Archive for the 'Computers' Category


A VOIP Contest??

In my e-mail just now, I got the following:
Hi , Daniel
My name is Rick, and my call sign is XXXX. I’ve been a contester since 2004 when I became a ham, and I love it!
I wanted you to see this information from a friend of mine, Trippy, about a new contest that will be [...]

New Amateur Radio/Linux Forum

From David, KG4GIY, via the ARRL PR mailing list:
As most of you know I dabble a little with Linux and other Open Source Software. A few of you know I occasionally scramble a few electrons and blog my thoughts on Linux and Open Source for the Linux Journal. What most of you do [...]

Hams Aren’t the Only Nuts Who Restore Old Electronics

IEEE Spectrum is running a short article on a group of “vintage” engineers who are restoring a vintage IBM 1401 computer. The computer had been in storage, but there was extensive water damage, damage that took 10,000 man-hours to repair! Think about that next time you get your hands on an old Hallicrafters.
Make sure [...]

CQ CQ CQ…Internet?

For some reason, the ARRL website is featuring an article on CQ100 and QSONet, a simulation of ham radio over the Internet. On the fpqrp mailing list, the overwhelming response was overwhelmingly, “Ugh.”
Now, I happen to like EchoLink and IRLP, which I think are great extensions to amateur radio, but I really don’t get [...]

HP Hypes Ham Radio…

…and their computers, of course.
HP in Real Life – Ham Radio Story is an article on their website that describes how two hams—only know as Andy and Irwin—purportedly use HP computer in their ham radio operations. It’s not very detailed, but at least it doesn’t depict ham radio operators as doddering old folks using [...]

ARROW’s September Construction Project

Every September, our ham radio club, ARROW, does a construction project. In the past, we’ve done a keyer kit, J-Pole antennas, and other small projects that you can complete in an evening.
This year, we’ve decided to build a low-cost version of the Arduino microcontroller called the Bare Bones Boarduino, from Modern Device. This is a [...]

My “Mac in the Shack” Days May Be Over

Yesterday, when I went down to the shack, the hard drive in the Mac iBook G4 that I’d been using in my shack for logging and PSK31 was making a terrible noise. I turned off the computer and turned it back on, but just more of the same.
This wasn’t totally unexpected. A couple of months [...]

More Sweet Tweets

Here are some more links to interesting Web pages I found by Twittering:

N3OX’s Remote Tuner Control. N3OX has added some servo motors and controls to a manual antenna tuner so that he can move it closer to the antenna, but still control it from inside the shack. Very inexpensive solution.
Band Plans for 900 MHz and [...]

Find EchoLink, IRLP Nodes

From James, KB7TBT, via the HamRadioHelpGroup:

For those that wish to find a live on the air repeater or simplex node for either Echolink or IRLP.

Echolink Node Locator
IRLP Node Locator

Success with RUMTrol

I’ve noted before that one of the disadvantages of using a Mac in the shack is the lack of software. Fortunately, Tom, DL2RUM, has come to our rescue. His programs, RUMLog and RUMTrol, are really great programs. Oh, and did I mention they’re free?
About a week ago, I decided to get RUMTrol working. Instead [...]