Author: Russ Woodman

LHS Show Notes #032

Posted on by Russ Woodman

Texas Linux Fest promo

Contributors:

  • Shawn Powers of Linux Journal, and a recent guest on LHS, had a house fire. If you can, please help him out.
  • Google alert says LHS was mentioned in the Niagara Peninsula Amateur Radio Club (NPARC) forums, but it seems to have disappeared.
  • There's been a problem with Russ' email, k5tux@blacksparrowmedia.com, so please also copy Richard, kb5jbv@blacksparrowmedia.com, on any email until the problem is resolved.
  • Michael, DL4MGM, advises WSPR users to make sure their transmitters are on frequency, so as to avoid encroaching on the visual QRSS, particularly on 30m. He also suggests using "sudo su" to get a root shell session.
  • Ted, WA0EIR, writes to express his appreciation for Episode 029, and the plug for his website.
  • Google Alert tells us that a French website, al-aide.com, reprinted the post about Episode 029.

Announcements:

  • Texas Linux Fest will be held in Austin, TX on April 10, 2010, at the Monarch Event Center. You might even find a Linux in the Ham Shack host there! Tracy, one of the organizers of the event, is also starting another Linux-related podcast. Keep an eye on his website for the first episode.
  • We're nearing our goal of raising $750 for the LHS expedition to the Dayton Hamvention in 2010. Please click on the Donate button and make a donation, as every little bit helps. Thank you!

Links and Notes:

  • There has been a lot of ham radio involvement in the relief efforts in Haiti, through such groups as the Texas Baptist Men and SATERN. Russ points us to this YouTube video containing a contact with HH2JR, demonstrating the effectiveness of ham radio in emergency communications.
  • Richard talks about using Linux scripts to automate D-RATS transmissions (auto-QSTs). This script downloads weather information and formats it for sending through D-RATS. 
    	#!/bin/bash
	#
	# Change directory
	cd /home/richard/drats/current_conditions
	#
	# Remove the old downloaded weather file
	#
	rm KHQZ.TXT
	#
	# Download the current weather file from NOAA
	#
	wget -q ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/data/observations/metar/decoded/KHQZ.TXT
	#
	# Remove the old formatted file
	#
	rm current.txt
	#
	# Strip last line of text of the NOAA file, using sed
	# This sed command strips out everything between "Mesquite" and "Pressure"
	#
	sed '/Mesquite,/,/Pressure / !d' KHQZ.TXT > khqz1.txt
	#
	# Add a blank line to the new file
	#
	echo -e " " >> current.txt
	#
	# Copy Mesquite Weather conditions to new file
	#
	cat khqz1.txt >> current.txt
	#
	# Done!
	# A cron job then periodically sends out the contents of current.txt
	#
  • For more information on using the BASH shell and scripting, see:
  • Russ discusses the Linux "screen" command.
  • Visit us on the IRC channel #lhspodcast at irc.freenode.net or call the voice message line at 888-455-0305, or +1 417 429 4069.

Music:

LHS Episode #032: Screen-Doored Submarines

Posted on by Russ Woodman

Well, January has pretty much come and gone. I sure hope the rest of the year sticks around a bit longer. Now that it's 2010, though, Linux in the HAM Shack has a lot of things planned for the future: contests, interviews with fascinating and influential people, trips to live events throughout the year and, as always, scintillating content about Linux and ham shacks.

As of Episode #029, we have achieved more than 50,000 downloads. Episode #029 also turned out to be one of our most popular. When Richard and I started this endeavor back in October 2008 we didn't really know what to expect out of the podcast, but I think it's safe to say that whatever expectations we may have had, we're certainly reaching or exceeding them. I only hope that we only have more room to go up from here. Thank you to everyone who listens to, participates in, or otherwise helps out with the podcast--especially Bill, KA9WKA, our beloved Show Notes compiler, and everyone who has made a donation to the program. We are only about $100 in donations away from our booth at the 2010 Dayton Hamvention and we hope that we'll be able to set up there and say hello to all of our fans, old, new and undiscovered, when it finally rolls around.

But for now, we wish you a speedy download and an enjoyable listen.

73 de Russ and Richard

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

LHS Show Notes #031

Posted on by Russ Woodman

Contributors:

  • Last episode we talked about WSPR. Eddie Bennett, G3ZJO, wrote an article about running WSPR under Linux, and that article is available on the LHS website. He has several other blog pages, too.
  • Don, WS4E, wrote that he recently acquired an iPhone and was interested to see that there is a Ustream app for it, but the app only plays pre-approved streams. He wonders if the LHS and RF podcasts will be available on Ustream. Russ did contact them, and LHS is now available on the Ustream iPhone application.
  • We received a pingback from Ben, VK5JFK, to the article on the LHS website, Linux Mint 7 - Refreshing
  • Paul, KC9QYB, of teenradiojourney.com, writes about a problem he was having with a file server. They recently upgraded it to the latest version of Ubuntu server, on a separate partition. He wonders how he can recover the data from the other drives and partitions. Russ answers. Essentially:
    1. Identify the "old" drive device name. You can search through the results of the dmesg command to see which devices are detected at boot. Let's assume your old data is on drive /dev/hda1.
    2. Create a directory in the /mnt directory on your new drive (or partition) to serve as the mount point. We'll call it root: 
      mkdir /mnt/root
    3. Mount the old drive: 
      mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/root
    4. Now you can copy or move files from the old drive at /mnt/root to the new drive.
    5. Similarly, you can create other directories in /mnt for other partitions, such as /var, /usr, /home, or whatever you might need.
  • A Twitter mention from timls about listening to the podcast.

Announcements:

  • We received a donation from Bill, NF9D, to help send Linux in the Ham Shack to the Dayton Hamvention in 2010. Thanks, Bill!

Links and Notes:

  • Interview with David Lane, KG4GIY, and Shawn Powers of Linux Journal. Shawn is the Associate Editor and David is a contributing author, blogger, member of the Reader Advisory Board, and amateur radio operator. The January, 2010 issue of Linux Journal is devoted to amateur radio topics.
  • The very first issue of Linux Journal is available online, and also contained an article about ham radio.
  • David's blog post about ereaders.
  • David is also the Emergency Coordinator and RACES officer for Prince William Cty, VA. David discusses the use of Linux in emergency communications.
  • Mentioned in the chat room: David Freese, W1HKJ, the author of fldigi, also has NBEMS, Narrow Band Emergency Messaging System, for Linux.
  • The group discusses how packet radio networks operate.
  • This leads to a discussion of what, if any, types of encryption are allowed in amateur radio transmissions.
  • Linux Journal has their "virtual ham shack" at https://www.linuxjournal.com/ham/, which includes a forum. David has recently started a thread there about software-defined radios.
  • The panel discusses what appears to be an increase in ham radio software for the Linux community.
  • Russ asks the panel their opinion about the new evil empire, Google, and specifically Google Wave and Google Voice.
  • What about Google DNS? https://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/ (The panel mentions "Cricket's book", which is DNS and BIND, by Paul Albitz and Cricket Liu, published by O'Reilly.)
  • With Oracle's purchase of Sun, what will happen to MySQL?
  • Look for David at the Linux Journal chatroom on freenode IRC, in the #linuxjournal channel.
  • Check out the Linux Journal store, too.

Music:

  • "Let's Get It Started" by Oh No Not Stereo from the album "003"
  • "Miss America" by Beyond 7 from the album "Revelations Per Minute"

LHS Episode #031: Linux Journal Invasion

Posted on by Russ Woodman

Linux in the HAM Shack has arrived in 2010! It's hard to believe that 2009 is over already. We've have so much fun putting together the podcast for everyone, the time has literally flown by. Soon it will be time for the snow to melt, the world to turn green once again, and for LHS to travel to Dayton, OH for the 2010 Hamvention in May. We're so ready we can almost taste it.

In this episode, we had the honor of interviewing two prominent figures from Linux Journal magazine. David Lane, KG4GIY, is the magazine's eminent blogger and ham radio advocate. He is a large part of the reason the January 2010 issue of LJ is all about amateur radio. Shawn Powers is the magazine's associate editor, which gives him the dubious honor of being a guest on our show. He's the go-to guy when the editor, publisher and just about everyone else needs something done. We have to say we were greatly honored to have the LJ folks join us, and we sure hope we haven't scared them off so they'll come back and talk with us in the future.

Hope everyone is having a fantastic 2010 so far, and thanks for downloading LHS in the new year. And if you have a couple of dollars leftover from holiday binging, please drop us a donation as the deadline for acquiring a booth in Dayton is coming up fast. And remember, we appreciate our listeners, each and every one. Thank you!

73 de Russ and Richard

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