Tag: contest

Show Notes #096

Posted on by Russ Woodman

Introduction:

  • Welcome to another edition of the Super Happy Crappy Hour!

Announcements:

  • The Black Sparrow Media mobile app is again hosted thanks to listener donations. Visit the BSM website to download the app and enjoy all of the BSM affiliated shows.
  • CafeNinja and the Tin Foil Hat Show have joined the Black Sparrow Media network.
  • If you'd like to participate in the chat room, point your IRC client at the irc.freenode.net server, and join the #lhspodcast channel.
  • You can listen to the live show by pointing your media player (VLC, Totem, or whatever) to https://stream.blacksparrow.net:8008/lhslive.
  • Our live recording night will be moving to Wednesday evenings (CST) beginning with Episode 97, scheduled for December 12th, 2012.
  • Welcome Gnorman to the LHS staff.

Topics:

  • TLF Contest Logger.
    • We've mentioned TLF in episodes 12, 65 and 70.
    • TLF is a console-mode general purpose CW and voice keyer, logging and contest program for Linux.
    • Our hosts compare this to YFKTest.
    • If you have used TLF, send us your experience with the program.
  • Our hosts then embark on several digressions about Gnorman, Lua, and other podcasters.

Feedback:

  • Torsten, DL1THM, sends an email describing his use of a Raspberry Pi as an APRS digi using aprx software and as a D-Star repeater using a DV-RPTR board. Thanks, Torsten.
  • Greg responded to episode 94 about uses for the Raspberry Pi, including a media PC with Raspbmc and perhaps as a weather station. Thanks, Greg.
  • Russ and Richard also talk about D-Star stuff, and D-RATS. (D-RATS has been mentioned in LHS episodes 17, 32, 56, 71 and 90.)
  • Comment from the Web site from Leif, KC8RWR, in response to episode 91 where Russ rants about the lack of speakers in the head units of mobile radios. Thanks, Leif.
  • Fred, DH5FS, sent a suggestion to consider TLF as a Linux contest logger. Thanks, Fred. Your email inspired tonight's topic.
  • Bill, KJ4KNI, on Facebook expressed his appreciation for help getting Linux Mint 13 with the MATE desktop running on his main computer. He also provides several reasons a ham might wish to use RG6 (75 ohm coax) in radio applications. Thanks, Bill.

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:

  • "Crooked Smile Girl" by Heather Pierson, from her album Make It Mine.
  • "Agnostic" by Daniel Bautista from the album 15, courtesy of Jamendo.

Show Notes #078

Posted on by Russ Woodman

Introduction:

  • Richard says life has been good, lately, except for Linux Mint, but we'll get into that in a moment. Announcements and feedback are at the end of the show.

Topics:

  • Linux Mint Sux!!! (At least, for Richard.)
    • Richard's never-ending quest for a Linux distro that works for him. In the past few days, he's tried various Debian-based distributions:
      • Linux Mint 12, with Gnome 3, MATE, and Cinnamon, but he didn't like any of them. Too few configuration options for the desktop and gtkpod didn't work, and that was a deal-breaker.
      • Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE): one of the CPU cores wasn't running; fixed that, installed software and updates, but gtkpod didn't work there, either.
      • Crunchbang Linux: too minimalist and too much configuration.
      • XFCE on LMDE was close. Richard replaced the Thunar file manager with Nautilus.
      • Xubuntu which is Ubuntu with XFCE. It looked good, was configurable, but lacked a few features.
      • Kubuntu, which is Ubuntu with KDE. He tried installing it from the live CD, which took 25 minutes to complete. After the reboot, it generated all sorts of hard drive errors. While it's possible that the hard drive did fail, but Richard blames Kubuntu for causing the problem.
  • Russ discusses OpenMediaVault, an open network attached storage solution.
    • It's an alternative to FreeNAS.
    • Debian-based with a simple install process, while FreeNAS is based on FreeBSD.
    • Supports many features of FreeNAS, including CIFS/Samba, NFS, FTP, SSH, BitTorrent (via plugin), TFTP, and DAAP (via plugin).
    • Russ tried it in a virtual machine, and it installed easily. Once installed, all configuration occurs through the web browser.
    • While it's perhaps not as mature as FreeNAS, it's also a newer project, so it's likely to improve. At the moment, Russ prefers FreeNAS, especially v0.7, but OpenMediaVault may very well catch up and surpass FreeNAS.
  • Linux Contesting Software revisited. We covered a few in Episode 70, and here are a couple more.
    • Bill, W9YA, one of the maintainers of YFKtest, contacted Richard to inform him that YFKtest has had a major facelift, as well as adding a few features and fixing some bugs. It's available as v 0.0.10 from the subversion repository. Russ downloaded the compiled version. He picked a contest, filename for the log, entered his call sign, mode, and some other information, but he had trouble entering a contact.
    • Minos Contest Logging Software is a contest logging suite for VHF and UHF Amateur Radio Contests. The current version is 1.5.4, and is available as a download or via the Subversion repository. It's a Windows application, and there are directions on the Web site for running the application using WINE. If only they'd simply re-release with Linux-native code. Russ tried it and it does run quite well under WINE. It's an open source project under the BSD license.
  • Allstar Link Node Update: Russ now has an Allstar Link node number assigned, 28357. Allstar Link offers several packages: Limey Linux, ACID CentOS or Pickle Linux (for the BeagleBoard). Russ has been trying to get the ACiD version running on his LMDE machine so he can use it with his existing Asterisk installation. Meanwhile, Russ has his Echolink station working, node 54711.

Feedback:

  • We received a voice comment from Ed, KB4VWA, who's having trouble with some MFJ TNCs he recently bought at the Dalton, GA hamfest. Richard responds, though he's had the least experience with MFJ TNCs. There are several possibilities: wrong on-air baud rate, bad connection, wrong dip switch settings, or poor or filtered audio into the TNC. Try using the jack on the back of the radio for the audio. Maybe the radio is not exactly on frequency?

Announcements:

  • The OGG and MP3 feeds for the LHS Music and LHS Up All Night audio streams from the LHS web site have new links, so check your settings. The live streaming feed is mp3, so it works everywhere.
  • The wAVEgUIDES podcast joins the Black Sparrow Media network! Visit blacksparrowmedia.net/join/ if you'd like to add your podcast to the Black Sparrow Media network.
  • Episode renumbering: Ever since naming episodes 18a and 19a, it's been bugging Russ, so they were renumbered to eliminate the letter suffixes.
  • LHS hopes to attend the 2012 Dayton Hamvention in May. Please donate to the cause to help make that happen!

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:

  • "Requiem For A Fish" by The Freak Fandango Orchestra from their album Tales Of A Dead Fish, courtesy of Jamendo.
  • "Boats (Swept Away)" by I Am Not Left Handed, from their album Time To Leave, courtesy of Jamendo.

LHS Episode #078: Kubuntu is Bloodthirsty

Posted on by Russ Woodman

In this episode of Linux in the Ham Shack, our intrepid hosts put aside idle banter, childish meandering and silly stories in favor of true content, both ham radio and Linux related. All right, that doesn't happen even a little bit. Instead, Richard has a lot of fun telling you all the trouble he has with Linux Mint Debian Edition, all the while mentioning a bunch of other operating systems he's tried recently including Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Crunchbang among others--letting you know what's wrong with all of them.

Then there's some discussion of svxlink, an Echolink client and server application for native Linux environments, Allstar Link, Open Media Vault, contest loggers and a whole bunch of other stuff besides. Ahh, perhaps there is some content here after all. Hope everyone enjoys this episode and can perhaps contribute a dollar or two towards the Hamvention fund. It's coming up soon and we hope to see you all there.

73 de The LHS Guys

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

LHS Show Notes #035

Posted on by Russ Woodman

Contributors:

  • Steve posted a message at the Resonant Frequency forums and asked about the early episodes not being available on iTunes. That was a "feature", but Richard "fixed" it. Going forward, once we hit 50 episodes, older ones will drop off the feed to iTunes, so you'll need to go to the web site to get them.
  • Chris, ZL2CCO, posted a link to the LHS site on his blog. Thanks, Chris!
  • Via snail mail we received a donation and feedback from Tom, NC0O. He's been enjoying the podcast and sent a donation to support the Dayton expedition. Thanks, Tom!
  • Walter, KV6M, writes to clear up a mistake from Episode 31. We incorrectly attributed the penultimate donation to the Dayton fund to Walter, WN3LIF, but it was, in fact, from Walter, KV6M. Sorry, Walter, we've corrected the show notes, and thank you for the donation, and correction. We're sorry for the confusion.
  • Doug, N6LMX, sends his greetings and wonders what happened to a message he sent some time ago and was never mentioned, so he sent it again. (Richard had been holding it for the other show.) Doug wonders which Linux distribution Richard chose for his old Dell Latitude laptop. Richard chose Crunchbang Linux Lite. Also mentioned, the Midori browser.
  • Larry, W0AY, writes to express his appreciation for Episode 31. He would like to see Richard get a mute switch for his microphone. Thanks, Larry, and we're currently soliciting donations for a noise gate for Richard.
  • LHS got a mention in an anonymous comment in the Linux Journal forums.
  • Chris, K3DC, mentions LHS in a presentation he prepared, perhaps for a club meeting.
  • Another LHS mention in an IRC log posted to pastebin.
  • Jim, N2ENN, writes to offer some information about microphones in response to Bill's microphone rant in Episode 31, and discusses Linux drivers. Thanks for the information, Jim. We'll talk more about this in a later episode.
  • Glynne, KD5VQD, offers his wallet-sized reference card for the phonetic alphabet. Thanks, Glynne. Russ will post it in the Articles section of the Linux in the Ham Shack web site.
  • Klaatu mentions in his blog that he enjoyed the song "Flash in a Bottle" by Dead Heart Bloom in Episode 30.
  • Others have commented that they enjoyed the song "Don't Go" by Tenpenny Joke that was featured in Episode 31.

Announcements:

  • Southeast Linuxfest v2.0 is set for June 12-13 at the Marriott at Renaissance Park hotel in Spartanburg, SC! Russ is planning on being there, as is Klaatu.
  • Texas Linux Fest will be Saturday, April 10, 2010 at the Monarch Events Center, Austin, Texas
  • Logo Contest: The Linux in the Ham Shack logo needs an update, and we'd like a new logo before the 2010 Dayton Hamvention. Please submit your original logo, preferably in .tiff or .svg format, or in a very large .jpg, to Russ and/or Richard. Deadline is March 31, 2010. If selected, you will win $100!
  • Program Intro Contest: Record your Linux in the Ham Shack introduction and send it along. Record it on your computer and send the sound file, or call 888-455-0305, or 417-429-4069, and record your intro via the phone. All entries will eventually be used, but one winner will be chosen at random and will receive $25. Recordings made via the phone numbers will have two chances to win.
  • Send your submissions for either contest to Russ k5tux@blacksparrowmedia.com or Richard kb5jbv@blacksparrowmedia.com.
  • We've been having problems with our hosting service. It's likely that the Black Sparrow Media sites will be moving sometime in the next few months. Check the web site for details as they develop.
  • Look for Linux in the Ham Shack at the 2010 Dayton Hamvention. We'll be in the North Hall, booth #265 (NH0265).
  • Our new donation goal is to raise sufficient money to purchase a noise gate for Richard. Every little bit helps, so please click on the Donate link and send along a dollar or two.

Links and Notes:

Music:

  • "Bessie's Secret" by Heifervescent from the album "Murder in the Garden."
  • "Breathing on Another Planet" by No, Really from the album "Rust."

LHS Episode #035: Soylent Green is Bad Apples

Posted on by Russ Woodman

Last week in the Linux in the HAM Shack chat room, we had a lot of participation from our listeners. It was so great to see everyone there. We hope that in the future, more people will get a chance to check out the live show. Check back here on the web site for the schedule of live recordings.

This episode of Linux in the Ham Shack is jam-packed with content. We have a special guest from around the Interwebs that you will likely know if you listen to other podcasts about Linux. The show did run a bit longer than usual, but there is just so much in it I couldn't begin to tell you everything you're going to hear. I do hope that you'll stick around for the entire episode because there are some goodies near the end that you will not want to miss out on, including how you can win significant cold, hard cash.

Thanks to our special guest, our live participants and to everyone who listens to the show. PLEASE, tell everyone you know about us, and that we're not just for amateur radio enthusiasts. Technofiles, geeks, Linux and FOSS addicts and just about everyone will gain something from the podcast. Oh, and due to a couple of technical problems, the audio quality in this episode is poor in a few places. I did the best I could. Next time it'll be better. Have a great week!

73 de Russ and Richard

Podcast: Play in new window | Download