In the early days of Amateur Packet Radio, it was necessary to use an expensive “Terminal Node Controller” (TNC) with specialized hardware. Those days are gone. You can now get better results at lower cost by connecting your radio to the “soundcard” interface of a computer and using software to decode the signals.
Dire Wolf is a software "soundcard" modem/TNC and [APRS](http://www.aprs.org/) encoder/decoder. It can be used stand-alone to observe APRS traffic, as a digipeater, [APRStt](http://www.aprs.org/aprstt.html) gateway, or Internet Gateway (IGate). It can also be used as a virtual TNC for other applications such as [APRSIS32](http://aprsisce.wikidot.com/), [UI-View32](http://www.ui-view.net/), [Xastir](http://xastir.org/index.php/Main_Page), [APRS-TW](http://aprstw.blandranch.net/), [YAAC](http://www.ka2ddo.org/ka2ddo/YAAC.html), [UISS](http://users.belgacom.net/hamradio/uiss.htm), [Linux AX25](http://www.linux-ax25.org/wiki/Main_Page), [SARTrack](http://www.sartrack.co.nz/index.html), [RMS Express](http://www.winlink.org/RMSExpress), [BPQ32](http://www.cantab.net/users/john.wiseman/Documents/BPQ32.html), [Outpost PM](http://www.outpostpm.org/) and many others.
Very few hams have portable equipment for APRS but nearly everyone has a handheld radio that can send DTMF tones. APRStt allows a user, equipped with only DTMF (commonly known as Touch Tone) generation capability, to enter information into the global APRS data network. Responses can be sent by Morse Code or synthesized speech.
Extend the range of other stations by re-transmitting their signals. Unmatched flexibility for cross band repeating and filtering to limit what is retransmitted.
Dire Wolf can be used as a virtual TNC for applications such as APRSIS32, UI-View32, Xastir, APRS-TW,YAAC, UISS, Linux AX25, SARTrack, RMS Express, Outpost PM, and many others.
### Radio Interfaces: ###
- **Uses computer’s “soundcard” and digital signal processing.**
Lower cost and better performance than specialized hardware. Decodes more than 1000 error-free frames from [WA8LMF TNC Test CD](http://wa8lmf.net/TNCtest/).
- **Standard 300, 1200 & 9600 bps modems and more.**
- **DTMF (“Touch Tone”) Decoding and Encoding.**
- **Speech Synthesizer & Morse code generator.**
Transmit human understandable messages.
- **Compatible with Software Defined Radios such as gqrx, rtl_fm, and SDR#.**
- **Concurrent operation with up to 3 soundcards and 6 radios.**
### Portable & Open Source: ###
- **Runs on Windows, Linux (PC/laptop, Raspberry Pi, etc.), Mac OSX.**
Go to the [**releases** page](https://github.com/wb2osz/direwolf/releases). Download a zip file with "win" in its name, unzip it, and run direwolf.exe from a command window.
This should give you the most recent stable release. If you want the latest (possibly unstable) development version, use "git checkout dev" before the first "make" command.
For more details see the **User Guide** in the [**doc** directory](https://github.com/wb2osz/direwolf/tree/master/doc). Special considerations for the Raspberry Pi are found in **Raspberry-Pi-APRS.pdf**
### Linux - Using apt-get (Debian flavor operating systems) ###
Results will vary depending on your hardware platform and operating system version because it depends on various volunteers who perform the packaging.
sudo apt-get update
apt-cache showpkg direwolf
sudo apt-get install direwolf
### Linux - Using yum (Red Hat flavor operating systems) ###
Results will vary depending on your hardware platform and operating system version because it depends on various volunteers who perform the packaging.
sudo yum check-update
sudo yum list direwolf
sudo yum install direwolf
### Linux - Download source in tar or zip file ###
Go to the [releases page](https://github.com/wb2osz/direwolf/releases). Chose desired release and download the source as zip or compressed tar file. Unpack the files, with "unzip" or "tar xfz," and then:
For more details see the **User Guide** in the [**doc** directory](https://github.com/wb2osz/direwolf/tree/master/doc). Special considerations for the Raspberry Pi are found in **Raspberry-Pi-APRS.pdf**
The github "issues" section is for reporting software defects and enhancement requests. It is NOT a place to ask questions or have general discussions. Please use one of the locations above.
