SvxLink - Multi Purpose Voice Services System

• Remote transmitter via TCP/IP now supported.
• Now possible to use left/right stereo channels as two mono channels.
• A signal level based squelch type was added.
• Bugfixes and compatibility changes.

• A new, much better, DTMF decoder in the SvxLink server software
• Now compile out-of-the-box on more Linux distributions. Tested distributions are: Fedora 8, Fedora Core 5, CentOS 5.0, Ubuntu 7.10 and Gentoo.
• Bugfixes and compatibility changes.

• Support for remote receivers linked over the Internet.
• Manual pages written (svxlink, svxlink.conf, remoterx, remoterx.conf, ModuleHelp, ModuleParrot, ModuleEchoLink, ModuleDtmfRepeater).
• CTCSS tone transmit, always or just when there is a signal received.
• Improved CTCSS squelch detector. It is now possible to run SvxLink with the squelch open.
• Implemented a simple signal strength detector that can be used with the voter when using multiple receivers.
• DTMF muting and squelch tail elimination added.
• New module DtmfRepeater that is used to retransmit received DTMF digits.
• Now using libsigc++ 1.2 instead of the ancient 1.0 version. This will make SvxLink much easier to install on modern distributions.
• Modularized configuration files. Each module now have its own configuration file under /etc/svxlink.d/.
• Voice mails are now stored in /var/spool/svxlink/voice_mail. Remember to move existing voice mails from /var/spool/svxlink when you upgrade.
• Added logrotate configuration for /var/log/svxlink and a system startup script.
• Now possible to filter incoming Echolink connections on callsign.
• A couple of Echolink standard functions implemented: "random connect", "reconnect to last disconnected" and "listen only".
• A couple of bug fixes

• Bugfix: The SvxLink server would crash when recording voice mails on other distributions than Fedora.
• A new "connect by call" feature in the EchoLink module.
• The voice mail module now can send a notification e-mail when a new voice mail arrives for a user. First implementation by PA3FNT, improved by me (SM0SVX).
• Timestamps in the log file.
• Now possible to use both DTR and RTS together for PTT, which is required by some interface boards.

• Bugfix in the networking code which caused the svxlink server to crash or hang.
• New module Tcl which make it possible to write simpler modules in the TCL scripting language.
• New module TclVoiceMail, which is a simple voice mail system.

• DNS lookups could sometimes block SvxLink which could cause dropouts in the sound. DNS lookups are now done as a background job.
• SvxLink could some times be silently logged out from the EchoLink directory server on communications error. Now an error message will be emitted and the directory server connection will be restored.
• There is a new, more flexible, event handling subsystem for audio announcements. All events triggers the execution of a TCL function. The TCL function is then responsible for emitting the proper sounds. Have a look at the installation documentation for more information.
• The repeater controller logic is now fully working and have been tested since march with good results. It is running a real repeater at SK3GW-R.
• It is now possible to link two SvxLink logics together if you have two sound cards in the computer. An example usage of this is to connect the local repeater to a remote repeater via a linking transceiver. Connection/disconnection is done with DTMF commands.
• A couple of configuration variables have changed since the last release. It's all in the ChangeLog.
• As usual a bunch of smaller bugs have been fixed.

• The repeater controller logic has now been tested for more than one month without any big problems. However, there are some audio issus still to be worked out.
• COS - Carrier Operated Squelch
• A macro (or short cut) system
• Qtel now have a connect sound for incoming connections
• Bugfixes

As with the last release, most effort have gone into the development of the SvxLink server. The biggest news in this release are:

• The EchoLink module now supports multiple connections
• Anti-flutter mode for better DTMF detection
• A bunch of bug fixes and new small features
• Improved documentation

Most work has gone into the development of the SvxLink server. It now can act as a repeater, DTMF detection has been improved, CTCSS squelch has been implemented, improved sound clips.

Unfortunately I have no real repeater hardware to try my software on so the repeater logic has not been tested in a real situation. It would be really interesting if someone would want to try it on real hardware.

The bad news is that I found a serious bug in the EchoLink communications svxlink server module. Connecting EchoLink stations only get a timeout. This bug does not affect Qtel. It's fixed in CVS but I have not compiled a new release yet.

I also discovered that the DTMF detector is a little sensitive to speech. It detects random digits when someone is speaking on the channel.

I will be gone skiing for a week now so if I don't answer your mails that's why. I hope to find some mails from people that have tried the SvxLink server or Qtel when I come home :-)

There is a lack of documentation at the moment but I'll try to get some up as soon as I can. Only binary packages for Fedora Core 1 exist at the moment. Source code is of course available as well. Go to the download section to get your hands on the new goodies.