talks via a serial line (USB or Bluetooth) to PACTOR modems made by SCS using the extended WA8DED hostmode (see the manual, chapter 10) protocol these modems offer
offers two TCP sockets which can be used by Pat (and other tools)

What it is used for

The main purpose is to build a connection between Pat and PACTOR modems. In order to establish a "listen" mode for PACTOR in Pat, the modem needs to be kept in the WA8DED hostmode. I found it easiest to create a separate program for that - in the same way, the VARA modem is a separate program.

On the long run, this tool will replace the current PACTOR driver in Pat.

How to use it

In order to use this tool, you'll need to configure it.

If you start it for the first time, it will create a default configuration file and will tell you its location:

 % ./ptb 
new Config file /Users/harenber/.config/dl1thm.pactortcpbridge/Config.yaml created. Please edit the Config file and restart the application

Now edit the file and configure it accordingly:

device: /tmp/ttyUSB0
baudrate: 9600
mycall: N0CALL
server_address: 127.0.0.1:8300
data_address: 127.0.0.1:8301
cmdline_init: ""
vara_mode: false

Variable	Meaning
`device`	Path to the serial device where the modem is connected or `tcp://address:port` (useful for Android)
`baudrate`	baud rate of the modem
`mycall`	The callsign to be used on HF
`server_address`	server socket address for the commands
`data_address`	server socket address for the data
`cmdline_init`	extra commands sent to the modem before going into hostmode, separated by semicolons, Ex: `DISP BR 1;DISP A 1;DISP DIMMOFF`
`vara_mode`	see the chapter about the VARA mode

If you plan to you Pat with the VARA driver, data data_address you must use a port number one number higher than the server_address.

A matching Pat config using VARA for the example above would look like:

"varahf": {
"addr": "localhost:8300",
"bandwidth": 2300,
"rig": "",
"ptt_ctrl": false
}

Using PACTOR, the PTT is triggered through the modem, so you need to set ptt_ctrl to false! If you configure a rig, it needs to be connected in a way that rigctl can configure it. Configure your rig through the PACTOR modem is not supported in VARA mode.

VARA mode

The VARA mode translate WA8DED commands into VARA commands and vice versa. See the VARA homepage for the "VARA TNC Commands" doumentation.

If enabledm software which is written to interact with the VARA software TNC to work with PACTOR as well. It was used by the author to use the VARA driver for Pat with the PACTOR-TCP-Bridge.

How to run

As a rule of thumb, you have to start the PACTOR-TCP-bridge before you want to use Pat and stop it after you finished using Pat.

So a typical session works like this

start the PACTOR-TCP-Bridge
wait for it to finish configure your modem
use Pat (or any other software)
quit Pat
stop the PACTOR-TCP-Bridge

The software supports command line options:

 % ./ptb --help
Usage of ptb - the PACTOR-IP-Bridge:
  -c, --configfile string   Name of config file (default "Config.yaml")
  -d, --daemon              Daemon mode (no TUI)
  -l, --logfile string      Path to the log file (default "/tmp/pactortcpbridge.log")

which should be rather self-explaining.

A typical session (without using the daemon mode, see below) looks like this:

on the upper left you will see all payload from and to the PACTOR modem
on the lower left the commands (with VARA translations, if switched on) to and answers from the modem
on the right hand side you'll see a clock, then a mode indicator (showing VARA or TCP). Furthermore, you'll see two indicator (TCP CMD and TCP DATA) which will turn green when a client is connected. The 4 counters below show the usage of the buffers.

"Daemon"-mode

The "daemon"-mode will omit the terminal UI ("TUI") and might be useful if you have no full terminal (or to run the tool with systemd).

Instead of the UI, you will only see a message saying that you may quit with CTRL-C.

Keys

CTRL-C
Quits the program
CTRL-V
swtiches between the VARA and normal mode