Archive for the ‘echolink’ Category
December 19th, 2012 | 
Author: 
China on a handheld
 |
| Wu, BG6RRN |
Today was cold and frosty. I was sitting downstairs in the warm browing through my newly-arrived January 2013 RadCom. In the shack my K3 was listening for beacons, my K2 was being a Robust Packet APRS gateway on 30m and my TM-D710 was being the local VHF APRS gateway whilst the other side of this dual band radio was running my Echolink node and logged in to the IRELAND conference (Echolink’s equivalent of D-Star’s reflectors.)
The Baofeng UV-3R+ on the table burst into life and I heard Wu, BG6RRN making a call. No-one replied to him so I called back. And so I found myself having a chat about Chinese radio equipment with a Chinese radio amateur using a Chinese handheld!
Wu spoke pretty good English – better than my Chinese anyway! He asked what I thought about Chinese radio equipment and I replied as diplomatically as possible that I liked it because it was cheap but the quality control could sometimes be better. Wu was familiar with the UV-3R+ I was using to link into my Echolink node and said that they were very popular in China as well.
Wu told me that he has had an Icom IC-7000 transceiver for a month but had so far not made any European contacts. He has never tried PSK31 so I encouraged him to try it. I hope I’ll hear him on the HF bands one day. Today’s chat may not have been a proper radio QSO but I do enjoy the opportunities Echolink provides to talk with hams with whom I would not otherwise make contact.
Show Notes #094
Introduction:
- No music this episode.
- It’s the night before Halloween and we’re off to another spooky episode of LHS with our hosts starting with a ramble about horror movies. It’s a trick AND a treat!
Announcements:
- Please consider donating to the podcast or subscribing for #20/year. Also, the free Black Sparrow Media app is at risk of disappearing unless our listeners are willing to provide $15/month to keep the download site alive. Please contact us if you can help.
Topics:
- Creating a desktop wallpaper slideshow in GNOME:
It’s actually a built-in feature of GNOME. Briefly, here are the steps:
- As root, create a new directory in /usr/share/backgrounds (any name you want).
- In that directory, place your desired background images (or links to them).
- There’s already a directory in /usr/share/backgrounds called cosmos which you can use as a guide.
- Copy background-1.xml from the cosmos directory into your new directory and edit it to specify your images.
More information can be found in this askubuntu thread. Be sure to read through all the comments.
- Richard points us to one of many articles about ham radio operators helping out during and after Hurricane Sandy. Our sympathies to the victims of hurricane.
- More about EchoLink and Linux: Richard found the CQiNet project, which includes two applications, Echolinux (an EchoLink client for Linux) and The Bridge, an iLink/EchoLink compatable conference bridge. Of course, there is still the svxlink package, which includes the Qtel Echolink client.
- C’mon, people, where are my Raspberry Pi suggestions? Russ is still looking for good uses for his Raspberry Pis. Send your suggestions!
- Google Webfonts are open source fonts that can be embedded in Joomla, WordPress and others, embedded in CSS, or with Javascript. Visit Russ’ blog page for an example of Google Webfonts in action.
Feedback:
- David, KE0AZ, sent an email about our discussion of antennas in Episode #091. He’s opting for a used 4BTV vertical.
- Tim, KI6BGE, in response to Richard’s computer power supply repair in Episode #092, shares his success story involving a printer repair he attempted.
- Scott, N8VSI, sent this audio report on his experience as the LHS ambassador at the Ohio Linux Fest. (We talked to Scott in Episode 93.)
- Harrison, VE2HKW, made a donation to the Black Sparrow Media app server fund. Thanks, Harrison!
Contact Info:
- Contact Richard at [email protected], Russ at [email protected], or both at the same time at [email protected].
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- Thanks to Dave from Gamma Leonis for the theme music.
