Author: Russ Woodman

Linux Outlaw on LHS

Posted on by Russ Woodman

The live recording of LHS Episode #079 is being moved to today, March 19th, at approximately 4:30pm CDT (2130 UTC). This is to accommodate our very special guest, Fabian "Fab" Scherschel of the Linux Outlaws podcast. We might even get a cameo from Dan Lynch as well; no word on that yet. So if you can, please join us for the live broadcast and visit with us in the chat room during the show.

73 de The LHS Guys

Show Notes #077

Posted on by Russ Woodman

Introduction:

  • We're recording live, with music played as we record. Our guest tonight is Harrison, VE2HKW, from the MintCast podcast.

Announcements:

  • The Dalton Hamfest will be in Dalton, Georgia on February 25, 2012. The LHS Ambassador is Ronny, K4RJJ. This has probably come and gone by the time you hear this.
  • The KARC Hamfest will be held in Marietta, Georgia, March 17, 2012. Our LHS Ambassador is again Ronny, K4RJJ. Thanks, Ronny!
  • The Northeast Linux Fest will be in Worcester, Massachusetts on March 17, 2012. We're still looking for an LHS ambassador for this event. Contact us at ambassadors@lhspodcast.info if you'd like to help.
  • Some of you may have noticed that the LHS web site has been down occasionally. For some reason, the server locks up. We can't tell if it's a denial of service attack, or an improper configuration, but we're working on it.
  • Paul, KE5WMA, in the chat room, reminds us of the Acadiana Hamfest on March 9, 2012, near Lafayette, LA., and the New Orleans Hamfest on March 24, 2012.
  • Happy Mardi Gras!

Topics:

  • Linux Utilities - Russ introduces us to some GNU/Linux utilities that provide information about your Linux system's performance.
    • top shows a list of the processes running in descending order of resource consumption.
    • iftop allows you to monitor connections to your machine and the bandwidth used by each.
    • ifstat reports the amount of data passing through the interfaces every second, or other interval. For example, ifstat -i eth0 10 1 would report how much data moved through the first ethernet port in 10 seconds, and only do this once. Handy for capturing such information in a script program.
    • iotop shows what processes are the top disk I/O users.
    • All of these are command line utilities. Press Q to exit. Check the man pages for other keystrokes that can be used while the utilities run.
  • Interview with Harrison, VE2HKW
    • Harrison, VE2HKW, is a recent ham radio licensee and describes his introduction to the hobby, what he likes and doesn't like, and provides an overview of the Canadian amateur radio licensing structure.
    • Harrison is also a member of the Covey Hill Amateur Radio Club (CHARC).
    • Check out Harrison's blog and pictures of his ham shack.
    • Tune in to the MintCast podcast on Monday nights, 8:00pm eastern time, 01:00 UTC. Join the chat at irc.spotchat.org, #mintcast
    • You can contact Harrison by email at harrison@mintcast.org or ve2hkw@gmail.com.

Feedback:

  • We received donations from Steve S., Paul G., and Bill H. Thank you! These donations will be added to the Dayton Hamvention fund to cover the costs of LHS' presence at the 2012 Dayton Hamvention in Dayton, OH, May 18-20, 2012.
  • LHS had several mentions on Twitter by Neptune78.
  • Serge, ON4AA, asks about using the LHS logo to publicize the show. Russ explains that the LHS logo is not Creative Commons licensed, so please ask for permission to use it.
  • Larry Bushey of the Going Linux podcast responds to recent comments we made about their show. It's a love fest!
  • Leif, KC8RWR, continues an ongoing comment dialog.

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:

  • "Rainbow Over The Bayou" by Regis V. Gronoff, from the album Hummingbird & Honeybee, courtesy of Jamendo
  • "Twist and Shout" by Swamp Daddy, from the album Swamp Daddy, also courtesy of Jamendo.

LHS Episode #077: North of the Border

Posted on by Russ Woodman

Today Linux in the Ham Shack is graced with the appearance of an additional co-host: Harrison, VE2HKW, an amateur radio operator from Canada and sometimes host of the Mintcast, a podcast for Linux users from members of the Linux Mint community.

In the first segment, our hosts discuss three very useful Linux utilities for analyzing system performance on your desktop or server: iftop, ifstat and iotop. Get in-depth knowledge of how to use these tools in order to make your machine run better with fewer bottlenecks. And since Harrison is from a whole other country, it was decided he should tell all of us about amateur radio from a Canadian perspective, including licensing, regulations and operating practices.

Hamvention 2012 is coming up very soon. Please donate to the fund if you can. We hope to see everyone there!

73 de The LHS Guys (and Harrison, too)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Show Notes #076

Posted on by Russ Woodman

Introduction:

Announcements:

  • The Black Sparrow Media application for iPad, iPhone and iPod has been submitted to the iTunes store. It is just awaiting validation from Apple, which may take up to two weeks. We'll let everyone know when it's available.
  • Special Event Station W0S (Whiskey Zero Sierra) will be operating from the Titanic Branson Museum from April 13-15, 2012, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster. Russ, K5TUX, will be operating the station at some point.

Feedback:

  • Scott, AD7MI, asks for help linking APRS and his his Davis Vantage Pro2 weather station with Xastir. Our hosts suggest trying one or both of these:
      • Meteo - Davis weather station platform software for Linux. You can subscribe to the Meteo mailing list by sending a subscription request to meteo-request@lists.othello.ch. It has been several years since Meteo was updated, and is still not at version 1.0. You must download the .tar file from the web site as it does not appear in the distribution repositories.
      • wview- Cross-platform weather station software. It does need an internet connection if you are going to contribute information to various weather sites, such as:

        This program is under active development. Even if it requires a work-around to perform as you wish, it may be worth the trouble. If you've ever configured a Linksys router, the web interface of wview looks a lot like that. wview has a support site via Google Groups at https://groups.google.com/group/wview.

    Let us know how you get on, Scott!

  • Paul, M0PGX, replied to our recent discussion of D-STAR and suggests trying the AllStar Link Network. Like EchoLink, it allows you to talk to other ham radio operators using just your computer and a microphone, including those operators running D-STAR.

    Russ signed up for the AllStarLink network; it's very similar to joining EchoLink. AllStar uses the Asterisk VOIP system, and Jim, WB6NIL, is the author of the repeater link software. Russ had success using a Mac computer, but not with a Linux machine.

    Richard sees the biggest problem with EchoLink is that it only allows one connection per IP address, so you can't have both a server and client at home. The EchoLink site only sees your IP address assigned by your ISP, which limits you to one connect from home. In this respect, AllStarLink appears to better in that it seems to allow multiple connections.

    AllStarLink is available in several combinations of Linux and Asterisk:

    • ACID - based on CentOS
    • Limey Linux - based on embedded Linux and bootable from a flash drive, and runs ONLY on several specific Mini-ITX motherboards.
    • Pickle - a specialized embedded Linux distro designed to operate on a BeagleBoard-xM (and DMK Engineering LOX board).

    Russ then provides an overview of setting up an AllStar Link client.

  • Back to Paul's email, he suggests we use the term "digital mode" when we should say "protocol", which brings us to...
  • Leif, KC8RWR, responded to Paul's comment that D-STAR specifies a protocol, modulation mode, voice codec, etc. The modulation mode used is GMSK.

    Richard defends the use of "mode" as appropriate as the definition allows it to mean "a method or means of doing something". For example, CW vs DFCW (dual-frequency CW), where DFCW uses frequency shifts to distinguish dots and dashes, rather than two different lengths of the same frequency, and spaces. Both are CW.

  • Leif, KC8RWR, also comments on the possibility that he's been nitpicking, as well as the use of Q-signals in voice conversations.
  • Bill, KE5WMA, suggests that hobos migrate to New Orleans from Dallas this time of year because Dallas doesn't have Mardi Gras!
  • We received a donation from Bill H. Thanks, Big Poppa! 🙂

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:

  • To be added.