WDØDXD

I saw a link somewhere, I don’t remember where for sure that lead me to the Museum of Radio & Technology, Inc. I took a look and it really looks interesting.

They have a whole section on Amateur Radio.  You can take an online tour.  My family is really big into History and Museums.  I am not sure I could talk them into a radio museum, but if I am ever in the West Virginia area, I am going to be sure to make a trip.

I think it is important for us to preserve our history.  Besides, if you are like me, all of those tubes glowing makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

If you are like me, your ham shack isn’t the biggest area in the house.  I work out of a home office and my office serves as a business office, exercise room and ham shack.

Wall space is at a premium and I haven’t been able to display any QSL Cards or rewards.  Not to mention any of my club certificates.

I know I am not the first genius to think of this, but I thought I would share it anyway.  I was at a local Target this weekend and came upon one of those new fangled digital photo frames that was on clearance.  So I thought hey, I can upload all my QSL cards/ham promotional stuff to it and it will take less than a square foot on my wall.

So here it is with about 400 eQsl cards loaded on it.

Have you ever had one of those days?  Well I have been having one of those weeks.  I posted an article a couple of weeks ago about building a new Frontend for our Mythtv system we have in the house.

We wanted a smaller foot print PC that wouldn’t take up so much room in our living room.  So I did a little research and settled on a Shuttle XS35GT with 2gb of RAM, a 500gb hard drive and based the ION2 chip set.  I found one online in the $350.00 to $380.00 price range.  It took about a week to arrive and I set about getting Mythbuntu installed and configured to work with our backend server.

First I have to comment on the construction of the XS35GT.  This is a neat little package that really impresses with it’s construction and compactness.  It uses fan-less construction which makes for a extremely quit operation.  The power supply is an external brick the is about 3″ by 2″.  I have the one the came with a built in DVD.  There is just one screw that you have to remove to open the case and everything seems to be easy to get to.  It comes with a stand to sit it up vertically, which you have to use so that it can keep the unit cool.  You can also purchase and optional mount that allows you to attach it to the back of most LCD/LED TV’s.

I also purchased and Windows Media Center clone infrared remote control to work with the unit.  It comes with a usb receiver that you just plug into one of the USB ports on the computer.

Of course I couldn’t find the original CD that I used to install Ubuntu, so I had to download a new copy which you can find here http://www.mythbuntu.org/downloads.  I went ahead and downloaded version 10.10 and since the ION2 is a 64bit processor, I went ahead and got the 64bit version and burned the CD.

It took about 15-20 minutes to install Mythbuntu on the machine and every thing went well.  I rebooted the machine and waited for it to come up.  That was the end of easy street.   As soon as it came up to the Mythbuntu control center I had problems.  It turns out that on the old system I had was version 10.04.  The new version 10.10 usees protocol 23056 and 10.04 uses protocol 56 and they are incompatible.  I could have upgraded my backend server, but then it would have broke the software I have loaded on several PC’s in the house called Myth Player.  It allows you to view recorded shows on a laptop or pc running windows and has a better picture than the web browser version of Mythtv.

No problem, I just went back and downloaded the 64bit version of Mythbuntu 10.04 and reinstalled.  This would be the first in about a half dozen times that I would try a reinstall.  Well now I could get into the backend and view recorded programs without any problems.  So next on the list was to get the wireless card in the XS35GT working.  Ubuntu has a program called Network-Manager that is supposed to make configuring network connections easy.  The problem was, it couldn’t see any wireless access points in my area.  Even if I had it 2 feet from the access point.

So I spent the next couple of days googling solutions and trying this and that to get it to work.  I would reinstall after awhile trying to keep the config clean and also so I could document here the steps needed to make it work.  The XS35GT has a Realtek rtl8192SE wireless card in it.  It has been known to be a difficult install on Linux, but they seemed to have it figured out from what I could tell.

Anyway this is what got the Wireless working.  It seems the released version of the bios for the XS335GT is 1.08.  I did look at the wireless settings in the bios and the were something like AP managed and Off or along those lines.  It seems that the power is shut off to the wireless card until in Windows you run a utility and turn the card on.  There is no external button on the unit to turn it on like there is with a laptop.

At some point, Shuttle put out a bios upgrade version 1.09 that allows you to go into bios and change the power on the wireless card to always on.  From what I can glean, they took it off of their website for some reason and you have to email their tech support to get it.  A quick search of google will give you a couple of links to download it.  It was scary to try, but I had spent two and a half days on it, so what the heck.  I had to make a bootable usb stick.  A good resource for some of this can be found at http://breden.org.uk/2011/01/15/shuttle-xs35gt-installing-xbmc-10-0-live-dharma/#fixhdmiaudio it’s for another program, but a lot of it applies to Mythbuntu.

The bios fix enabled me to turn the power on to the wireless card and it worked for a little bit with Network-Manager.  Then I rebooted and couldn’t get it to work.  So I went to the Realtek site and downloaded the latest rtl8192SE drivers and compiled/installed them.  I also uninstalled Network-Manager and installed wicd.  What do you know, I could then scan for and connect to my wireless access point.  So now it was time to try out play back with the wireless.  It worked, but apparently I am too far away from the AP or there is still some tweaking to do to get the wireless to work without dropping too many packets.  So after about 3 days, I am back on the wire.  I will try to work with the wireless later, but I have other projects to get to.

In the meantime I had tried to play a DVD from the frontend.  Didn’t work.  It would show the FBI warning and then go to a white screen with some design on it and then lock up.  I spent 2-3 hours tweaking and trying to get VLC to work in Mythtv to no avail.  Finally I grabbed a different DVD after doing a clean install and what do you know.  It popped right up and played.  Asked the family and sure enough they had some problems playing the first one I tried in the DVD player.  There is a lesson in that, I will let you figure it out.

So finally, I needed to take it to the living room and try it out.  Hook it up and use the HDMI cable for the first time.  One problem I have to fix is that with wicd controlling the network cards, it doesn’t initialize the eth0 interface before Mythtv starts.  So it can’t connect to the backend and you have to exit out of Mythtv and go back in to make it work.  I will fix that by setting the network up to use a static IP address.

The final problem is that I don’t get any audio using the HDMI cable.  I have tried a few things that I have found on google, but at 1:30am last night I decided to give it a rest.  I will get it working this weekend and post my findings.

Final conclusions on the hardware.  The X35GT is a neat little package.  I was half tempted to just install Windows on it and use the Mtyh Player.  I think the hardware is a nice piece of engineering.  I don’t know if I would do it, if I had to do it over again.  I was hoping to just have a 30 minute install.  But I have learned a few things along the way and if you read this, maybe I can save you some steps.

PS, now you know why I haven’t posted anything for a few days 🙂

I have been using a Droid for a little over a year now.  So I have accumulated a few android apps.  The following is a list that I have loaded for Ham Radio use and a few that I haven’t tried yet.

Loaded:

Callsign DB – Looks up call signs
EchoLink – Let’s you connect to Echo Link on your Droid
ElectroDroid– Very similar to Electronics Assistant only for your Droid
Ham – Call sign lookup and Solar Conditions
HFBeacon – Informs user which HF Propagation beacon is transmitting at the present time
IRLP Finder – Locate the nearest IRLP node to near your location
Scanner Radio – Listen to online radios, including ham repeaters using your Droid.

Some I haven’t tried:

Signals – Reference for 10 signals, Q-Signals, Morse Code, etc.
Ham Radio Study Guide – Amateur Radio Question Pool
HamSatDroid – Amateur Radio satellite pass prediction
Amateur Radio Call Log – Basic Ham Radio Call Log
EchoLink Finder – Find the nearest EchoLink Node
QTH Locator – Calculates and displays your current QTH Locator
Morse Trainer Light – Learn or improve morse code
Grid Locator – Locate Maidenhead Grid Location
NCDXF Beacon – Monitor NCDXF beacons
PalmVE – Take sample Amateur Radio exams and locate VE testing sessions
QSL Mobile Ham Radio – Functions include GeoLocation, Call Sign searches, etc.
HamLog – another logging program
DX Cluster – Live DX spots on your Droid
AE Morse Code Tutor – Learn Morse Code
QTH Locator – Displays current QTH using google maps
APRSdroid – Allows reporting of your position to APRS-IS networks

There are more available, just do a search for Ham Radio in the Android Market and you can download most of these for free.

 

Leo I. Meyerson WØASQ who was a native of Omaha and founder of World Radio Laboratories past away this last week.  I am always interested in the history of anybody in Amateur Radio, but especially people from the plains and midwest states.  So many of our rural communities have lost population, I look fondly back at past innovators from this area for inspiration.

You can read more about Leo on the Omaha World Herald.

I wish I would have had the chance to meet him.

I ordered the Lazy Dog Engineering LD-1B SDR receiver on Tuesday and had it in the mailbox on Thursday.  Impressive delivery time I must say.  It came in a small box with a mini cd that included Winrad 1.6.1 and the control software for the LD-1B.

Construction is excellent.  It is in a black aluminum chassis and has an on/off button on the front and two led’s.  The back consists of a usb connector, three 3.5mm connectors and a power connector for a wall wart.

I got out my newer Lenovo Thinkpad that is running Windows 7 64bit and installed Winrad and the LD-1B control software with no problems.  Then I realized the new laptop had no discernible mic jack which is needed to feed the output from the LD-1B to the pc for processing by Winrad.  So I got out a USB dongle sound card that I had and plugged it in.  I turned on the LD-1B and Win7 recognized and configured it right up.  Off we go.

I used it that way for awhile.  It was ok and I started to familiarize myself with Winrad and the controls for the LD-1B.  I found that to bring up the LD-1B control panel you just hit the H key twice.  I played with it this way for a couple of hours, but began to realize that since I was using a really low end sound card, the image rejection wasn’t very good.

So I pulled out a Creative Labs E-MU 0202 USB sound card that I had purchased to work with another SDR I am building.  That’s when the fun began.  I have spent the last two days trying to get the 0202 working.

First the cd for the 0202 doesn’t include Win7 64 bit drivers.  After a search on the internet, I found some beta drivers for it and downloaded them.  Fine, they installed ok and I thought great, here we go.  I would just plug the audio cable from the other sound card in to the input on the back of the 0202.  Doesn’t work.

After many hours of searching the internet, I finally found information that says you can’t use the 3.5mm jack on the back of the 0202 for input, you only get one channel.  I searched a bit longer and finally found this link: http://www.genesisradio.com.au/G40/11assemblyG40.html that shows you how to make a cable for an 0202 that works for SDR.  After two trips to the local Radio Shack, I get the correct components and the cable is made.

I can now use the LD-1B at a sample rate of 192k with good rejection I believe.  I need to work with the sound card and Winrad more to get the feel of everything.  One thing I have learned is there is a learning curve to SDR.  It’s not the same as firing up the old Icom 746Pro and tunning the dial.  Not harder, just different.

Now I have one problem.  Again with the 0202.  I will go along just fine and then the audio coming from my headset will just stop.  I still see the images on the screen, just no audio out of the head set.  So I am not sure if that is a software issue, or a hardware problem with the 0202.

My first impression of the LD-1B is that it is a well built little unit.  It was pretty much plug and play.  The E-MU 0202, not so much.  So far for me, it has been finicky with documentation in short supply.

More later as I have more time to play with it.  But it does seem like the LD-1B is a good rig to get your feet wet in SDR!

I need to figure out how to plan my vacations around my Amateur Radio hobby.  This is a perfect example of Hams getting together to commemorate a historical event and doing it in a great vacation location.

The family loves to go to Branson, since there is something to do for everyone.  In fact we went twice last year.

Anyway this looks like a fun event.  Read More here….

Ok, maybe it should be called Stupid Ham Tricks.  Here is one thing that I have done that many of you have already thought of.  But I thought I would share it anyway.  You can call me slow, just don’t call me Shirley.

I created an alert for may own call sign.  Yes I know that is probably obvious to most of you, but I run two computers here, my work computer and my Ham computer.  There have been a few times when I have called CQ or answered a CQ and had to flip over to my other computer on the KVM switch I use and have gotten distracted.  Eventually I remember and switch back, but the party on the other side has had to wait or just given up on me.

So now when they respond, I hear my call sign announced in that oh so monotone male voice and it brings me back to reality.

If you are new to DM780 just click on tools->Alerts and add a new alert and enter your callsign in the text box.

If anyone else has some more Stupid DM780 Tricks to share let me know.

The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) and its more than 160 Member-Societies that represent countries around the world will celebrate World Amateur Radio Day on April 18. The theme for this year’s celebration is Amateur Radio: The First Technology-Based Social Network.

Long before the Internet and smart phones, Amateur Radio operators have been talking, texting and sharing for decades. But unlike those commercial services, Amateur Radio continues to attract people world-wide by providing international communications for free. And because it does not need pre-established supporting infrastructure, these radio-savvy “amateurs” can reach out to friends in every corner of the world, as well as into space.

For more Info check this article on ARRL’s Website.