remotetrx.conf - Configuration file for the SvxLink remote transceiver server
remotetrx is the SvxLink remote transceiver server. This man-page
describe the configuration file format for it.
The RemoteTrx application can handle more than one transceiver at
a time. You may for example want to handle both a 2m and a 70cm receiver on
a site. One sound card is sufficient for doing this since the left channel
can be used for one receiver and the right channel can be used for the other
receiver. The GLOBAL/TRXS configuration variable is used to tell the
RemoteTrx application which transceivers to set up. Each transceiver have an
uplink that is used to interface to the main SvxLink server. The most common
type is the net uplink which link to the main SvxLink server over the
Internet using TCP/IP. It is also possible to have an uplink via RF but the
functionality is then limited.
The term "uplink" might be a bit confusing for some
people. In this case it does not refer to any specific direction in which
the data or audio is flowing. It's just the name for the link up to the main
SvxLink server.
RemoteTrx look for configuration files in a number of places.
First it tries to find a user specific configuration file. It will look for
a user specific configuration file in two places:
$HOME/.svxlink/remotetrx.conf. If no user specific configuration file
can be found, remotetrx will look for the system wide configuration file
/etc/svxlink/remotetrx.conf. The --config command line option
may also be used to specify an arbitrary configuration file.
The configuration file is in the famous INI-file format. A generic example of
how such a file might look like is shown below.
[SECTION1]
VALUE1=1
VALUE2="TWO "
VAULE3="Multi "
"line"
[SECTION2]
VALUE1=2
This is a simple format that contain name=value pairs that belong
to a section. In written text, a specific configuration variable can be
referred to as SECTION1/VALUE2 meaning "configuration variable VALUE2
in section SECTION1".
The same variable name can exist in two different sections. For
example VALUE1 in section SECTION1 have the value 1 and VALUE1 in section
SECTION2 have the value 2. Values containing spaces at the beginning or end
of the line must be surrounded by citation characters (see SECTION1/VALUE2).
Likewise with a multi line value (see SECTION1/VALUE3).
Here is the description of all configuration variables that remotetrx
understands. The configuration variables are described section for section.
The GLOBAL section contains application global configuration data.
- TRXS
- This configuration variable specify a comma separated list of transceiver
configuration sections.
- CFG_DIR
- Specify the path to a directory that contain additional configuration
files. If a relative path is specified, the path will be relative to the
directory where the main configuration file is at. All files in the
specified directory will be read as additional configuration. Filenames
starting with a dot are ignored.
- TIMESTAMP_FORMAT
- This variable specifies the format of the timestamp that is written in
front of each row in the log file. The format string is in the same format
as specified in the strftime(3) manual page. The default is
"%c" which is described as: "the preferred date and time
representation for the current locale". The environment variables
LC_TIME, LC_ALL and LANG will affect how this time format will look. For
example, setting LC_TIME="sv_SE.UTF8" will give you swedish
timestamp representation. Other examples of format specifiers are:
- %d - The day of the month as a decimal number (range 01 to 31)
- %b - The abbreviated month name according to the current
locale
- %Y - The year as a decimal number including the century
- %H - The hour as a decimal number using a 24-hour clock (range 00
to 23)
- %M - The minute as a decimal number (range 00 to 59)
- %S - The second as a decimal number (range 00 to 61)
So, TIMESTAMP_FORMAT="%d %b %Y %H:%M:%S" would give a
timestamp looking something like: "29 Nov 2005 22:31:59".
- CARD_SAMPLE_RATE
- This configuration variable determines the sampling rate used for audio
input/output. SvxLink always work with a sampling rate of 16kHz internally
but there still are som benefits from using a higher sampling rate. On
some sound cards the filters look pretty bad at 16kHz and the amplitude
response will not be uniform which among other things can cause problems
for the software DTMF decoder.
Some sound cards also sound very bad at 16kHz due to
insufficient anti-alias filtering or resampling effects. These, often
cheeper, sound cards sound OK at 48kHz.
The downside of choosing a higher sampling rate is that it
puts a little bit more load on the CPU so if you have a very slow
machine (<300MHz), it might not have the computational power to
handle it.
Supported sampling rates are: 16000 and 48000.
- CARD_CHANNELS
- Use this configuration variable to specify how many channels to use when
opening a sound card. For normal sound cards the only practical values to
use are 1 for mono and 2 for stereo. The latter is the default.
When using the sound card in stereo mode it is possible to use
the left and right channels independenly to drive two transceivers. When
using the sound card in mono mode, both left and right channels
transmit/receive the same audio.
The network uplink transceiver section is used to specify the configuration for
a network link to the main SvxLink server. In the default configuration file
there is a network uplink transceiver section called NetUpLinkTrx.
- TYPE
- Always "Net" for a network uplink transceiver configuration
section.
- RX
- Point out the receiver configuration section to use. Set to NONE if no RX
is used. A receiver is configured in the exact same way as in the SvxLink
server. Have a look at svxlink.conf(5) for more information on how
to configure a receiver.
- TX
- Point out the transmitter configuration section to use. Set to NONE if no
TX is used. A transmitter is configured in the exact same way as in the
SvxLink server. Have a look at svxlink.conf(5) for more information
on how to configure a transmitter.
- LISTEN_PORT
- The TCP port to listen on. Make sure to choose a unique port for each
network uplink transceiver configuration. The default is 5210.
- AUTH_KEY
- This is the authentication key (password) to use to athenticate incoming
connections. The same key have to be specified in the client
configuration. If no key is specified, all logins will be unauthenticated.
A good authentication key should be 20 characters long. The key will never
be transmitted over the network. A HMAC-SHA1 challenge-response procedure
will be used for authentication.
- MUTE_TX_ON_RX
- If set to a value >= 0, will stop the transmitter from transmitting
when the squelch is open. The value represents a delay, in milliseconds,
after the squelch has closed, that the transmitter will be muted. For
example, if set to 1000, the transmitter will be muted one second after
the squelch has closed. The default is not to mute the transmitter when
the squelch is open.
- FALLBACK_REPEATER
- This function is useful if running RemoteTrx as both RX and TX for a
repeater. If the connection to the SvxLink base station is lost due to
network errors, the RemoteTrx provides a very basic repeater function
(SQLELCH controlled) until the the connection has been established again.
Set to 1 to enable this function or set to 0 to disable it. Default is
0.
The RF uplink transceiver configuration section is used to specify the
configuration for an RF link to the main SvxLink server. It can for example be
used to link remote receivers coming in on the Internet to a site that do not
have access to the Internet. In the default configuration file there is an RF
uplink transceiver section called RfUpLinkTrx. The section name could
be anything. It should match what is specified in the TRXS configuration
variable in the GLOBAL section.
- TYPE
- Always "RF" for an RF uplink transceiver configuration
section.
- RX
- Point out the receiver configuration section to use. Set to NONE if no RX
is used. A receiver is configured in the exact same way as in the SvxLink
server. Have a look at svxlink.conf(5) for more information on how
to configure a receiver.
- TX
- Point out the transmitter configuration section to use. Set to NONE if no
TX is used. A transmitter is configured in the exact same way as in the
SvxLink server. Have a look at svxlink.conf(5) for more information
on how to configure a transmitter.
- UPLINK_TX
- Point out the uplink transmitter configuration section to use. The
configuration for an uplink transmitter looks exactly the same as for any
other transmitter. In the default configuration file there is an uplink
transmitter configuration section called UplinkTx. If there is no
uplink transmitter, specify NONE.
- UPLINK_RX
- Point out the uplink receiver configuration section to use. The
configuration for an uplink receiver looks exactly the same as for any
other receiver. In the default configuration file there is an uplink
receiver configuration section called UplinkRx. If there is no
uplink receiver, specify NONE.
- MUTE_UPLINK_RX_ON_TX
- Specify if the link receiver should be muted or not when the link
transmitter is transmitting. Set it to 0 if a full duplex link is desired.
Default is 1.
- LOOP_RX_TO_TX
- Set to 1 to loop incoming RX audio (not link RX) directly to the TX (not
link TX). You figure out when to use it. Default is 0.
- DETECT_1750
- Set up the receiver(s) specified in the RX configuration variable to
detect a 1750Hz tone burst. The detection will be relayed on the uplink
transmitter if the setup have the capability to do so. Set this
configuration variable to the number of milliseconds that the 1750Hz tone
must be present before reporting it. Detection is disabled by
default.
- DETECT_CTCSS
- Set up the receiver(s) specified in the RX configuration variable to
detect the given CTCSS tone. The detection will be relayed on the uplink
transmitter if the setup have the capability to do so. Set this
configuration variable to tone_fq:tone_duration, where tone_fq is the
CTCSS tone frequency and tone_duration is the number of milliseconds that
the CTCSS tone must be present before reporting it. Detection is disabled
by default.
- /etc/svxlink/remotetrx.conf (or deprecated
/etc/remotetrx.conf)
- The system wide configuration file.
- ~/.svxlink/remotetrx.conf
- Per user configuration file.
- /etc/svxlink/remotetrx.d/*
- Additional configuration files.
Tobias Blomberg (SM0SVX) <sm0svx at users dot sourceforge dot net>
svxlink(1), svxlink.conf(1), remotetrx(1),
siglevdetcal(1)