KISS2ASC
Raw KISS/AX.25 to ASCII File Converter

Description

KISS2ASC converts a file of raw KISS AX.25 frames into readable ASCII. The input file format is simply a log of every byte sent to the computer from a KISS TNC. The output file looks like monitor-mode output from a TNC running WA8DED firmware.

KISS2ASC is a command-line program.

System Requirements

DOS Version

To run the included executable, any environment capable of running well-behaved MS-DOS programs, including all versions of Windows, OS/2, and most DOS emulation environments.

Mac OS X Version

To run the included executable, Mac OS X with a command-line shell (such as Terminal) is required.

Other Command-line Environments

The program should also be compilable on other command-line environments, such as Unix.

Tip: use -Dcdecl= on the compiler's command line to avoid errors caused by the DOS-specific keyword cdecl.

Features

Command-line program
Input is AX.25 L2 V1 or V2 with KISS framing
Output in a format resembling WA8DED monitor format
Decodes all AX.25 header bits
Non-printables are shown as a period (".")
Output to a specified file or (by default) to stdout

Limitations

Doesn't try to decode any higher-layer formats
The WA8DED-style output format is perhaps unfamiliar to most users these days

Example

This is a fragment of the output from a KISS log file taken from the downlink of AO-16.

fm PACSAT-12 to WC5I ctl I00+ pid F0
...U....%.....AL920128...   ....Y.....+..)...M..)...M..)........        ........
....P.....U....%.....eltlog  ...   ..........+#.)...N2.)...N2.)........ .......o
....P.....U....%.....AL920129...   ..........S..)...R8.)...R8.)........ ..RR...c
....P....
fm PACSAT-12 to WD0E ctl DMv
fm PACSAT-12 to WJ9F ctl RR0-
fm PACSAT-1 to TIME-1 ctl UI pid F0
PHT: uptime is 138/00:41:22.  Time is Wed Jan 29 05:16:43 1992

You can see four frames here:

a connected information packet from the filesystem to WC5I, containing mostly binary data
a disconnect acknowledgement or busy response from the satellite to WD0E
an acknowledgement from the satellite to WJ9F
an unconnected information broadcast from the satellite to all users (pseudo-address TIME-1)

Current Status

Stable. No current development plans. The current released version of KISS2ASC is 1.1, released August 14, 1991.

History

17 June 1990 - Initial release
14 August 1991 - version 1.1, robustness enhancements
08 June 2002 - compiled version 1.1 for Mac OS X
20 September 2004 - added compile hint for Linux users

Known Bugs

None.

Distribution

KISS2ASC may be distributed freely (unmodified) and may be used freely for non-commercial purposes.

Source Code

Source code in ANSI C is included.

Documentation

KISS2ASC.TXT - user manual (plain text, 6K)

The KISS TNC: A simple Host-to-TNC communications protocol, the original 1987 paper by Mike Chepponis, K3MC, and Phil Karn, KA9Q.

AX.25 Amateur Packet-Radio Link-Layer Protocol specification

AX.25 Version 2 Multi-channel TNC Firmware - firmware documentation, 1985, by Ronald E. Raikes, WA8DED

Download

DOS version: KISS2ASC 1.1 (zip file, 15K)
Mac OS X version: KISS2ASC 1.1 for Mac OS X (.tar.gz file, 20K)
Linux: extract the DOS version, rename KISS2ASC.C to lowercase, and use this command to compile:
cc -o kiss2asc -Dcdecl= kiss2asc.c

KISS2ASC Raw KISS/AX.25 to ASCII File Converter