Python implementation of the Airmail Client for send/recieve emails over the Sailmail/Winlink (SSB radio) networks and to receieve WeatherFax transmissions.

Mark Pitman developed this so that he could send and receive mail via SSB radio and receive WeatherFax transmissions on his low-powered ARM-based computer (Cubieboard) using his ICOM-M802 and SCS PTC-IIex PACTOR modem. Using a low-powered ARM-based computer had several advantages, including:

• Power consumption could be reduced to less than 1-Watt (0.1 Amps) as compared to ~5 Amps for an old laptop running Windows XP and Airmail
• The low-power computer had reduced interference with the SSB radio than a full laptop
• As the ARM processor could run continuously without power issues then send/receieve could be scheduled at optimal times for best propagation
• The ARM-computer was more robust/water-resistant than a laptop with fan
• Multiple processor boards were carried and, in case or failure or water/salt damage, the waterproof SD-card could be swapped with a new unit.

This system was used for his voyage from Australia to Denmark from 2015 to 2016 over a distance of 18,000 nautical miles across the Indian and South and North Atlantic Oceans.

This pure-Python implementation allows cross-platform operation on any system that supports Python (which is almost everything) incluing operation on low-powered ARM-based processors (Raspberry-PI, Cubieboard, etc.). So you don't have to run this on an ARM-board necessarily.

Most of this work was reverse-engineered from the existing Airmail client for Windows XP.

Sailmail/Winlink messages may be sent/received in any email client. A mail transfer agent is required to route messages between your email client and pyAirmail. We use Postfix for this. This can be installed on a Debian-based ARM system (such as ARMbian or any Debian/Ubuntu based OS) as follows:

# Setup information from here:
# https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PostfixBasicSetupHowto

# Install and test
sudo apt-get install postfix
sudo apt-get install courier-pop
sudo postfix status

# Instruct Postfix to use Maildirs instead of Mboxes:
sudo postconf -e "home_mailbox = Maildir/"

# Ensure Procmail isn't used: (if the step was taken during dpkg-reconfigure, by mistake) 
sudo postconf -e "mailbox_command = "

# Set postfix to get messages from local machine only
sudo postconf -e "inet_interfaces = loopback-only"

# Restart Postfix to make changes effect. 
sudo  /etc/init.d/postfix restart

#Add the following lines to your /etc/postfix/master.cf:
fs_mail    unix  -       n       n       -       -       pipe
   flags=F user=%YOUR_USER_NAME% argv=tee /home/%YOUR_USER_NAME%/fs_mail.dump
# OR to send to a python script
   flags=F user=mark argv=/home/mark/git/pyPaclink/parseoutgoing.py

#And then change this line to your /etc/postfix/main.cf:
#default_transport = error
default_transport = fs_mail