I’ve always thought Linux and ham radio would be a good fit for one another, but the availability of ham radio related software that runs on Linux isn’t all that great. Perhaps it’s because Linux still isn’t that easy to install. Well, here you can get a CD-ROM with everything a ham should need to get started:

I haven’t tried it yet, but the web page says,

The CD contains a complete LINUX-Knoppix operating system and enough software to accomplish the usual tasks we all perform daily from our homes … web browsing, email, letter writing, etc. In addition, there is a huge library of programs for our Amateur Radio hobby.

In the March 2005 issue of Contact!, an e-mail newsletter for those interested in promoting amateur radio, Robert Homuth, KB7AQD, offers the following suggestions:

Well, my General Class license course ended on Thursday as our club VEs came in and gave the test as the last session. Only eleven people showed up to take the test, and of those only eight or nine passed the written test. (When I left, two of those who had failed the first time were re-taking the test. One of them missed by only one question, so I think she had a good chance of passing the second time.)

I honestly thought all of them would pass the test. When the head VE asked me if I thought any of them would fail, I said, “Of course not. A good teacher has to have confidence in his students, after all.” Of course, I wasn’t completely sure that all of them would pass, but I thought they all had a good shot. Those who I thought would have trouble passing just didn’t even attempt the test at this session.

Earlier this afternoon, I read through an item on QRZ.Com that talks about the number of licensed amateurs in this country. This is quite an interesting item, and one that I’ll write more about later.

In reading through this item, Jim Haynie W5JBP, ARRL President, describes a recent visit to Nicaragua. He notes that they must make do with little or nothing in the way of equipment and materials. By comparison, we have an embarassment of riches here in the U.S.–oftentimes hams here have more equipment than they know what to do with.

On the Elecraft mailling list, there was a thread recently discussing portable antenna insulators. One guy noted that he scrounges Lexan scraps and makes insulators out of them, to which Mike VP8NO replied,

Seems like overkill to me. By using synthetic “string” to tie off the ends you have all the insulator you need. OTOH I use plastic “corks” from wine bottles on the end of the elevated radials of my 30 metre GP, microwave oven tested naturally. Much more fun to collect than Lexan scraps.

I e-mailed Mike and asked what he meant by “microwave tested.” He answered:

Thursday night, I was tuning around on 30m around 0315Z, and heard the following:

1. 5R8GZ (Albert in Madagascar) with a decent 559 signal on 10.105 MHz. Unfortunately, I couldn’t break the pileup and work him. This is the second time I’ve heard him, but failed to work him.
2. a CW “numbers station” on 10.125 MHz. The station was sending groups of letters this time. The letters were being sent in groups of five at about 20 wpm. Here’s a sample of what I copied: TNIGT, UUIMM,WMDAA, GTTWU, RNIUM, MWWGR, NNRTW, IAIUM, RUGTN, etc. I copied a couple of minutes of this, then got bored. When I tried tuning it in about ten minutes later, the station was gone.

One of the problems amateur radio faces is that people are all very busy these days, and when push comes to shove, amateur radio is one thing that often gets shoved. It’s just not a priority with people.

This is understandable. Amateur radio takes a lot of time. Setting up a station, building antennas, and then actually operating all take time. BUT, so do other activities. To get the maximum enjoyment and benefit out of any relatively complicated activity, you have to be willing to put in the time.

Assuming that it’s a “good thing” that those with amateur radio licenses become more active amateur radio operators, the question then becomes how do you get people to put in the time? I think it’s a matter of education.

MediaPost.com reports:

ON FRIDAY, DURING THE CLOSING day of Madison Avenue’s annual media conference, the government’s top media technologist predicted electric utility companies might transform the telecommunications industry providing broadband services anywhere there is an “electric pole,” and transmitting data to anything that “uses electricity.” If that proves the case, it was not evident in a recent survey asking consumers whom they wanted to receive their telecommunications services from.

One of the beauties of amateur radio is that you never know who you’re going to talk to, and what can happen as a result of a QSO.

In a recent post to his blog, Steven Streight, aka Vaspers the Grate, takes on Lev Grossman, who in the December 31, 2004 issue of Time compared blogging to amateur radio. In that issue, Grossman said, “Before this year [2004], blogs were a curiosity, a cult phenomenon, a faintly embarrassing hobby on the order of ham radio and stamp collecting.”
Grossman’s impression seems to be that hams do nothing more than talk about ham radio (which is, of course, ridiculous) while bloggers spend an inordinate amount of time blogging just to blog. They’re filling many Mbytes of disk space with nothing more than jabbering.