name]
analoguerepeater [-nolog] [-gui] [-logdir directory] [-confdir directory] [config name]
analoguerepeaterd [-daemon] [-nolog] [-logdir directory] [-confdir directory] [config name]
On Windows the Analogue Repeater program is named AnalogueRepeater.exe and is a GUI based program, as is the Linux version which is named analoguerepeater. Also on Linux is a program named analoguerepeaterd which is a command line version of the repeater.
The -daemon command line switch is used on the command line version to put the program into the background, and to disassociate it from the controlling terminal. The program will return immediately, but using the ps command will show that it is running in the background.
All versions have an optional parameter which signifies the configuration to be used, and this must be set on the command line when running as well as configuring the repeater. This name will appear on the title bar as well as affecting the name of the log file used. The location of the configuration file, which is used when running under Linux is normally found in the /etc directory. The -confdir option allows the location of the users’ home directory to be set explicitly, it is also a valid option under Windows but performs no function. +++++++++++++++++++++++++
The main screen simply shows the status of the repeater, and there are no controls to operate. You'll see a summary of any received stations, and a simple status panel to show what the repeater is doing.
Normally the GUI is disabled but it may be switched on in the Release build by specifying the -gui option on the command line, or by clicking on the View menu and enabling the GUI Updates.
The Status section shows the internal status of the repeater. The RX State shows the status of the receiver state machine, while the Rpt State shows the overall repeater state and it has a number of values including Listening, Waiting, Timeout, Valid and Invalid. An incoming D-Star transmission may not have the correct value in RPT1 or some other setting, and such a transmission would be received correctly but counted as Invalid and not relayed. The TX value mirrors the transmit output pin on the modem.
The Headers section shows information about the currently received D-Star transmission, the callsigns in the header, and the header flags (in hex). This header is shown only if the header isn't corrupt but is shown even if it isn't valid from the point of view of the repeater.
The Timers section shows the state of the internal timers, all of their meanings have been discussed above, except for the watchdog. The values are displayed as n1/n2 where n1 is the current counting value and n2 is the trigger value, the values of n1 may go over n2 in operation. A value of zero for n1 indicates that the time is not active as will be seen.
It is possible to write .dvtool files of all the local RF D-Star traffic by enabling the Logging option on the File menu. This creates a .dvtool file for each incoming RF transmission, and can quickly fill up a disk unless care is taken to remove old .dvtool files.