But that name… Bedrock… A large company I used to work for had a really poorly designed project by that name. I was in tech support at the time and when they had the big meeting to teach us all our end of it I played the Flinstone’s theme song on my cellphone. The other techs didn’t even get the reference and the trainer started crying! Not quite the reaction I was going for. Oh well…

The flash player and links are in the main post on the front page where most of the site traffic starts out. I’ll see waht I can do though to stick a link in the notes provided Russ likes the idea.

73,

VE2HKW

I find that putting a small flash based player or a download link to the current episode in the shownotes greatly increases listenership.

73

KF5SLN

Then again there’s also mobile. When it comes to HF I only have 10 meter FM in my car. There isn’t a whole lot of FM HF traffic and yet I’ve reached as far as Washington State and Oklahoma from my home in Ohio. Signals were strong and I suspect I would have reached a lot farther by now if I was on SSB even without a bigger antenna.

I don’t have one of those giant screwdriver antennas on my car either. I have a little quad band antenna which is comparable in size to a CB antenna albeit with more traps on it. It is even easy to unscrew from it’s base so I can replace it with an even smaller, less visible VHF/UHF antenna when I don’t feel like messing with 10M.

73 JohnnyK (N4JEK)

Just listened to your 100th..congratulations! It’s a great milestone.

Don’t know which direction you are headed in regarding the focus of the podcast but….here’s a thought. IF you take on another co-host, emphasize a bit more of the technical Linux stuff regarding amateur radio. I realize this may seem like a shot at Richard but it’s not. It’s just one person’s opinion about content. I like humor, banter, etc. (e.g., LAS, etc.) but yours is the only podcast out there combining Linux and ham radio. It could do with more technical content.

You can give me the “badger,” if you wish, but it’s just a candid recommendation.

73 and keep the ‘cast going!

Frank

Cute Russ, I’ll definitely stay with the show, and I encourage all listeners to do the same (and tell a friend about the show, too).

73,
David
KE0AZ

I look forward to hearing more about Codec2 and it’s progress as both a ham and an avid asterisk user.

Thanks again.

I know nothing about short wave.But I was just wondering why

short wave can not be used as a wireless internet connection to

an internet service provider. Is there a fundamental problem ?

Really like your show.

take care

gasgasmike

Copy a file, you get two files. That same information now takes twice as much space on your hard drive because you are storing it twice. Make a change to one, and the old one stays the same.

Make a link to a file rather than copying it and you still really have one file, it just shows up in two places. It takes up barely any more space than it did to start with. Edit it in one spot, it ‘may’ be changed in both (I’ll get to that may part).

To keep things complicated there are two kinds of links, hard, soft.

Soft links just store the path to the original file. Ex, if Richard has a file called badger in /home/richard and makes a link to it called super_badger then if you looked at the ones and zeros on the hard drive super_badger would be a file containing ‘/home/richard/super_badger’.

If Richard tries to open super_badger in emacs (because vi sucks ) he will actually end up opening badger. If he makes any changes and saves it then he will see those changes next time regardless of if he opens badger or super_badger he will see the changed version. There is still only one file.

If Richard deletes badger then super_badger is still there but it is broken because it points to a file that no longer exists. He will not be able to open super_badger anymore. If he does an ls he will still see super_badger and depending on his color settings it will probably be red or blink or something to let him know something evil has happened and he lost his badger.

Richard also could have made a hard link to badger. If super_badger is a hard link then it doesn’t contain ‘/home/richard/badger’. Instead it contains stuff most of us don’t want to know about like head, sector, etc… it’s the actual location on his hard drive where badger is located.

Things still work the same way at first, the data is only stored in one place, only takes up about the same amount of space. If he fires up his trusty emacs it doesn’t matter if he opens badger or super_badger, he gets the same thing.

But.. if he tries to delete badger nothing bad happens to super_badger. Because super_badger still points to that same space on his hard drive the data doesn’t get deleted, only the ‘pointer’ to it called badger is gone.

Here’s the weirder part though… say he didn’t delete badger and instead he starts making changes to it. When badger is re-saved the operating system may decide to store it in a different place on his hard drive. Since super_badger still points to the old location now he might end up with two badgers!

Last difference but not least, since hard links only store where on the hard disk the file is located, not which disk it is on they only work if both the original and the hard link are on the same filesystem. Since symbolic links are paths and just about anything can be mounted into the same tree those can point to files on different devices.

Ok, Bill came in and filled most of this in after I started typing it up. Oh well, why waste a wasted effort, I’ll submit anyway. Thanks for the podcast guys!

You have me curious about those Apple speakers you were talking about. I can barely hear my FT8900 in my Jeep when the body is sitting on the armrest right next to me! Now I want to see these magic fruit filled speakers and see if I can hear them in my Jeep.

No removable heads? Radio under the dash? Except maybe for a few pickup trucks does anybody make a car with a space under the dash board a radio could fit anymore? I’d love to mount a radio that way but the last car I had with any space under the dash was built in 1984.

Great show! I have really enjoyed getting caught up to the current episode. Keep up the great work!!!

Jeremy
KD5HQN

I’m working in HSMM-MESH. The Jackson ARC is planning a city-wide MESH network with an eye toward EmComm but also everyday use. We have a statewide plan being developed as well which we think could be a national model.

Be happy to talk to you about this.

BTW, great podcast!

73,

Frank
K4FMH

Signed
Hong Kong Dongle

Good to hear you on the air (so to speak)..
73,
–scott N9LJX

Episode 85 is 20,9MB and not 19,92MB
Episode 84 is 24,8MB and not 23,66MB.

I am not sure why John EI7IG would tell you that yfktest does not log for FD. He uses the program himself and I have not heard from him about your concern either. Specifically I just used it for FD. It works FB.

I am also the current/lead maintenance programmer for yfktest, so your specific problem should be addressed to me. I am MORE than willing to change the program based on user feedback, and have even changed it a few months ago based on YOUR feedback, so please feel free to contact me about the FD problem you are having.

One thing you should know, and this is the way almost ALL logging programs work; IF you enter something into the fields that is not allowed, for instance a section that does not exist when logging for ARRL-FD, the program will NOT allow you to log that contact !

Anyways, please feel free to contact me about any problems you are having.

Vy 73 om de;

- Bob, w9ya

I am not sure why John EI7IG would tell you that yfktest does not log for FD. He uses the program himself and I have not heard from him about your concern either. Specifically I just used it for FD. It works FB.

I am also the current/lead maintenance programmer for yfktest, so your specific problem should be addressed to me. I am MORE than willing to change the program based on user feedback, and have even changed it a few months ago based on YOUR feedback, so please feel free to contact me about the FD problem you are having.

One thing you should know, and this is the way almost ALL logging programs work; IF you enter something into the fields that is not allowed, for instance a section that does not exist when logging for ARRL-FD, the program will NOT allow you to log that contact !

Anyways, please feel free to contact me about any problems you are having.

Vy 73 om de;

- Bob, w9ya

kindest regards
Bruce

http://plus.google.com/photos/112265051496434755239/albums/5757188554982007633/5757188553557618146

First task was to Get GNU-Radio running on Linux Mint , decided to download source and compile on Linux Mint 11, there the adventure starts, firstly the build script that they recommend you use does not work complains about you are not running Ubuntu.

So I decide to do it using CMAKE and the usual lib’s missing etc… spent quite a few hours hunting down lib’s and have got it to complie with minimal errors still have a issue with port audio

My question is has anybody got Gnu-Radio to compile on Mint ?

Looking forward to the future episodes on RTL-SDR

thanks for any pointers
regards
Bruce
VE2GZI

It’s a GNURadio tutorial series based on those RTL radios. This is definitely on my ‘to do someday’ pile now! I can’t wait till you guys talk more about it too!

I’m wondering, if I stuck an NE602 in front of it how it would do on HF.

Yeah, it’s too bad that it’s receive only. But then most of the benefits of SDR are at the receiver anyway right? When compared to most of the alternatives (except Softrock) though with the $1000 or more you save going with the RTL you should be able to buy or build one heck of a non-SDR transmitter to go with it!

I think it was Richard (or was it Russ) that said he didn’t want to have to lug around a computer. I agree! I wonder how well a Raspberry Pi could run GNU Radio? http://www.raspberrypi.org/

I acquired an old PK232MBX and interfaced it to my VHF and HF rigs. On VHF Airmail will run under Wine for sending Winlink mail. On HF the mail servers want PACTOR III which requires a $1200 modem. Neither seems to be used much and my local ARES group thinks D-STAR, which requires an over-priced radio, is the solution. The 2M repeaters are mostly quiet. What has happened to ham radio?

73 de VA3PID

I have been using Fldigi for over a year and love it. I also use JT65-HF running under Wine on Ubuntu 10.04. (I hope someone will port JT65-HF to Linux one day.) Both Fldigi and JT65-HF save their logs in .adif format so if Dave’s Fllog log server program is set to write its log to the same file named jt65hf_log.adi that JT65-HF uses, a combined log of all digital modes can be kept. That makes it really easy to export recent log entries for upload to eQSL.cc and processing for LoTW upload.

Larry, KG4Q

In Episode #80, Russ let me tell folks how much fun I had! Listen in!!

I also use #! Linux on my secondary box (A Dell GX260 bought at a yard sale for $1). #! definitely lacks the polish of Linux Mint, and is obviously geared more toward a developer/programmer audience more than it is to the casual user, but for my purposes (word processing, light web surfing and being a home print server) it works perfectly well out of the box and is definitely forgiving of older hardware, and positively screams on more modern iron.

Thank you so much for sending in a comment that is completely in line with the theme of our latest episode. Have a good one!

73, Russ

On LHS #78 you were ranting about various distro’s you were testing. I would recommend falling back to Mint-11 or there is a new Debian based distro out that is called SolusOS which is being developed by the same guy who created LMDE for the Mint team.

Dan would be a good guest for you. You could talk music with him as well as tech.

A follow up to my previous posting about having trouble spreading the links from RSS feed. I use Google Reader, BTW.

My feed shows this link: http://lhspodcast.info/podpress_trac/feed/2098/0/lhs079.ogg

but it does not play in Google Reader nor does the link play when you click on it. It merely opens a blank page.

I have been spreading the word by going directly to your site and listening from there. However only the link for mp3 works for me. The link on this page for ogg produces a blank page as well.

Perhaps I need to change my feed address to mp3 from ogg. I also should check my android podcatcher and see if it does any better.

I hope this helps in troubleshooting.

I have a bit of a bone to pick over Kubuntu. I have used it since it first came out on at least four different machines using both 32 and 64-bit without a problem. It seems to me that you are blaming it when it may be a hardware issue. In any case, your warning against using it based on limited experience is extreme.

Kubuntu is an excellent distribution with a great installer for anyone who likes Ubuntu but is tired on Canonical and its fickle decisions. It is based on Ubuntu but has always been the neglected child which is good because they have left it alone. I have used KDE on just about every distribution and it is better than most and it gives you PPAs, large repositories and the great community. I love the 6 month cycle, too. It is a new start every six months and it gives you something to look forward to. This is sounding like a review.

Give it another try before issuing a blanket negative warning. You will find that it is full of blood which is necessary for life and is not blood thirsty.

Cheers, from Canada, eh!

Over and out!

FOXTROT-ALFA-BRAVO

73 – Russ, K5TUX

Phil – AK4RQ

I’m getting into HF very slowly. Mostly b/c I am trying to build my own gear but that’s another story. What little I have been on it’s QSL this, QSL that. I’ve had a hard time figuring out when QSL is being used as a statement or when it is a question…

Just listening to the radio it seems like all I hear is Q this Q that. But the more I read online (or listen to podcasts) that’s lid behavior. I’m confused!

Actually they are not. They are only prohibited when they are intended to hide the meaning of what is being transmitted. I don’t intend to argue with your main point, certainly people responding to an emergency don’t need to be spending time dealing with cryptic Q-signals that they don’t know.

There is nothing wrong with people using them on bands where they are already the norm or with people whom already are used to them in a non-emergency situation.

This has also been an issue for hams trying to make remote control systems which use public/private keys to verify the sender, such as repeater controls. As I understand it the FCC has avoided clarifying that one by just interpreting everything as a space-station even if it isn’t in space. I don’t remember where I read that one though.

97.113 (d) “…messages in codes or ciphers intended to obscure the
meaning thereof, except as otherwise provided herein;…”

D-Star specifies a protocol, the modulation mode, a voice codec, etc…

D-Star uses GMFSK for modulation. Depending on whose description of GMFSK one reads it’s either just a very specific kind of FSK (which is FM) or it’s a whole different mode that just happens to be possible to generate by injecting a special signal into an FM modulator in the right spot.

Really it does modulate the frequency, with a steady amplitude but there are phase shifts involved too that aren’t normal FM.

Was it this episode or the previous one where you talked about d-star and different ways to use this ‘mode’? I think it was Russ who asked what the cheapest way to get on to d-star is? Any way, have yuo looked at http://www.allstarlink.org ?
This isn’t specifically for d-star, but I have used this portal (using nothing more than Google Chrome, Java and a mic) to talk to people that were using d-star radios that were set to the d-star digital mode. I even had one station switch back and forth between d-star and analogue to see if there was any difference.

Rather than a point to point, single protocol system such as Echolink, the technology behind allstarlink.org seems to be a way to tie these different protocols together. A friend told me about this website, and someone living on the Isle of Man confirmed to me that they have a d-star node connect to their repeater using this technology every morning, so not only can you use the website as a portal into not only the d-star world (and many others), but if your repeater is set up for this technology and a d-star node connects to your repeater then the repeater also becomes a gateway to talking to people on d-star.

Admittedly this doesn’t give you any of the benefits of d-star (and the website is a little flakey, it works well on one of my machines but not another), but it does give you access to their voice network.

One other thing, about digital ‘modes’…
We often use the term mode, but shouldn’t they be referred to as protocols? My reasoning behind this is quite simple; we use the same standard modes – usually SSB or FM), and use software (or hardware) to add a layer. All we are doing here is adding a protocol, a set of instructions that define how to send (or encode) and receive (decode) messages. We are still transmitting in SSB or FM. Maybe if we were to look at it in simple terms, if I suddenly started speaking Spanish or Italian, would I then be using a different mode? Of course not. Surely these digital ‘modes’ are protocols and we have been using the wrong term all these years?

Just a thought. GREAT show!

Paul
M0PGX

The advantage is… printers just seem to need changed out a lot. Mostly because it gets hard to get the cartridges just like you are experiencing. If your scanner is separate it usually lasts a really long time…. then… you don’t have to worry about the driver headache. Just save a copy of your SANE config. With an all in one you need to find one where there is Linux support for BOTH the scanner and the printer part. Why make it harder on yourself?

Another suggestion for saving money and headache… Cannon. Yeah it’s likely to be more expensive off the bat than Lexmark but… they don’t seem to obsolete the cartridges so quickly. Better yet… they have a lot of models with separate cartridges for each color. If you run out of one you can replace just that one. And he head is separate. Usually this is much cheaper than replacing all the colors and the printhead just because you ran out of blue (for example).

Don’t forget used printers too. People dump them a lot just because Windows 7/Vista/whatever dropped the driver support.

I second Rus’s recommendation of laser IF you find an affordable one. The big expensive ones you see in offices tend to be really easy to find Linux drivers for. You might find a business getting rid of one. The consumables are expensive but one set will last just about most peoples lifetimes in the home. I used one that I found free back in college. It got me through about 3 semesters printing out homework and such blinking error messages that things were running out the whole time. It was still going when I traded it away for something else I wanted.

I also want to say that you two guys are perfect for the job.

Many thanks,

Dan

Thanks
Tony
K7ISS

We hold Ham Radio University each year, 2012 will#13.

We are on Long Island, NY, just east of NYC.

Do you have any Ambassadors in this area?

Tom Carrubba KA2D
Chairperson
Ham Radio University

73, Russ (K5TUX)

CQRLOG already has native 64bit version. There is no need to install 32bit. You can use my personal ppa at launchpad.net with packages for Lucid, Maverick, Natty and Oneirc. Version 1.2.1 will be part of Oneiric release as well.

More at http://www.cqrlog.com/node/4

73 Petr, OK2CQR

And I have a question. I listened to the live stream for episode 60, but I could not find what chat room you use or any links. Can you point me in the right direction?

Thanks,

Ray
KO4RB

1 Extra repositories – In the System/Administration tab there is a package called “Software Sources”. Make sure that all the square checkboxes are checked, then tick “Close”.
2. Flash/Gnash – DON’T WORRY ABOUT GNASH!!!!! Once you have the non-free repositories ticked, open Synaptic Package Manager and install “flashplugin-nonfree”. Or, alternately, open a root terminal and type “apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree”. You now have Flash. All the butts will bob up and down properly on the porn pages.
3. Codecs – All the codecs are already installed in the standard install. Trust me. At least that’s what happens with a laptop install. If they’re not installed in a desktop install, then go back to Synaptic and tick the “good, bad, and ugly” plugins along with the base plugin. In other words, what you have to do to make Ubuntu work.
Sort of an aside, 99 percent of what makes Ubuntu so easy is tools that are already in Gnome. Until Gnome added its wpa tool, if you wanted to use wpa under Ubuntu you had to edit /etc/wpasupplicant files.That’s why I was using PCLinuxOS back in 2007. DrakeTools had a network setup wizard that would automate the wpa setup.

If you have a machine with Linux and only Linux on it and you want to add Windows for dual booting you don’t absolutely HAVE to remove Linux and start over. Assuming that the Linux partition(s) is/are not completely filled you can shrink them using GParted. Then you can create a Windows partition in the space that frees up and install Windows.

If that doesn’t work another option I have used is Partition Magic but that is a non-free commercial program which has been discontinued. If you can get ahold of an old copy of it that might work. I’m not sure if it can handle SATA drives or newer Linux partition types or not since it’s been gone a while.

In any case if you try resizing your Linux partition I would definitely recommend anything on the Linux partition which is worth backing up be backed up first.

My favorite option though is just to grab an old hard drive nobody is using anymore, install it and install Windows on that.

Of course all of this is only worthwhile if you have something in the Linux install worth saving like if you spent a bunch of time or effort configuring it already or if something important is saved there. If it’s just a quick generic install you could redo easily it would be best to just start from scratch and install Windows first then Linux.

Love ya!
Burt

I heard your discussion of using the EchoLink software under WINE, but wondered whether you knew about svxlink? This is a native Linux echolink server and client application. The app allows for links and nodes that connect to EchoLink to be used, so sysops can use it, but it runs natively on Linux. The client part of svxlink is called Qtel, and does a fine job of connecting a user to utilize the EchoLink network.

http://svxlink.sourceforge.net/install.php

I have used EchoLinux, and this is also a native Linux app, but I dislike the interface. Qtel is far superior.

Anyway, I don’t know if you have heard of svxlink, and it is definitely worth a look whether you are an EchoLink sysop or a user.

Keep up the good work.

http://www.dxlabsuite.com/dxlabwiki/DXLabLinux

Linux has its roots in exactly the same arena. Rather than buy commercial unix, DIYers create their own posix OS in Linux and GNU.

That aside, your “Appliance Operator” comment is spot on.

Now, as to my preference of linux as an OS. (even my Macbook ran ubuntu BTW.) I look at is as added flexibility, real security, and MORE choices, not less than a pure windows environment.

Flexibility: No computer OS is as configurable as linux. You can choose nearly infinite possibilities for your desktop environment, windowing environment, etc. There really are no restrictions or imposed limitations. Don’t like the placement of buttons on windows, or the actions of certain mouse buttons, change them.

Security: What can you say? Windows is a broken product right out of the box. My favorite analogy is buying a boat. Lets say you bought a new yacht, and the first thing you had to do, was go buy some resin to plug the holes in the hull. Would that be a good deal? What’s the first software you have to buy for windows? Anti virus, since the OS is so open to intrusion from so many directions right out of the box… Win7 is better, but sophos did a test on a stock win7 install and found that 8 out of 10 of their most recent bug samples readily infected the OS. Fail!!!!

Choices: Virtual Box.. Linux is my host OS. It’s built on a stable and reliable filesystem, one of seven or more choices BTW. (ever have corrupted indexes in NTFS? When it breaks, it breaks *hard*) Most all that I need to do I can accomplish with free open source software. For a few windows apps that I need, or maybe want to run, I keep a WinXP virtual machine around. Basically, my software choices include everything out there, including all windows software. Some things don’t even need the VM, WINE lets many windows apps run natively under linux, including loggers, satalite trackers, etc.

Speaking of open source software, why pay $800 for photoshop when GIMP works so well and supports PS files? Open Office has handled every MSOffice document I’ve thrown at it and doesn’t cost $130. Inkscape takes care of my adobe illustrator tasks for my design work. Scribus does everything Adobe InDesign does… It goes on.

I have found Open source software to accomplish every major task that commercial windows software provides, with compatability with the native files…

I chuckle when I read or hear of photoshop crashing and costing someone lost work. It crashes often. I have not had a single crash of GIMP, not one, ever…

Professionally, I work in I.T. at a large company with nearly 400 Mac workstations, a few windows servers, a bunch of linux servers, and a smattering of windows VMs for accounting, phone system, etc. I work on computers all day. At home, I just want to use my computers, not waste time on maintenance or repair of broken software.

The choice is obvious for me.

I discovered your podcast while doing a search for qsstv updates. I’m a fairly new convert to linux, but love the freedom it gives me from proprietary software. I thank you guys for helping us newbies to linux begin to figure things out. Keep up the good work.

73,

Jim, KG9EQ

Keep up the great work.
John McDougall – K7JM
Jefferson City, Montana

APRS-IS… there is a viewer in the marketplace and a tracker that you have to download from and install outside of the marketplace. https://github.com/ge0rg/aprsdroid/wiki/ There is also a EchoLink finder written by the same guy as the IRLP Finder which you mentioned.

http://flcaj.com/content.cfm?articleID=695

I would like feed back and help on additional articles.
RW, KJ4VGV “73″

I too also came from a background of solid Linux (dabbled since 2000, ran FreeBSD from 2005-2006 before switching to Debian Linux). It was a general curiosity and fldigi in the repositories that convinced me to actually try to get my ticket.

Grant, KC9SJQ

One can make the statement of interoperability being a problem, but the real crux of the issue is when you’re given that mound of transistors to do what you will with… can you? With Windows? The answer is a resounding no!

One can make all the statements one wishes to about the state of applications and how Linux fits in. The basic answer to the questions posed is “java classes”. You really can’t expect something to run well that’s designed for a touch screen to operate similarly on something with no screen at all, but you can expect the same gearing underneath to pass similar results. Most development environments support cross-platform builds, QT, GTK, etc… platform is irrelavent in the discussion here.

No, the problem isn’t interoperability, it’s that you need to think of your Ham shack computer as something that will let you pound out the bits and bytes to follow the bidding of your imagination. If you want a music play that works here and there, you’re talking about the commoditization of software, not about the values that a Ham needs to hold closely.

While one may find that a Windows box or application environment of their choosing does their basic tasks better than the Linux environment, that sort of take on operation has nothing to do with the average tasks of a Ham. We’re people that open boxes up just to see how they work, and when the box doesn’t open, it defeats the values we have. Windows may have its place in many people’s lives, but it has no place in a Ham shack.

By all means, keep your Windows box for whatever reason you use it for, but it’s the D-STAR of operating systems. They’ll let you go so far before you hit a roadblock where you’re just not invited to the party. This isn’t about Windows vs. Linux, it’s about someone telling you you’re not allowed to share an antenna design because there’s a weld that’s secret.

In fact, I may be pretty bold here, but one might also argue that while the closed nature of Windows is bad for ham radio, the all or nothing approach of the GPL is bad as well. Is forced freedom of the GPL really freedom at all? I really can’t answer that without some intense debate.

However, I think I can summarize that your Ham platform has nothing to do with your computer platform. Choose something for your every day tasks (for me, it’s Fedora), choose something for Ham radio (for me it’s Fedora). If they meet? Great! But the EULA is decidedly the opposite of what Hams should have to work with.

I don’t think you would want one executable which runs in both places because it would be pretty much double the size. Mobile devices usually use Arm processors which are not compatible with x86 desktops because they use less electricity. Then there is the obvious stuff like screen size, keyboard/mouse, etc…

Had GPE caught on though a programmer could have easily written apps where the work is done by the same code. It would just be user interface stuff that gets swapped out and it would have to be compiled separately for the phone vs desktop.

That’s sounds like something that is only of interest to the programmer but it brings us close to what you described. If cellphones where using straight Linux with X-windows and common desktop libraries like GTK and Qt we would see more applications which are written for both the desktop and cellphones. The guts of the apps would be shared between both places so they would work the same and it would be more natural for the user interfaces to come out similar. Desktop programmers would only require a little more work to get their app running on devices and vice versa.

Unfortunately we are mostly at the mercy of cellphone makers and they haven’t chosen to go with that kind of environment. Instead we have Android which is a Linux kernel but the apps are built to run in a custom environment which has nothing to do with Linux and makes it pretty much impossible to share code between a desktop and a cellphone. In fact, the Android environment could probably be ported to Windows CE or any other OS kernel and the apps and their users would never notice the difference. I’m not sure about Palm Pre but I’m thinking they are similarly removed from Desktop Linux.

If you really do want to play with sharing apps between the desktop and cellphone there is a way to sort of ‘hack’ Android to run Debian in a chroot environment. I’m not sure what kind of access this Debian environment gets to the cellphone hardware though. I’d like to get fldigi and soundmodem going that way. I haven’t gotten this to work yet though.

You can also run Android on your desktop but then every app will always be designed for a tiny touchscreen rather than your full size monitor/keyboard/mouse.

Last but not least…. check out opencellphone.org. These guys build their own cellphones using various modules which are available for hobbyists. With one of those you could run GPE. It’d be great to see people do this and pick back up on GPE development. I’d like to do this myself some day but really don’t have the time right now.

Most portable media players support the MP3 format, and look at OGG as a bastard step child. It wasn’t until I bought an Android phone that I found a portable media player that would support OGG.

It is a shame that Apple, the biggest player in the portable media game, doesn’t support a format that is superior in sound quality to MP3. The portable media player market is what drives the MP3 format.

I am currently running gpodder version 2.3 on Fedora 12 with the 2.6.32.16-150.fc12.i686 #1 SMP kernel. The feed shows up as http://lhspodcast.info/category/podcast-mp3/feed/ in gpodder. Firefox 3.6.8 will not load the feed either if I click on the link from the main page.

I hope that helps. LHS and Linux Outlaws are two of my favorite podcasts. Listening to you guys makes me feel like I am at a club meeting. Keep up the good work.

Danny

I just tested both the MP3 feed and OGG feed using gPodder 2.2 under Ubuntu 10.04 and both feeds go right up to Episode #043 which is the latest release. Have you confirmed the RSS feed URL to make sure it’s correct? If it is, you may try deleting the feed and re-adding it. Sometimes that will help to clear out problems of this sort. Let me know if you are still having trouble; we don’t want you guys to miss anything over there!

Russ

For some reason the MP3 RSS feed is not working under gPodder 2.2. It will show up to episode 40 but nothing newer.

Thanks for the Great Show!

Compare that to DXLab Suite. I sure do wish DXLabs could be ported to Linux. Anytime I have had a problem the author was right on it that day and worked directly with me to test and resolve the issue. Rock solid award tracking. Rock Solid support. Rock solid EVERYTHING! It is released and supported with modular units. Use what you like and ignore the rest. It integrates with many other pieces of software (Skimmer, DXCluster, DXSpider, MMtty (the author also supports MMtty), FLDigi, HRD for Rig Control, etc) (many integrations were built by users with the support of the author) in the same way that U*nix apps integrate. It is built with the mindset of Use the Best Tool for you. I prefer Dm700 and FLDigi to MMtty so I use bridges to integrate the logging functions with my favorite tool. Sure I could log with FLDigi and then import into DXKeeper but with the bridge it is not necessary.

Unfortunately because of not being able to find something to compete on my terms with DXLabs I am stuck with Windows in the HamShack. I am willing to make compromises but I am not willing to throw in the towel and not get what I need.

So guys – what is your suggestion? I really like my Ubuntu install and my workstation at work is 100% Ubuntu even though we are a windows shop. I would love to not have to use Windoze in the shack but until I am presented with a viable alternative I am stuck. Help me out here!

vy 73,
Scott N9LJX

PS – Russ it was great to see you at Dayton! I really enjoyed our brief chat after I found you.

Regards,
Russ – K5TUX

Thank you so much!

One correction, though. I don’t have a twitter account, but I can be found on identi.ca as claudiom.

Thanks for a great podcast, btw. Great topics and lots of fun to listen to.

Do you have control over what they keep?

- Russ, K5TUX

However only pre-approved streams can be found on it. They apparently want to make sure it meets certain conditions. It looks like lhs and rf streams
would qualify. You guys might want to look into making your streams available in the iPhone ustream client.

-Don

Here is the info:

Ustream works hard to provide the highest-quality shows on the iPhone. Therefore Ustream shows appearing in the viewing application must meet the following criteria:
-not broadcasting nudity of any kind
-not broadcasting vulgar content
-not broadcasting content that you do not own the copyright to
-not broadcasting any illegal activities
-adhering Ustream’s Terms of Service
-adhering Apple’s iPhone Terms and Conditions
-having a show logo
-having at least 1 recorded video

If you feel that your stream meets this criteria, please email
networks@ustream.tv with your username, a link to your stream, and a
description of your average broadcast.

Have been a GNU/Linux user for a number of years and an active ham…though inactive the last few years…hoping to “re-activate” this spring.

Noticed a new contest logging programme for GNU/Linux…have been watching and waiting for some good contest logging software…about the last reason I can think of for keeping a Windows box around.

Cheers & 73

I have not tried installing XASTIR under Mint, but I have installed it under Ubuntu from the repository, and it worked straight away. I’ll try it again under Mint as soon as I have a chance. I’m also thinking of trying an upgrade to Mint 8, so perhaps I’ll do both.

Thanks for the comment.

-Bill, KA9WKA

Have you managed to get Xastir installed or to work

Ben
VK5JFK

This is Jos Poortvliet from the Netherlands. I’m a volunteer in the KDE community, and I wanted to mention the upcoming Camp KDE. From januari 15 to 22 the annual US meeting of the KDE community will take place at the University of California in sunny San Diego!

So if you want to meet cool people, hear interesting talks and see what the future of the Free Desktop will look like, you should be there! It is open to anyone so you’re all invited. And while there will be some technical and less technical talks, we’re still looking for more interesting topics so if you have something to say, let us know! It’d be great if you could mention this on your show, of course

Info on camp.kde.org

See you in San Diego.

greets and have a great show,

Jos Poortvliet

BTW feel free to contact me for an interview or something, I can probably arrange one with pretty much anyone in KDE

Heh, I like the comment about watching the car in the driveway, however that’s not the whole story. We use it for emcomm events to keep everyone updated as to what’s going on using bulletins. It keeps the voice channel clear for more important traffic. Also we can (of course) see where people are and send them messages directly if required (or if the coverage of the data network is greater than the voice network)

We also have a few Weather stations which are using APRS to send the data out.

Cheers
de John
EI7IG

“APRS is not a vehicle tracking system. It is a two-way tactical real-time digital communications system between all assets in a network sharing information about everything going on in the local area. …”

Love the show!!!!

-ZZ

Nice job on the screencast. Very clearly presented. I’m looking forward to future segments. Thanks.

-Bill, KA9WKA

I have just installed Ubuntu on my ham shack PC which has 4 serial ports. However I can’t get them to open.

When I run Grig with the following command line I get the following message

grig –model=229 –rig-file=/dev/ttyS0 –speed=4800 –debug=3

Failed to open rig port /dev/ttyS0 (permissions?)

when I run :- ls -l /dev/ttyS0

I get this : – crw-rw—- 1 root dialout 4, 64 2009-08-29 07:23 /dev/ttyS0

Matt, kc8bew

I had a question for you guys…. Which packet program do you use for linux? I’ve been trying to become compatible with the local ARES program, and I believe they use a windows terminal to send packet through winpack or other compatible software, but I’m not sure what to use in linux. I understad it uses AX.25 format (I think), even though there is some AX.25 program in the Ubuntu repository, I don’t know how to get it to work. I use fldigi with a home build VOX interface from my sound card to radio that has been working great with my ol’ ADI 2 meter base rig, not needing a NC. Any advice on the subject?? I look forward to each podcast and learned about linux from you guys, and now only have one out 5 computers at home with windows on it for the kids to play their games on. thanks again for all of your effort and contribution to this awesome hobby!!

73′

Damon
NN7B

73 de Russ

Glad to hear that you have turned to the “green side”. Mint is my favorite distro and I’m always glad when others see it’s benefits. In fact, I think that Mint is one of the easiest distros for former Windows users to get acclimated to.

As usual, another great show!

Ray
KO4RB

regards

k6***

1: get source tar balls
# cd /usr/local/src
# sudo bash
# [sudo] password for hamradio:
# root@hamworkstation:/usr/local/src#

Browse to http://www.w1hkj.com/Downloads.html
Copy link of source tar ball.
Paste link into root shell with the wget command.

# wget http://www.w1hkj.com/fldigi-distro/fldigi-3.11.5.tar.gz
# enter
Extract tar ball
# tar -zxf fldigi-3.11.5.tar.gz

Browse to http://hamlib.sourceforge.net/download.html
Copy link of source tar ball.
Paste link into root shell with the wget command.

# wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/hamlib/hamlib-1.2.8.tar.gz
# enter
Extract tar ball
# tar -zxf hamlib-1.2.8.tar.gz

2: Get Software Dependencies
# apt-get install libxml2-dev tcl libfltk1.1-dev libxmlrpc-c3-dev pulseaudio libpulse-dev portaudio19-dev libsndfile1-dev libpng12-dev libjpeg62-dev

3: Building hamlib
# cd hamlib-1.2.8
# ./configure
# make
# make install

Test run hamlib rigctl with the settings for your radio.

# /usr/local/bin/rigctl

4: Build fldigi

# cd /usr/local/src/fldigi-3.11.5
# ./configure
# make
# make install

5: Run fldigi

Open new terminal shell hamradio@hamworkstation:~$

# /usr/local/bin/fldigi

Have fun and good luck

P.S.
Check your paths.
/usr/bin/fldigi will be a different version then /usr/local/bin/fldigi

-I think you also need to run Xming on the windows SSH client (in addition to PuTTY).

-SSH (the client) has a command line switch, -C, to enable compression. I don’t know how effective it is.

-A few months ago, there was discussion on the LinuxHAM Yahoo group about remote control. Someone claimed that remote desktop was faster than X-11 forwarding. I used vnc and X-11 forwarding back when I was using Puppy, but I don’t recall making any comparisons. Of course, there were fewer display size mapping problems when using X-11 forwarding.

-Gnome has some nice little tools for accessing SSH servers. One in particular allows you to access the files on a server through Nautilus. I suspect KDE has similar features.

Later Guys.

Kent VE4KEH

PS: I didn’t know about Banshee. Now I can get rid of Rhythmbox, too! Thanks, Richard.

PPS: I burned a copy of the Crunch Bang live CD. Looks like it would be a nice candidate for a dumpster-grade computer. It ran reasonably fast just from the CD, bet it would scream when installed on the drive.

Can’t wait to download and listen to it.

BTW, are you guys using Pulseaudio? I seem to be running into problems trying to use some old favourite programs like IHU and QTEL. Do you know if Jack can run on top of Pulse and if that will help?

Kent VE4KEH

I’ve tried very hard to give Linux a chance over the last 10 years. The conclusion that I have arrived at is that Linux has too many problems to be practical. I believe that the problem is that too many cooks spoil the broth.

I listen to your pod casts with great interest. I find it very interesting to hear about all the hoops you have to jump through to make thinks work. At the end, I wonder after hearing all of that, why anyone in their right mind would ever consider running Linux. I guess Linux is fine for anyone that likes to tinker, but not ready for prime time.

I think you guys love Linux, because you hate Microsoft so much.

73, Gene – K8EE

73

BTW I’m a Slackware guy. Of course, I’ve been running Linux for 14 years I haven’t been exclusively Linux for a while, but on and off I’ve removed Windows from all my computers. Oddly enough I’m a Microsoft consultant by profession. I like slack because it reminds me more of Linux the way I learned it.

73 de Joseph Durnal NE3R

When you set up a desktop shortcut in GNOME, grig doesn’t appear to have an icon, because I haven’t included a .desktop file in the package (will fix that for next version). However, when you set up the shortcut you can choose a radio-like icon that comes with grig, it is located at: /usr/share/pixmaps/grig/ic910.png

Also, I’m thinking of a way to avoid the command line interface for the next version of grig, something similar to how you start in Ham Radio Deluxe. Oh, secret plans for HRD for Linux??? I want to know more!

PS: Don’t worry, I don’t speak Texan

I’ve just received a SignalLink USB and have done well with fldigi. Is there a SSTV program other than QSSTV? I can not seem to get QSSTV to use /dev/dsp1 vs the default on board card in my computer.

73,
ki4ymd

I’m very proud of to hear about cqrlog. Thanks guys!

Club support in cqrlog is very useful. Whe you making QSO, you can see if worked station is member of any clubs which you set in preferences. You can ale filter QSO only with stations which are members of specified club.

Good luck and thank you.

73 Petr, OK2CQR

Thanks for the shows,

73
Steven

I have a question about FL Digi. Is this the right place to post a question? If I install FL digi on my machine, and want to use my older ADI 2 meter radio for some packet, I don’t need a TNC right? All I need to do is create a way to get audio from the radio into my soundcard, and audio from my sound card to my radio for it to work, right? I don’t mind manual rig control for now. I do know my radio pinout for the mic jack (the only jack available on this older radio), but my older laptop only has a USB port, no DIN connector port. I would love to establish rig control from the USB port, but don’t know where to start. Another option would be to run the 9 pin DIN from my linux box, but I haven’t gotten FL digi to run on that yet. I guess in summary, do I need to run a TNC with FL digi? By the way, you guys are awesome, keep up the good work!!!

Damon
NN7B

Ray
KO4RB

73,
Ken N8KH

I have one suggestion. If you have already mentioned this site, I apologize in advance. But if you haven’t, you may want to mention DistroWatch to everyone as a place to get the latest downloads for most of the major Linux distros. I have found DistroWatch to be an invaluable resource.

Hope you both had great holidays.

Ray
KO4RB

I’ve tired over the past month Ubuntu, Kubuntu, PCLinuxOS, Harv’s HamHack and they all work on my older machines. I will probably settle on Ubuntu to follow along with your upcoming “how-to” on installation.

Keep them coming, we are listening

Lloyd KO4L
Florence SC

Imagine my embarrassment when I was _not_ able to access my home computer from here. I suspect that the hotel set their NAT router to block high numbered ports (I’m using a high numbered port for ssh to avoid snooping by internet bots). Oh well…

Anyway, I have come across a design for a sound card interface, by W3IWI, that is specified for an FT-817, but should be modifiable for anything:
http://www.volny.cz/zdenek.bezouska/ham/equipment/817digvox.pdf

Two novel things about this design are the use of the 74HC123 as a tone detect circuit, and the use of the metal shell of the DIN plug to supply battery power to the circuit only when it is plugged in to the transceiver.

I used a surface mount chip for the 74HC123 (careful – pin functions are different than for the DIP chip). Also, although a mouse or keyboard cable does have the right style of connector (6 pin DIN), there may not be connection to the proper pins.

Small, no COM port required and a fast, tone activated PTT. This gets my vote for best sound card interface.

Kent VE4KEH

Ted – wa0eir
http://wa0eir.ham.org

Damon
NN7B

Hi folks. I want to thank you for providing these broadcasts. I have been a Linux person from way back in the early 1990′s. I’m proficient in slackware and have recently have been testing out Ubuntu. I really like Ubuntu.

One thing I would like to point out is that you reference often that linux is for older and smaller systems, but I would like to point out that it also has the capability to be a major player in the GUI arena. You can check out my picture in QRZ and see that Linux can be a power player even in newer systems.

I have a Dell XPS 700 with dual core processors, 4 gigs of ram and a SLI dual vidio card configuration and Ubuntu eats through all of that flawlessly. I do all of my digital ham work on Linux now, and love being able to have so many applications going with no slow downs at all.

again, thanks

Jeff Higgins
London Ohio
KD8JLF

73

Larry KA5KLA

I’m glad you started this episode with a general discussion of repositories. For me, repositories were a foreign concept until I did my first install. Having a common area with many different types of programs available for download is not something Windows users often see. Especially when the downloads are free. The only equivalent I can think of would be a site like TUCOWS. But TUCOWS does not have a common installer/manager like the Linux distros have. Repositories are a great feature once you get used to them.

I would also suggest going through an install, or pointing to another podcast with an install walkthrough. I think it will encourage more folks to try once they can hear how simple it is. Or emphasize again the use of live CDs. I have burned live CDs of 4 distros and have booted my desktop with all of them. It’s a great way to look at the basic feature without removing Windows or doing an install.

Russ, please do your podcast notes similar to the way Richard does with “Resonate Frequency – The Amateur Radio Podcast”. In addition to the notes and links, he posts info about featured music used in the podcast. On severally occasions, I have purchased music from these featured artists. I not only learn something, but I get access to good tunes too! I have already sent you a side email with a specific question on a song in episode 4.

Again, thanks guys,

Ray
KO4RB

73 de Guadalajara, Jalisco MX

very 73 de Guadalajara, Jalisco MEX

lhs003.ogg is in the wrong directory. It is in the mp3 directory and not the ogg directory, and thus the link doesn’t work.

Thanks, and 73 de Andy KB1OIQ

That was pretty amusing in episode #002….kicking and screaming, eh? ROTFLMAO! Keep up the good work! I am enjoying the program.

73 de Andy KB1OIQ

Great podcast. By the way, I did re-download episode 1 of the mp3 file, and it came down fine this time. It was a few hours after I tried it the first time, I thought you fixed it. Thank you for this podcast, I’m new to linux, and so far am loving the power, speed and stability of ubuntu with gnome. It takes a little getting used to after being familiar only with windows, but it is getting better the more I work with it. Good luck, and thanks for the education !!

Damon
NN7B

I need to know if you are trying to get episode 1 from Itunes or directly fron the website and if you are trying to download the mp3 or ogg file

Thanks
Richard KB5JBV

Thanks for this podcast!!!! I’ve been waiting for it!!! I’m having trouble for some reason downloading episode one. Episode #2 downloaded fine, but #1 will download about 1 meg, then stop. Any suggestions??

Damon NN7B

One tip: Please pronounce “Ubuntu” correctly. All the u’s are long, as in oo-boon-too.

Sorry to sound picky, but we hams have standards, you know.

I’m looking foward to the next one.

73
Scott
KD5NJR

73,
Russ – K5TUX

When will the iTunes feed come live? Looking forward to setting this up as an automatic download!

73

Steve
K9ZW

Richard KB5JBV
Totally impartial listener