Version 1.

0
10 / 2019

PMON User Manual

A PACTOR® Monitoring Utility for Linux

SCS Special Communications Systems

 pmon(1) PMON User Manual

SCS GmbH & Co. KG [email protected]

NAME
PMON - a PACTOR(R) monitoring utility

SYNOPSIS
pmon [-a | –audio <audio_device> | ?] [-o | –port <port_number>] [-p | –packets <0|1>] [-h | –hex <0|1>] [-v | –verbose
<0|1>] [-t | –test <0|1>] [-n | –nostdout] [-V | –version] [-L | –license] [-? | –help | –usage] [<config_file>]
To quit PMON press CTRL-C.

DESCRIPTION
PMON allows the thorough observation and documentation of all presently available PACTOR-1/2/3 transmissions. PMON
covers all PACTOR levels with the appropriate Speedlevels and packet variations. In the operating mode PACTOR-3 PMON
will read in parallel also PACTOR-2 and PACTOR-1. The very wide receiving range (frequency offset ±200 Hz), as well as
the automatic sideband recognition, ease routine operation of PMON with PACTOR-2 and PACTOR-3 considerably.
PMON also searches for Connect Packets; this search comprises the Normal Connect, the Robust Connect as well as the Free
Signal.
PMON is strictly for private use only! This means non-commercial applications, by private persons, e.g. radio amateurs.
The monitored data may be published without restriction by those users - if not prohibited by law!
The audio center frequency of the monitored signal should be tuned to 1500 Hz. On the upper sideband (USB), the
displayed dial frequency (VFO) on the receiver must be set 1500 Hz below the HF center frequency of the signal to be
monitored.

OPTIONS
The following command line arguments are recognized:
• -a, –audio: Specify the audio device to work with. Or with ? pmon lists all available audio devices.
• -o, –port: Port number for the TCP/IP connection. Default: 3301.
• -p, –packets: Packet types to display (0 or 1). Default: 0.
• -v, –verbose: Verbose formatted output (0 or 1). Default: 0.
• -h, –hex: Hex conversion if Verbose 0 (0 or 1). Default: 1.
• -t, –test: Enables or disables Audio Level Display (0 or 1). Default: 0.
• -n, –nostdout: Disables the output to console.
• -?, –help, –usage: Help message.
• -V, –version: Show program version.
• -L, –license: Show license information.
• <config_file>: Name of a config file if don’t want to use the default name and search pattern.
The only parameter you really have to specify is the audio device pmon should work with.
Example:
pmon -a hw:0,0
To get a list of available audio devices enter
pmon -a ?

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AUDIO CONNECTION
For propper operation you need of course an audio cable from your radio to your sound device. If the audio device has stereo
input we only use the left channel which is normally the tip of the audio jack.
Nevertheless you may simply apply the audio signal to both channels (tip and ring) of the audio jack.

CONFIG FILE
PMON tries to read a config file on startup.
If not given on the command line PMON searches the config file in following locations in the given order:
1. Location pointed to by the environment variable PMON_CFG.
2. .pmon.cfg in the current directory.
3. .pmon.cfg in the users home directory.
Parameters given on the command line always take precedence over parameters read from the config file!
The format of the config file is very simple and can edited with any text editor e.g. nano.
Here is the general structure of the file:
[global]
port = <portnumber> ; default: 3301
console = false ; disable console output

[audio]
device = <devicename> ; default: not defined

[pmon]
packets = <0/1>
verbose = <0/1>
hex = <0/1>
test = <0/1>
Comments start with a ; or #.
All key words are case insensitive!
A simple configuration contains only the audio device:
[audio]
device = hw:1,0
To get a list of available audio devices enter
pmon -a ?
A bit more sophisticated example:
[global]
port = 4000

[audio]
device = hw:0,0

[pmon]
verbose = 1
This sets the TCP/IP port to 4000, the audio device to hw:0,0 and sets Verbose to 1.

PARAMETERS
Audio
Value range: ALSA raw audio device
Default : none
Defines the audio device pmon should work with. This is the most important parameter. With

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pmon -a ?
or
pmon --audio ?
PMON outputs a list of available audio devices.
An audio device is not only a typical (USB) sound card but can be for example a modern radio with build in USB sound
capability like ICOM IC-7300.

Port
Value range: 0-65535
Default : 3301
PMON can output data to a raw TCP/IP connection. The Parameter Port specifies the TCP/IP port PMON listens for an
incomming connection.

Packets
Value range: 0-1
Default : 0
Defines which packet variation should be given out.
0: Prints TRAFFIC packets only.
1: Prints TRAFFIC packets and REQUEST packets (repetitions).

Verbose
Value range: 0-1
Default : 0
The Verbose command defines if additional status information and framing ist used in the output.
0: Prints the actual Payload only. No additional status information or framing is added.
1: Formatted output, beginning with status information followed by the actual Payload. See below for a detailed description.

Hex
Value range: 0-1
Default : 1
This controls the automatic hex translation of unprintable characters if Verbose 0.
Hex 0 disables the automatic hex translation. This gives a pristine copy of a PACTOR transmission, even if characters in the
range of 128-255 (dec.) were used.
With Verbose 1 this parameter has no effect!

Test
Value range: 0-1
Default : 0
Messures the input amplitude and outputs the result every second if set to 1.

FUNCTION
Note: in the following text, <. . . > (statement in pointed brackets) represents a Byte, e.g. <CR> means Carriage return
(decimal value 13), <0xFE> shows a Byte with the decimal value 254.
If PMON is ready to decode PACTOR traffic it will output the message:
PACTOR-1/2/3 Monitor started:
=============================

Output format
In Verbose 1 mode various additional status information is displayed along with the payload:

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<0xFA>
###PLISTEN: Level: 3:
###STATUS: SL: 2, CYC: 1, RQ: 0, REV: 1, LSB: 0, dF: -2.5, FRNR: 30
###PAYLOAD1: LEN: 77, TYPE: 1
###PAYLOAD2:
This is a test. The actual useable information is displayed here... ###PAYLOAD_END
<0xFE>
Every output starts with the byte <0xFA> as the unique output start character (Start of Frame). This character cannot
appear in the following data set, also not in the payload as unprintable characters are automatically printed in hexadecimal
form.
The first line
<CR><LF>###PLISTEN: Level: 3:<CR><LF>”
shows the current PACTOR-Level (1-3).
The second line shows the status:
###STATUS: SL: 2, CYC: 1, RQ: 0, REV: 1, LSB: 0, dF: -2.5, FRNR: 30
The fields are:
SL: 1-10 Speedlevel of the packet.

CYC: 0 this is a *short* packet.

1 this is a *long* packet.

RQ: 0 the packet is not a REQUEST packet, but a normal TRAFFIC packet
(with a new 2-bit packet counter or new CRC in comparison with the previous packet).
1 the packet is a REQUEST packet. This is detected by comparison of
the actual CRC with the CRC of the previously received packet.

REV: 0 Paket with the original tone-adjustment.

1 Paket with reversed tone-adjustment.

LSB: 0 the packet is received in the sideband mode that the radio is set to.
1 the packet is received in the opposite sideband to that which the radio is set to.
E.g. in LSB if the receiver is set to USB.

dF: -250...+250.0 Measured frequency error in Hertz. One significant decimal digit.

FRNR: 1...X frame number counting from 1, to ease documentation.

After the status line the actual payload follows:
###PAYLOAD1: LEN: 77, TYPE: 1
###PAYLOAD2:
This is a test. The actual useable information is displayed here... ###PAYLOAD_END
The line
###PAYLOAD1: LEN: 77, TYPE: 1<CR><LF>
precedes the output and contains the length of the following output as well as the type. The length always refers to the actual
payload bytes and so does not change for hexadecimal output.
For the data type indicator the following values are possible:
0: ASCII (8 Bit, transparent)
1: Huffman, text data
2: Huffman, swapped (reversed capitals and small letters), text data
3: Reserved
4: PMC, German, text data
5: PMC, German, swapped, text data
6: PMC, English, text data
7: PMC, English, swapped, text data
8: ASCII (8 Bit, transparent), automatic hexadecimal output as the data contains unprintable characters.

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 These are characters between decimal values <32 and >127 except for <CR> and <LF>.
9: LZHUF, data from the LZHUF decoder
The last character of a packet data set is always the unique end character <0xFE> (Frame End) except with Verbose 0.

Output of received connect-packets

The output of detected connect-packets always starts with the sequence
<0xFA><CR><LF>###CONNECT:
Followed by the packet type and the destination callsign (max. 8 characters – alphanumeric), both enclosed in right angled
brackets. The output is always finished by <CR><LF><0xFE>
Example:
<0xFA>
###CONNECT: [Robust Call: DL6MAA]
<0xFE>
The following packet types are possible:
[Normal Call: ]
[Longpath Call: ]
[Robust Call: ]
[Free Signal Normal: ]
[Free Signal Encrypted: ]

LZHUF decoder
PMON automatically decompresses LZHUF compressed messages on the fly. This is very useful for monitoring Winlink email
transfers. On mode Verbose 1 or higher, the status line is headed by ###LZHUF instead of ###PLISTEN, the LZHUF
decompressed data is displayed as data type 9.
Note: LZHUF compression is not inherent to PACTOR, it is not the internal PACTOR Huffman/PMC compression but an
external compression variant utilized by some application software, e.g. Winlink. Nevertheless, as LZHUF is widely used,
PMON supports decompression even of that third party compression type.

Allowed frequency offset

PACTOR-1
Generally: ca. ±100 Hz
PACTOR-2
Generally: ca. ±240 Hz
PACTOR-3
Generally: ca. ±200 Hz

Delay of the data ouput

PMON uses sometimes very difficult iterative searching algorithms in order to detect packets under the worst possible SNR.
This means that very many False Synchronizations are produced and must be evaluated. The resulting computational effort
can give a maximum of 6 seconds delay between the physical end of a packet at the AF input and the display of the packet
on the user interface. The average value is generally only 1 to 2 seconds however.

Main Limitations
CS3-Packets (Changeover) are currently not detected. These packets however contain only idle bytes in virtually all practical
cases.

NETWORKING
PMON offers a simple networking interface. PMON listen for an incomming TCP/IP connection on the given port (default:
3301). If the connection is successfully established, all output is also passed to the network.
You can switch off the output to the local console with the command line parameter -n or –nostdout or with the console
keyword in the Global section of a config file.

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PMON recognizes a few very simple command on the network connection:
• P0<CR> - Packet 0
• P1<CR> - Packet 1
• V0<CR> - Verbose 0
• V1<CR> - Verbose 1
• H0<CR> - Hex 0
• H1<CR> - Hex 1
All this can easily be tested with any Telnet client.
telnet <ip_of_pmon> <port>
If your computer which runs PMON has the IP address 192.168.0.10 and PMON uses the default port:
telnet 192.168.0.10 3301

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE
PMON_CFG holds the file name and full path of a PMON config file.
Set an environment variable with:
export PMON_CFG="/path/to/file/my_pmon.cfg"
Remove the environment variable with:
unset PMON_CFG

COMPATIBILITY
PMON was throughly test with the following hardware:
• Raspberry Pi 4 Model B
• Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+
• HiFiBerry DAC+ ADC
• microHAM USB Interface III
• various cheap USB sound cards

AUTHOR
SCS GmbH & Co. KG
Roentgenstrasse 36
63454 Hanau
GERMANY

LICENSE
PMON - a PACTOR(R) monitoring utility
(C) Copyright 2019 SCS GmbH & Co. KG, Hanau, GERMANY
Permission is hereby granted to use this software free of charge to monitor PACTOR(R) transmissions for PRIVATE USE
only, subject to the following conditions:
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN-
CLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONIN-
FRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM,
DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING
FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.

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SCS
Spezielle Communications Systeme GmbH & Co. KG
Roentgenstrasse 36
63454 Hanau
GERMANY
Internet: www.p4dragon.com
Email: [email protected]

FON: +49 (0)6181 85 00 00

FAX: +49 (0)6181 99 02 38