AmateurRadio.com

Years ago here in the States, a company called Folgers aired TV commercials in which they replaced the coffee in fine restaurants with Folger’s Crystals, an instant coffee.  The premise was the product was so good, patrons wouldn’t know the difference.  I’m sure the advertising campaign was a boon to Folgers as years later you will once in awhile hear someone say about secretly replacing something with Folger’s Crystals.

For years Linux advocates have been promoting the use of Linux in the hamshack, often bragging how their shacks are 100% “Windows free.”  As I have mentioned in past blog articles, I’ve attempted several times over the past eight or more years to migrate totally to Linux in the shack and have been unsuccessful each time.  I’m no dummy when it comes to Linux.  I have used it since 1995 when nearly all tasks were done in the bash shell and XWindows was a cumbersome novelty that was difficult to configure and was scorned by many.  Being able to copy and paste something from one app to another or configure something by right-clicking it was a luxury light years away.

Each time I get involved in these discussions about Linux in the shack (the most recent on QRP-L.org), several people will say that Linux does have enough amateur radio applications to replace Windows.  But there’s a caveat that none of these evangelists seem to grasp: the functionality of Linux logging and contesting applications doesn’t come close to Windows counterparts.  I often use three applications as the “yardsticks” by which Linux logging and contest applications should be measured against: Ham Radio Deluxe, DXLab, and N1MM.  These are all free programs so there can’t be any debate about evil corporations making a profit developing the software.  The self-proclaimed “world’s best Linux logging program”, CQRLog, is a fine program with a very clean interface that does basic logging, award tracking, and rig control.  It’s a great program if that’s all you want to do, but it’s not an equivalent to HRD or DXLab.  On the contesting front, I don’t know of any Linux program that comes close to what N1MM does.  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.

Digital aficionados are in luck, however.  Fldigi is a wonderful multi-protocol digital modem program that is as good as or even better than Windows digital modem programs.  Unfortunately the arcaneness of the Linux sound system can cause much heartache and sorrow, but the program itself is superb.

Frequently in these discussions the instability of Windows will be mentioned.  If one believed all of the rants about how bad Windows is, one would think a Windows box with an uptime of several hours is a rare thing and Windows machines are plagued with thousands of viruses a day and running anything beyond Solitaire is an exercise in torture.  Patching and updating is an endless treadmill requiring hours of attention each week.  I’m not sure where this view comes from, but desktop Windows has been quite stable since XP and reasonably maintained Windows servers can be expected to run for years with few problems.

Replacing restaurant coffee with Folger’s Crystals fooled restaurant patrons because it actually had the same taste, appearance, and aroma of restaurant coffee.  Linux ham applications right now can replace Windows digital modem functionality, but those wanting a full-bodied cup of logging or contesting applications are out of luck.  I wish Linux amateur radio advocates would realize that not everyone is willing to live with limited functionality in order to use a non-Windows operating system.  Linux may be a viable alternative operating system, but the current crop of amateur radio applications are not slam-dunk alternatives to Windows applications like some claim.

My apologies for the hideously long load times for this blog.  I’ve been informed that the number of RSS feeds on the right is making the page take a long time to load.  I’ve been trying to build something similar to the blogroll you get at Blogger, but unfortunately WordPress.com doesn’t offer a blogroll widget that sorts by last post date and shows the title of the last post.  It’s either a full blown RSS feed for each blog you want to keep up with or a list of static links.  So, most of the RSS feeds are deactivated for now until I can figure out another solution.

I consider blogrolls an important part of amateur radio blogademia.  If you have me in your blogroll, thank you.  I hope to get your blog back in mine soon….

(If anyone reading this has better WordPress fu than me, please give me some pointers!)

73

Goody

Your crazy great uncle Thadeus died last week.  He was an eccentric old coot who liked his amateur radio a lot, so much that his wife Mildred left him forty years ago and he’s been holed up in his hamshack ever since.  Everyone thought old uncle Thad was broke, but in his will he revealed a Swiss bank account with $60 million left to you, the only other ham in the entire family.  But there’s a catch.  You have to spend $10 million of it on revitalizing amateur radio in order to get the other $50 million.  What do you spend it on?  (Yes, I know, this is like a Richard Pryor movie…)

Welcome to the new home of The K3NG Report.  I’m still getting things in order, most noticeably the blogroll.  I’m going to try to get all the blogs from the Blogger blogroll that are not covered at AmateurRadio.com in as RSS feeds.  Unfortunately WordPress doesn’t seem to have a good blogroll widget like Blogger, but it’s a small price to pay.

The weekend before last while operating the Pennsylvania QSO Party, I noticed spots on the DX cluster for the “South Dakota Tea Party“.  At first I thought it was a joke, but Googling I found this contest announcement on the ‘zed.  The contest organizer claims that this contest has “an emphasis limited government and there are no rules.”  Extra points are offered for things like having a valid concealed weapons permit, a hunting license, or fishing license.  I’m not sure how this relates to limited government as all of these are issued by government agencies, as are amateur radio licenses.  (Several of the posts in this announcement thread have disappeared; I’m not sure why.)

For those in amateur radio blogademia outside of K/W/N land, the tea party in the United States is a political movement that has sprung up since the current president took office.  The tea party started out as a supposedly independent grassroots movement, but has clearly emerged as a right wing conservative Republican organization funded by commercial interests.  You can see footage of them here and here protesting taxes and healthcare reform.  Google “tea party signs” and make your own judgement.

While it appears this QSO party is the creation of a handful of amateurs and is somewhat an informal thrown-together event, and albeit on that armpit of an amateur radio forum known as QRZ, this is the first time I’m aware of an operating event with a political theme.  As if it wasn’t enough to have non-stop right wing politics in 80 meter roundtables and on amateur radio forums, now we’re luring people into working stations in a somewhat rare state under the semblance of a political movement and agenda.  It’s distasteful and not in the spirit of amateur radio.

Having politically-oriented operating events could open the door to a whole new realm of contests and special event stations, both conservative and liberal oriented that would offend just about everyone.  Can you imagine having operating events such as the Obama Re-election Party or the Sarah Palin QRO Sprint?  How about the National Rifle Association Worked All Free States Award or the QRP Pro-Choice Contest?  And while we’re bringing politics into amateur radio, why not religion?  How about a Mosques On The Air weekend, or a Westboro Baptist Church Koran Burning special events station?  I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea.  We don’t want to start an arms race of political and religious on-the-air events in amateur radio.

This may come as a surprise, but I did participate in the South Dakota tea party event.  I made no contacts, but since there are no rules I awarded myself 10 billion points and I made a clean sweep of all counties in South Dakota.  Such is life without rules.  Perhaps next year I’ll actually get on the air, but make up my own callsign in the spirit of limited government and regulation, and political inanity….

Inspired by Diana Eng, a few weeks ago I built a WA5VJB cheap dual-band yagi for 2m and 70cm.  I thought I’d give satellite operation a try as nothing else is floating my boat right now in amateur radio.