AmateurRadio.com

Announcements:

• Thanks, again, to Gamma Leonis for the opening and closing music for the show.
• LHS Merchandise is available at PrintFection and Cafe Press. LHS items make great Christmas gifts! Or, make a donation by clicking the Donate link on the website. Donations cover such things as the telephone lines, server fees, and more. Thank you!

Topics:

• Articles seem to be popping up at www.amateurradio.com designed to get us talking about Linux and Amateur Radio. The latest one is by Anthony, K3NG, self-proclaimed radio artisan. Our hosts discuss his assertions that:
  • Ham Radio Deluxe, DXLab, and N1MM software all beat any Linux offerings. (Note: Russ has found that both Ham Radio Deluxe and N1MM logger will run under WINE in Linux. DXLab, on the other hand, will not.)
  • There is more amateur radio software available for Windows than Linux.
  • CQRLOG is an adequate Linux program for casual logging, but not great for contesters.
  • “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.”
  • He does praise fldigi, but still claims Windows software is better.
  • In summary, he thinks hard-core contesters may wish to stay with Windows. Our suggestion: run Linux and write a program that works better!
• Russ talks about his success with WSPR and Echolink.
• He found that instead of using “dpkg -i” to install the latest Debian WSPR package, use “dpkg -x”. You’ll extract the files to the current directory. You then run the program from a terminal session in your home directory using “./wspr”. If you run it that way, instead of letting it install, it seems to work a lot better. The Gnome launcher doesn’t seem to work with that sort of installation, but running it from a terminal works well.
• Russ has Echolink running under WINE v1.13. This version of WINE was chosen for it’s native support of PulseAudio, which made configuring EchoLink much easier. Russ’ node is on 146.225MHz simplex, Echolink node 54711.
• Russ then tells us why Echolink and IRLP are different and why IRLP might be “better.” (Hint: Echolink may not have an amateur radio anywhere in the link, while IRLP definitely uses a radio somewhere in the link.)

Feedback:

• Scott, HL2/AD7MI, sends his appreciation for the discussion in Episode 50 of his blog entry about his Ubuntu installation, and adds a note about problems with running CQRLOG under 64-bit Linux. He says you can install CQRLOG on a 64-bit machine, but it will only work with the 32-bit version of hamlib. Unfortunately, that breaks 64-bit fldigi, which expects the 64-bit version of hamlib. This issue has been reported on both the linuxham Yahoo group and the CQRLOG forum. Scott has also successfully installed Xastir, and is looking forward to receiving a MicroHAM III interface.
• Matt, KC8BEW, asks “What is a good and easy Linux distribution for a web server?” Russ recommends a plain vanilla installation of Debian server, without the X-windows environment, and either Apache or nginx (a light-weight web server).
• Dave, M0DCM, tells us of his success running fldigi and CQRLOG under Ubuntu 9.10 on an Acer Aspire A0751h netbook. Well done, Dave!

Donations:

• A very generous donation was received from Gerrit R. Thanks, Gerrit!

Contact Info:

• Contact Richard at [email protected], Russ at [email protected], or both at the same time at [email protected].
• Listen to the live stream every other Tuesday at 8:00pm Central time. Check the LHS web site for dates.
• Leave us a voice mail at 417-200-4811, or record an introduction to the podcast.
• Sign up for the LHS mailing list.
• Sign up for the MAGNetcon mailing list.
• Thanks to Dave from Gamma Leonis for the theme music.

Music:

• “Steel Concrete” by Mad Mav from the album “Black Sheep II”, courtesy of Jamendo.