[aprssig] KPC3+ in CMD mode or KISS using XASTIR

[scott at opentrac.org]

I'll second the VNCServer.  I don't even run X locally on the machine.  I
only touch the keyboard once or twice a year, usually when I screw up a
kernel upgrade and need to manually switch back to a prior version.  The
keyboard's got so much dust in it it's almost impossible to log in.  But I
can use Xastir from the house just fine, or from work over an encrypted SSH
tunnel.  It's not exactly snappy with raster maps, but it's usable.

Digi_ned is a good choice if you don't need a user interface.  You can run
that on some pretty old PC hardware.  Hmm, maybe that'd be a good use for
the old Sparc IPX's in the garage...

Scott
N1VG

-----Original Message-----
From: aprssig-bounces at lists.tapr.org
[mailto:aprssig-bounces at lists.tapr.org]On Behalf Of Drew Baxter
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2005 9:08 PM
To: Patrick Green; TAPR APRS Mailing List
Subject: Re: [aprssig] KPC3+ in CMD mode or KISS using XASTIR


Hi Patrick:

K1XVM runs Xastir and has for a long while.  It's also the backup DNS
server for the intranet and microwave networking project here.

I use VNCServer as my XWindows Server, and then I run Xastir through it on
FreeBSD.  I can safely say it's been a maint. free machine all in
all.  When I had it all on an old Sparc Ultra 1, it was as well.  I had to
down it this week to do some debug for another project using the hardware,
but it's been up using a Belkin UPS without issues.  Best of all Xastir and
VNCServer are FreeBSD ports, which means I can do a portupgrade and upgrade
it and the dependencies with ease.

I use the Alinco DR-135TP because it was a relatively inexpensive TNC/2m
Radio.  It doesn't seem to support KISS very well last time I tried it
though.

There are worse things you could do than use Xastir.  Needless to say it
works well on old and cheap hardware, the Ultra 1 I used to use was 100
bucks on Ebay and it ran Debian Linux.

--Droo, K1XVM

At 12:01 AM 4/29/2005, Patrick Green wrote:
>Hi All,
>
>   I want to set up my dad with a Xastir setup.  He's 1 1/2 miles away
>and would serve extremely well as a fill in digi.  The issue that I'm
>worried about is staying on the air.  While XASTIR is a reliable
>program, I would like to have fallback capability in case the
>application isn't running, power outage, etc.  I have an old MFJ-1270B
>but was looking at the KPC3+ as something to purchase that is current
>in APRS support without a host program running.  Is it worth $200 to
>get a KPC3+?  I'm in awe that they want that much money for "old"
>technology.  Wow, it has 128K of memory.  I recently got a 128M USB
>flash drive for $5.  I figured that they would have made thousands of
>these things as they are 10+ years on the market now.  Let me know if
>it's worth the extra money or if running KISS with the MFJ is worth
>the risk.  Perhaps I should run VNC server and restart it should it
>fail.
>
>73 de Pat --- KA9SCF.
>
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