LHS Episode #099: Thorpe Your Octo

octothorpeWe are one episode away from the century mark. It's with a great deal of pride that we, the hosts of Linux in the Ham Shack, present to you our 99tieth episode. We would love to have some audio feedback from as many of our listeners as we can get that we can air on our 100th Episode Extravaganza. If you have the time and inclination, please submit a sound bite telling us how much you love the show, or hate it, or whether a weasel stole your chickens. It doesn't matter; we just want to hear from you! In the meantime, since Russ actually sat down and did some research for the episode, please take a listen and try to glean from it whatever nuggets of wisdom you might find. We're not saying they're in there, but the journey to discovery has been fun so far.

73 de The LHS Guys

Show Notes #098

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.

Show Notes #090

Introduction:

  • Join us this episode as our intrepid hosts, Richard and Russ (mad posstcatter!), interview John Hays of NorthWest Digital Radio.

Topics:

  • Interview with John Hays (K7VE) from NorthWest Digital Radio.
  • John has been a licensed amateur radio operator for 40 years. His wife and all of his children are hams, too!
  • A couple years ago John gave a presentation at TAPR, and discussed his wish for a reasonably priced radio for digital communications with just a few connections: antenna, power and Ethernet.
  • Bryan Hoyer (now K7UDR) approached John and volunteered to build one. Their collaboration (with Basil Gunn) resulted in NorthWest Digital Radio.
  • Their first product will be the UDR56K-4 Universal Digital Radio, planned for availability in early 2013.
  • John goes on to discuss the features of their digital radio and some of the design decisions the company made.
  • Specifications (subject to change, of course):
    • 25W 70cm Transceiver
    • 4800 to 56Kbps
    • FSK, GMSK, 4FSK
    • Open Source Linux Platform -- a full Linux-based web server is built-in. It uses the Debian kernel, running on an ARM processor (faster than a Raspberry Pi).
    • Web Interface over Ethernet
    • 4 USB Host Ports
  • Applications:
  • The radio can be completely controlled through the web interface or the command line.
  • John talks about other potential applications for their radio platform.
  • Keep an eye on the website for more information and to sign up for email announcements.
  • You may also be interested in John's blog.

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.

LHS Episode #090: Purple Hays

Here we are at Episode #090, just 10 away from the century mark. Things have been rolling along fairly smoothly, and except for Russ being deathly ill for the last eight days, there's not even a lot to complain about. In this episode, we have yet another interview. This time it's with John Hays, K7VE, of Northwest Digital Radio. These guys are producing an entirely new purpose-built radio platform called the UDR56K. This technology promises to be a great advance in the amateur radio arena as well as in the computing arena. It's a bit of kit that's going to find a use in almost every radio amateur's shack. If you want to find out why, please sit down and take a listen to this episode of LHS. We promise you will not be disappointed.

73 de The LHS Guys