This is an old revision of the document!
Table of Contents
QtTermTCP
QtTermTCP is a software package created by John G8BPQ that acts as a “terminal” for interacting with packet radio stations. It can connect to a packet system using FBB over IP, or the more recent beta version supports KISS, both with a directly connected serial TNC or over TCP to something like Dire Wolf.
Installation
Windows
The instructions were tested on Windows 11 but presumably work on other versions. For some reason its a bit of a faff and involves changing permissions possibly due to putting it in Program Files. But where else do you put a program on Windows?
Download QtTermTCP.zip
Extract it, and copy the “release” directory to C://Program Files (x86)/
then rename it to something useful like QTTermTCP. You might get prompted for administrator access.
Right click it, go to properties
and hit the Security
> Edit
which will open another window. Scroll down in the list of Groups or user names
Until you find Users
, highlight it and then Click Allow
for Full Control
then press Apply
and exit the edit window.
Click the General
tab, Untick Read Only
press Apply
Then Ok
when prompted to Apply changes to this folder, subfolders and files
You can then exit the properties window.
To access if from the Start Menu, Find QTTermTCP.exe, Right Click it, and select Pin To Start
.
Optionally if you want to create a desktop shortcut, you can also Right click the exe again, select Show more options
> Send to
> Desktop (Create Shortcut)
This completes the installation.
Setup
Usage should be similar for both Windows and Linux versions.
Kiss Over TCP
Kiss Over TCP is useful if you're running QtTermTCP and want to connect to Dire Wolf, either running locally, or perhaps Dire Wolf is running on a Raspberry Pi and you want to connect from QtTermTCP running on your daily driver PC.
Open QTTermTCP, click Setup
> KISS Setup
.
Tick Enable Enable KISS interface
, enter your callsign.
In the Serial Setup section select “TCP” in the drop down for Serial Device.
In the TCP Setup section enter the IP and port of the KISS modem. Dire Wolf listens on port 8001 for KISS by default.
It should look something like:
Press OK when finished to exit the setup.
Usage
Once you've configured QTTermTCP you can try to connect to something.
Open QTTermTCP. Assuming everything is setup correctly you should see “Kiss Connected” in the bottom status bar.
By default, the windows is split into three. The top panel is monitoring any packets sent or received. If you're in range of another packet station you should see some activity here. The Middle panel is there terminal and will show any data sent from a node once connected. The bottom small text bar is for sending text to a connected node.
Monitor panel showing some activity from GB7WOD:
To attempt to Connect, in the top bar select Connect
> KISS Connect
and enter the call sign of the station you wish to connect to. Digis can usually be left empty if you're in direct range of the node you're connecting to.
Press OK once finished to connect
You should then attempt to connect to the node. You can see the sent packets in the monitor window.
Once connected, you can start to interact with the node.