When the station is located in your boat the QHT is a dynamic value. Hence the config files do not necessarily contain the current location. While some applications can use gpsd to request a location this not always the case. I have put together a little selection of scripts that update the config files for some of the applications I use.
A small script that scan for GPSD and SignalK servers. It start with
scanning a predefined list of known addresses (this is normally enough).
If no servers are found it scan through the entire subnet, this might take
some time. In nothing is found it emits data from «demo.signalk.org».
SignalK is a popular protocol used in boating for distributing data. From the web page :«A Free and Open Source universal marine data exchange format». The requests for data from the SignalK server is done using the http protocol.
While the Yacht computer is expected to only be running when the instruments are running it do not have its own GPS. The local time is syncronised every 10 mins using cron job that sets the local clock. This time is picked up by NTP if there is no internet and others systems can update their time using NTP-client from the yacht server's NTP server process. Please see the ntp.conf for details.
Common for these scripts is requesting information from the SignalK server.
- set-date-from-SignalK.py -- set the correct time and date.
- showpos.py -- Emit a lat, lon position and corresponding Maidenhead grid.
- update.QTH -- Update the position for Pat, WSJT, JS8Call and TQSL.
The script update.QTH open a window showing position and which config files that have been updated.
The position update script can be launched at boot time by means of the cron system, but it must have a reliable GPS signal, hence if the GPS is locally attaced some delay is needed. The cron file have a keyword to run a script at boot time, or after a time delay. The file crotab contain an example of a typical setup to run the script that update the pat and other application containing QTH info.