Linux in the Ham Shack

Announcements:

Richard is at his father’s place due to problems with his Suddenlink connection at home.

Ohio LinuxFest 2010 is on the horizon. Russ hopes to be a speaker this year. It will be held September 10-12, 2010 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, OH.

Mid-America GNU/Linux Networkers Conference (MAGNet Con). Russ and Cheryl are organizing this event, which is tentatively scheduled to be held May 6-7, 2011, at the St. Louis Union Station Marriott in St. Louis, MO.

They’re looking for speakers, sponsors, organizers, and attendees. If you’re interested or can help, please visit the web site.

Donations:

Please consider making a donation to Linux in the Ham Shack to help defray the costs of producing the show, attending shows, file hosting, etc. There’s a convenient Donate link on the web site, and you can use a credit card or PayPal.

You can also support the show by purchasing LHS merchandise at cafepress.com/lhspodcast or printfection.com/lhs.

Thank you!

Feature:

Russ discusses his trip to Southeast Linuxfest June 11-13, 2010.

Russ gave a talk on Open Source and Amateur Radio. The talk was recorded and will be available at some point.

Thanks to everyone involved for their efforts in organizing SELF:

President: David Yates

Vice President: David Nalley

Treasurer: John Yeary

Secretary: Mike Major

Speaker Coordinator: Jeremy Sands

Community Coordinator: Amber Graner

Volunteer Coordinator: Jas Eckard

Field Day, 2010, was held June 26-27. Russ and Richard discuss the event and how it combines an emergency preparedness exercise and a contest.

Russ used to attend Field Day in Maine with the Aroostook Amateur Radio Association (K1FS).

This year, he visited the Nixa Amateur Radio Club (operating as N0A) and the

Southwest Missouri Amateur Radio Club sites.

One suggestion: make your Field Day sites wheelchair accessible!

Send us your Field Day stories!

Feedback:

Don, WS4E, sent us a picture of him standing outside the Red Hat Summit in Boston wearing his LHS T-shirt. Thanks, Don!

Jan, PA9QV, linked to us in his blog, Varying Frequencies. Thanks, Jan!

Eldon, WA0UWH, also linked to us on his blog. Thanks, Eldon!

Dave, M0DCM, in the UK writes that he enjoyed Episode 40, and comments about Fldigi, xdx, gpredict, and wsjt.  He uses Xastir, too. He wonders if there is an HD SSTV application for Linux.  His club has asked him to find a good Linux alternative to WinPack. Richard discusses. These could be topics for future shows.(Ed. note: Jean-Paul, F6FBB, has written a packet BBS application for Windows and Linux.)

Contact Info:

Contact Richard at [email protected], Russ at [email protected], or both at the same time at [email protected].

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.

Send hate mail to Bill at [email protected]. 🙂

Thanks to Dave from Gamma Leonis for the theme music and promo.

Music:

“Paper King” by Noxious from the album “Revilutia”, courtesy of garageband.com.

“Enslaved by Pain” by Severed Fifth (Jono Bacon), from the album “Denied by Reign”.

Feature:

Russ, Richard and Bill discuss the 2010 Dayton Hamvention.

Thanks to Rob of the Ohio Linux Fest who provided 100 copies of the Ubuntu Live CD to give away to anyone interested.

Some of the new equipment shown at Dayton:

Kenwood TS-590S

Yaesu FT DX 5000 HF/6m transciever.

Icom IC-9100 HF/VHF/UHF/D-Star transciever

Wouxun KG-UVD1P, an inexpensive 2m handytalk from China.

Russ and Cheryl recorded some audio at Dayton.  Several fans of the show stopped by, including Bill KA9WKA, Rich KD0BJT and Brady KD0BJS from the Low SWR Podcast, and Matt KC8BEW.  An avid listener, G3ZTB from Leeds, England, chatted with us a few times, as well as several others from around the world.

Aluma Towers

DX Engineering

Luso Towers

Begali keys

Elecraft P3 Panadapter

LHS Dayton Raffle winners:

Linux in the Ham Shack caps: KC9OLI and W8PJW

Linux in the Ham Shack T-shirts: K9LNX and WD8E

Grand prize, an Alinco DJ-175T 2m HT: N4KMC

Feedback:

Hal left a voice mail after his visit to the booth at Dayton and asks about installing Ubuntu to a flash drive. Russ describes the process. Also see: Ubuntu Installatoin to USB Stick or from Windows, see UNetbootin.

Randall, KC4WZE, writes to Russ that appreciates that Richard now has a noise gate, but says it needs adjusting, because he can still hear Richard rant and rave. 🙂

LHS got a mention on Episode 57 of The Linux Basement. Thanks, Claudio! Claudio was our guest on Episode 39.

LHS was also mentioned in the Gear Diary blog post about SouthEast LinuxFest 2010.

Eldon, WA0UWH, mentions us on his blog.

Stephen Spector, a member of the Xen project team, mentions LHS in his blog at NetworkWorld.com.

Don, WS4E, comments on the web site: what happened to LHS episodes on ustream.tv? Not all get recorded over there.

Scott, AD7MI, mentions us on his blog entry about his visit to Dayton.

Randall, KC4WZE, also asks Richard about FSK on HF… what are the tones or the frequency shift of FSK? Richard discusses.

Randall asks Russ about the relative sizes of one distribution over another, in terms of disk space and memory. He can see there would be differences if all the drivers were statically linked, but believes they are now dynamically loaded. What makes one distro different from another? He then lists a bunch of services he’d like to have running. Russ responds.

Randall, again, writes about yanking Richard’s badger.

Contact Info:

Contact Richard at [email protected], Russ at [email protected], or both at the same time at [email protected].

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, too, to Dave from Gamma Leonis for the theme music and promo.

Bill is looking for a job as an IT manager in the NE Illinois area. Please send leads to [email protected]. Thanks!

Next time, SouthEast LinuxFest, Field Day, and more.

Music:

“When Will It End” by Even Further

“Cold Blood in the Night” by Guta

Feedback:

This will be an all-feedback episode, ala the Going Linux show.

Warren, N0XLT, wrote to Russ back in May. He’s catching up on the podcasts, and wonders what programs are available for Linux with similar features to Ham Radio Deluxe or DX Labs,, such as rig control, logging, digital modes, etc. Fldigi, xdx, xlog, gpredict, Hamlib and more have been mentioned on previous episodes. Our hosts discuss.

Google alert: LHS was mentioned at K7JM’s web site. Thanks, John.

Google alert: LinuxPR press release for Southeast LinuxFest, and Russ was a presenter.

Bob, no call, enjoys the podcast. He wonders why the Ogg version of the podcast doesn’t play on VLC under Windows. Russ has tested the Ogg files with VLC on Windows 7, Mac OS-X and Linux. Maybe a newer version of VLC will help. Let us know what you discover, Bob.

Danny, KJ4UHI, is a new linux user and uses Orca as a screen reader for the visually impaired. A future episode will cover Linux accessibility tools for the handicapped. Any listeners with experience with Orca or other accessibility software, contact us!

Jonathan, no call, recently listened to Episode 38. He is a daily Orca user, and offers his assistance. Thanks, Jonathan.

John, KF6EFG, wrote asking for a small section of the show that covers changes to the licensing and privileges regulations over the years, and trends in the hobby. He also notes that the web site has been slow. (The ARRL has a nice band plan map on their site.)

Doug, KB3TOA, met Russ at the Dayton Hamvention, and is catching up on old episodes. He’s trying to follow the show on Twitter. Follow the podcast on Twitter with the user name “lhspodcast”. Doug also sent a donation. Thanks, Doug! Listen to a future episode for the results of the drawing.

Danny asks how he might hear the unedited podcast. Click on the LHS Up All Night link under the Streaming Audio heading on the right side of the page. You’ll need an application that will play an Ogg stream, like Totem or VLC, etc. Or join us on UStream for the live show.

Danny also asks if Richard is kidding about wearing a kilt, and if not, is it from Utilikilts?

The Northwest Tasmania ATV Group has been running episodes of LHS on Tuesday evenings. Thanks, guys! They operate on a linked repeater system and IRLP nodes 6616 and 6124.

Lynn, K5AVJ, asks what people use for calendaring. Paper? Phone app? Web app? Program? Smart phone? Mozilla Sunbird, Apple iCal, Mozilla Lightning, Google Calendar, and Scalix are some possibilities.

Listeners William and Frasier made donations to the show. Thanks!

Larry Bushey of the Going Linux podcast commented on the web site that he listens to the podcast and loves us, too.

Don, WS4E, writes that he’s been a long-time listener to LHS and Resonant Frequency. He’s tried many ham radio applications under Linux. What are the current favorite programs for rig control, logging, digital modes, award tracking, etc. That will likely be an entire episode. (And see the links earlier in this show notes page.)

“xPureEvilx” in the chat room asks what is the best Linux distribution for an older, slower machine? Richard recommends Crunchbang Linux Lite. He uses it on his 133MHz Dell Latitude with 128MB of memory. There are others, like Damn Small Linux and Puppy Linux. Check out Ted’s site, https://wa0eir.ham.org, and look at his applications, too.

Contact Info:

Contact Richard at [email protected], Russ at [email protected], or both at the same time at [email protected].

Leave us a voice mail at 1-888-455-0305  or 1-417-200-4811. Note the new number!

Music:

“Hey Allright” by The Cool Waters Band from the album “One More One”.

“Good Life” by Souldier of Fortune

Feature:

No Richard this time due to other commitments. In his stead, our special guest host is Claudio M, co-host of Linux Basement.

Claudio describes his background, history with Linux, and his role at Linux Basement.

Russ comments that many people at the Dayton Hamvention wondered what he was selling, and were shocked to discover that Linux was free. In fact, Russ was giving away Ubuntu 10.04 CDs, courtesy of Ohio Linux Fest. This observation leads to a discussion about the perceived value of Linux is proportional to it’s cost. In other words, the fact that open software often costs nothing leads many to think it is somehow less useful than software that must be purchased.

Russ suggests that the fact that Linux has no budget for marketing may be one of the reasons that many people are not aware of Linux. A discussion of the role of marketing and Linux advocacy ensues. Claudio mentions the Fedora Ambassador program.

Sheldon (of The Big Bang Theory) prefers Ubuntu!

IBM did air some Linux commercials. Perhaps they were too abstract or too focused on the enterprise?

Should Linux and free/open-source software attempt to be the dominant software, or should it remain a niche platform?

Linux still has a reputation for being harder to install and harder to use.

If Linux is to grow it’s market share, isn’t marketing necessary and how would it be funded?

Claudio notes that it’s rare for anyone to install an operating system from scratch, as most people purchase a computer with the OS already installed, and that operating system is usually Windows. When ASUS introduced the Linux-based netbook, it did not make it clear that it would not run Windows programs.

So how do we market Linux? Russ thinks Linux has been most successful when people are not aware that it’s Linux, as in many commercially successful embedded Linux products.

Claudio suggests that the Linux distributions tailored to the new user, such as Linux Mint or Ubuntu, will ultimately spread the awareness of Linux and free software. He also thinks that world-domination is not necessary or even consistent with the core values free choice and free software.

Look for Chad on Twitter at @chadwollenberg, Claudio on identi.ca at @claudiom, and look for #linuxbasement on IRC on freenode.net. There is also a Facebook fan page, search for Linux Basement. Email Claudio at [email protected] or Chad Wollenberg at [email protected].

Contact Info:

Announcements:

Resonant Frequency is back in production! Check out rfpodcast.info for more information and look for the latest episode, #41, in the usual places.

Look for LHS merchandise at https://cafepress.com/lhspodcast and at https://www.printfection.com/lhs. A little bit of each purchase goes to help with the podcast expenses.

We’re planning a future episode about Orca - a text-to-speech application for Linux. If you or someone you know is using Orca or another text-to-speech Linux application, share your experience! Contact Russ or Richard with any information you might have.

Visit the LHS channel on IRC at irc.freenode.net, channel #lhspodcast.

Look for random LHS episodes and music on the streaming audio links on the LHS web site.

Russ will be speaking at 2:00pm on Saturday, June 12th, at the SouthEast LinuxFest, June 11-13, 2010, at the Marriott at Renaissance Park hotel in Spartanburg, SC. He will be giving a talk on Linux and Ham Radio.

Russ will be starting up a mailing list for LHS show information. Watch the LHS web site for information on signing up.

Thanks to Rich, KD0BJT and Brady, KD0BJS of the Low SWR Podcast for recording an introduction to this episode.

Feature:

Richard discusses installing an HF rig in his vehicle.

Always connect the radio directly to the battery. You’ll have more current available and less noise.

Look for rubber grommets in the firewall to pass your wires into the passenger compartment.

Warning! Not all Powerpole connectors are Anderson Powerpole connectors! Some hamfest specials look the same, but don’t work as well.

Most mobile 40m and 75m antennas are not very broadbanded, so you will probably need an antenna tuner to cover the whole band.

Richard digresses into a brief discussion of Ubuntu 10.04. Russ was in a recent episode of the Fresh Ubuntu podcast.

Russ likes the looks of the Scorpion Black Widow HF antenna.

Welcome to K5AVJ who is running Linux Mint, and to VE2XPL, running Ubuntu 10.04.

Feedback:

Gary, KE2YK, writes about the discussion of ebook readers in Episode 31 and suggests this link to an old Radio Shack catalog as an example of a compromise between electronic and paper media. Visit Gary’s Random Oscillations blog, and his online store at https://www.ehamstore.com/.

Andy, OE4DNS, recently became a ham, is an avid Linux user, and just discovered the podcast. He’s a member of of the Metalab hacker space in Vienna, Austria. Andy responds to a question in Episode 37 from KJ4UHI about Morse code programs for Linux, and Andy suggests the Learn CW Online website provided by DJ1YFK. You can even export practice sessions to .mp3 files. Andy also recommends finding a hacker space in your area at the Hackerspaces web site. Fabian Kurz, DJ1YFK, is also the author of YFK Log. VE2XPL in the chat room also likes the Learn CW Online web site.

Tom is a first-time listener to the podcast with Episode 37, and thinks we spent too much time promoting merchandise.

Bruce, VE2GZI, writes to say thanks for the podcast and looks forward to seeing us at Dayton.

Albert commented on the web site that we should let The Linux Link site know about the new LHS web site and feeds.

Darryl, VK5HZ, just caught up to Episode 33. He’d love to have LHS visit the linux.conf.au conference held in January each year. In 2011 it will be in Brisbane, Queensland.

Contact Info:

Contact Richard at [email protected], Russ at [email protected], or both at the same time at [email protected].

Leave us a voice mail at 888-455-0305 or 417-429-4069, or record an introduction to the podcast and have a chance at winning $25.

Music:

“Music is His Mistress” by The Savannah Leigh Band from the album “City of Grey”

“Hey Mr.” by Matt Ellis from the album “Tell the People”