Category: Show Notes

LHS Show Notes #057

Posted on by Russ Woodman

Introduction:

Announcements:

Topics:

  • Richard and Russ talk about the origins of the LHS podcast name. See Linux on the Desktop podcast.
  • Richard talks about how to build a Delta loop antenna, and using a piece of 75 ohm coax to act as a matching transformer between the antenna and the 50 ohm feed line. He also describes velocity factor for coaxial cable. Here's an illustration of a 20m Delta loop similar to what Richard describes.
  • Just for fun: Fab's Crap Alert
  • linSmith, in the Debian repositories, is a program for plotting Smith Charts, and more.
  • Richard then talks about Henry Allen W5TYD, formerly K5BUG, of Texas BugCatcher antenna fame, and the inductors he wound around Plexiglas forms. (Henry ceased production of his antennas in 2009 and has retired. -Ed.)
  • Russ uses an Alpha Delta DX-CC multiband dipole, in preference to a G5RV dipole.
  • Other antennas mentioned:
  • Impedance of transmission lines: 50 ohms for communications coaxial cable, 75 ohms for cable TV coaxial cable, 300 ohms for the old TV twinlead, 450 ohms for window line, and typically 600 ohms for ladder line.
  • Richard explains Standing Wave Ratio (SWR).
  • Richard relates an Field Day story from several years ago... Commodore-64 running packet radio on the tailgate of a truck in 100-degree heat, and burning up the C-64.

Feedback:

  • Audio feedback from Frasier K. thanking our hosts for the podcast. He's currently studying for his ham license via HamTestOnline, and learned about Linux from the podcast. He's now running Ubuntu 10.10 on his laptop and rockbox on his iPod. He'd like some sort of automatic calendar reminder service to alert him when a new episode will be recorded. Thanks, Frasier, and we'll look into that.
  • Mitch, KC2MBN, says that he enjoys the podcast. He's now an Extra class licensee, but is new to Linux. He recently tried dual-booting Windows 7 with Pinguy OS and reports some troubles, and asks for some recommendations for a distro. Thanks, Mitch. If you have a spare machine, it would be better to run Linux on that rather than going to the trouble and risk of dual-booting. You might try actual Ubuntu, Debian or Linux Mint. Crunchbang Linux is also easy to install, as is PCLinuxOS.

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 417-200-4811, 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 SHOP! 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:

  • "Bad Boy (For You)" by Rebolt from the album "Made in Spite EP" courtesy of Jamendo.
  • "Daylight" by Singleton from the album "The High Seas" courtesy of Jamendo.

LHS Show Notes #056

Posted on by Russ Woodman

Introduction:

Announcements:

  • Hello to the new folks in the chat room.
  • The Mintcast podcast is either going to stop or will have new hosts after the next episode. If you're interested in hosting a podcast, contact the folks over there.
  • Please spread the word about MAGNetcon, the Mid-America GNU/Linux Networkers Conference, to be held May 6-7, 2011 at the St. Louis Union Station Marriott. If you know anyone that might be a sponsor, exhibitor, or speaker, please let us know. Application forms are available on the web site.
  • Check out the new website for Resonant Frequency.
  • Also mentioned, the Going Linux podcast and Computer America, "America's longest-running nationally syndicated radio talk show about computers."

Feedback:

  • Richard, KR4EY, writes about CW... wait, we did this one in Episode 52.
  • John, KC8DAX, weighs in on the Windows vs. Linux debate: there are hams that will buy a wire antenna and there are others that will build one. He thinks it's the same thing with operating systems. Would you want a radio you couldn't open? Our hosts discuss.
  • We received a donation from Charles to help send Linux in the Ham Shack to the 2011 Dayton Hamvention. Thank you, Charles!
  • Joe, K1RBY, recently discovered the podcast and is catching up, but is having a problem using gpodder to retrieve episodes. Yes, Joe, there is a bug in one of the WordPress plugins on the web site that contributed to the problem (see lhspodcast.info for a description of the problem.) It has been corrected.
  • John, K7JM, also had the problem with gpodder and sends his appreciation for the fix.
  • Richard, KJ4VGV, tells us that he is a new amateur radio operator since May and has published an article: Antenna Restrictions: Are They a Catastrophe Waiting to Happen? Good job, Richard!
  • James, N2ENN, comments about our episode 52 when we discussed Unity, and offers his thoughts on Wayland, Debian and Ubuntu. Our hosts discuss, and digress to a discussion of browsers, plugins, drivers, ALSA and PulseAudio on Debian vs. LinuxMint Debian Edition. They also commment on Bill Meara's (of SolderSmoke fame) efforts to get WSPR running under WINE in Ubuntu.
  • Paul, KE5WMA, writes "PIC micro controllers are getting more popular in HAM projects. Any suggestions on programming software and boards?" Well, Paul, Linux does still support serial ports, but this may be a good topic for another show. You might find something useful in the many hits returned by a Google search on "Linux PIC programmer".
  • B.B., KC5PIY, asks for help with getting Windows programs for programming radios, such as the Icom IC-2820H and IC-706 MkIIg, running under Linux. He'd also like an APRS client. Richard recommends UIView as an APRS client for Windows, and Xastir for Linux. Russ suggests that most of the radio programming applications will run under WINE in Linux. Also, check out CHIRP, free Linux software for programming a variety of D-STAR radios. You may also want to explore the D-RATS mailing list. It's not likely you'll be able to dual-boot Windows and Linux on that netbook, but you can install Ubuntu Linux using WUBI, which would allow you to run Linux within Windows, or install Linux to a USB flash drive using Pen Drive Linux.
  • Craig, KB5UEJ, writes about learning IPv6: "I went through the Hurricane Electric certification program and really learned lots about IPv6. I'm now running IPv6 on my home using HEs IPv6 tunnelbroker service. It's no longer the big bad scary thing that it used to be." Russ also talked about IPv6 on episode 6 of his QSK podcast.
  • Matt shares his thoughts about building "simple" projects from junk box parts and the similarity to running Linux.

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 417-200-4811, 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 SHOP! 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:

  • "Balboa" by Ness from the album Fiesta, courtesy of Jamendo.
  • "Crawling Back In" by Deathalizer from the album It Dwells Within, courtesy of Jamendo.

LHS Show Notes #055

Posted on by Russ Woodman

Announcements:

  • Happy New Year!
  • The Mid-America GNU/Linux Networkers Conference (MAGNetcon) will be May 6-7, 2011 at the St. Louis Union Station Marriott. If you know anyone that might be a sponsor, exhibitor, or speaker, please let us know. Application forms are available on the web site.
  • Donations are now being accepted to send LHS to the Dayton Hamvention 2011, May 20-22. Please click on the Donate button on the website.
  • Donation received from Charles (no call sign given). Thank you, Charles!
  • The podcast RSS feed lost it's title after a podPress upgrade. This has been fixed.
  • We've been informed of a RSS feed problem for some podcatchers that use the XML tag. Joe, K1RBY, emailed us about this problem when using gPodder, but a solution has yet to be found. Anyone else see this problem? Let us know! (Ed. Note: The problem has been fixed and will be detailed in episode 54.)
  • Look for new episodes of Resonant Frequency in 2011!

Topic:

  • An interview with David Freese, W1HKJ, the primary author of fldigi.
  • Dave, now 72 years old, has been licensed continuously since 1957 and is retired from the U.S. Coast Guard. He had been maintaining gMFSK, a Gnome multimode HF terminal program, and decided to create fldigi to prove he could still write code. He started with UNIX, then MINIX, and has been with Linux since the beginning. He's been writing ham radio programs since the 1970's. His software will run under Linux, Windows, FreeBSD, OSX, and Puppy.
  • flpuppy, aka digipup, is also available from Dave's site. This is a version of Puppy Linux with fldigi, a logbook, and a geodesic calculator already installed.
  • Other developers are Stelios, M0GLD, Leigh, WA5ZNU, and Skip, KH6TY.
  • Much of the underlying code in fldigi is from the original gMFSK program, in particular the modem code. Other modes have been added since, along with the GUI.
  • Dave says there are about 2500 users of fldigi and he spends 50 hours per week on coding and support.
  • Other projects Dave is involved with include:
    • NBEMS (Narrow Band Emergency Messaging System), consisting of fldigi, flarq, flwrap, flmessage, and flrig, all using the Fast Light Toolkit.
    • flwkey for sending Morse code via the winKeyer chip.
    • A computer-aided transceiver (CAT) program that controls the Kachina 505DSP transceiver.
  • Dave describes how he came to develop fldigi using C++ and FLTK.
  • More features of fldigi:
    • Version 3.21 of fldigi, now in alpha test, will have the capability of sending and receiving weatherfax. It will also have an embedded browser that will work with all the PSK modes and RTTY. It has a built-in log book that stores records in ADIF files.
    • While not designed specifically for contesters, fldigi is adequate for casual contesters.
    • Fldigi will generate Cabrillo reports for many contests.
    • The online documentation is quite extensive, at about 140 web pages, with many illustrations. There are sample screenshots of the waterfall display for various modes and audio samples of them.
  • Much of the modem code in DM780 is from fldigi.
  • Rick Ellis wrote code that allows the N1MM logger to display the waterfall.
  • Gary, WB8ROL, "Mr. Olivia", modified fldigi for his own purposes, calling it fldigirol.
  • More cool features of fldigi:
    • Many of the controls in fldigi have different reactions to left-, middle- and right-click. For example, rolling the mouse wheel over the macro buttons will scroll them!
    • The mouse tab in the waterfall configuration allows you to customize how the waterfall reacts to mouse wheel movement. You can also change the rig frequency by dragging in the waterfall.
    • Dave recommends turning on the control hints feature (tooltips). Click Configure, User Interface, General tab, check "Show tooltips".
    • Dave describes the "QSY" and "Store" buttons.
    • Dave talks about how to use the Reed-Solomon Identification (RSID) features.
    • The "SPOT" control allows you to search for specific strings in a PSK signal, such as "CQ CQ" or "de", allowing the program to automatically post "spots" on the PSK reporter site.
    • Dave then discusses the "Map It" macro feature.
  • To keep up with the alpha test group, you can subscribe to mailing lists on the Berlios alpha test web page.
  • Dave offers kudos to Ed, W3NR, who answers 95% of the problem reports, and Rick in Michigan who is the principal man for audio interfacing issues.

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 417-200-4811, 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 SHOP! 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:

  • "Which Road Takes Me Home" by Fatblueman from the album "Back to Winnipeg," courtesy of Jamendo.

LHS Show Notes #054

Posted on by Russ Woodman

Announcements:

  • Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.
  • Bill, KA9WKA, joins the podcast this evening.

Topics:

Feedback:

  • Richard, KR4EY, writes that Morse code is not dead! And 30m is his favorite band.
  • Burt, K1OIK, says Richard looks awful cute with that pink bow in his hair. (We're still wondering about that one.)

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 417-200-4811, or record an introduction to the podcast.
  • Sign up for the LHS mailing list.
  • Sign up for the MAGNetcon mailing list.
  • Thanks to Dave from Gamma Leonis for the theme music.

Music: