Getting started with Winlink and Pat

How To's
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More to come later so check back soon.

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Pat is an open source client for Winlink. We are starting this post to act as a living document for setup and configuration of stations using Pat to send and receive Winlink messages. If you have a working setup please respond with details so I can incorporate them into this document.

If you have questions or are experiencing difficulties with any aspect of setting up a station for Pat please make a separate post.

-Nick, AF7ZJ

Pat home page

Download and install Pat

Download Pat for you operating system from Github.

Installation
Linux Mint
Launch the terminal and run the commands below:

sudo dpkg -i pat_x.y.z_linux_amd64.deb
sudo apt-get install ax25-tools

As of Pat version 0.5.1 on Linux Mint (confirmed by AF7ZJ 2018-01-07) there is a bug which can cause the the Pat installer to fail to create some config files.
Type ‘pat connect foobar’ to fix this.

Setup the config file

Still in the terminal run ‘pat configure’ OR
open the file ~/.wl2k/config.json in your favorite text editor.

Modify the lines below

“mycall”: “Your call sign”,
“locator”: “Your grid square”,
“secure_login_password”: “Your Winlink Password”,

This sets up Pat to listen to ax25 automatically.

“listen”: [“ax25”],

Launching Pat

In the terminal type:

sudo kissattach /dev/ttyXX wl2k 43.43.43.43
pat http

You can manually specify what protocol to use with a pat command option.

pat --listen ax25 http

Launches Pat using ax25

Radios and TNCs

Byonics Tiny Trak TNC
Yaesu VX8 (HT) with custom cable for interfacing radio to Tiny Trak

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