Got a Raspberry Pi and want to get back into Packet Radio?
The LinBPQ-RTG has been moved to a GitHub repository, meaning keep it up-to-date is much easier. To download, install ‘git’ on your system and use the following command to copy the repository to your system:
git clone https://github.com/pe1rrr/linbpq_rtg
This is a complete packet radio setup for amateur radio use. The repository has binaries included for the Raspberry Pi providing the full node network stack, QtSoundModem and QtTermTCP.
The repository contains documentation and configuration pretty much ready to go, only a few things need to be edited to set your callsign, file paths and a couple of parameters such as grid square locator, GPS coordinates and APRS-IS password.
Please note this software is in Beta, it is recommended that you run all three update scripts before starting, and most importantly, read the README.md – also viewable on https://github.com/pe1rrr/linbpq_rtg
Recommended system requirements: Raspberry Pi4 if running the provided QtSoundModem soundmodem. If not using the soundmodem, serial port based TNCs can be used on a Pi Model B / Pi Zero as the performance overhead is much lower. Raspberry Pi Model 3’s have issues with ALSA driver (see: https://bugs.launchpad.net/raspbian/+bug/1819560) although a workaround has been included in the repository, see qtsm_rpi3 file.
If you wish to compile the source code yourself, download the latest archive from G8BPQ’s website/repository here. If using a 64bit OS, you must first install x86 32bit compatibility libraries before building. A binary compiled without these may execute but it will send corrupted frames, so be careful.
Appendix
The update scripts provided can be easily modified to download the binaries for x86 32bit Linux.
Open them in a text editor and adjust the filename= parameter.
The filename downloaded by the scripts should be changed from ‘pilinbpq’ to ‘linbpq’. The same procedure should be employed for qtsm and qtterm update scripts- just remove the ‘pi’.
Linux x86
If running a 64bit OS you will need to install the 32bit compatibility libraries. For Ubuntu and Debian, this is accomplished with:
apt-get install ia32-libs
Windows
For Windows users, the configuration files are compatible with the Win32 build of BPQ32 available from G8BPQ’s website here.
Be aware the configuration here is for the latest Beta so after installing the Win32 package, also download the latest beta DLL. As this package is aimed at Raspbian Linux for the Raspberry Pi it is a little out of scope to provide details for the Windows platform.
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