AmateurRadio.com

If you visited a shop whose owner appeared to suspect you of being a thief and sometimes insisted on searching your bags before you left, you would probably take your custom elsewhere. And that’s pretty much how I feel about Microsoft. Several times in the last few years since the company developed its obsession with software piracy I have been subjected to heart-stopping moments when, instead of working normally when started up in the morning, one of my computers decided that my copy of Windows wasn’t genuine and I had to waste time jumping through hoops to prove that it was.

The latest occurrence was this morning when I switched on the shack computer – an HP mini-tower – in order to start my APRS gateway, Microsoft Security Essentials popped up a message saying “You may be a victim of software counterfeiting” and stating that it would stop working in 30 days unless I did something about it. It offered a link to check the system. This opened in Firefox where I was requested to download a plug-in. After that I was asked to click a Continue button which was supposed to run the validation check. Nothing appeared to happen. Eventually I tried the second option provided for browsers on which the first one wouldn’t work, which downloaded an .hta file to my desktop. With no other instruction as to what to do next, I clicked on it – all the time wondering if this wasn’t some clever software hoax to trick me into installing malware on my system. Fortunately it wasn’t. I was informed that, hoorah, hoorah, my copy of Windows supplied by HP was indeed genuine after all. Thank you, Microsoft, that’s ten minutes of my life you just wasted. But by the by, if you must be so anal about pirate copies why do you have to make the checks so intrusive and complicated?

The previous time something like that happened was the trigger for me to dump Windows and install Linux on my shack computer. However, as I have written previously, I found Linux forced me to make too many sacrifices which is why in the end I went back to Windows. Linux the OS is fine, it’s the lack of high quality applications (particularly in the ham radio sphere) and the decision by many hardware manufacturers not to provide Linux drivers that makes it frustrating. Having said that, most of the programs I regularly use are either available in Linux versions (like Fldigi) or will run on it under wine (like APRSIS32.) But the truth is, the older I get the more I feel that life is too short for faffing around with computers.

Continuing my series of posts from my Droid mobile device while watching Garbage Moguls on National Geographic this evening.

My first attempt at docking the Droid failed. Why so? Accessories are as important to the bottomline as the device itself. I bought one of those nifty protective shells, hip, slick, and cool. The red casing dressed up the Droid however someone in engineering obviously did not dress their device to the nines.

The red casing was an eighth inch to big for the dock. Yes, Houston, no go on docking the Droid.

Gene Kranz would never tolerate such a situation even though we fly missions to space based on the bottom line of the lowest bidder. Well, I made a command decision that is, remove one part of the case and continue the mission.

Success, if only partial, because mission critical software was not installed on the mothership. I fired up my wireless connection and contacted Motorola for a device driver. They delivered bits and bytes of required code necessary for docking.

Mission success as Droid spoke with mothership and downloaded essential life support software such as R34P and SolderSmoke recordings. My ear buds hummed with dual channel CW/SSB from WRTC 2010 and SolderSmoke. There is yet one more piece of mothership software missing to complete my mission portfolio.

73 from the anywhere, anytime shack.

It’s not writer’s block well may it is writer’s block? It’s not hobby burn out because I’m totally into traditional QSL cards while getting after core shack awards. Recent confirmations include KL8DX, AL1G, FS5KA, and HC8GR. Additionally, I’m into data compiling inside the log database as I’m adding grid squares, counties, propagation numbers, verifying three different QSL channels like eQSL, LoTW, and traditional.

The fall/winter RadioSport schedule spells improved long skip conditions from the shack relaxation zone. I’m listening for DX signals during the weekend on multiple spectrum spaces as 10, 15, and 20m yet faint, ever so faint, are those signals.

I added 6m into my quiver of ham radio activities but it was too late as the e season faded into the summer sunset. There is magic band opportunity later in the year and, hopefully, Cycle 24 will cooperate with an epic weekend. I logged one -Q related to sporadic e propagation before this space went silent.

There is antenna lab and we are nearing completion of K6MM’s No Excuses 160m Vertical. We have the upper section to wind and the final touches on the capacitance hat. My fiberglass push-up mast needs replaced because it wore out sooner than expected. My Kenwood TS850S will arrive later next month and the TS830S which powered my /DV2 activity and /0 South Dakota season, remains in storage.

On the other hand, I’m experimenting with mobile blogging using my Motorola Droid, and the results are changing my computing behavior. Seriously, I’m spending less time in front of the personal computer during the week using instead my mobile device to access the net. I purchased the last docking station just today.

The final days of summer are at hand and the shack relaxation zone enjoyed several changes this season. I’m looking forward to the 2010 – 2011 RadioSport schedule!

Contest on.

Olga is having a little party on Sunday afternoon to show off her garden to a few friends and neighbours. So there will not be much time for radio this weekend as I will need to be on hand to help tidy things up, fetch anything she suddenly finds she needs whilst preparing, and finally the hard part – drinking wine and being sociable! But I thought you might appreciate seeing some pictures of the garden taken a few days ago.

The photos don’t give much of an idea of scale, but the garden is tiny. It is about 20 feet from the back of the conservatory to the thick, high hedge at the bottom of the garden, and about 30 feet from one neighbour’s fence to the other. The lack of space, and the desire not to spoil Olga’s floral wonderland, are just two of the reasons why I think attic antennas are the best option in the circumstances.

As a confessed web junkie (how else can you do a site like this) and a ham…… I find many sites that show circuits from decades gone by that are every bit as relevant today as they were when they were originally created.

Then…… there comes a time when you can look at a mere snippet of someones overall body of work and get an interesting glimpse into one of those rare “beautiful minds”.  Such is the case with Sir Douglas Hall.

He started publishing articles nearly two decades after he started tinkering with electronics.  This site has copies of his published works from the early forties to…… here’s the crazy thing….. the new millennium!!!

I can’t even begin to go over the normal lists like I do for many articles here, but there are tons of articles from various methods of volume control, multiple crystal receivers, portable radio kits (transmitters and receivers), tons of theory….. the list goes on.

I think I need to cache a copy of this page for my next trip so I have plenty of neat stuff to read while traveling, truly neat stuff.

To find these ingenious circuits, go to:

http://www.spontaflex.free-online.co.uk/

**** Update ****

Thanx to Geoff for commenting and letting me know that there are not only updates, but MORE great circuits on the radioconstructors site at:

http://www.radioconstructors.info/

If your better half complains that you have too much radio equipment, just show her this article.

You’ve all seen it: a new or prospective radio amateur joins a web forum and posts: “I’m looking for advice on how to get started in HAM radio.” HAM is not an acronym. What do they think it stands for? I consulted the Acronym Finder and could find nothing remotely relevant.

Having been in computing for more years than I care to remember, I know that the avoidable acronym is not a new invention. The one that really used to bug me is HELP, as in “Software includes full online HELP.” For goodness sake! Help is a word, not an acronym. I don’t think it was meant as a cry for assistance: HEEELLLPPP!!!! though I have come across a few programs where that would be appropriate.

Another example is FAX. Again, I can’t think of three words it could be an acronym for. It’s short for facsimile, so it’s just fax.

And ham is short for amateur, so capitalization is not required. There are many suggestions as to why amateur radio became known as ham radio. No-one really knows. Some say it has the same origins as “ham actor”, though that’s a pejorative term for an actor who overacts and generally isn’t very good. Others suggest it comes from British English. Cockneys (working class Londoners) drop the leading H from words like “hurry” or “have”, so they would often insert it in front of words where it doesn’t belong when trying to “speak posh.” Hence “amateur” would become “hamateur” and then “ham”.

Who knows? But whatever the origin, ham certainly isn’t an acronym.