1. Update system and optionally disable X Desktop, we don’t need GUI
apt-get update apt-get upgrade
raspi-config
Select menu: 3, B1, B1
2. Install dependencies
apt-get install subversion libsigc++-2.0-dev g++ make libsigc++-1.2-dev libgsm1-dev screen \ libpopt-dev tcl8.5-dev libgcrypt-dev libspeex-dev libasound2-dev alsa-utils install qt-sdk git groff -y
3. Add a new user
adduser svxlink
4. Download svxlink source
cd /usr/src; wget https://github.com/sm0svx/svxlink/archive/15.11.tar.gz; tar xvf 15.11.tar.gz; cd svxlink-15.11/src; mkdir build; cd build
5. Compile and install svxlink
cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr -DSYSCONF_INSTALL_DIR=/etc \ -DLOCAL_STATE_DIR=/var ..
make make doc make install ldconfig
6. Install sounds
cd /usr/share/svxlink/sounds; wget https://github.com/sm0svx/svxlink-sounds-en_US-heather/releases/download/14.08/svxlink-sounds-en_US-heather-16k-13.12.tar.bz2 tar xvf svxlink-sounds-en_US-heather-16k-13.12.tar.bz2 mv en_US-heather-16k en_US; rm -rf svxlink-sounds-en_US-heather-16k-13.12.tar.bz2
7. Configure sound levels
alsamixer
Press F6 and select usb soundcard.
Press F5 to show all.
Increase gain on CAPTURE, around 80 is fine, experiment otherwise.
Exit alsamixer and save the settings with:
alsactl store
8. Tweak configuration files in /etc/svxlink/svxlink.conf and /etc/svxlink/svxlink.d/ModuleEchoLink.conf
svxlink.conf: I will show you only modified lines
Uncomment LOCATION_INFO=locationInfo to show your Echolink on aprs.fi map. MODULES=ModuleEcholink CALLSIGN=Yoursign-L SHORT_IDENT_INTERVAL=0 LONG_IDENT_INTERVAL=0
Under [Rx1]
AUDIO_DEV=alsa:plughw:1 #Hardware ID of the soundcard, usually 1 on rpi with usb soundcard SQL_START_DELAY=100 #Prevent TX, RX loop VOX_THRESH=500 #Increase if your VOX gets falsly opened
Under [Tx1]:
AUDIO_DEV=alsa:plughw:1 PTT_TYPE=SerialPin PTT_PORT=/dev/ttyUSB0 #Depends what you have for PTT triggering, I do it with RS232 to USB converter
Under [LocationInfo]
#This is mostly self explanatory
APRS_SERVER_LIST=poland.aprs2.net:14580 STATUS_SERVER_LIST=aprs.echolink.org:5199 #Go to maps.google.com, select your location, right click, what's here #and you'll get coordinates, for example: 45.660325, 14.291537 Go to https://rechneronline.de/winkel/degrees-minutes-seconds.php #and convert from decimal degrees provided from maps.google.com to degrees, arc minutes, arc seconds. #Enter converted #coordinates. LON_POSITION=14.17.29E LAT_POSITION=45.39.37N CALLSIGN=EL-yourcallsign FREQUENCY=145.275 TX_POWER=5 ANTENNA_GAIN=0 ANTENNA_HEIGHT=5m ANTENNA_DIR=-1 PATH=WIDE1-1 BEACON_INTERVAL=10 TONE=123 COMMENT=SvxLink by SM0SVX (svxlink.sourceforge.net)
ModuleEcholink.conf:
ALLOW_IP=192.168.0.0/24 #Depends on your home network setup, #it could be also ALLOW_IP=192.168.1.0/24 SERVERS=europe.echolink.org CALLSIGN=yoursign-L PASSWORD=your echolink password SYSOPNAME=yourname LOCATION=[Svx] comment about your echolink LINK_IDLE_TIMEOUT=0 AUTOCON_ECHOLINK_ID=ID of the remote repeater for example AUTOCON_ECHOLINK_ID=609569 AUTOCON_TIME=1200 DESCRIPTION=edit text to fit your needs
reboot
9. Run svxlink
svxlink
Try to transmit, usb soundcards on rpi are tricky. You will probably get a warning:
Rx1: Distorsion detected! Please lower the input volume!
Don’t worry about it.
Exit and run svxlink as daemon
svxlink --daemon
10. Start svxlink at boot
You need to wait some time after boot for Pi to initialize devices.
It will not work when you start svxlink immediately after the boot,
the process will run but there will be no access to PTT. Open
/etc/rc.local and add this two lines at the end of the file, before exit 0
sleep 120 /bin/bash -c '/usr/bin/svxlink --pidfile=/var/run/svxlink.pid --daemon'
This will start svxlink 2 minutes after boot.