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


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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...