RipDupChk

This utility will start you out on the road to a complete packet file. It's primarily intended for use with packets with APRS or GPS data as you'll see.

Fire the program up and you see this screen.

Exciting isn't it?

Enter an input filename, an output filename and then make some decisions.

Do you only want to pull out packets for a particular transmitting station (your balloon)? Then, enter the callsign you wish to target.

You could use this program to dupcheck a plain text file so you have the ability to select a file type, either Packet or Text. If you do select text then entering a callsign is meaningless as is the next option. This program defaults to the Packet type.

Next you need to decide if you wish to remove the digi paths from packets. Here is an example of removing the path:

The original packet:

W5VSI-11>APRS,ANSR:$GPRMC,161041,A,3857.3212,N,...snip

And below is the same packet with the "ANSR" path removed

W5VSI-11>APRS:$GPRMC,161041,A,3857.3212,N,...snip

You might want to do this if you get log files from people who hear the target callsign through different digipeaters. Those different digi paths make it difficult to get all the data lined up in colums which will come in handy later. Here's an example of that:

W5VSI-11>APRS,WIDE3-3:$GPRMC,161041,A,3857.3212,N,...snip
W5VSI-11>APRS,N0KKZ,WIDE3-2:$GPRMC,161041,A,3857.3212,N,...snip
W5VSI-11>APRS,K0AIN-1,WIDE3-1:$GPRMC,161041,A,3857.3212,N,...snip

Pretend :-) that the data in each packet is different.

OK, we have there non duplicate packets but trying to extract the info may be difficult. Balloon Track has a routine that can handle it, but other programs may have a hard time, also we have one problem I may address in a more complete program in the future. The packets are not in sequential order regarding their transmission sequence (time).

I have a powerful text editor called TextPad which I use to sort the file. But it NEEDS everything to be lined up in columns. So, extracting the DIGI path from the above three packets results in:

W5VSI-11>APRS:$GPRMC,161041,A,3857.3212,N,...snip
W5VSI-11>APRS:$GPRMC,161041,A,3857.3212,N,...snip
W5VSI-11>APRS:$GPRMC,161041,A,3857.3212,N,...snip

Now I can tell my text editor to sort the file based on the 6 characters starting in column 22. That's the time stamp, and since in our real file there would be no duplicate packets, these timestamps would be unique and I'd get a nicely arranged data file.

At the top of this page I mentioned that the program was intended primarily for APRS or GPS packets logs. Here's the problem with this program. Suppose you had an old style of APRS string on the payload that did not include a timestamp within the data. If you get two log file from different people, add them together in one file and dup check it, you end up with a file that may have data that is not sequential. Try plotting it on a map and the balloon (if that's your target) would jump all over the place. You really need that time stamp to work with.

Final provisos

HEADERLN must be set to OFF in the TNC. This program (Balloon Track as well) relies on a record appearing completely on ONE LINE OF TEXT. The programs can't positively associate free standing text with a header that appears above of it.

Do NOT timestamp your packets with your TNC if you want to use this program. It relies on finding a callsign then it starts parsing out the string until it runs into a colon ":". It believes that the colon represents the end of all header info and the actual packet will follow it. If you time stamp your packets, the the program will think that the packet starts just after the hours slot in the time stamp as that hour will be followed by a colon to separate it from minutes.

That's it.

Version Info

Version 1.0.1

Only new feature for version 1.0.1, you can drag and drop a file on the ripdupchk icon. The program will then start with that file as the import file and suggest an export filename of that filename with "_dupchk" appended to the filename (before the file extension).

Also, if you start the program without dropping a file on an icon, and then browse to a file you want to dup check, the program will suggest the output file name as described above.

Version 1.0.2

A bug fixed and now, the program scans the input file and suggests the most common transmitting callsign as the target callsign for packet dup checking. You can certainly change it.

Downloads

Download RipDupChk100.zip Full Install
This file includes all necessary components for the program with the exception of the visual basic 6 service pack 5 runtime files. A link to those files is located below.

Download RipDupChk102Lite.zip
If you have downloaded the full install of RipDupChk version 1.0.0 or later, you can just download this EXE file and replace the original Program with it. You already have all the associated files that come in a Full Install. Because this is such a small file, I've not uploaded a full install, so ... If you have never installed RDC, get both files. Install the full version first then copy the lite EXE only file to the correct folder to gain the drag and drop functionality.

Visual Basic Run Time Files
If you don't have the Visual Basic V 6.0 runtime files then download a copy of Vbrun60sp5.exe.