I am now prepping a spare old laptop (using this as it comes with a built in UPS). I am adding the APRX software as it is a nice light weight linux digi that interfaces nicely with KISS TNCs. Currently the TNC-X I am using has a X-Digi Daughter board which is controlling the TNC, and I am unsure if I will continue to use it, or have the APRX software do all the controlling for. At this point, I expect I will be removing the board.

Installing APRX is very simple, here’s how simple:

cd /tmp
sudo wget http://ham.zmailer.org/oh2mqk/aprx/aprx_2.07.539-1_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i aprx_2.07.539-1_i386.deb
cd /etc
sudo vim aprx.conf

From here, I edited a few lines of config to suit my install

mycall VE7WNK-2
myloc lat 5258.77N lon 12229.61W
server bc.aprs2.net
<interface>
..serial-device /dev/ttyS0 19200 8n1 KISS
..callsign $mycall # callsign defaults to $mycall
..tx-ok true # transmitter enable defaults to false
</interface>
<beacon>
..beacon symbol "I#" $myloc comment "VE7WNK Quesnel Bowl Digi"
</beacon>
<digipeater>
..transmitter $mycall
..<source>
....source $mycall
..</source>
</digipeater>

Next, I saved the config and restarted the process as follows:

/etc/init.d/aprx restart

Next, I checked ARPS.fi to ensure that it was there, and sure enough, after about 20 seconds it appeared.