Posts Tagged ‘feedback’

Going about it the hard way…..WHY??

Last evening I finally had some time to get on the PC and check out what fellow ham radio bloggers were up too. For the past month I have been working every day and only having time to “fast read” a post and drop a short comment. While surfing the blog sphere last evening I came across KG3V’s blog, the subject of the blog caught my attention “Updating FTDX-3000 Firmware. Below is a link to what I only could call an “adventure”.
https://kg3v.com/2017/10/14/updating-ftdx-3000-firmware/

In the post Tom does a great job explaining how he went about the firmware upgrade and some issues he ran into. Tom also goes over the enhancements this firmware will forward to his FTDX-3000. It’s fantastic how far we have come in radio, in the past if you wanted the upgrades it meant selling what you had and purchasing the new and improved version. Today’s modern rigs can chat either over the internet or with pre-downloaded thumb drives and magic is worked within the rig to either over come an issue, enhance what is already there or add something new! Having said that I just can’t understand what the issue is with the process of the upgrade. It’s just not ham radio with our Nikon cameras to upgrade the firmware it’s…hold this while pushing that….make sure you don’t do this while doing that….and on and on and on. Resources are used writing the rigs new firmware upgrade, time and money is put into it and it’s to make the product better for the end user. If this is the case why the %&^* not make the process for the end user easy peasy!!

Having said the above and let me preface this with “I am not going to say what I am about to say just because I am a fan of Elecraft but if the shoe fits……” To upgrade my K3 or KX3 Elecraft has provided via their website a program that sits on your desktop, one of it’s functions is for firmware upgrades. The process is as follows:
1. Double click on desktop icon.
2. Click on Firmware tab.
3. Click on “Check versions now”
4. Below you will then see the firmware that is installed in your rig and new firmware that is available for your rig. You then click on “Send all new firmware to K3 or KX3.
Your rig will start to click, there will be “stuff” flashing on the rigs screen, sometimes even clicking noises from the rig and then your rig’s screen returns to normal and your done. I have owned Kenwood, Icom and Yeasu rigs and never has it been this easy and my question is WHY NOT!!! Now having said the above it is true I have not owned one of the above rigs for some time now so do comment if the process has changed…but is sure does not seem it has for the FTDX-3000 model rig!

OK I’m off my soapbox now….:))

Show Notes #118

Episode #118 Audio (Listen now!):

Brief Topics
  • Raspberry Pi Exceeds Sales Expecations
  • Russ, K5TUX, No Longer 10M Virgin
Main Topics
  • HAMRADIONOW.tv – Gary Pearce KN4AQ
    • Episode 104: Be Prepared (Be Very Prepared)
    • Watch the episode on the http://www.HamRadioNow.tv web page
    • HamRadioNow  has episodes on many topics of interest to Hams & non-Hams alike:   From Amsat to Field Day to community service, etc…
Announcements & Feedback
  • E-mail exchange with Mike N2HTT
  • Donations and Subscriptions
    • Thomas H. (Very generious donation)
    • Richard G. (Yearly)
    • Gary U. (Monthly)
    • Jim N. (Monthly)
    • Bill H. (Monthly)
    • Bill A. (Monthly)
    • Scott P. (Monthly)
  • Social Media Roundup
  • Google+
    • Randall P.
    • Michael R.
  • Facebook
    • Ben S.
  • Twitter
    • 73s @73s
    • Ken KKØHF @RadioGeek
    • Rugby LUG
    • Latest Digitals @LatestDigitals
    • HamRadioForever @HamRadioForever
    • David L. KK4WW @Apple1computer
    • Glenn @KD5HCL
    • Jason B. KY9J @jasonbegley
    • RUSSELL – M3LCZ @m3lcz
    • Jeffrey B. NT1K @itsBail
    • Norman P. CVWOC @CVWOC
    • Andy H. K5PO @K5PO
    • Todd S. @wm8c
    • Phil H. @k4ne
    • Kevin T. @N5PRE
    • Trent f. @N4DTF
    • Greg W. @k4hsm
    • Jeff P. @ke4ole1
    • Jeff D. @ke9v
    • Marco b. @iw2iga
    • Mike M. @n5jky
    • David L. M0IBC
    • Tim P. @KG8OC
    • Eltje  aka Drs. C @PA3CEE
    • Chuck M. N9KY @deN9KY
    • Steve C. @K4DXV
    • Danny P. @NG9R
    • Rob  W. @RobM_TMA
    • Pete D. @RadioN3FNE
    • Stephen H. @g8ebm
    • Mitch @KF5OEF
    • William S. @NE4RD
    • Thomas D.  @TomDavis_KF5GBL
    • Craig V.@KB3SBI
    • N8VSI – Scott P.  @N8VSI
    • Jon @N5JLD
    • Mike R.  @badtoyz
  • Mailing List
    • Mike R.

Outro

  • Please check out our website:  http://lhspodcast.info.
  • Become  an ambassador!  Visit the Web site for upcoming events and information  how you can represent Linux in the Ham Shack at a nearby Linux con or  hamfest.
  • You can e-mail us at [email protected] or leave a voice mail at 1-909-LHS-SHOW (547-7469).
  • All hate mail is routed to Harrison at [email protected].
  • Please subscribe to the mailing list.  A link is on the Web site.
  • Go  to CafePress and Printfection and buy some of our show merchandise.   Each purchase helps out the show.  You can also help the show by  clicking on the sponsored ads in the right-hand column of the homepage.
  • http://www.cafepress.com/lhspodcast
  • http://www.printfection.com/lhspodcast
  • Listen  live every every other Tuesday at 8:00pm Central time, or Wednesday at  0200z.  Our recording schedule and countdown timer to the next episode  is on the Web site.
  • Thank you to all of our listeners, live and quasi-live.
Music

LHS Episode #118: Making Flippy Floppy, Sol Style

506449main_FAQ2Hello, friends! Episode #118 of Linux in the Ham Shack is ready for your immediate consumption. Lots of ham radio and Linux related news in this episode, including discussion of Ham Radio Now, the sun's magnetosphere, digital contacts on 28MHz, Linux Mint, Linux news aggregation sites and more. Sit back in your easy chair, put on your headphones, and enjoy a sweet slice of podcast nirvana. Until next time...

73 de The LHS Guys

Does the early bird get the DX…it’s said he gets the worm.

Last Friday we had a "situation" at work that had me working until about 3 a.m. and when I got home I was still all pumped from work and was not ready to jump into bed. The thought came to me about getting on the radio and seeing what DX pileups were out there. I had heard of folks getting on in the wee hours of the morning and catching some rare DX. With great expectations  I turned the radio on....10m dead, 15m dead, 17 and 30 same thing!! Alas on 40m my Elecraft P3 showed some faint signals, I spun the dial to the frequency only to find it was some very weak State side stations. Not that there is anything wrong with that but it's kinda a let down when one is anticipating WILD DX!!!

I did not check the propagation that morning so there could had been a storm brewing or maybe everyone but me was in bed sleeping. As I have blogged about in the past I am trying to get my ARRL Diamond Challenge award (and doing it QRP) at this point I am at 81 DXCC contacts. You only have one year to accomplish this goal and it's now almost December!!!  Having said that I am "really" at 95 DXCC's for 2012 according to Club log. The catch is the ARRL for the Diamond award is not counting ALL DXCC on the list. It is a long story but it's just how the ARRL perculates. I was hoping to bring my K2 or my newly acquired KX3 to work as I was wanting to get some operating time in before work. I am usually in around 5:30 in the morning and I have until 7 to make some contacts. With my Saturday mornings performance I am not to sure if bringing  the rig would be a waste of time.....any ideas out there???

Two years of blogging…………

It's hard to believe that I have been blogging for 2 years now!! I have had a great time learning about the hobby from other bloggers. I have been able to expose myself to new areas of ham radio. It's because of blogging I have dipped my toes into QRPp very low power operations. I was able to make a 45,686 miles per watt contact earlier this year. I have somewhat moved away from Windows as my only OS and invited Linux into the mix. That has turned out very well although it's been learning curve but a refreshing challenge. Also with reading many posts about outdoor QRP operations I have also started to do the same, operating from parks in the area as well as my car when the weather is not so inviting. I have taken on the challenge of the ARRL Jubilee award and hoping to complete it (as you only have one year to complete it) and doing it with QRP power.

Once again it is the readers time to give me some input......
What they would like to see more (or less) in the blog?
How is the flow of the blog?
Are there topics you enjoy more than others in the blog?
How is the setup of the blog sit with you?
Finally any other input you would like to add don't hold back let me know!

LHS Episode #076: BIG PAPA

After our quick renumbering, we come now to Episode #076. It didn’t start out as an all-feedback episode, but that’s how it wound up. The best part is, we had such good feedback from our listeners it made an entire show. As it also happens, most of our discussion revolves around digital mode communication for amateur radio using Linux. We touch on D-Star, Echolink, IRLP, Allstar Link and more. If you’re interested in using computers to connect to your radios and talk around the world using a multitude of digital technologies, including VoIP, this is the episode for you.

Please keep those donations coming in for our Hamvention Fund, if you’re able. We want to be a part of Hamvention and we hope you will be, too. Thank you for all you do.

LHS Show Notes #061

Promo:

Announcements:

  • LHS will be at the Dayton Hamvention, May 20-22, 2011, booth 131 in the North Hall. Russ and Cheryl will be there. Stop and say hello.
  • LHS will also be at the Southeast Linuxfest, June 10-12, 2011, in Spartanburg, SC. Russ will be giving a talk on Saturday, and Russ and Cheryl will be at the LHS booth.

Feedback

  • Dan writes in about a Linux discussion he had at his radio club on March 8, and he mentioned LHS. Dan is also recording his own podcast, “Every Day Linux Use”. Good luck with that, Dan, and let us know where to find the podcast when it’s released.
  • B.B., KC5PIY, writes about an article in the February 2011 issue of Linux Magazine discussing the OpenHatch project. B.B. shares his thoughts about how OpenHatch may apply to the podcast and amateur radio. Russ and Richard respond. Unfortunately, when this was recorded, the OpenHatch website was down. (From the OpenHatch website: “OpenHatch is an open source community aiming to help newcomers find their way into free software projects.”)
  • Rick, K9AO, sent some detailed instructions for building SVXlink, an open source Echolink client, under Linux, and we’re including it in it’s entirety here. As you may recall from episode 56, Russ had problems with compiling the program.Hi Russ,
    I thought I’d send along the method that I have used to successfully build SVXlink under Mandriva 2010.2 and Ubuntu 10.10. I built the source on Ubuntu 10.10 late last year, so don’t have access to that machine at the moment. I built SVXlink from the latest SVN checkout on this Mandriva box, but this method also works fine for the release tarball.

    I don’t know if you generally use SVN projects, but I’m thinking that you likely do if you are as interested in helping to shape the development of actively developed projects.

    I create a directory called SVN in my home directory, and then do the SVN checkouts from there. Using the SVN checkout command below will create a subdirectory in the folder that you run it in, and then you can do the install from there. You likely are already familiar with this.

    Here are the specifics:

    ——————–
    Get the source:
    svn co https://svxlink.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/svxlink svxlink
    cd to the below directory:
    Build the source branch in /svxlink/trunk/src
    From there:
    make realclean
    make
    su to root
    make install
    ——————–

    If there are any missing deps, these will show up as the compile progresses. As you already know I am sure, you need the devel packages to match the deps to build from source.

    You will see errors, or what looks like errors as the build progresses after a realclean command. But if all of the needed libs and devels are there, the build process will create the necessary configs and then build the app. If you are concerned that the app might not have built correctly, doing another make will have the terminal scroll through the build process rapidly and then complete. If you get that far, do the root install. Then qtel from the terminal will bring up the client.

    There are a number of branches of the source code for SVXlink in development. I recommend the above main trunk first.

    There haven’t been any changes in the Qtel client for a while, so if all you are after is the client part of SVXlink there is no advantage to using cutting-edge SVN. There has been quite a bit of development going on in the server part, so experimenting with the SVN and joining the SVXlink devel list might be a good idea.

    Hope that helps, and keep up the good work.

    Rick, K9AO

Contact Info:

Music:

  • To be added.

Subscribe FREE to AmateurRadio.com's
Amateur Radio Newsletter

 
We never share your e-mail address.


Do you like to write?
Interesting project to share?
Helpful tips and ideas for other hams?

Submit an article and we will review it for publication on AmateurRadio.com!

Have a ham radio product or service?
Consider advertising on our site.

Are you a reporter covering ham radio?
Find ham radio experts for your story.

How to Set Up a Ham Radio Blog
Get started in less than 15 minutes!


  • Matt W1MST, Managing Editor




Sign up for our free
Amateur Radio Newsletter

Enter your e-mail address: