LHS Show Notes #053

Announcements:

  • Thanks, again, to Gamma Leonis for the opening and closing music for the show.
  • LHS Merchandise is available at PrintFection and Cafe Press. LHS items make great Christmas gifts! Or, make a donation by clicking the Donate link on the website. Donations cover such things as the telephone lines, server fees, and more. Thank you!

Topics:

  • Articles seem to be popping up at www.amateurradio.com designed to get us talking about Linux and Amateur Radio. The latest one is by Anthony, K3NG, self-proclaimed radio artisan. Our hosts discuss his assertions that:
    • Ham Radio Deluxe, DXLab, and N1MM software all beat any Linux offerings. (Note: Russ has found that both Ham Radio Deluxe and N1MM logger will run under WINE in Linux. DXLab, on the other hand, will not.)
    • There is more amateur radio software available for Windows than Linux.
    • CQRLOG is an adequate Linux program for casual logging, but not great for contesters.
    • "Quite simply, if one intends on using Linux exclusively in the hamshack they have to lower their expectations and requirements for logging and are between a rock and a hard place when it comes to contesting."
    • He does praise fldigi, but still claims Windows software is better.
    • In summary, he thinks hard-core contesters may wish to stay with Windows. Our suggestion: run Linux and write a program that works better!
  • Russ talks about his success with WSPR and Echolink.
  • He found that instead of using "dpkg -i" to install the latest Debian WSPR package, use "dpkg -x". You'll extract the files to the current directory. You then run the program from a terminal session in your home directory using "./wspr". If you run it that way, instead of letting it install, it seems to work a lot better. The Gnome launcher doesn't seem to work with that sort of installation, but running it from a terminal works well.
  • Russ has Echolink running under WINE v1.13. This version of WINE was chosen for it's native support of PulseAudio, which made configuring EchoLink much easier. Russ' node is on 146.225MHz simplex, Echolink node 54711.
  • Russ then tells us why Echolink and IRLP are different and why IRLP might be "better." (Hint: Echolink may not have an amateur radio anywhere in the link, while IRLP definitely uses a radio somewhere in the link.)

Feedback:

  • Scott, HL2/AD7MI, sends his appreciation for the discussion in Episode 50 of his blog entry about his Ubuntu installation, and adds a note about problems with running CQRLOG under 64-bit Linux. He says you can install CQRLOG on a 64-bit machine, but it will only work with the 32-bit version of hamlib. Unfortunately, that breaks 64-bit fldigi, which expects the 64-bit version of hamlib. This issue has been reported on both the linuxham Yahoo group and the CQRLOG forum. Scott has also successfully installed Xastir, and is looking forward to receiving a MicroHAM III interface.
  • Matt, KC8BEW, asks "What is a good and easy Linux distribution for a web server?" Russ recommends a plain vanilla installation of Debian server, without the X-windows environment, and either Apache or nginx (a light-weight web server).
  • Dave, M0DCM, tells us of his success running fldigi and CQRLOG under Ubuntu 9.10 on an Acer Aspire A0751h netbook. Well done, Dave!

Donations:

  • A very generous donation was received from Gerrit R. Thanks, Gerrit!

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:

  • "Steel Concrete" by Mad Mav from the album "Black Sheep II", courtesy of Jamendo.

LHS Show Notes #052

Episode 50: A milestone!

Announcements:

Topics:

  • Scott, AD7MI, posted an article on his blog about moving to an all-Linux ham shack. Richard and Russ discuss the article, including Shackbox Linux, Ham Radio Deluxe, CQRLog, and more. Ultimately, Fldigi and CQRLog resulted in "100% Linux Nirvana".
  • Scott also asks what we think would be the ideal Linux-based ham shack. Russ describes his shack, which he thinks IS ideal. Our hosts then discuss various soundcard interfaces:
  • Most sound cards work fine, and Russ recommends the SoundBlaster series over all, but suggests staying away from the SoundBlaster Audigy SE (model CA0106) sound cards as they don't seem to work well (or at all) under Linux.
  • Richard likes his Yaesu FT-897D. Most modern rigs allow a fixed-audio level connection to the computer sound card, as well as computer rig control. Russ has the Kenwood TS-570D, and it, too, is well-supported in the Linux ham libraries.
  • Russ and Richard discuss the fact that most hams don't log VHF/UHF contacts, other than in contests or toward an award.
  • The FCC, created by the Communications Act of 1934, included the requirement to maintain a log book in the rules. Sometime between 1983 and 1986, this requirement was dropped as the FCC determined that the information was of little use to them. (If someone can point us to a reference that identifies when the exact rule change occurred, please let us know. I was unable to find the specific change online. -Ed.)

Feedback:

  • Leif, KC8RWR, writes that Internet over EME (earth-moon-earth) isn't likely to work due to the high latency involved. (This may be in reference to a comment in Episode 48.) NASA and DARPA are involved in a Deep-Space Internet project.
  • Leif also asks "Isn't Morse code dead?" and wasn't it replaced by "Gerke Code"? Our hosts discuss.
  • Craig, KB5UEJ, writes that he thinks Russ' audio is louder and muddier than Richard's in episodes 46 and 47. Russ agrees that the audio on a few of the recent episodes did suffer, but should be much improved now.
  • Grant, KC9SJQ, comments that he doesn't see a link to Russ' screencast about SSL anywhere. Yes, it somehow disappeared, but Russ is working on it. He'll either find the file or redo it.
  • William, KB9TMP, sends his comments about Episode 48 where we discuss KE9V's article that questioned the relevance of amateur radio.
  • Craig, KB5UEJ, commenting about WSPR, says that you can run less than 5W on an FT-897 by reducing the audio drive from the computer to the radio. Richard points out that the reduction is often not uniform across the audio freqeuncies used, so some intelligibility may be lost. He had that problem with packet, but he'll try it with WSPR.
  • Matt wants to know the artist and title of a song in Episode 48. The song was "Endline (Choose Nothing)" by I Am Not Lefthanded from the album "Yes Means No". Check out the show notes for Episode 48 for a link to the song.

Donations:

  • Scott, AD7MI, sent a donation just before we recorded! Thanks, Scott.
  • If you'd like to help the podcast, please consider making a donation. It's easy! Just a click on the Donate button on the web site.

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 888-455-0305 or 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:

LHS Show Notes #049

Announcements:

Donations:

  • Mitch D., Bill A., and Jim C. sent donations. Thank you!
  • To support the podcast, please click the Donate button on the website or buy one of the LHS-branded items at PrintFection.com/lhs or Cafe Press. Thanks!

Topics:

  • OpenOffice has forked! (Thanks to Russ of The Techie Geek podcast for the link.) The Document Foundation is an independent open source version of OpenOffice called LibreOffice. This version of OpenOffice will be maintained separate from, and without dependence on, Oracle. For extensions to the package, see the FSF Extension list.
  • CQRLog Revisited: A fully featured ham radio logging program for Linux.
    • Documentation link
    • The authors (Petr OK2CQR and Martin OK1RR) recommend using the binary installer instead of compiling manually. There is a source package that can be installed but the authors say it is easier to help the users if the binary package is used. It has been tested on several distributions including the latest versions of Slackware, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Mandriva, Fedora and OpenSuSE Linux. CQRLog must have hamlib installed to work. Note that CQRLog is probably not in the distribution repositories, but hamlib is in the repositories of most Debian-based distributions.
    • Again, you must have the current ham libraries installed. In Ubuntu, that is libhamlib2, version 1.2.10-3.
    • Award Tracking:
    • Club logging, like OMISS, 10-10 International, etc. This is found under the membership tab of the Preferences dialog box (File -> Preferences).
    • Allows you to track contacts for clubs or special stations.
    • Lots of preconfigured databases, but also has the ability to add databases for other clubs.
    • There is also Logbook of The World (LoTW) integration, as long as you have Tqsl and Tqslcert installed. (Listen to episodes 43 and 46 of LHS for more on LoTW and Linux.)
    • FLdigi integration! Fldigi must be installed and functional, of course. CQRlog runs in offline or remote mode while running FLdigi. Fldigi is in control. Use FLDigi in the normal way and CQRLog will pickup the information and log it.
    • Xplanet integration.
    • There is currently no other function than DX Cluster spot displaying in true azimuthal projection with correct angles (azimuth) and distances. Alternatively, a map without projection, ie. the globe as seen from the space, can be selected.
    • Additional notes area, which allows you to add extra information to a contact such as picture and text files. This area can contain text, html, pdf, and image files.
    • Other nice features:
      • Automode
      • Group editing
      • Easy DX Cluster setup
      • Bandmap
      • Propagation Window, a simple window providing propagation indices as provided by the NOAA Space Weather Center. CQRLOG does not include any propagation forecast module but keen users can estimate many parameters just from the supplied data.

Feedback:

  • Google Alert: In the ask.elmershack.com forums, AC0QW asks, "What podcasts do you like related to ham radio?" N3JIM recommended Linux in the Ham Shack. Also mentioned: SolderSmoke and The Practical Amateur Radio podcast.
  • Google Alert: In the forum for the Podnutz podcast, Tom asks, "Who else in the forums does a podcast or videocast? I am experimenting (struggling) with doing one on a different subject (Ham radio) and would like to get some inputs from people who are doing shows now." computerteq responds, "There is a podcast called Linux in the ham shack. https://lhspodcast.info/ I personally am not into ham radio, but they might have some info for you. They had a table set up at the South East Linux Fest when I was there."
  • Frazer emailed us that he has experienced problems with the podcast feed, both .mp3 and .ogg. (He also will soon take his license test.) Give it another try, Frazer, and let us know how it goes.
  • Gorkon from The Linux Link Tech Show talks about the LHS and QSK podcasts, and Ohio Linux Fest over at geardiary.com.
  • Randy, K7AGE, has a video chat where he mentions Resonant Frequency and LHS. Russ wishes he would use his name, not just "Bill and another fellow".
  • Mention of LHS on The Techie Geek Episode #71.
  • Link to our site from listener KC8LPZ. We linked back.
  • Bryan, drtelnet, followed us on Identi.ca. Everyone go follow a fellow ham!
  • LHS site via BSM is mentioned by Chris 2W0PHP using his signature at the Transmission 1 forums. Everyone should add "For quality amateur radio and Linux information, visit https://lhspodcast.info." to their email signature files.
  • We have been linked from www.amateurradio.com. We linked back.
  • Russ rants about KE9V stopping the Cornbread Road podcast series in favor of going to a commercial outlet.
  • Frazer B. on Facebook comments that he's using Ubuntu 10.4 and is studying for his amateur radio license in Canada. Good luck, Frazer, and let us know how it goes.
  • Don, WS4E, writes that both Crunchbang Linux and Linux Mint now have versions based directly on Debian. The Mint project is experimental, but Crunchbang has announced that the next version will be based on Debian Testing. Don has tried both, and is staying with the Crunchbang product.

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 888-455-0305 or 417-200-4811, or record an introduction to the podcast.
  • Sign up for the LHS mailing list.
  • Thanks to Dave from Gamma Leonis for the theme music.

Music:

  • "Superglue" by Heifervescent from the album "The Glue Factory", courtesy of Jamendo.
  • "To a Friend in His Climb" by "Men in Route" from the album "'Ndemo!", courtesy of Jamendo.

LHS Episode #049: CQRlog Revisited

Hello, everyone! Due to Cheryl having some hand surgery and my being a telecommuter for the last month or so, I haven't been able to keep up with the podcast release cycle.  We've been recording episodes like we're supposed to. It's just been impossible to get them released on time. That means that #047 and #048 are going to be released in rapid succession so you'll get twice the LHS yummy goodness.

This time around, Richard has been looking a little deeper into CQRlog, a great logging program for Linux created by OK2CQR.  We talked about this program in a past episode and we've mentioned it a few more times in passing. This time we're getting down deep into the features and all of the integrations CQRlog has with other ham radio applications. We also address our usual announcements, feedback, other technical topics and throw in a bunch of witty banter just to keep things interesting. Thanks, all, for staying with us while we try and get back to a regular podcasting cycle. Keep listening and keep spreading the word.

73 de The LHS Guys