Show Notes #098

Posted on by Russ Woodman

Introduction:

  • A Futile Exercise in Focus, or perhaps a feudal exercise. Stay tuned and find out.

Announcements:

  • Listen to us live Tuesday evenings (in the USA), or subscribe and receive access to the unedited recording and other things. Visit the website for details.
  • We're in dangerous proximity to episode 100, so send in comments, suggestions, voice mail, Facebook, Google+, or carrier pigeons.
  • All you podcasters out there, join the Black Sparrow Media network.
  • The 2013 Dayton Hamvention will be May 17-19, 2013. Russ is hoping to have the LHS booth again, but we need your help. Please donate if you can. Every little bit helps.
  • Kevin O'Brien, Publicity Director for the Ohio LinuxFest, tells us that they have set up a brief survey to gather ideas for the 2013 Ohio LinuxFest. Visit https://ohiolinux.org/ to find the survey.
  • Northeast Linux Fest will be March 16th and 17th, 2013, at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Topics:

  • Russ' Raspberry Pi adventures continue. His Echolink node 54711 is now up and running on a Raspbian-based Raspberry Pi with svxlink and Qtel. Russ had to insert "dwc_otg.fiq_fix_enable=0" into the /boot/cmdline.txt file in order to fix a problem with the onboard Ethernet card locking up. Since then, all has been well.
  • Amateur Radio Pi is a forum with the tagline: The interactions between amateur radio and the Raspberry Pi.
  • The Society for the Preservation of Amateur Radio (SPAR) will conduct a Winter Field Day, beginning 1700Z on January 26, 2013 and ending at 1700Z January 27th.
  • HamSphere is a software Amateur Radio simulator that allows licensed radio amateurs and unlicensed enthusiasts to communicate with one another using a virtual transciever over the Internet. It was designed by Kelly Lindman, a radio amateur with callsign 5B4AIT. The software runs under Windows, Mac or Linux. There's also a Wikipedia page for more information.
  • RepeaterBook is an Android application for locating amateur radio repeaters. There are lots of options, including repeater types and modes (D-Star, etc). It also supports the BlueCAT Yaesu FT-857/FT-817 interface that allows you to tap a repeater entry in RepeaterBook on the phone and it will set your radio frequency.

Feedback:

  • Comment via the Web site from Leif, KC8RWR, with another attempt at explaining hard and soft links, which we were discussing in episode 95. Thanks, Leif.
  • Leif also commented about difficulties hearing a mobile radio without a speaker in the head unit.
  • A very strange voice mail from the Radio Gangsta, aka Rich, KD0RG, from the LowSWR podcast.
  • E-mail from gasgasmike, asks if it would be possible to use short wave radio to provide wireless Internet service. Our hosts discuss the practical difficulties with such a scheme. (Note: the use of the amateur portions of the radio spectrum for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the FCC.)
  • Jeff, KC2QZO, sends his appreciation of our discussion of Codec2 in episode 85.
  • Russ mentions that there is another low-bitrate codec is being developed: The Opus Interactive Audio Codec.

Contact Info:

  • Contact Richard at kb5jbv@gmail.com, Russ at k5tux@lhspodcast.info, or both at the same time at info@lhspodcast.info.
  • 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:

  • None this episode.