AmateurRadio.com

Shackbox is a Linux distro for us ham radio fans. So if you fancy using Linux in the shack (and why not) then after a long time in development (Which I understand from those in the know, that this means the developers had other things to do) there is a new release based on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS or Long Term Support.

I haven’t managed to download a copy as the servers were complaining but if you’re feeling lucky then head on over to http://shackbox.net/ and grab a copy.

I’m guessing but I’d image its a Live DVD that you can run on your normal machine without having to install anything. Like most Live versions you can install the distro after playing about either as a complete OS or as a dual boot.

I was actually able took get on the air for a bit today! A Saturday that’s not full of obligations and chores is a rarity for me.

And I got a new one via QRP! Paraguay, by working ZP6CW on 12 Meters. And I got a 579 report to boot, so since it wasn’t the automatic 599, I will take him at his word. The antenna was the Butternut HF9V.

A little while later, I worked KH7Y in Hawaii, so the bands were open. With the NAQP SSB, going on, the CW portion of the bands was not as crowded as usual.

I worked a few QRP Polar Bears today, as well – WA8REI, VA2SG and K3Y/1 who was Pete N1ABS, who is also a Polar Bear.

I have decided that I am going to be countercultural, and I am NOT going to try and work all 50 W1AW stations this year. A few years ago, I worked 48 states for the K6JSS anniversary event that QRP ARCI held, and besides, I have two ARRL WAS certificates already. I earned one as N2ELW, and I got another as W2LJ. The W2LJ certificate was earned by working all 50 via CW and QRP. I don’t need another, even though having a special certificate for the ARRL’s Centennial would be nice. I’m just not in the mood to break another 50 different pileups for another WAS certificate. Bah humbug!

I have tomorrow and Monday off, so hopefully, I will get more air time this long weekend.  Oh! I just remembered …. tomorrow is the third Sunday of the month. Join us for the Flying Pigs Run for the Bacon tomorrow night.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!

Chris, G0FDZ, the beacon keeper of the GB3VHF 144MHz beacon reports it as off air at the moment.

Unfortunately, there has been an equipment failure of the power supplies. No particular problem – Chris has the bits to mend it! However, unfortunately, due to the very wet weather, it’s not possible to get in the door, as it has swollen!

See the service updates page for GB3VHF

From the pictures, particularly the fallen oak tree, it would appear that the weather at the site has been very bad recently.

WSPR never loses its ability to astound. Today I’ve been WSPRing on 10m, still with 0.2W. My signal was decoded by 5 different Stateside stations.

I heard “nothing” on the national news this evening about the water situation here in the valley. Despite that, the water is still unsafe to drink in a few areas, and the “all clear” has been rescinded in the outlying areas of several distant towns. I fear this disaster will be forgotten quickly by the news media.

Nursing or pregnant mothers are advised NOT to drink the water, and several towns are under a “boil the water” advisory. Flushing the chemicals from 600 miles of water pipes has been a very slow process. Many towns are still passing out bottled water because the faint smell of “licorice” is still apparent in their water. Marilyn and I are using the tap water for washing clothes, and washing dishes; but we’re still NOT drinking it because of the faint lingering odor still oozing from our faucets.

There’s been 50 million plastic bottles of water distributed in this area now and we plan to drink “only” bottled water for at least another week.

This issue has NOT been resolved as far as I’m concerned. When I can comfortably drink from the faucet again, and only then, will I feel things have returned to normal.

The company responsible for the coal washing chemical leak declared bankruptcy today.

Tomorrow a friend and I will drive to the city of Ravenswood to visit a radio friend who is a great CW operator. He has several different “keys” in his shack. I’m looking forward to the change of environments, fresh air, and clean water.

Photo @LA3ZA

Here’s an adapter that emulates both a single-lever paddle mode and the ultimatic mode. It is meant to go between a dual-lever paddle and an iambic keyer. The adapter has been implemented in an AVR Butterfly in C and it is compatible with Morse keyers such as the one in the Elecraft K3 and the K1EL WKUSB. The single-lever emulation is probably the most novel part and it is meant to make it easier to practice single-lever keying on a dual-lever paddle.

When pressing both paddles in the ultimatic mode the last one to be pressed takes control, rather than the alternating dit-dah or dah-dit of the iambic mode. The five possible states are then (from “An ultimatic adapter for iambic keyers“, Kevin E. Schmidt, W9CF, 2008):

1. Lin = 1, Rin = 1 => Lout = 0, Rout = 0.
2. Lin = 1, Rin = 0 => Lout = 0, Rout = 1.
3. Lin = 0, Rin = 1 => Lout = 1, Rout = 0.
4. Lin = 0, Rin = 0 after Lin = 1, Rin = 0 => Lout = 1, Rout = 0.
5. Lin = 0, Rin = 0 after Lin = 0, Rin = 1 => Lout = 0, Rout = 1.

The left and right inputs are Lin and Rin and an open input is “1” and a closed one is “0” since the key grounds the input. The output is “1” when it is on and “0” when it is off. The adapter makes it possible with this mode on your favorite keyer where you may have missed this mode.

When I implemented the ultimatic adapter after W9CF’s instructions, it struck me that it would be both useful and easy to add an emulator for a single-lever paddle also. When both keys are pressed in this mode, the last one to be pressed is ignored. This gives the following inverted outputs in states 4 and 5:

4. Lin = 0, Rin = 0 after Lin = 1, Rin = 0 => Lout = 0, Rout = 1.
5. Lin = 0, Rin = 0 after Lin = 0, Rin = 1 => Lout = 1, Rout = 0.

The code also has a direct mode that just sends the input unchanged to the output, as well as a possibility for exchanging the right and left paddles. The display may therefore show ‘ULT, ‘SGL, ‘DIR’ and ‘ULTx’, ‘SGLx’, ‘DIRx’ for these combinations.

The exchange mode is actually quite fun to use. In general for me it is easier to swap the paddles when keying with my left hand. I don’t think I am the only one with that experience.

The C code can be found below. These days I should probably have written it for the Arduino, but the code should be easy to move. Perhaps I’ll do that myself, now that I have an Arduino Mega on order.

Many keyers have the ultimatic mode and the possibility to exchange right and left, but no keyers have the single-paddle emulation mode as far as I know. I think it is quite useful. This summer when I implemented it I thought it was novel also.

But that was before I found out that this mode actually had been proposed by Larry Winslow, W0NFU, in QST in October 2009 and that one can get an iambic to single paddle kit from WB9KZY. Oh well, “there is nothing new under the sun” as the wise man of Ecclesiastes said some 3000 years ago. Just like the ultimatic mode has been implemented in many keyers these days, let me propose the single paddle mode for implementation as a new command also.

void paddle()
{

 if (keyer == 0)   // Direct: output = input   
   { 
     l_out = !(0x01 & l_in); r_out= !(0x01 & r_in); // Boolean inverse
   }
   else     
   {

  /* 
   Direct implementation of table 3 in "K Schmidt (W9CF)
      "An ultimatic adapter for iambic keyers"
      http://fermi.la.asu.edu/w9cf/articles/ultimatic/ultimatic.html
  
   with the addition of the Single-paddle emulation mode
     */ 
  if (state==0)
  {  
    if ((l_in==0) & (r_in==0)) 
   // two paddles closed, right first
   {
       state = 0;

    if (keyer==1)   // Ultimatic
    {
     l_out = 1; r_out = 0; // change to left
    }
    else if (keyer==2)  // Single-paddle emulation
    { 
     l_out = 0; r_out = 1; // keep right
    }
    
      }
   else if ((l_in==0) & (r_in==1))
   {
    state = 1; l_out = 1; r_out = 0;
   }
   else if ((l_in==1) & (r_in==0))
   {
    state = 0; l_out = 0; r_out = 1;
   }
   else if ((l_in==1) & (r_in==1))
   {
    state = 0; l_out = 0; r_out = 0;
   } 
  }

  else if (state==1)
  { 
  if ((l_in==0) & (r_in==0)) 
  // two paddles closed, left first
   {
       state = 1; 

    if (keyer==1)   // Ultimatic
    {
     l_out = 0; r_out = 1; // change to right
    }
    else if (keyer==2)  // Single-paddle emulation
    { 
     l_out = 1; r_out = 0; // keep left
    }
    
      }
   else if ((l_in==0) & (r_in==1))
   {
    state = 1; l_out = 1; r_out = 0;
   }
   else if ((l_in==1) & (r_in==0))
   {
    state = 0; l_out = 0; r_out = 1;
   }
   else if ((l_in==1) & (r_in==1))
   {
    state = 0; l_out = 0; r_out = 0;
   }   
  }
      }
}