[Ares-races] TNC-less ARESPACK set-up

[Baur, Michael Christian]

As I understand it, ARESPACK (a DOS-based packet radio terminal program 
suitable for emergency use) cannot work directly with agwpe (a Windows-based 
software TNC that uses a computer's sound card as the TNC, on roughly-Pentium-
One-or-faster computers) - ARESPACK requires a "TAPR compatible" TNC, a type 
that agwpe can't emulate.  Is it even possible to run ARESPACK using a 
software TNC rather than a hardware TNC?

I know in the past that the way to do ARESPACK was:
laptop---TNC---radio
but I want to build a simpler set-up that goes:
laptop---radio
without an expensive, power-hungry, bulky, hard-to-upgrade Terminal Node 
Controller.

If I can't replace agwpe, is there ARESPACK-like software that'll work with a 
software TNC?

As a time-consuming third option, is there a programmer out there that can 
*create* one or the other?

Thank you for your time and input.
- Michael Baur, mbaur at tamu.edu
http://www.qsl.net/kd5npf/
Secretary/Treasurer: TAMU Amateur Radio Club
http://w5ac.tamu.edu/