Tag: Linux

LHS Show Notes #027

Posted on by Russ Woodman

Contributors:

  • Russ visited a Ham Radio Outlet in Virginia and bought a new Yaesu FT-7900R for his truck.
  • Richard bought a Kenwood TS-50, some wire and antennas at the Belton hamfest, but hasn't installed them yet.
  • John, EI7IG, says you don't need AX.25 support in the kernel to run XASTIR, since you're running the TNC in KISS mode. He also says that APRS is useful for emcomm events, disseminating local weather information, and passing short text messages.
  • Tim, KI6BGE, recommends Resonant Frequency, Linux in the Ham Shack, and SolderSmoke in his October 29 blog entry.

Announcements:

  • We received a donation from Paul during the last episode, and now Alex made a sizable donation. Thanks, Alex!

Links and Notes:

Music:

  • "Company of Fools" by Great Big Sea from the album "Fortune's Favour"

LHS Show Notes #025

Posted on by Russ Woodman

Contributors:

  • Paul, from TeenRadioJourney.com, mentions LHS on his blog.
  • Russ Wenner from The Techie Geek podcast joins us in the chat room.
  • Kent, VE4KEH, in a post in the forums, says he heard Russ on an episode of Hacker Public Radio, and wonders if an appearance on Linux Outlaws is next. He also asks about a Windows 7 launch party. Our hosts respond.
  • Kent also posts a comment in a thread about Acer dropping support if you install Linux on one of their computers. Kent asks which manufacturers are Linux friendly? He also wonders why Acer creates two partitions on their laptops.
  • threethirty from Linux Cranks sent congratulations about LHS getting a mention in an LXer.com article Ohio LinuxFest Report
  • Matt, KC8BEW, in a comment about Episode 22 asks if Chirp will support radios other than Icom D-Star.

Announcements:

Links and Notes:

  • Russ talks a bit about being at Ohio Linux Fest. He was in "podcasters row" in the exhibit hall, along with the Northeast Ohio Open Source Society, The Linux Link Tech Show, and the Security Justice podcast. Russ shares some interviews and audio he recorded:
    • Interview with Matt, KC8BEW.
    • Russ plans on taking Linux in the Ham Shack to Dayton Hamvention, 2010.
    • Jim, KB3ORA, stops by the booth.
  • Questions in the chat room:
    • Russ Wenner from the Techie Geek Podcast, asks: is ham radio an expensive hobby? Richard opines.
    • HamTests.net is a good resource. The European site is HamTests.co.uk.
    • Do you need to learn Morse code? Nope, but it's even more popular now.
    • Do you need a high antenna? Not necessarily. Russ discusses. The ARRL has several good books on antennas.
    • Paul Shirey asks if shared folders on different machines can be combined. Possible, but difficult.
  • Richard talks about APRS and XASTIR.
    • One of the requirements for using APRS under Linux is that you must have the AX.25 packet radio protocol support in the kernel.
    • To determine if your kernal has AX.25 support, enter this command in a terminal: 
      grep ax25 /proc/kallsyms

      If you get a result something like this:

      c0510ddc r trans_net_ax25_table
c05127a0 r trans_net_ax25_param_table

      then AX.25 support is built into the kernel. If you receive nothing, then you'll need to recompile the kernel with AX.25 support. (Most of the current versions of Ubuntu and Linux Mint have AX.25 support.)
      For more information, see the HowTo:AX.25 article on the XASTIR wiki.

    • Richard describes configuring XASTIR.
    • Bottom line: it's not all that hard to set up. Read the wiki. There are how-to articles for many different operating systems.
  • From the chatroom, someone asks about the throughput of the various data modes in amateur radio.

Music:

  • "Like This" by STEEP from the album "STEEP"
  • "Lost" by Trainlight from the album "Now You're Alone with Ghosts"

LHS Show Notes #024

Posted on by Russ Woodman

Richard and Russ are the Penn and Teller of Amateur Radio podcasting.

Contributors:

  • Doug, N6LMX, recently acquired an old Dell Inspiron 3500 notebook and decided to try Linux Mint on it. For some reason, probably processor and memory, it stalled before it got started. Same with Ubuntu 9.04. However, Xubuntu 9.04 works like a charm.
  • Joe, NE3R, sent an audio message about minicom. Thanks, Joe. Look for it in a future show.
  • Google alert about a LHS mention in John's Blog.
  • Paul in the chatroom asks about connecting a Linux machine to a shared Windows printer. Russ suggests browsing to https://localhost:631 to bring up the CUPS administration page and configuring the printer there.

Announcements:

  • New streaming audio on the web site. New URL: https://stream.lhsinfo.org:8008, or go to https://lhsinfo.org and look for the links on the right side of the page.
  • Look for Richard at the Belton HamEXPO on October 3rd. in Belton, TX. Russ will be at Ohio Linux Fest on September 25-27 in Columbus, OH.
  • Welcome Bill, KA9WKA, as the newest member of the Black Sparrow Media production team. Bill will be compiling the show notes for Resonant Frequency. (And, now, LHS too. Email comments, corrections, suggestions to ka9wka at blacksparrowmedia dot com. -Ed.)

Interview:

Topic:

  • Richard discusses programming radios using Linux
    • Richard tries programming his Vertex VX-150 using Wine under Linux. The programming software installed fine, but when he tried downloading the data from the radio to the computer, he received errors, probably due to a mismatch in the serial port speed. Next, he tried programming his Icom IC-91AD. The software installed and recognized his serial port, COM1, and he was able to program the radio.
    • Tim, KI6BGE, in the chatroom, says the IC2200H D-Star program works the same way.
    • KB3GTN in the chatroom says he's had good luck programming his Kenwood TS480 within Linux, using his own program.
    • Tim, KI6BGE, says the Icom ID800 and IC2200H use the same programming cable, but different software.
  • A Ustreamer asks which Linux distributions we're using. The summary is Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Kubuntu, SpearMint, CentOS, OpenSUSE, and Debian.

Music:

  • "Terra Firma" by Garrett Wall from the album "Sky Pointing"
  • "All of the Above" by Garrett Wall from the album "Sky Pointing"

LHS Episode #027: Where Are My Meds?

Posted on by Russ Woodman

haarpWe have topped 40,000 downloads! Thanks go out to all of our listeners and live webcast attendees for making Linux in the HAM Shack as popular as it is. Give yourselves a huge round of applause. We're also well on our way to our donation goal of $750 so we can buy booth space and Internet access at the Dayton Hamvention in Dayton, Ohio, in May of 2010. Thank you for all of your donations. Please keep them coming as you're able to send them in!

In this episode, we address listener feedback and comments, and then in a burst of inspiration invite listeners from the chat room to come onto the program for a lively and very fun roundtable discussion. Topics were varied, from portable antenna design, to life without Red Bull; from the HAARP VLF array in Alaska to D-STAR, PACTOR and other digital ham radio communication modes. And since I was on meds and Richard was off his, things got a little crazy towards the end.

We hope you enjoy this episode of Linux in the HAM Shack. Please leave us comments or questions on the web site or via voice mail at 888-455-0305. And send your best wishes to Bill, KA9WKA, who has taken on the responsibility of getting LHS's show notes out in a timely fashion. Thanks, Bill. You're a lifesaver!

73 de Russ, K5TUX

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LHS Episode #025: APRS and Xastir

Posted on by Russ Woodman

aprsRichard and I have been busy over the last couple of weeks. He spent a day at the Belton Hamfest near Waco, Texas on October 3rd. The weekend before that, I spent a few days in Columbus, Ohio at Ohio Linux Fest. This is our first episode back from those events. I have a few hours of audio I need to sift through, but I managed to get a couple of clips from my interviews and commentary from OLF included in the second segment of this episode of the podcast. Because I had a visit from my parents and my brother and sister-in-law from New Hampshire, I haven't been able to get the podcast out in a timely manner. I suppose after 25 releases, I should probably stop apologizing for being late but I do like it when we release on time. Anyway, enjoy our interviews and Richard's discourse on APRS and Xastir, and stay tuned for a lot of great audio from our live endeavors coming up in future episodes. Thanks for downloading, and have a great couple of weeks.

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