• FrontPage

D-RATS: A D-STAR communication tool

About

D-RATS is a small application designed to provide data communication capabilities with D-STAR radios. It supports text chatting, file transfers, position reporting and mapping, and much more! It is written in Python using GTK to run on multiple platforms. Please see InstallPage for details about installing on your system. For a more visual introduction, please see the ScreenshotsPage.

This site is community-editable. Please create an account (it's easy) so you can add feature requests and report on your experiences with D-RATS. Once you do this and log in, you will be able to edit pages by clicking the "Edit" link at the top. NOTE: to cut down on the amount of Wiki spam, I have enabled "textcha" support on this site. To edit a page, you must answer the question at the top of the page in red before you submit the change. I can manually add people to the whitelist, so please contact me for information.

Current Features

• Instant-messaging style chat
• Multiple automatic QSTs at varying schedules, containing:
  • Simple messages
  • Command output
  • File contents
  • Weather Underground reports
  • GPS position reports
  • RSS/CAP feed items

• FileTransfers using DDT with adjustable-sized packets

  • Transparent block compression
  • Highly efficient binary encoding for fast file transfers, despite the limitations of D-STAR radios
  • Unattended operation with automatic negotiation
• Online/offline status notifications
• Callsign highlighting and tracking (currently supporting US and Australian calls)
• Ignore capability to "dim" messages that match a search string
• Notice capability to highlight messages that match a search string

• Multi-platform: runs on Linux/UNIX, Windows, and MacOSX

• Canned messages
• Chat logging
• Tabbed interface to filter traffic based on a search string

• Structured data (i.e. Forms) transmission with multiple form templates, graphical editor, and HTML exporting

• Form-to-Email gateway support for providing email access to distant stations
• Arbitrary TCP forwarding over the RF channel

• GPS position tracking, distance/direction calculation, static beacon support, and integrated map viewer with offline caching

• Network-linkable repeater/proxy co-application

• For more information on current features, see the DownloadPage for recent changes

• New feature requests can be made on the issue tracker: http://www.d-rats.com/trac

Test reports

• KI4IFW Testing

• KG4EXA Testing

• K4GKJ Testing

• VK3UR Testing

• KNØN Testing

• KØNSA Testing

• N0TRK Testing

• N1KEZ Testing D-Rats on Apple OS X

• N9DN Testing (Mac OS 10.5)

• EI7IG Testing Ubuntu 8.04

• AB8CL Testing Ubuntu 8.10

• Please create a link to a page of your own and report your experiences!