AmateurRadio.com

Hello there and welcome to the latest installment of Linux in the Ham Shack. For your listening pleasure this fortnight, we have information on politics in the ARRL, opportunities for kids to participate in ham radio and FEMA, adventures in WSPR, a lost Atari 2600 ham radio app, a quick review of SolusOS and much more. Please enjoy.

73 de The LHS Crew

Introduction:

• Richard is still in the process of moving, but did get his WinLink rms gateway running as described in a previous episode.

Announcements:

• Jay Forrest has lauched The Linux News Podcast. The podcast will focus on topics such as software freedom, Linux development, Open Source software, Android and mobile devises, security issues, and Linux distribution releases. Our hosts offer their opinions.
• Ohio LinuxFest will be held in Columbus, Ohio on September 9-11, 2011. (Note: Russ will not be there, but maybe YOU can represent LHS. Visit the web site and look at the Ambassadors page to learn how.)
• Texoma Hamarama will be October 21-22, 2011 in Ardmore, OK. Richard might be there, so if you’re in the area, look for him!

Topics:

• Our hosts discuss the ARRL statement regarding HR 607, “Broadband for First Responders Act of 2011″. This bill provides for the re-allocation of the 420-440 MHz band, calling it part of the “Public Safety” spectrum. This is not the case, and we should contact our representatives and voice our opposition to this bill. The ARRL offers sample letters you can send to your representatives.
• Richard and Russ talk about various amateur radio programsfor Linux offered by Ted, WA0EIR.Russ built them all from the available source code on his Linux Mint Debian Edition 10 computer. In order to do so, he installed a number of development libraries:
  • libmotif-dev
  • libxmu-dev
  • libxpm-dev
  • libxbae-dev

  These are header files necessary for the compiler to properly build the programs.

• Each program requires the following commands to compile and install. Change to the directory containing the program and type:

    ./configure
    ./make
    ./make-install

  (You may wish to be root to perform the make-install command.)

• TWLOG – A basic QSO logging program. Useful for day-to-day logging, but not recommended for contest logs. It will export to ADIF. It requires the Xbae Matrix Widget.
• TWPSK – A simple bpsk/qpsk program. Co-written with Hansi, DL9RDZ
• TWCW – A Morse Code trainer that also allows keyboard CW operation.
• TWCLOCK – A world clock application that will also automatically send a CW identifier every 10 minutes.
• Check the /etc/X11/app-defaults directory for the “X resource” files to change the configuration options for these programs. For example, in that directory is a file called twclock that contains the callsign transmitted by TWClock.
• PSK31LX – A curses-based PSK31 program, so it runs in a terminal window or directly in a terminal session. For help, a man page is included. (Type “man psk31lx”.) It makes use of the arrow, control, and function keys. You can choose the audio and serial devices with command line parameters at start. Configuration parameters are stored in your home directory in the file .psk31lx.ini.

Feedback:

• Don, WS4E, asks for Internet resources for handicapped amateur radio operators. He’s familiar with the Handiham  organization, but wonders if there are others.There are many newsgroups and mailing lists dedicated to hams with disabilities. A Google search should return several. The Canadian National Amateur Radio Society site Amateur Radio for the Disabled, has several useful links. Richard mentions Lighthouse for the Blind. The ARRL has a page listing several articles. There’s also a Facebook group, Blind Amateur Radio Operators.
• Petr, OK2CQR, the author of CQRLOG, responds to Torsten’s (K5TOR) problems installing CQRLOG on a 64-bit machine: CQRLOG already has native 64-bit version. There is no need to install the 32-bit version. You can use the ppa at launchpad.net with packages for Lucid, Maverick, Natty and Oneirc. Version 1.2.1 will be part of the Oneiric release as well. More information is here.
• Donation from Paul G. Thank you! If you’d like to donate, please visit the website and click on the Donate link.

Contact Info:

• Contact Richard at [email protected], Russ at [email protected], or both at the same time at [email protected].
• Listen to the live stream every other Tuesday at 8:00pm Central time. Check the LHS web site for dates.
• Leave us a voice mail at 1-909-LHS-SHOW (1-909-547-7469), or record an introduction to the podcast.
• Sign up for the LHS mailing list.
• Sign up for the MAGNetcon mailing list.
• LHS merchandise is available at the Merch link on Web site. Check out the Badgerwear or buy one of the other LHS-branded items at PrintFection.com/lhs or Cafe Press. Thanks!
• Thanks to Dave from Gamma Leonis for the theme music.

Music:

• “Rise” by Rob Warren from the album “Rise,” courtesy of Jamendo.
• “Mechanical Butterfly” by Mechanical Butterfly from the album “Mechanical Butterfly,” courtesy of Jamendo.

Promo:

• Ohio LinuxFest will be held September 9-11, 2011 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, OH.
• Linux in the Ham Shack promo from the Low SWR guys. Thanks!

Announcements:

• Our best wishes for a speedy recovery to MadamMoo!
• Our regular hosts are joined by Torsten, XE2/K5TOR.

Topics:

• Firefox 4 has been out a while, and version 5 beta is available at the time of recording. Our hosts discuss. The first thing Russ noted, was the increase in speed! Look for versions 6 and 7 before the end of the year. (As I write this, version 6 has been released. -Ed.)
• Kudos to The Linux Link Tech Show (TLLTS) and their interest in amateur radio. One of the hosts, Joel, aka “gorkon”, W3RAZ, has recorded a couple podcasts for Hacker Public Radio: Episode #738 is an introduction to amateur radio, and Episode #756 explains the basics of radio. Another TLLTS host, Allan, is N3MAW.
• Leo LaPorte of This Week in Tech has started a podcast about amateur radio. (It’s Ham Nation with Bob Heil, K9EID, and Gordon West, WB6NOA, under the TWiT banner and with Leo’s support and occasional participation. By the time you read this, Leo has his license and is now W6TWT. -Ed.)
• Russ describes the Linux from Scratch project that provides instructions for building your own custom Linux system, entirely from source code. Russ plans on providing more details of his experience with Linux from Scratch on a future episode of the QSK Netcast.
• Our hosts tried Ubuntu 11.04, Natty Narwhal, and discuss it, good and bad.
• Russ also tried Fedora 15, and liked the default desktop environment.
• Richard likes PCLinuxOS, and SUSE Linux.
• Linux Mint gets a mention, too.
• In future LHS episodes, look for information about svxlink, an EchoLink client for Linux, and codec2, an Open Source and patent-free audio codec.
• Torsten has had problems installing CQRLog on a 64-bit machine. Russ recommends installing the ia32-libs package to provide the needed 32-bit libraries. In Debian-based distributions, you can install that package with the command “apt-get install ia32-libs”. More information about running 32-bit programs on a 64-bit machine with Debian-based Linux is here.

Contact Info:

• Contact Richard at [email protected], Russ at [email protected], or both at the same time at [email protected].
• Listen to the live stream every other Tuesday at 8:00pm Central time. Check the LHS web site for dates.
• Leave us a voice mail at 1-909-LHS-SHOW (1-909-547-7469), or record an introduction to the podcast.
• Sign up for the LHS mailing list.
• Sign up for the MAGNetcon mailing list.
• LHS merchandise is available at the Merch link on Web site. Check out the Badgerwear or buy one of the other LHS-branded items at PrintFection.com/lhs or Cafe Press. Thanks!
• Thanks to Dave from Gamma Leonis for the theme music.

Music:

• “Vacancy” by Assembly Line Gods, from their album Control (Volume 1).
• The music in Episode #063 is provided with kind permission by Assembly Line Gods from their recent EP release, Control (Volume 1). The track is called “Vacancy.” Follow ALG on Twitter and Facebook and buy their new tracks at iTunes. Thanks, guys!

This is a short introduction to Linux for Amateur Radio Operators showing a few things that are available for Amateur Radio.

Announcements:

• Thanks, again, to Gamma Leonis for the opening and closing music for the show.
• LHS Merchandise is available at PrintFection and Cafe Press. LHS items make great Christmas gifts! Or, make a donation by clicking the Donate link on the website. Donations cover such things as the telephone lines, server fees, and more. Thank you!

Topics:

• Articles seem to be popping up at www.amateurradio.com designed to get us talking about Linux and Amateur Radio. The latest one is by Anthony, K3NG, self-proclaimed radio artisan. Our hosts discuss his assertions that:
  • Ham Radio Deluxe, DXLab, and N1MM software all beat any Linux offerings. (Note: Russ has found that both Ham Radio Deluxe and N1MM logger will run under WINE in Linux. DXLab, on the other hand, will not.)
  • There is more amateur radio software available for Windows than Linux.
  • CQRLOG is an adequate Linux program for casual logging, but not great for contesters.
  • “Quite simply, if one intends on using Linux exclusively in the hamshack they have to lower their expectations and requirements for logging and are between a rock and a hard place when it comes to contesting.”
  • He does praise fldigi, but still claims Windows software is better.
  • In summary, he thinks hard-core contesters may wish to stay with Windows. Our suggestion: run Linux and write a program that works better!
• Russ talks about his success with WSPR and Echolink.
• He found that instead of using “dpkg -i” to install the latest Debian WSPR package, use “dpkg -x”. You’ll extract the files to the current directory. You then run the program from a terminal session in your home directory using “./wspr”. If you run it that way, instead of letting it install, it seems to work a lot better. The Gnome launcher doesn’t seem to work with that sort of installation, but running it from a terminal works well.
• Russ has Echolink running under WINE v1.13. This version of WINE was chosen for it’s native support of PulseAudio, which made configuring EchoLink much easier. Russ’ node is on 146.225MHz simplex, Echolink node 54711.
• Russ then tells us why Echolink and IRLP are different and why IRLP might be “better.” (Hint: Echolink may not have an amateur radio anywhere in the link, while IRLP definitely uses a radio somewhere in the link.)

Feedback:

• Scott, HL2/AD7MI, sends his appreciation for the discussion in Episode 50 of his blog entry about his Ubuntu installation, and adds a note about problems with running CQRLOG under 64-bit Linux. He says you can install CQRLOG on a 64-bit machine, but it will only work with the 32-bit version of hamlib. Unfortunately, that breaks 64-bit fldigi, which expects the 64-bit version of hamlib. This issue has been reported on both the linuxham Yahoo group and the CQRLOG forum. Scott has also successfully installed Xastir, and is looking forward to receiving a MicroHAM III interface.
• Matt, KC8BEW, asks “What is a good and easy Linux distribution for a web server?” Russ recommends a plain vanilla installation of Debian server, without the X-windows environment, and either Apache or nginx (a light-weight web server).
• Dave, M0DCM, tells us of his success running fldigi and CQRLOG under Ubuntu 9.10 on an Acer Aspire A0751h netbook. Well done, Dave!

Donations:

• A very generous donation was received from Gerrit R. Thanks, Gerrit!

Contact Info:

• Contact Richard at [email protected], Russ at [email protected], or both at the same time at [email protected].
• Listen to the live stream every other Tuesday at 8:00pm Central time. Check the LHS web site for dates.
• Leave us a voice mail at 417-200-4811, or record an introduction to the podcast.
• Sign up for the LHS mailing list.
• Sign up for the MAGNetcon mailing list.
• Thanks to Dave from Gamma Leonis for the theme music.

Music:

• “Steel Concrete” by Mad Mav from the album “Black Sheep II”, courtesy of Jamendo.

Episode 50: A milestone!

Announcements:

• Russ talks about his California trip: attending the Large Installation Systems Administration conference (LISA).
• The 50th episode is a milestone – Richard explains why. See also The Internet Archive.
• Lord Drachenblut reminds us of the upcoming Indiana LinuxFest in Indianapolis, Indiana. If you’d like to register, use the promotional code LHSPODCAST50 (all capital letters) and you’ll get a $15.00 discount on the ticket.
• Music in this episode is from 20lb Sounds, fronted by Dan Lynch of Linux Outlaws fame.

Topics:

• Scott, AD7MI, posted an article on his blog about moving to an all-Linux ham shack. Richard and Russ discuss the article, including Shackbox Linux, Ham Radio Deluxe, CQRLog, and more. Ultimately, Fldigi and CQRLog resulted in “100% Linux Nirvana”.
• Scott also asks what we think would be the ideal Linux-based ham shack. Russ describes his shack, which he thinks IS ideal. Our hosts then discuss various soundcard interfaces:
  • RigBlaster
  • MicroHAM
  • Rascal
• Most sound cards work fine, and Russ recommends the SoundBlaster series over all, but suggests staying away from the SoundBlaster Audigy SE (model CA0106) sound cards as they don’t seem to work well (or at all) under Linux.
• Richard likes his Yaesu FT-897D. Most modern rigs allow a fixed-audio level connection to the computer sound card, as well as computer rig control. Russ has the Kenwood TS-570D, and it, too, is well-supported in the Linux ham libraries.
• Russ and Richard discuss the fact that most hams don’t log VHF/UHF contacts, other than in contests or toward an award.
• The FCC, created by the Communications Act of 1934, included the requirement to maintain a log book in the rules. Sometime between 1983 and 1986, this requirement was dropped as the FCC determined that the information was of little use to them. (If someone can point us to a reference that identifies when the exact rule change occurred, please let us know. I was unable to find the specific change online. -Ed.)

Feedback:

• Leif, KC8RWR, writes that Internet over EME (earth-moon-earth) isn’t likely to work due to the high latency involved. (This may be in reference to a comment in Episode 48.) NASA and DARPA are involved in a Deep-Space Internet project.
• Leif also asks “Isn’t Morse code dead?” and wasn’t it replaced by “Gerke Code”? Our hosts discuss.
• Craig, KB5UEJ, writes that he thinks Russ’ audio is louder and muddier than Richard’s in episodes 46 and 47. Russ agrees that the audio on a few of the recent episodes did suffer, but should be much improved now.
• Grant, KC9SJQ, comments that he doesn’t see a link to Russ’ screencast about SSL anywhere. Yes, it somehow disappeared, but Russ is working on it. He’ll either find the file or redo it.
• William, KB9TMP, sends his comments about Episode 48 where we discuss KE9V’s article that questioned the relevance of amateur radio.
• Craig, KB5UEJ, commenting about WSPR, says that you can run less than 5W on an FT-897 by reducing the audio drive from the computer to the radio. Richard points out that the reduction is often not uniform across the audio freqeuncies used, so some intelligibility may be lost. He had that problem with packet, but he’ll try it with WSPR.
• Matt wants to know the artist and title of a song in Episode 48. The song was “Endline (Choose Nothing)” by I Am Not Lefthanded from the album “Yes Means No”. Check out the show notes for Episode 48 for a link to the song.

Donations:

• Scott, AD7MI, sent a donation just before we recorded! Thanks, Scott.
• If you’d like to help the podcast, please consider making a donation. It’s easy! Just a click on the Donate button on the web site.

Contact Info:

• Contact Richard at [email protected], Russ at [email protected], or both at the same time at [email protected].
• Listen to the live stream every other Tuesday at 8:00pm Central time. Check the LHS web site for dates.
• Leave us a voice mail at 888-455-0305 or 417-200-4811, or record an introduction to the podcast.
• Sign up for the LHS mailing list.
• Sign up for the MAGNetcon mailing list.
• Thanks to Dave from Gamma Leonis for the theme music.

Music:

• Redemption Song performed by 20lb Sounds.
• Jimmy Carter, also by 20lb Sounds.

Hello, everyone! Due to Cheryl having some hand surgery and my being a telecommuter for the last month or so, I haven’t been able to keep up with the podcast release cycle.  We’ve been recording episodes like we’re supposed to. It’s just been impossible to get them released on time. That means that #047 and #048 are going to be released in rapid succession so you’ll get twice the LHS yummy goodness.

This time around, Richard has been looking a little deeper into CQRlog, a great logging program for Linux created by OK2CQR.  We talked about this program in a past episode and we’ve mentioned it a few more times in passing. This time we’re getting down deep into the features and all of the integrations CQRlog has with other ham radio applications. We also address our usual announcements, feedback, other technical topics and throw in a bunch of witty banter just to keep things interesting. Thanks, all, for staying with us while we try and get back to a regular podcasting cycle. Keep listening and keep spreading the word.

73 de The LHS Guys