9 A.M. Talk Net

Summary:
This is of July 2010. Some of this may have changed since then.
1) Packet radio access can be done with Windows 7, agwpe, and a Signalink USB if:
a] you have windows virtual XP (and that is only available on some Windows 7 configurations)
b] you make the signalink device the system default sound device (probably not a good idea)

For a] you need to install the windows virtual xp as documented by microsoft; install the signalink usb (do not forget to attach the signalink usb from the windows 7 side); install outpost, uiss or other packet software on the virtual windows xp.

The following are notes I took while trying to make this all work. Post Summary comments are in italics

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Starting to work on this.
1) the July 2010 packet engine version is 2010.414
It installed on Windows 7 w/o issue
2) the SignaLink USB installed on Windows 7 w/o issue
3) neither use xp compatibility
Installed just fine. But trying to make it work was difficult

http://www.kc2rlm.info/soundcardpacket/1signalinkusb.htm
http://www.kc2rlm.info/soundcardpacket/2agwbasic.htm#createport
http://www.tigertronics.com/slusbts.htm
are useful.

So I set it up... and can make a connection to the tnc. But, am I reading the radio?
BTW, see: http://www.kc2rlm.info/soundcardpacket/5probrx.htm
set radio to 144.390 Dig... and can hear packets. The AWGPE Soundcard tuning aid is useful here. Set to Freq Spec and I can see the packets... adjust the USB audio codec microphone levels to 77, and then adjust the rx knob on the signalink to get a green light blip on the TNC indicator for the packets that sound "right". I have mine currently set to 1:00.
This really mostly worked, so long as I just was receiving packets. Sending packets is where things broke

I downloaded Outpost et al. from http://www.scc-ares-races.org/packet.html
I was able to use ipagwpe SCC to connect to AGWPE.

I enabled the WinSock Interface, set appropriate security level, and enabled the http interface.
Then on a browser connected to http://localhost:80 got a login request page (but I didn't require a login when setting the security level) so just did a submit which advanced past the login page.

A right click for a new window on monitor displayed received packets.

That is where I am at the current point, I do not yet know how to send packets.

1:00am Thursday...
On Windows 7, I need to run outpost as an administrator. Otherwise I get an error box and the program does not start.
I was able to use the Sound Playback for the USB audio Codex (configure) to set the Audio Channels to Mono and then test the speaker.
This caused the the signalink to PTT the radio. The speaker vol is all the way up, the tx on the signalink is at the 9:00 position.
See: http://www.tigertronics.com/windows7.htm for setup on Windows 7.
In particular, see 3 and 4 of "Setting the software Playback Levels". I had Ham Radio Deluxe running and then was able to see the needed slider to set it to 50%. But this is still confusing.

The following two links were critical
Ok, I got it to transmit at 2:15am. See: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SV2AGW/message/7875 that I found at http://ka5gil.wordpress.com/2010/04/03/packet-signalink-usb-on-windows-7...

The bottom line is that for Windows 7, you must make the signalink the DEFAULT sound card -- not a good solution. You also need to turn off system sounds etc. They did some testing with the xp mode and I will look at that after the sun comes up.
And the above is the killer for standard windows 7 systems.

Finally got Windows XP mode downloaded and installed.
Also have installed awgpe and the SCC Outlook.

OK, I also downloaded the UISS application (to provide another packet program to test with). I set up my location and was able to send my position and see it show up on the tracking maps.

I was able to transmit and receive info through the radio (sent my location, and sent an e-mail message to my gmail account). The radio is a ft-897 set to pkt mode 1200 baud. And Freq 144.390.
Seems to work better w/o the DSP enabled.

Ok, this means that the signalink with windows xp mode on windows 7 ultm. works.
Now to try outpost.

Ipagwpe with outpost works correctly. That is, I read and send messages, get help etc.
I was able to configure outpost to get messages on the santa clara county packet bbs.
So, this is complete... it works... Hopefully there will be a fix that removes the requirement to have the signalink usb be the default sound card on windows 7. A beta version of AGWPE works as of 8/14/2010