Speed of light...

Let's see - today's the 25'th. It was on the 19th that Goggle said they'd review this spam blog. I'm not impressed with either their spam checking tools or their speed.. Get one or the other right...

Spam Blog

I'll all for stamping out spam of all sorts and I have great respect for the daunting task Google and Blogger.com have to deal with - but gosh guys - if you flag a simple little blog like this one as a spam blog, your tools need tweaking.

More memory...

My home XP-Pro 'workstation' started with 256 MB back in 2003. A couple years later I spent another $95 to add 512 MB. That 768 MB worked fine until a couple months ago when I moved my Linux server from a dedicated box to a VMWare virtual system on the XP box. A bit of fine tuning on the memory allocation mimized the swapping of the XP applications but it was easy to tell both systems were on the edge of useful with the limited resources. Last Friday I picked up a brand new 1 GB stick of memory from my favorite neighborhood computer store ComputerStop and installed it this morning. XP is much happier now...

PS. DDR 2700 with a 333 MHz clock rate - how's that for smoking speed in 2008?

Bill

Morse Code - the original digital mode

Good stuff on the code:

• Learn CW Online - This website features include High score rankings, Discussion forum, Text to CW and a KOCH based CW learning course.
• FISTS - the International Morse Preservation Society
  
• Straight Key Century Club - Straight Key Corse Code Operators
• CW Blasphemy - doing CW without knowing CW.... A group dedicated to the infamously unpopular use of software to decode and transmit Morse code (CW) on amateur radio.
• Morse Runner download the free application! A contest simulator
• CW Skimmer - Multi-channel CW decoder and analyzer
• MRP40 - MRP40 Morse Code Decoder & Sender (Looks very nice but a bit pricey at 49e)
• Pocket Digi
• fldigi
• gMFSK
• N1MM transmits CW but has no decoding
• Writelog has a CW decoder
• CWget and CWtype - the visual display of the incoming on CWget and the macros for CWtype look like nifty features to be checked out. Windows programs!
• WinWarbler of the DXLab suite has CW functionality.. Of special interest to me is its ability to send using external modems such as the KAM
• Hundreds of hours of W1AW code practice in MP3 format are available from www.pcpractice.com/CW
  

XLPC with Ubuntu

The One Laptop is of minimal use with it's SUGAR OS. Ubuntu will make it a real tool... Maybe Sunday I'll get Ubuntu installed on my new 4 GB SDHC card ($30 + tax from Costco today) hopefully the SDHC will work with the XO...

References

• Ubuntu Mobile
• Ubuntu On OLPC XO by laptop.org
• Ian's story of installing Ubuntu on XO
• Ubuntu Netbook Remix - made for the little PC's
• Free Like GNU did it
• Another experience doing it...
• Installing using a disk image...

Now to check on the SDHC SD issue. (SD at 4 GB or larger are now SDHC...)

• Good SD Card issues and discussion
• http://www.olpcnews.com/forum/index.php?topic=176.0

Amateur Radio Licensing

I read about this no nonsense General class license study guide at the AJ4IJ Hame Radio Internets blog.


I have to get the Wiki back online - this would make more sense there then on a blog posting. At least the wiki should have the overall summary.

Remote Radio Operation

Another blog page being used as a scratch pad for a project being worked on.

http://mmhamsoft.amateur-radio.ca/extras/using_waveLink.htm

ham radio deluxe.

VHF is High Fun

Start of some VHF and UHF notes...

• http://www.on4kst.info/chat/index.php

Favorite Antenna Sites

Here's a (start of) a list of my favorite antenna sites:

• www.astromag.co.uk/j-pole - a 6 meter J-Pole made from 450 ohm twinlead
• www.wb8erj.com/bike-ant - a 2 meter J-Pole made from RG-58 coax instead of the convential design using 300 ohm twinlead. This is essentially what I use taped to my bicycle safety flag.
  

Good Things Radios Amateurs are doing

• International Health Services of MN supporting medical/dental/eye care teams for 10 day missions in Honduras with Winlin e-mail over the past 5 years.

Operating Links

A list of links to support on the air operation...

• VHF DX Spots
• more soon..
  

FLdigi and amateur radio

This exposure to Amateur Radio by the general Linux public is what we need more of...

Fldigi and amateur radio on Linux

On a sad note, the author of that article recently became a silent key(board)...

HT Counterpoise

Here's a web page by K6GPH with a couple good ideas for building an HT counterpoise..

1. Use the spade connector so the wire is easily detachable.
2. Use different lengths of wire for different bands
   

Too many toys or too little time - Seapac plans

Every year I bring far too many toys and projects to Seaside. I'm sure this year will be no exception but I'm going to try and keep it down to only twice as much as I can use.

Here's a fluffy list of my projects for the weekend.

1. I'd like to get the Vista laptop "Internet Connection Sharing" from the wireless card feed the WRT634 router. Shouldn't be too hard and should be very useful.

2. Related to #1 - I'll bring the Open-Mesh (Mer'ack'ie replacements) boxes and see if they'll work to extend the WRT router.

3. I'm going to build a PVC pile HF dipole for the FT817. I've had that radio for a long time and haven't yet made many QSO's with it. Getting Power poles on the power leads will be good progress. Extra credit for wiring up the paddles.

4. Full time power, not ignition switched, to the mobile Kenwood would be a good thing. That'll also let me work more with the bluetooth modules. That'll be extra fun now that I have the antenna adapters.

5. The Nokia N800 is finally upgraded to OS2008. Now to install the applications.

6. OLPC - XO - generally trying to figure it out.

I have too many toys. Sky River agrees.

73 Bill

Update - I forgot one. A 6 meter j-pole made of 450 ohm ladder line...

I need an External Bluetooth GPS

Which GPS should I get? Will it be here in time for Seapac at Seaside? Is there anyplace to buy it locally?

• http://www.semsons.com/ib737blgps32.html
• US GLOBAL BT-338 at Amazon

Amazon is promising. Could they get a GPS across Lake Washington in a mere three days? Probably not an issue as it probably isn't shipped from Seattle any way.

Wetnet Brunch 5/24/08, Whisper, 6 meters, HDTV

It's been a while since I filled out a page with notes durning brunch. This was a good one... Here's the high points in no particular order:

• Whisper - It appears this is the hot mode on 6 meters these days. If I get an antenna at Seaside next weekend I'll be able to give this a try. Stan's article in ARRL mentions 30 meters but 6 meters (50.290?) is also used. So far the Diamond DP-GH62 looks like the best solution for a simple base antenna for Whisper and other
  
• US Cutter is a local company making good use of Ebay where a friend is working...
• We're about to pick up a digital converter box. Not that we really need it with cable, but it should give use some new channels that are only on the digital cable which we don't currently subscribe to. For a list of HD channels, I was told TitanTV is one of the best sites.
• Sprints decision to limit month bandwidth to a mere 5 gigabytes on their Aircard offering was causing some consternation. I have faith that competition between the vendors and newer technologies will enable us to put these silly limitations behind us.
• We're still looking for a solution to the USB cables for using the Nokia N800 as a host mode controller. I was going to get an adapter kit from the local Totem Lake Radio Shack but they had a different product then the one I saw in Factoria. Not only was it wrong, but $10 more.

More in a bit when i can finish this with my notes...

JNOS does B2F

Thank you Maiko!!! This is a big thing. Personally I'll have it installed and running by the end of the day.

Bill

-----

Greetings to all,

Here is another snapshot of my development system, which now includes full support for B2F forwarding (and attachments). Please READ the link to 'details / how to compile' for full details. It contains information on new commands, enhancements, bugs that still exist with the B2F code, and other information that *might* be of use.

You can use Airmail telnet (internet access) module to forward with the JNOS 2.0f2 software if you want. If anyone feels ambitious, why not try out a JNOS 2.0f2 <-> JNOS 2.0f2 forwarding session using the new B2F mode. I have not tried JNOS to JNOS yet :)

This is BETA - use at your risk. Download patch and details at :

http://www.langelaar.net/projects/jnos2/latest.html

As usual, this is experimental, so expect the unexpected.

Please report ANY problems to me (off list please). Thank you.

Maiko Langelaar / VE4KLM
http://www.langelaar.net


_______________________________________________

nos-bbs mailing list
nos-bbs@lists.tapr.org
https://lists.tapr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nos-bbs

ARRL marketing Amateur Technology.

Here's another new blog. ARRL is adding technology as their 5th pillar and this, in theory, is a good start toward future good things...

http://wedothatradio.wordpress.com/

Online Amateur Magazine - AntenTOP

I discovered the online Amateur Radio and Antenna magazine, AntenTOP, thanks to Google Reader and the AC7FA blog posting.

Now if only they would have RSS or Email announcements...

Crank up the power!! - nwaprs sig posting

> Placed order for a MT-8000FA on Wednesday, it arrived today

There seems to be a significant number of folks getting these new
tracker units. While it's always great to see new technology hit the
streets, this is one place where it's a real step backwards. Despite
comments that a system with a receiver was coming, they continue to
release new products that cannot tell if they're transmitting at the
same time as other stations.

In the early days of packet, these systems would have been tracked
down and had their coax pinned...

It looks like one hope for the rest of us is to compete is to get
amplifiers or go to the high power settings with our existing systems.

This is unfortunate because it's so contrary to good amateur practice
and what ham radio should stand for. It's another example of the
tragedy of the commons that Bob B. talks about in:
http://eng.usna.navy.mil/~bruninga/aprs/fix14439.html
" Whenever there is a balance between individual interests and the
common good, human nature guarantees the overloading and ultimate
demise of the common resource."

Personally - I think I'm just going to start treating the stock APRS
144.39 channel like the CB it is becoming. It's relatively useful out
on the road but suffers from a far too low signal to noise ratio
around the cities... There is lots of interesting packet that can be
done on 9k6 or the data and emcomm 1200 baud channels. This is also
a good excuse to start making use of 6 meters since it's that time of
year... I'm going to miss voice alert but I think we can come up
with some even better alternatives.

Onward through the fog...

Bill - WA7NWP

PS. Note what Riley said quoting Bill Cross: -
http://www2.arrl.org/news/stories/2007/06/01/100



"Cross cited §97.7 of the rules, which requires each amateur station
to have a control operator and, in essence, to employ a
"listen-before-transmit" protocol.""

Linux Ham

There have been some impressive new software offerings on Linux recently.. It needs better advertising. More on that soon...

Linuxfest Northwest 2008

My first linuxfest... http://linuxfestnorthwest.org/

Here's some quick notes.


This was the first time in years I made it North of Mt Vernon and the first time ever off the road at Bellingham. I didn't realize how big the town was, how long it stretched along I5 and that there were three major schools.

It was yard sale weekend in the county...

Nice place for a gathering at the Bellingham Technical College.

I'm not sure if it is what I expected or not. I guess it was a bit more blue jean hacker and less commercial then I was thinking it would be.

Google was there mostly looking for employees. I learned the hottest languages were Python (no surprise) and C++ (not a big surprise...)

HP was there. That was a surprise. Even more surprising was that the folks were from my old group in Fort Collins.

Microsoft wasn't there. :-(

Several web host companies. Pogo and another local server manufacture from Bothell were there.

A Myth-TV spin off, Schedules Direct, was there. This looks like a good organization to support. Anybody that's playing "Good Eats" for a demo has got to be on the ball.

I purchased a hacked Adtron Linux router for a great price. I picked up a couple books for reasonable prices. Debugging with GDB is something it's time to learn.

There was somewhat of an OLPC-XO presence. I didn't attend the meetings but the feedback I heard was not promising.

There was even a booth with some folks wearing silly little red horns... (hint: Hi Dennis and Jeff...)

And now, as a prelude to a posting tomorrow, guess what was missing and has me pondering yet another little project...

73
Bill - WA7NWP

First Post

We have to start somewhere. How about this?

73
Bill - WA7NWP