More on Netbooks

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The so-called “Netbook” category continues to get quite a bit of attention. Acer has introduced several new models in the Aspire One line and is intent on winning in this category (aiming for 50% of the market in 2009).

Some pundits have pointed out that even though this category is growing dramatically, you may not see that many of them at the local coffee shop. I have to admit that I have not noticed very many of them in the wild. (The installed base is huge, so it takes quite a few units to move the needle.) Acer has apparently taken the worldwide lead in consumer notebooks (in terms of units) in Q3 of 2008, edging out HP with 5.04M units (vs. HP’s 4.85M units.) With netbook prices often in the range of $300 to 500, this sure sounds like price erosion to me in the notebook category.

In a previous post, I wrote about the Acer Aspire One Netbook that my wife is using. She does let me use it once in while, so I have actually gotten some stick time on it. My assessment remains largely the same: this is a great little PC for its intended purpose (web usage, email and light text editing). Sometimes it is the little things that can make a big difference: I find myself reaching for the Acer because it boots from a deadstart in under 24 seconds. It makes my WindowsXP and Vista machines seem like slow, plodding dinosaurs. My car starts in a few seconds, so why can’t my PC be instant on?

After about 6 weeks of having the computer, I still give it high marks. The keyboard is slightly cramped but quite usable. I wouldn’t want to type on anything smaller and I do appreciate it when I switch back to a full size keyboard. The touchpad sucks but that doesn’t surprise — I think all touchpads suck, so I am not an unbiased observer. I use a small notebook style mouse whenever possible. The right/left “mouse” keys for the touchpad are placed in a non-standard position, which causes some user complaints. I finally figured out that FN – F7 turns the dang thing off, so I don’t bump it while I am typing.

The Linux OS has turned out to be sturdy and reliable but difficult to adapt. The GUI that layered on top of Linux does a good job as far as it goes. After that, I find myself resorting to the Linux command line to get things done. This is acceptable for me but puts futzing around with the system out of reach for many users. If you don’t speak Linux, then your ability to adapt this machine is limited. But for its intended use, you shouldn’t need to mess with it. So there you go….works well for the intended use but be careful beyond that.

And did I mention it BOOTS FAST?

— Bob K0NR

Update (28 Nov 2008): Here are a few links for user information, hacks, modifications, etc.

http://www.aspireoneuser.com/2008/07/09/aspire-one-advance-linpus-mode-hack/

http://www.liliputing.com/2008/07/how-to-access-advanced-acer-aspire-one.html

http://www.linuxhaxor.net/2008/09/27/30-cool-acer-aspire-one-hacks/

http://macles.blogspot.com/

Making Plans for Hamcon Colorado

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I attended the planning meeting for the 2009 Hamcon Colorado this morning. This event is the ARRL Rocky Mountain Division Convention, held in Colorado every three years as it rotates between Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. In 2009, it will be held on May 29-31 in Estes Park, a super vacation spot.

Hamcon Colorado’s main feature is a strong set of technical and operating forums covering a wide range of amateur radio topics. The common complaint is that there are too many attractive forums and they run in parallel, so you can’t attend them all. The list of forums is still being finalized, but it is looking really good for next year and will likely include APRS, D-STAR, APCO Project 25, DXing, QRP, VHF antennas, electronic test equipment, satellite operating and much more. Keep an eye on the Hamcon Colorado web site as the technical program is finalized. The weekend has plenty of other activities, including saturday night banquet, QLF CW contest, transmitter hunt and VE testing.

For hams within driving distance of Colorado, Estes Park makes a great vacation spot for the entire family. This little mountain town sits at the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park, one of the nation’s best scenic parks.

If you are looking for a great weekend (or week long) getaway filled with amateur radio fun, plan on attending Hamcon Colorado in 2009.

– 73, Bob K0NR

Trying SIT Tones for Phone Spam

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Having recently commented (whined?) about the huge about of email spam clogging the internet, I now turn to the same issue with POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service). At our house, we use caller ID and answering machine call screening to deal with most solicitors. This has been remarkably effective. With the election growing near, the politicos are spending a ton of money on these robot autodialers (robocall) that call and leave a recorded message. Although I don’t have to listen to these idiotic messages, they do fill up the answering machine.

Before you tell me to register with the United States Do Not Call Registry, don’t bother. We are registered but it doesn’t apply to political organizations. (Seems that Congress thinks there is some special Freedom of Speech issue here.)

Here is an idea that I have tried and it seems to help. The telephone system has a number of special signaling tones that indicate the status of a phone line, called Special Information Tones. These tones basically tell the calling device that the dialed number has a problem. I recorded these tones at the beginning of our outgoing voice message, followed by my usual “Sorry we can’t take your call right now” greeting. The idea is that a machine calling will hear the tones and give up, while a human will ignore them and listen to the message.

Click here for the sit-tone

I’ve had this running for a few days, and the success rate appears to be about 80%. I still see incoming political calls on the Caller ID but most don’t make it to the answering machine. A few still get through…probably because the calling device ignores the SIT tone.

This is Bob K0NR and I approve this message.

73, Bob K0NR

Got Spam?

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How’s your email inbox doing these days? Spamhaus says that spam (also called Unsolicited Commercial Email or UCE) makes up 90% of the email sent in most parts of the world. Since Spamhaus is in the business of providing anti-spam services, it might have a tendency to overestimate the amount of spam.

I have several email accounts for various purposes. One of these is a “junk” account on yahoo that I use for most online purchases and registering at questionable web sites. Examining that inbox, I see 97 messages in the inbox and 647 messages places in the spam folder by Yahoo’s spam filter. Of the 97 messages in the inbox, about half of those are really spam. Another 31 spam messages were sent to a “disposable email address” that I had used at one time. Adding that up, that is a total of 727 spam messages out of 775, which corresponds to 94% spam. Now this is probably a pessimistic measure as this email account is more likely to attract spam and has relatively low legitimate email usage. Still, it is quite amazing how much junk mail it accumulates.

My “real” email accounts have much less spam in them, but it is more difficult to tell the actual percentage. I don’t know for sure what anti-spam measures my ISP uses. On my end, I use Thunderbird’s junk mail controls which seems to catch the majority of the spam. There are quite a few methods available for reducing spam.

The root cause of this is that the internet email protocols were designed with an inherent trust of all users. All of the header information that indicates who sent the email can be easily spoofed, so there is very little accountability in the system. I doubt that the early email inventors anticipated the flood of viagra messages that would occur decades later. This is a classic example of unintended consequences of a new technology. (See Tom Van Vleck’s The History of Electronic Mail for more information.)

So now we spend our time and energy filtering and deleting this nuisance. Even more disturbing are the phishing scams that are showing up in my inbox. There are some very credible fake emails supposedly from major banks and financial institutions that try to get you to log into a fake web page and share your personal account information. Watch out for these!

Various solutions have been proposed to solve the spam problem. Sometimes I think capital punishment might be the answer, but I am not quite ready to propose that……yet. Stay tuned for further updates 🙂

How’s your inbox doing?

73, Bob K0NR

ARISS Update October 21

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I pulled this from the AMSAT-BB email list
(a good update on the NA1SS activity this week by Richard Garriott):

Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2008 20:48:26 -0400
From: “Frank H. Bauer” <ka3hdo@comcast.net>
Subject: [amsat-bb] ARISS Update October 21, 2008
To: <amsat-bb@amsat.org>

All,

I think you all can agree that this has been a stellar and an historic week for Amateur Radio on the International Space Station!

Speaking on behalf of the ARISS international team of volunteers and the AMSAT community, we really appreciate the overwhelming flood of positive comments that we have received from the ham radio community and the general public regarding the ham radio operations on ISS this past week.
Collectively, we have all made history..starting with Richard, W5KWQ and his father Owen, W5LFL and continuing with all of you that participated and/or volunteered in his ISS journey. And along the way, we have sparked the imaginations of thousands of students. Got more interest in satellite operations. And, I understand, excited some youths to the point where they are now licensed.

Richard Garriott, W5KWQ has been extremely prolific on the ARISS ham radio system, making hundreds of voice contacts, operating the packet system during the crew sleep times and transmitting hundreds of SSTV images throughout the day. He put the newest ARISS hardware, the Kenwood VC-H1 to good use, performing the vast majority of contacts with this hardware system coupled with the Kenwood D700 Transciever. The remaining SSTV downlinks were performed with the software-based SSTV system—using either the SpaceCam software or MMSSTV software that are on-board ISS. Given the limited availability of ISS computer systems, the ARISS team will continue to utilize the VC-H1 well after Richard’s flight. So don’t be surprised if you see some VC-H1 SSTV operations from Mike Fincke, KE5AIT, during his stay as the commander of Expedition 18.

The team apologizes for the temporary shut-down of the ARISS SSTV server. We have been a victim of our own success in that the site has been overwhelmed by the popularity of Richard’s SSTV images. We hope to get the system operational very soon. This may take a URL change, so please check the listservs and the ARISS SSTV blog http://www.ariss-sstv.blogspot.com/ for updated information. http://www.ariss.org will also carry updates.

ARISS Development and Operations

As a reminder to all, the ARISS team is an international volunteer working group that is sponsored by three major entities in each ISS region—the National Amateur Radio Society, the International AMSAT organization and the National Space Agency. The 5 regions that comprise the ISS development are Canada, Europe Japan, Russia, and the USA. In the USA, the two ham radio sponsors are the ARRL and AMSAT-NA. NASA is the USA space agency sponsor. Over 12 years ago, the formulation of the ARISS working group was a specific request from NASA. They wanted the amateur radio community to internationally consolidate into one team all the development and operations of the ISS Ham radio system. This specific request from NASA, and ultimately the other space agencies, was to provide a single focus of ham radio on ISS within the amateur radio community and within the space agencies. As a result, the 5 international delegations that make up ARISS tightly coordinate the day-to-day mission operations as well as the strategic hardware development planning and implementation. The success of this past week would not have been realized without this tight coordination, particularly between our Russian colleagues, led by Sergey Samburov, RV3DR
and our international operations team, led by Will Marchant, KC6ROL.

Individuals are always welcome to volunteer their support to ARISS through their regional delegation. Please see the ARISS web site http://www.ariss.org for more information on your regional delegates.

Voice QSOs

We have received some reports of individuals providing advice to the ISS on-orbit crew or making specifc requests to the ISS crew to change or modify the ARISS hardware, on-board software or ham radio operations. The ARISS team would like to remind the amateur community that we all have a duty to the international space agencies to coordinate ISS ham radio operations through ARISS. Our advice to you is that if you have a specific request or idea, that you forward it to one of the ARISS international delegates or
ARISS team leaders. These individuals are identified on the ARISS web site http://www.ariss.org. Also, please remember that there are a *lot* of hams that would like to get their QSO with the ISS (including me!) So please use courtesy and keep your contact short. And once you have made a contact, please do not go for a repeat despite the intense temptation to do so. I think you all know that this is an “open” hobby. So all are listening in, observing and remembering your operating habits.

On behalf of the ARISS team, I thank you all for your interest in Ham Radio on ISS. Enjoy the contacts! And remember the ARISS teams and organizations that have made the ham radio system on ISS such a tremendous success. This includes the national amateur radio societies and international AMSAT organizations. As well as the international space agencies and the ISS on-board crew members.

73, Frank Bauer, KA3HDO
AMSAT-V.P. for Human Spaceflight Programs
ARISS International Chairman

Changing Over to WordPress

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WordPressI am in the process of moving my weblog from Blogger over to WordPress to take advantage of the more flexible software tools in that environment. The blog will remain on the k0nr.com domain but under a different directory (www.k0nr.com/wordpress). The old blog files should remain in place, so that existing links are not broken. In theory, this should all be transparent to you, as I will redirect the existing URLs for the main blog ( http://www.k0nr.com/blog ), the RSS feed and the Atom feed.

But this is the worldwide web and there are computers involved, so something is bound to get messed up! Hang in there while I make these changes.

Eventually, I’ll port my web site over so that all of k0nr.com is under WordPress. That is likely to take some time.

73, Bob K0NR

Richard Garriott W5KWQ in Space

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Richard Garriott, W5KWQ is on his way to the International Space Station (ISS) as the sixth “space tourist” riding on a Soyuz spacecraft. This would be just another rich guy buys a ride into space story, except that Richard is a ham radio operator, a successful technogeek and the son of a famous astronaut.

For me, the story starts back in November of 1983 when the Space Shuttle mission STS-9 included an astronaut named Owen Garriott, who is a radio amateur (W5LFL). This was the first flight that had SAREX (Space Amateur Radio Experiment) on board, which was a modified commercial VHF FM handheld radio set for the 2-Meter ham band. Everyone was listening for the first ham radio transmissions from space, myself included. I was living in the greater Seattle area at the time and I happened to hear the first transmission between W5LFL on the Shuttle Columbia and WA1JXN in Montana. Columbia was coming in over the Pacific Ocean and I could hear W5LFL very clearly. So clearly, I wondered if it was really him (or could some local guy on 2M FM be messing with us.) In retrospect, I should have known….after all, a transmission from the shuttle overhead is a slam-dunk, line-of-sight piece of cake QSO on 2 Meters. AA5TB has made a few audio recordings of W5LFL radio transmissions available on the web.

Owen Garriott’s son Richard wanted to follow in his dad’s footsteps as an astronaut, but found out as a kid that his eyesight would keep him out of the astronaut corps. There is a great article in Wired magazine that gives the background on Richard’s journey into space. (If you are interested in this story at all, the Wired article is a must read.) Richard has his own RichardInSpace website that is also interesting. So instead of being an astronaut, he ends up writing computer gaming software and makes millions of dollars. (Apparently, Richard is famous in the computer gaming world.) Not a bad tradeoff, I suppose, as he is now able to pay for the ride up to the ISS.

While the ARRL announcement tells about the ham radio side of the story, the mainstream media has picked up on the “son follows father into space” story, sometimes with a mention of ham radio. Richard plans to transmit pictures from space using Slow-Scan Television (SSTV). The ARISS (Amateur Radio aboard International Space Station) sent out this announcement:

The ARISS team received word from ARISS Russia delegate Sergey Samburov,
RV3DR, that the current ISS crew expect to transmit SSTV on October 12 from 18:00-21:00 UTC. This is your opportunity to test out your SSTV reception capability and to post images on the ARISS SSTV Gallery. The planned downlink for this operation will be 145.80 MHz with Robot 36 as the expected SSTV mode of operation.

You should be able to receive these photos yourself by using an FM receiver on 145.80 MHz, a PC with soundcard and the MMSSTV software. Oh, the ISS needs to be within radio range, which means you need to figure out how to track it in real time. Or just go to this NASA website. The ARISS team has established a blog for providing updates on the SSTV operation and a web page for sharing of SSTV photos from around the world.

Just so it doesn’t get missed: there is another radio amateur on board, Mike Fincke (KE5AIT). Some web pages to watch for current information include http://www.ariss.org/, http://www.amsat.org/, http://www.arrl.org/ and http://www.issfanclub.com/ .

All of this is very interesting to me, taking me back to 1983. Then, I realize that was 25 years ago. Is the space shuttle really that old? Afraid so.

73, Bob K0NR

Update 22 Oct 2008:

Richard has been active on voice using NA1SS….also SSTV. I’ve heard him multiple times but haven’t been able to work him yet. There is a great video out on YouTube with SSTV pictures and audio recordings.

Sweet Little Acer Aspire One PC

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My spouse’s notebook computer died a few weeks ago, about 1 year after the 1 year warranty expired. This was not very satisfying. I also had my notebook PC die this past year, so it is starting to look like notebooks are disposal devices. Funny, my desktop PCs just keep on going year after year without a problem. This probably has something to do with the abuse that notebooks get being carried around from place to place.

So if we are going to end up replacing these things every few years, I got interested in lowering the cost. There are a number of compact netbooks that typically run Linux on the Intel Atom and use a solid state drive (no spinning hard disk). We settled on the Acer Aspire One, which is $329 from Amazon (free shipping). This computer has a 1.6GHz Atom N270 Processor, 8GB solid state drive, 512MB DDR2 SDRAM, 802.11b/g, Ethernet, three USB 2.0, VGA output, 1.3 megapixel camera, SDHC and multi-format media readers. I popped an 8GB SDRAM card into the expansion slot and it now has 16 GB. It uses the Linux LinpusLite operating system. (Some netbook models are going with WindowsXP, but I think these minimalist machines are better off with the small footprint of Linux.) The only thing I wish it had was a good-old dialup modem for those rare times when you are stuck without a decent wireless connection. (I’d trade that for the VGA display output.)

It comes ready to run with Linux and the key applications already loaded. For web browsing (Firefox), email (Acer Email) and writing (OpenOffice), it is ready to go. I did decide to load Thunderbird for email (instead of the supplied Acer Email application). This machine is configured like an appliance with not much thought of how the user will add applications. However, a little fiddling around on the web and the use of my (cough) extensive (cough) knowledge of Unix commands got Thunderbird loaded.

So far, this computer has exceeded our expectations. It is really compact, has a great display and is easy to use. What it does, it does well. However, it is NOT a full-size, full-featured notebook computer. For the intended use of internet communications, email, web, basic document creation, it works great. I am hoping that the simple design, with no hard drive, with also last a little longer. Did I mention that this thing boots fast? Go, Linux.

I can’t get it out of my wife’s hands. Trust me, I’ve tried.

73, Bob K0NR

Followup Oct 11: I’ve noticed that the netbook product category continues to be dynamic with new products being introduced all of the time. Check out the latest offerings from Acer, Asus, Dell, Lenovo, MSI, etc. before making a purchase.

Bits and Pieces

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I’ve been out of town quite a bit for work and pleasure, so here’s a catch up post of several bits and pieces.

You may have heard that Sarah Palin’s email got hacked. The background story is here on Wired’s site. The yahoo mail account was apparently accessed using the password reset system. That’s where you have to answer a few personal questions that confirms that you are the owner of the account….or know how to use google. According to Wired, the information required to unlock the account was Palin’s birthdate, ZIP code and where she met her spouse. All of this was acquired by searching the web and making a few educated guesses. How secure is your web-based email account?

Richard Garriott, W5KWQ is following in the footsteps of his father, astronaut Owen Garriot W5LFL by taking a ride in space. The difference is that Richard is buying a ride on a Russian spacecraft, similar to other space tourists. It turns out Richard is a very successful video game designer and can afford the ride. He does plan to make ham radio a key part of the adventure. Check out his web site here.

Meanwhile, China is advancing its manned space program with their first space walk (EVA). Meanwhile, things are moving a bit slower at NASA such that we’ll have to continue to rely on the Russian space program to keep the ISS alive.

The ARRL made the QST magazine archive available online. While this archive is not complete, it has a ton of good articles in it. Great move, ARRL! This is open to ARRL members only. (What, you are not an ARRL member?)

The ARRL is also active on twitter at http://twitter.com/arrl. Now, if I could just figure out the purpose of twitter.

I still have not tried Google’s Chrome browser which makes me one of the few people on the planet that hasn’t done that. I think there are about 10 of us left. (Of course, I don’t own an iPhone either, so go figure.) In general, I am consciously trying to avoid Google as they collect way too much personal information. The NSA should contract their work out to Google.

73, Bob K0NR

Sorry…I’ve Been on 2M FM Again

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I was looking out the window the other day and noticed that my wire HF antenna is laying on the ground. Hmmm, probably doesn’t radiate very well that way. But if I put a long, lossy coaxial cable in line, the SWR will still be good at the transmitter. And I can tell my buddies that it works just fine because “I can work everyone that I hear.” (What a dumb thing to say 🙂 )

This made me realize that most of my ham radio activity lately has been on 2-Meter FM. Actually it has been on 2M and 70cm FM, as I tend to lump these two activities together. These days, my VHF/UHF FM rigs have at least 146 MHz and 440 MHz in them (FT-7800, FT-8900, etc.). I cruise down the road and flip on the rig, talk to the locals, talk to the XYL, etc. It is just too easy and too convenient. It fits the mobile lifestyle, whether it means operating a mobile rig in the car or grabbing an HT to take along on a business trip. (I used to run HF and SSB VHF mobile but found that the rigs were rarely used, so I removed the gear from my vehicle.)

Of course, I need to apologize to the rest of the ham community for this failure to act according to accepted social norms. You know how it is…Real Hams operate HF, weak-signal VHF, microwaves, etc……almost anything that is not 2M FM. Every so often I hear that comment about “well, those techs just hang out on 2M FM,” implying that those guys are permanently stuck in ham radio middle school, unable to graduate to the next level. Or sometimes the FM operators are referred to as having “shacks on the belt” which are dependent on the “box on the hill.” The main message is that 2M FM is just too easy, too plug-n-play, too much like an appliance….too convenient. We certainly can’t have that!

Don’t get me wrong…I enjoy HF, DXing, contesting, digital modes, almost anything to do with amateur radio. That’s the cool thing about the hobby…so many bands, so many modes. One of my favorite activities is operating the major VHF contests. (I’ve even been known to work a few CW contacts.) But on a day-to-day basis 2M FM just seems to fit in better.

Some people call 2M FM the Utility Mode, because it is the mode that gets the job done. Last week, we had a weather net activated to track thunderstorms and a few tornadoes. Did this happen on 40M? I don’t think so. Two meters carried the load. Where do most of the ARES and RACES nets meet? Two meters. How is most public service communications handled? Two meter FM. Even some hard core HF DX enthusiasts are known to flip over to 2M FM to tell their buddies that the DXpedition to a rare country is on the air. It is the Utility Mode.

Over the weekend, I was driving through the mountains and heard an aeronautical mobile working stations simplex on 146.52 MHz…lots of fun. Another time, I heard a station calling about 80 miles away (I was in a high spot) and I had the pleasure of making that contact….again, on 2M FM. A few weeks ago, I operated in the Colorado 14er Event from the summit of Pikes Peak. Since many of the mountaintop stations had hiked up, the most popular mode of the day was (you guessed it) 2M FM.

So sorry, I have been hanging out on 2M FM. I’ll try to get that HF antenna back in the air one of these days.

73, Bob K0NR

Ernie Gets a Linux Upgrade

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One of my old PCs sitting in the basement had Windows 98 on it. The computer was named Ernie by my daughter many years ago. (The taller computer we had at the time received the name Bert, as in Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street.) The OS seemed to be dieing a slow death as it experienced the blue screen of death on a regular basis. I suspected that the hardware was OK and the software was suffering from entropy. It seemed wrong to re-install Win98 in the year 2008, so I considered other alternatives.

For quite some time, I have been wanting to bring up a Linux machine. Why? Bragging rights, I suppose. Feed the inner geek. Real men run Linux, you know. (Masochists run Windows and wimps run Macs….just kidding.) I was also curious about how friendly and useful the OS would be. The Linux folklore also claims that it will run on anemic PCs without any problem. (I definitely didn’t want to install Vista on this old PC.) Back a few decades, I spent quite a bit of time on HP Unix computers and I used to be able to grep with the best of them. More recently our herd of computers have been running operating systems from Microsoft.

It seems that the Ubuntu release of Linux was getting positive reviews, so I chose it as the upgrade for Ernie. I downloaded the latest release and created an install CD. This first attempt to install linux failed, apparently because the PC only has about 200 Megs of memory. The download page said to use the “alternate” version of the release to deal with limited memory. I downloaded that version and the install progressed quite nicely.

During the install process, the software tried to find a network connection, which was unplugged at the time so it told me I could deal with that later. After the install, the system rebooted and ran just fine. The graphical user interface was familiar enough that I could just start using it without referring to the documentation. (We don’t need no stinkin’ manual.)

At this point, I am feeling quite confident, so I connected up the network (Ethernet to DSL at our house). The computer didn’t see the network and I could not find any way to reconfigure it. At this point, I broke down and checked the documentation, expecting to find a friendly little section for people that didn’t have the network plugged in during the installation. No such luck. Eventually, I gave up and re-installed the entire OS with the ethernet cable connected. Although that seems a bit extreme, it did take care of the problem.

Here I am, writing this blog post using Ernie with a new set of brains. (Ernie, not me.) Good old Firefox was automatically installed and is ready to go without any additional effort. Similarly, the OpenOffice suite is installed as part of the Ubuntu release. Not bad, not bad at all.

As described, I did have a few bumps in the road on the installation but nothing too dramatic. My experience with various versions of Windows is not any better. The machine does seem to run kind of slow, in terms of loading applications and responding to GUI changes. I suspect this is due to the limited PC memory. It probably runs about as fast as the Win98, though. I was just expecting better from lean-and-mean linux.

73, Bob K0NR

Wanted: Improved Content on the Ham Bands

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On the dstar_digital Yahoo group, someone asked about how to deal with complaints about certain hams ragchewing on a particular system at all hours of the day and night. The specific example was about a d-star “reflector” but the concept applies to many types of ham radio operating. It seems that other users on the system are looking for more technical discussions, not long-winded chats.

Nate WY0X posted an interesting response, which I found to be thought provoking. I edited it slightly and posted it here with Nate’s permission:

First you have to ask yourself… are the complainers participating or just listening?

They have the “power” to change the topic of conversation by simply keying up their mics and speaking. Want a tech topic? Bring one up.

In running a repeater club for a number of years now, and also IRLP Reflectors… I’ve given up on trying to make everyone happy all of the time. In fact, I’ve found it’s more healthy to put the control of what they’re listening to into their hands, and letting them run with it.

The reason I ask is this… in my “tenure” as an IRLP Reflector operator, we have had on and off similar “complaints” from some node owners, for some Reflector channels.

The reality, when we looked into it was, that the nodes connected wanted “better content” (to use an Internet website term), but didn’t do anything to PROVIDE that content. Similar to a lot of things in Amateur Radio these days… people wanted others to provide something “interesting” for them to listen to! It all led back to “entitlement” attitudes. (“I should be able to always listen to interesting, technical content! But I don’t have to provide any!”)

Hahahaha… quite funny, really. Or sad, depending on if you get worked up over such things.

I figure, it’s ham radio… don’t like what you hear… apply Riley’s last Dayton speech in 2007 and “spin the big knob” on the rig.

So… what we found was that they were unhappy with LISTENING to the people actually USING the Reflector channel, but were just “whiners in their recliners” when it came to actually providing the so-called “more technical discussions” they seemingly wanted to hear.

The best e-mail was the guy who said he “Wasn’t technical himself, but wanted to listen to more technical discussions.” I about fell out of the chair laughing at that one! Being in a leadership role, I couldn’t really send back what I was REALLY thinking… “Yeah, good luck on that one, buddy!”

In the case of IRLP, the solution was simple. Everyone has the commands to turn it off… so we told ’em if they were bored with the conversation, to switch it off, go to another Reflector, or sit in silence… the rest of us would also do as we pleased.

So back to the “content” issue at hand… we have had both EchoLink and IRLP Reflectors “dedicated” to technical discussions on and off for years now, and no significant technical discussions ever take place on those. There’s no great “all tech, all the time” Ham Radio frequency or virtual channel on any linking mode that I know of.

So… in reality…

Your users are simply saying they want to “change the channel” or “spin the VFO” because they’re tired of the people who *do* talk.

Nothing wrong with that, but it won’t lead to any more “technical discussions” to define a place for those to happen… it takes participants and active people to make that happen.

As a repeater club President, I’ve stopped taking complaints about content. They always want ME to do something about what someone ELSE is saying/doing, when they have a mic of their own and won’t speak up.

That’s passive-aggressive behavior at it’s finest, and I no longer play. Unless people are breaking club rules, like making sexual innuendos on a regular basis, bad-mouthing all of ham radio, things like that… we get involved at that point, of course.

I feel for you if your users are complaining. But the only thing that “fixes” it long-term really is them participating. If they don’t, they’ll never hear conversations they want to hear. Tell ’em as soon as they fire up the PTT and talk… the topic changes!

Nate WY0X

My First D-STAR Repeater Contact

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Here is another milestone in my D-STAR experience….my first repeater contact using the technology. (I had previously been using D-STAR on simplex.) There are no D-STAR machines within range of my house, but there is one west of Denver (the Colorado D-STAR Association, W0CDS).

I was headed to the Denver airport for a business trip to the west coast and I realized I would be within the W0CDS repeater coverage. I had previously programmed my IC-91AD with the right info to access the W0CDS UHF repeater on 446.9625 MHz. (If you think getting the right CTCSS tone plugged in is difficult, wait until you deal with the callsign routing for D-STAR.) I tossed the HT in the car and gave a call when I got close enough to Denver. Barry KA0BBQ came back to my call and we chatted for a few minutes.

As widely reported, the D-STAR audio is fine but you have to get used to how it cuts out under weak signal conditions. You don’t have the gradual fade of increasing FM noise…it just starts cutting out, similar to a digital mobile phone. I just had the HT rubber duck antenna inside the vehicle, so the signals were a bit on the weak side.

Watch www.dstarusers.org to see D-STAR activity.

73, Bob K0NR

BPL Coming to Colorado

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Hide the children! Broadband Over Powerline (BPL) is coming to Colorado. Xcel Energy has announced plans to make Boulder the first SmartGridCityTM in the nation. See my previous posting on BPL. The pitch from Xcel is:

The next-generation electricity grid will allow our company to better meet growing demands, address environmental challenges, maximize available resources and optimize the entire energy system. Ultimately, a “smarter” grid helps us serve our customers by creating more options for managing personal energy use, habits and cost.

BPL has caused quite a bit of concern in the amateur radio community due to its use of HF spectrum for data communications via powerline. Some BPL deployments have resulted in considerable interference to licensed amateur radio operators.

Xcel has posted quite a bit of information on their Smart Grid approach on their website. In particular, take a look at the white paper on Smart Grid technology. The good news for ham radio operators is that Xcel is using BPL technology from the Current Group. This implementation of BPL is considered “ham friendly” since there have been multiple deployments of this flavor of BPL that have resulted in no radio interference complaints from the ham community. This could be just luck, but there are technical reasons that indicate Current may have a system that doesn’t interfere with most ham frequencies. The key attributes of the Current BPL system are that the Medium Voltage Lines use 30 to 50 MHz (outside the ham bands) and the Low Voltage Lines use 4 to 21 MHz notched for the ham bands using the Homeplug standard.

The Boulder Amateur Radio Club (BARC) is forming a BPL Committee to monitor the situation locally. We also have an amateur radio BPL team for the state of Colorado.

Note that Xcel is not planning to offer broadband internet service to consumers. At least, not yet. The public relations campaign from Xcel is all about Smart Grid, managing the power grid for maximum efficiency. The BPL industry has been on the Smart Grid path when it became clear that delivering broadband to consumers was going to be economically difficult. I still expect that BPL will die out over time, but it may find a niche market in Smart Grid. Maybe. Keep in mind that wireless technologies can be applied to Smart Grid applications just as well (and maybe more economically) than BPL.

The important thing is to ensure that these BPL deployments don’t mess up the HF spectrum.

73, Bob K0NR

Too Much Data

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Disclaimer: I am a little ticked off that my digital scanner (radio receiver, not a graphics scanner) decided to toss its cookies today and lose all of its programmed data. The day before, my Yaesu FT-8900 got amnesia, losing all of its channels. (It seems to not appreciate the voltage dip when the car engine starts.) This reminds me of when iTunes discarded my podcasts about 3 weeks ago. Which reminds me of when my computer hard drive failed, putting my entire digital presence into the bit bucket.

I had always resisted using software to program my radios. When our public service agencies switched to 800 MHz trunked digital, I didn’t have a choice anymore for the scanner. The complexity of that system requires a software program to manage the channels. I also tried to avoid using software to program my amateur transceivers. (Old Guy Talk: Back in the old days, we only had a band switch and one big VFO knob to turn and that was plenty good enough.) Slowly, but surely, the huge number of memories and features available have teased me into buying the software to keep track of it all. I don’t mind paying for the software…typically, the programs are a bargain.

I do object to the time it takes to manage this stuff. You might think that there would be a standard file format that stores my favorite frequencies, transmit offset, CTCSS tone and channel labels so that I don’t have to enter them every time. No, that would make too much sense.

What other cute little electronic devices require their own database? I already mentioned iTunes and MP3 players, where the songs are just bits on a computer. (Not your old 8-track tapes anymore, is it?) My GPS receiver has its own set of maps that demand to be cared for and fed to keep the little device happy and useful. (The other day, a bit in the GPS got set that told it to ignore the maps that were loaded. I could see that the maps were there but the GPS was apparently not using them. A master reset and reload eventually cured the problem.) The GPS also makes use of my favorite set of waypoints that I maintain…carefully stored on The Hard Drive, waiting for the next disk crash.

Oh, and don’t forget digital cameras….they are the Masters of Data Creation. One click of the camera can generate a file with a million or two bytes. A day of photography can fill up a few gigs of storage with no effort at all. All of these precious photos need to be stored somewhere to be preserved for posterity. (Should I put posterity on The Hard Drive?)

There is just too much data in my life, and the trend line is increasing. Keep in mind that this data is the kind that you never really see. You can’t see files on a hard drive, you can’t see mp3 files on an iPod, you can’t see the bits programmed into my scanner. Oh sure, you can see something that pretends to represent the actual data….The Hard Drive lets you display a Word document on your screen and print it out. It is supposed to be the same as the file on The Hard Drive, but that is just an approximation….or maybe an illusion. Another reason bits are so hard to manage….they are invisible.

Back to the scanner…I had the configuration file on The Hard Drive (and backed up via Carbonite, just in case.) The Win96 software that programs the RadShack PRO-96 scanner was a victim of the recent hard drive failure, so I had to reinstall it. The program refused to run until I found the magic registration key that proves I paid for the software. No problem…found that on The Hard Drive as well and off we go. Then, the PC had trouble talking to the scanner via the COM port, mostly because there is no COM port on the PC. That is, I needed to use a USB-to-Serial Port converter. (Insert another poorly documented device of questionable origin.) Can we just have USB ports on all data-hungry electronic devices? After much fiddling around, I got the scanner to load all of the data.

Any one of these things is not that big of a deal. I can deal with one or two special programs and cables. But after being surrounded by these self-centered little devices that don’t play nicely, it really starts to wear you down. Clearly, the amount of data is going to continue to increase and more devices are going to take advantage of it. So don’t count on the problem getting any simpler. Ever.

So what’s the solution?

  • Electronic devices should use standard data formats that share easily from device to device. They shouldn’t insist on their own native format. Sharing data is good.
  • These devices should use standard interfaces and memory cards so that moving data around is trivial. Get rid of the proprietary cables.
  • The software that handles the data should be designed and tested for maximum usability using established human factors methods. Every feature should work with minimal effort for the end user.
  • Last but Most Important: these devices shouldn’t ever lose their memory. Bad, bad, bad, bad.

There, I feel much better now.

— 73, Bob K0NR

Awesome June VHF Contest!

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It didn’t start out all that great. First, my boss decides that I need to be in Scotland the week before the contest weekend. I have nothing against Scotland, I just preferred to not be there right before the biggest VHF contest of the year (ARRL June VHF QSO Party). I needed to be home putting together antennas, repairing cables, loading software, etc. ahead of the contest weekend.

At the last minute, I piled all of the gear (well, most of it) into the SUV and we head to the mountains. I planned to set up my portable station at our antenna-less cabin in the western part of grid DM78. (Gotta get that tower up for next year.) My station consisted of an FT-847 on 2M and 70 cm, driving decent yagi antennas on those bands. On 2M, a linear amplifier boosted the output to 170W, so I had a decent signal on that band. For 6 Meters, I used an FT-100 running 100W to a 3-element yagi and on 222 MHz I just had an ICOM FM transceiver feeding a small yagi.

I downloaded N1MM logging software at the last minute and attempted to install it on my new Windows Vista PC. Turns out that Vista doesn’t seem to like N1MM or vice versa. (I am bumping into this on occasion where some software aps are not fully checked out on Vista.) I bailed on N1MM and grabbed VHFLog by W3KM. It was the first time I have used it but it worked well for me.

There was very good sporadic-e propagation on 6M for a large portion of the contest, occasionally extending to 2M. This is the way the June contest is supposed to be! Six meters kept me quite busy and I am sure I missed some good rover contacts on the other bands. This is the downside of a single-op station when six is open. Most contacts were on SSB but I did use CW to grab a few grids on 2M and 6M (N0KE in DM69 and K0YW in DM67). Wow, my CW is getting rusty and it was tough going but I made the contacts.

I had 206 contacts on 6M, which I thought was quite good until I saw some of the other guys scores on the local email reflector….many of them did a lot better. Worked XE2YW in Mexico and a number of VE’s in Canada. I was happy with the 15 grids on 2M, including a new grid via sporadic-e (W4VC EM81). I snagged KB0HH up in EM06 and N0YK in DM98.

Band       QSOs X pt =  QSO pts.  X   Grids   =     Points
---------------------------------------------------------------
50         206    1      206           125           25750
144        34     1      34            15            510
222        1      2      2             1             2
432        12     2      24            6             144
---------------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS     253           266           147           39102
                                         Claimed score =  39102

This contest has reinforced the notion that for me, VHF is all about 2M and 6M. The Magic Band provides the excitement and 2M provides the challenge (with enough local activity to keep some interest going). The practice of moving on up to 222 MHz, 432 MHz and higher and just working the same guys over again doesn’t seem as much fun. It definitely generates contest points but I am thinking more about VUCC and grid chasing. I will be optimizing my station to do better on 2M and 6M….upgrade the antennas, amplifiers, transceivers, etc.

73, Bob K0NR

My First D-STAR Contact

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At Dayton, I picked up an ICOM IC-91AD handheld radio, with D-STAR capability. The thing is, there are no D-STAR repeaters within range of my house. Fortunately, Elliott KB0RFC also picked up a D-STAR handheld and we arranged a sked on 2M simplex. The de facto calling frequency for D-STAR is shaping up to be 145.67 MHz, so that is what we used.

I have to admit that the audio quality was better than I expected. When the radio is not dropping bits, the audio is quite clean and clear. When the Signal-to-Noise Ratio degrades, you do start to hear that digital twang as the vocoder does its best to recover the audio in the face of digital errors. Overall, I was favorably impressed.

Tonight, we did some additional testing with DV mode and were surprised at the range of the handheld on 2M. The 70 cm band seemed even better, apparently due to the improved efficiency of the handheld antennas on that band.

There is lots more stuff to play around with, so stay tuned.

Digital voice on the ham bands? Must be the 21st Century!

For more info on D-STAR, see my article from CQ VHF.

73, Bob K0NR

FCC Says No to Digital Repeater Subband

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As reported on the ARRL web site, the FCC rejected the proposal from Ken Chafin, W6CPA, and Leon Brown, KC6JAR to create a 2M subband for digital voice repeaters. This proposal was apparently a good-intentioned approach to opening up new spectrum for digital machines (D-STAR, P25, etc.). Chafin and Brown jointly filed a PRM in October 2007 requesting that the FCC “propose to expand the frequencies on which an amateur station operating as a repeater (repeater station) may operate,” specifically Section 97.205(b) to allow repeater stations to transmit in the 145.5-145.8 MHz frequency segment of the 2 meter amateur service band.

The FCC correctly rejected this proposal, indicating that the Amateur Radio Service does not need additional 2M spectrum for repeaters. Also, the FCC rejected the notion of a subband that is dedicated to a particular modulation format.

I appreciate the problem of trying to open up repeater frequency pairs for digital voice repeaters. We are struggling with that issue here in Colorado. It seems that all of the 2M repeater pairs are “full” in the front range. (Full but not necessary well-used.) The Colorado Council of Amateur Radio Clubs (CCARC) took action to open up digital voice repeater pairs on the 440 MHz and 1.2 GHz bands, but we haven’t figured out what to do on 2 Meters.

Technically-oriented hams want to put up repeaters using the new digital technology, so we want to find a way to support that effort. One answer is to expand the repeater subband. But let’s be honest….in most locations the 2M repeater subband are filled with repeaters that largely sit there doing nothing. I find it very difficult to justify adding additional spectrum to amateur repeater usage.

Also, what is the big freaking deal with 2 Meters? Why does everyone insist on having a D-STAR machine on 2M? There is generally much more room on 70 cm (440 MHz), so let’s give that a go. I think the ham community is stuck in the 2-meter rut. (I understand this, sort of, for good old FM, but digital voice means buying new gear, so let’s do it on 440 MHz.)

73, Bob K0NR

Crystal-Controlled Toasters

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The Phone Losers of America web site champions pranks of all kinds, especially ones associated with technology. One of their standard pranks is taking over the radio communication system used at the drive-up window of fast-food restaurants.

They really out did themselves by creating a video that describes how to mod a CB radio to work on fast food restaurant frequencies. (Hmm, it seems unlikely that a 27 MHz transceiver could be easily modified for VHF.) Oh, I see, they use a special crystal found in modern day toasters. That explains it.

Warning: some adult language

Be sure to look at the comments on the video. The prank keeps on going.

I do not condone nor support modifying radios for out-of-band operation, hassling employees of fast food restaurants or posting hilarious videos on youtube.com 🙂

73, Bob K0NR