Advanced repeater system software with EchoLink support for Linux including a GUI, Qtel - the Qt EchoLink client
It's been a long time since the latest major release. A lot have happened during this time. The most important changes are described below. Be sure to look at the SvxLink log on first startup. Especially look for WARNINGs that say that configuration variables have changed. Make changes as instructed and restart SvxLink. It's also a good idea to redo audio calibrations using the devcal and siglevdetcal utilities. When using the SvxReflector it is very important that all nodes use the same levels for audio calibration. Otherwise some nodes will sound weak while other nodes will sound over modulated.
This release introduce talkgroups in the SvxReflector. That make it possible to use the reflector server for multiple parallel QSOs. Node sysops can set up monitoring on selected talkgroups which will make the node automatically select a talkgroup when there is activity on it. There also is a simple mechanism to set priority between monitored talkgroups.
The reflector sysop may configure selected talkgroups in a few ways. There is an auto-QSY feature that can be configured to move nodes, that are actively taking part in a QSO on a talkgroup, to a temporary talkgroup. That will free up the original talkgroup for new calls. A node is classed as active if there have been local activity (e.g. squelch opens) on the node. If a QSY happens and a node has not been active, there will be a chance to follow the QSY by just pushing the PTT.
SvxLink now also support using multiple CTCSS tones. That is primarily of use to select a reflector talkgroup based on which CTCSS frequency that is used. A transceiver may be programmed with the same RF on multiple memory channels but with different CTCSS frequencies. That will make it easy to choose which talkgroup to use upon first transmission to a SvxLink node.
A SvxLink node can now be configured to use multiple SvxReflector adresses. That allow for simple redundancy where all nodes will switch to a backup node if the primary SvxReflector stops responding.
A new squelch type, COMBINE, enable the use of multiple squelch detectors at the same time. The different squelch types is combined using a logical expression.
The new configuration variable COMMAND_PTY can be used to set up a PTY that can be used to set configuration variables and call TCL functions at runtime. That can be used to externally control behaviour in a running SvxLink instance.
The CTCSS detector has a new mode (4) which now is the default. The new mode is faster and much better at suppressing interference.
SvxLink can now use LADSPA plugins to shape receiver audio. The LADSPA_PLUGINS variable is used to load and configure plugins.
As usual a number of bugs have been fixed. The full list of changes and more details can be found in the full release notes. Information on configuration of new features can be found in the manual pages.
If you are running an SvxReflector server you should upgrade immediately.
Use release release 19.09.1 instead.
This release of SvxLink have no single big feature addition but a lot of smaller ones. Some examples are: AFSK metadata transmission for RF linked remote receivers, per receiver voter delay adjustment, new module ModuleTrx to remote control transceivers using DTMF, more flexible announcement configuration and more.
As usual a number of bugs have been fixed. The full list of changes and more details can be found in the README for release 19.09. Information on configuration of new features can be found in the manual pages.
Bugfix release fixing the following bugs:
ModuleEchoLink bugfix: Echolink remote roger beep was sent even though listen only mode was active on the local node.
Bugfix in the --logfile command line argument handling for svxlink, remotetrx and svxreflector. Under some circumstances SvxLink would crash with strange errors if used with a logfile.
Bugfix: Qtel translations were not installed.
The biggest news in this release is the initial revision of the SvxReflector application. The SvxReflector application is meant to be used as a center point to link SvxLink nodes together. The new SvxLink ReflectorLogic logic core is used to connect a SvxLink node to the reflector server. One or more logics can then be connected to the refelctor using normal logic linking.
In addition a lot of smaller feature additions have been made and also a number of bugs have been fixed. The full list of changes and more details can be found in the README for release 17.12. Information on configuration of new features can be found in the manual pages.
The biggest news in this release is the support for RTL2832U based DVB-T USB dongles. This make it possible to use such USB dongles as cheap SDR (Software Defined Radio) receivers. This will open up the world of cheap receiver hardware to all SvxLink users. It will for example be very cheap to set up an extra receiver with local coverage for a SvxLink based repeater, as long as there is a network connection to the repeater. The modulation forms supported are: FM, FM narrow, AM, AM narrow, USB, LSB, CW, CW wide and wideband FM (broadcast). Running multiple receivers on the same dongle is supported as well as using multiple dongles.
There now is a utility called "devcal" added to the toolbox. It's purpose is to give the SvxLink sysop a way to measure and calibrate the input and output sound levels on FM. Read the devcal(1) man page for more information.
The DTMF decoder has been completely rewritten for better performance. The new decoder is quicker and will be able to detect DTMF codes with duration of 40 milliseconds and up. The immunity to speech is much better so false detections will be rare. The decoder is also slightly more sensitive and also adapts after the signal conditions. On weak signals a longer tone duration is required and the hangtime will also be increased.
Another thing that may be good to know is that the default install path for libraries may have changed since it is now autodetected during the build. For example, on a x86_64 architecture the libraries and plugins will now end up under /usr/lib64 instead of /usr/lib. This may affect the loading of plugins and SvxLink may find the old plugins under /usr/lib which will cause an error. To get around this, remove the old plugins and comment out the MODULE_PATH configuration variable in the GLOBAL section of the configuration file.
As usual a lot of bugs have also been fixed. The full list of changes and more details can be found in the README for release 15.11. Information on configuration of new features can be found in the manual pages.
This is a bugfix release which fixes the following bugs in the 14.08 release.