digiTAK — Full System Installation Guide

Welcome. This guide takes you from a bare Raspberry Pi to a complete, self-contained TAK field system — no cell service, no internet, no existing network required. When you're done you'll have one Pi running three pieces that work together:

#	Product	What it gives you
1	netTAK	The network: a Wi-Fi access point your ATAK/WinTAK devices join, plus local DNS/DHCP and a GPS-disciplined clock. Free with digiTAK.
2	adminTAK	One admin panel to manage your digiTAK product from a phone or laptop.
3	digiTAK	The bridge: turns an amateur (ham) radio into live TAK contacts — APRS stations, trackers, objects, and weather become map markers, and TAK GeoChat bridges to APRS messaging, over RF and/or the worldwide APRS-IS network.

The payoff: connect your ATAK devices to the Pi's Wi-Fi, wire a 2 m/VHF radio to the Pi, and the APRS stations around you appear on every connected device's map — and your team's TAK chat goes back out over the air — all managed from one panel, entirely off-grid.

New to Linux / the Raspberry Pi? Follow the steps exactly in order. Every command is complete — copy and paste each line as-is. The only things you change are the values in <angle brackets> (your Pi's address, your login, your chosen node name).

Install the three parts in order — netTAK first (it lays down the network), then adminTAK, then digiTAK.

What you need

A Raspberry Pi 4B with a microSD card running Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit (Bookworm).
The Pi connected to your network by its wired Ethernet port (you install over the wire), and its IP address on that network.
The Pi's login — the username and password you set when imaging the card.
For digiTAK, a way to get on the air:
A 2 m/VHF amateur radio (an HT or mobile with a data/mic jack), and a TNC — either a sound-card interface (e.g. a Digirig or similar, a USB audio device + PTT) driving digiTAK's built-in Direwolf soft-TNC, or a hardware KISS TNC (USB-serial or networked/TCP). (You can install without radio hardware and add it later — APRS-IS-only still works.)
Your FCC amateur radio callsign — required to transmit (Part 97). You can monitor and receive without one, but a real gateway needs your callsign.
Optional: internet for APRS-IS (to also see/reach the worldwide APRS network and aprs.fi). The RF gateway itself works fully off-grid.
A way to copy files to the Pi and run commands on it:
Windows: WinSCP (free file copy — winscp.net) and PuTTY or Windows PowerShell (to run commands).
macOS / Linux: the built-in Terminal (scp and ssh).
Optional: a serial GPS receiver for precise, offline time.

Download everything up front from the xTAK download page at activate.xtak.ai, onto your computer (they land in Downloads):

nettak-install-*-arm64.tar.gz + SHA256SUMS*.txt — netTAK
adminTAK-*-linux-arm64.tar.gz — the admin panel
cot_radio-*.tar.gz — digiTAK

You only need internet to download these to your computer — everything you run on the Pi is fully offline.

Part 1 · netTAK — the network foundation

netTAK turns the Pi into a self-contained TAK network: a Wi-Fi AP, local DNS/DHCP, and a GPS-disciplined clock. This guide installs the standalone node — a single self-contained unit, which is free and needs no extra radio.

1.1 Copy netTAK onto the Pi

Copy the file into the Pi's home folder.

Windows (WinSCP): open WinSCP → File protocol SCP, Host name = your Pi's IP, User name / Password = your Pi login → Login. Drag nettak-install-*-arm64.tar.gz and SHA256SUMS*.txt from your Downloads (left pane) into the Pi's home folder (right pane).

macOS / Linux (Terminal):

  scp ~/Downloads/nettak-install-*-arm64.tar.gz ~/Downloads/SHA256SUMS*.txt <user>@<pi-ip>:~/

1.2 Connect to the Pi and verify the download

Open a command session on the Pi: - Windows: open PuTTY and log in, or in PowerShell run ssh <user>@<pi-ip>. - macOS / Linux: ssh <user>@<pi-ip>.

Confirm the bundle arrived intact, then unpack it:

cd ~
sha256sum --ignore-missing -c ~/SHA256SUMS*.txt        # must print: nettak-install-*-arm64.tar.gz: OK
tar xzf ~/nettak-install-*-arm64.tar.gz

If it does not say OK, delete the file and copy it again (step 1.1).

1.3 Run the netTAK installer

Pick a node name ending in a number (e.g. node01) — the node's network address is derived from it (node01 → 10.1.1.1).

sudo ~/nettak-install-*-arm64/install.sh <node-name> --mode=standalone
sudo reboot

Optional flags (add after the node name): --ap-ssid=<name> (Wi-Fi name), --ap-password=<pw> (Wi-Fi passphrase, ≥ 8 chars — default password, change it), --nogps (no GPS receiver attached).

1.4 First access

After the reboot, the node broadcasts its Wi-Fi AP. Open https://<pi-ip>:5103/ (accept the one-time self-signed-cert warning). Log in with admin / password and change both defaults immediately: the admin password (Admin & security) and the Wi-Fi passphrase (AP). The built-in manual is at /help.

Standalone netTAK is free — no license required. (netTAK's licensed mesh feature, linking multiple nodes over long-range HaLow radio, has its own guide.)

✅ You now have a working TAK network. Reconnect to the Pi over SSH (its wired IP is unchanged) and continue.

Part 2 · adminTAK — the management panel

adminTAK is the single web panel you'll use to manage digiTAK. It's one static program — nothing to download at install time, works fully offline.

2.1 Copy adminTAK onto the Pi

WinSCP: drag adminTAK-*-linux-arm64.tar.gz into the Pi's home folder.
Terminal: scp ~/Downloads/adminTAK-*-linux-arm64.tar.gz <user>@<pi-ip>:~/

2.2 Install

On the Pi:

cd ~
tar xzf adminTAK-*-linux-arm64.tar.gz
cd adminTAK-*-linux-arm64
sudo bash install.sh

This installs the panel to /opt/adminTAK and starts it on port 8443.

2.3 First access

Open https://<pi-ip>:8443/ (accept the self-signed-cert warning). First login is admin / password, and you're required to set a new password right away. Do it now. The panel will show "no products yet" — that's expected; digiTAK is next, and it will appear here automatically.

✅ Your management panel is live.

Part 3 · digiTAK — the APRS ↔ TAK bridge

This is your bridge product. It installs fully offline — every dependency (the Direwolf software TNC and the APRS libraries) ships inside the bundle.

3.1 Copy digiTAK onto the Pi

WinSCP: drag cot_radio-*.tar.gz into the Pi's home folder.
Terminal: scp ~/Downloads/cot_radio-*.tar.gz <user>@<pi-ip>:~/

3.2 Install

On the Pi, unpack straight into the system folder and run the installer:

sudo tar xzf ~/cot_radio-*.tar.gz -C /opt/
cd /opt/cot_radio
sudo bash install.sh

The installer — with no internet — installs Direwolf and the APRS software from its bundled packages, starts the cot-radio service, and refreshes the adminTAK panel so digiTAK shows up right away. It also starts the 30-day trial (see 3.5).

3.3 Wire up your radio

Connect your sound-card interface (or hardware TNC) between the Pi (USB) and your radio's data/mic + speaker + PTT jacks.
Turn the radio to your APRS frequency (2 m APRS in North America is 144.390 MHz) and set a sensible volume/squelch.

(No radio yet? You can still install and run APRS-IS-only — skip to 3.4 and enable APRS-IS instead of RF.)

3.4 Configure — all in the panel

Open https://<pi-ip>:8443/ and select digiTAK. On a fresh install a red "CALLSIGN NOT SET — TRANSMIT DISABLED" banner shows until you set your callsign — that's the FCC Part 97 gate. Work top to bottom:

Callsign (General → Identity) — set your FCC amateur callsign (e.g. KN6ZPL), no SSID. Save. The red banner clears and TX is unlocked.
RF Mode (RF) — pick how digiTAK reaches the air:
direwolf — the built-in software TNC. Choose your PTT Serial Port (prefer a /dev/serial/by-id/… entry so it survives USB re-enumeration), click Test PTT to confirm it keys the radio, and set the Audio Device (ALSA name, e.g. plughw:2,0). Use the RX audio meter + Test Transmit to check levels.
kiss_tcp / kiss_serial — for an external hardware TNC (network or USB-serial). Set its host/port.
APRS-IS (APRS-IS Network, optional) — enable it and enter your APRS-IS passcode + a filter (e.g. r/34.05/-118.24/50) to also see and reach the worldwide APRS network / aprs.fi.
Mode — use the Bridge / Standalone banner at the top:
Bridge — the full APRS↔TAK gateway for a multi-device TAK network (the usual choice on a netTAK Pi).
Standalone — single-operator use.
Save. The panel applies your settings and restarts the bridge for you.

The status pills turn healthy and the Activity Feed (Logging) starts scrolling as APRS packets flow in and TAK traffic goes out.

3.5 Activate your license

digiTAK includes a 30-day trial — it works immediately, nothing to do. The panel's License pill shows the trial and days remaining. When the trial ends, the gateway stops (the panel stays up so you can activate) and the pill reads LOCKED.

To license the device at any time: 1. In the panel, open digiTAK and note the Hardware ID shown on the License page (and in the status strip). 2. Get a digiTAK activation token for that Hardware ID (from your xTAK licensing contact / activate.xtak.ai). 3. Open digiTAK → License → paste the token into License Token → Save.

The pill flips to Licensed (this device) and the gateway runs normally. Licenses are hardware-tied and verified offline — no internet in the field.

✅ Your APRS↔TAK bridge is live and licensed.

Verify the full system

Network: the netTAK admin (https://<pi-ip>:5103/) Dashboard shows the node online, and an ATAK device can join the Pi's Wi-Fi and get an address.
Management: the adminTAK panel (https://<pi-ip>:8443/) lists digiTAK with a healthy service pill, a scrolling Activity Feed, and a Licensed status.
The bridge, end to end: on an ATAK/WinTAK device connected to the netTAK Wi-Fi, nearby APRS stations appear as map markers (callsign, position, course), and a TAK GeoChat message you send goes back out over APRS (as the BLNXTAK bulletin).

That's the whole system: radio in → TAK map out, on a self-contained, off-grid network, managed from one panel.

Updating & uninstalling

Each part updates the same way it installed — copy the newer bundle over and re-run its installer; your settings (and digiTAK's license) are preserved.

Product	Update	Uninstall
netTAK	re-run `install.sh <same-node-name>`	`sudo ~/nettak-install-*-arm64/uninstall.sh`
adminTAK	re-run `sudo bash install.sh`	`sudo bash /opt/adminTAK/uninstall.sh`
digiTAK	re-extract to `/opt/` + `sudo bash install.sh`	`sudo bash /opt/cot_radio/uninstall.sh` (add `--wipe` to also remove settings + purge Direwolf)

After updating digiTAK, if the panel looks stale, restart the panel once so it re-reads the new layout: sudo systemctl restart adminTAK.

If something's not right

Symptom	Fix
Can't reach a panel after reboot	Reconnect to the Pi's wired IP; the AP address (`10.1.x.1`) is separate. Accept the self-signed-cert warning.
adminTAK panel doesn't list digiTAK	`sudo systemctl restart adminTAK` (digiTAK's installer normally does this for you).
Red "CALLSIGN NOT SET — TRANSMIT DISABLED" banner	Set your FCC callsign under General → Identity and Save (step 3.4). Part 97 requires a valid amateur callsign to transmit.
No RF / nothing transmits	Set RF Mode on the RF page (`direwolf` or a KISS TNC), pick the PTT Serial Port, and use Test PTT to confirm it keys the radio.
RX audio meter flat / no packets	Check the interface cabling and the radio's volume; the meter only moves on real received audio. Make sure the radio is on 144.390 MHz (NA APRS).
License pill says LOCKED	Trial ended — paste a token on the License page (step 3.5). The panel stays reachable so you can.
APRS stations don't appear in ATAK	Check the antenna/radio, that ATAK is on the netTAK Wi-Fi, and that TAK multicast reaches the LAN (SA group `239.2.3.1:6969`).

Live bridge log, any time: sudo journalctl -u cot-radio -f

digiTAK · adminTAK · netTAK (standalone). A product suite of xTAK — www.xtak.ai.

digiTAKInstall Guide.