LHS Episode #065: Bottoms Up

In today's long-awaited episode of LHS, we tackle a topic from a few episodes back, that of Open Hatch, the Open Source collaboration project. In another segment, Richard explores what it's like to go through the process of getting your first amateur radio license. Among these topics we also mention the ICQ Podcast from the UK, Windows 7, AT&T Uverse, wget and a bunch of other topics of interest to ham radio and Linux operators alike. If you like our episodes, or even if you don't, please send us along some feedback via the web or via our call-in hotline. Thanks for listening!

73 de The LHS Guys

LHS Episode #064: Winlink and AX.25

Welcome to Episode #062 of Linux in the Ham Shack. Today Richard has decided he's going to talk a bit (OK, a lot) about Winlink, AX.25 and packet radio under Linux. In the meantime, I get to discuss some useful Linux utilities like modprobe, wget and the SysV init script system. So get comfortable in your easy chair, put on your headphones and relax for a deep dive into packet radio with Linux. Captain Nemo has nothing on us.

73 de The LHS Guys

LHS Show Notes #063

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 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:

  • "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!