Squelch Burst on Line Newsletter
Stamford Amateur Radio Association
August 2004 www.qsl.net/w1ee/ Issue Number Eight
In
PDF Format
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Repeaters: W1EE 146.655 Out 146.055 In PL-100Hz. W1EE 447.125 Out 442.125 In PL-114.8Hz.
Unless noted, meetings are held on the first Thursday of every month in the Mural room of the Senior Center, at the Stamford Government Center, Tresser & Washington B'lvds., Stamford, CT. Meeting starts at 8:00 P.M.
Next SARA Meeting: Thursday August 5, 2004 at 8:00 PM. All are welcome.
August Program– Fred, K1FC on Antenna Modeling
President: Fred Cunningham K1FC, 322-8274. Vice President: Bill Librandi KB1IFY, 353-8131. Secretary: John Sabini WB1GRB, 353-8422. Treasurer: Dick Finn WA1VUU, 323-0982. and Trustee of the Repeater; James Marcus N1ZFS.
Dues are $20.00 for regular members and families, $15.00 for retirees and $10.00 for students and those living 100 miles or more from the repeater. Get them in now!
Stamford Amateur Radio Association ~ Post Office Box 112833 ~ Stamford, CT. 06911-2833.
SARA SUNDAY NIGHT NET We encourage all of the SARA members to join in the informal net on the Stamford Repeater every Sunday night at 8 PM. After about a half hour of friendly discussion, we play the “Amateur Radio News line” with the latest happenings in amateur radio. Make yourself heard, join the net.
Squelch Burst: “We need new articles. This is your newsletter so why not write an article related to Amateur Radio. Try to write an article that you feel other members would be interested in. We need someone to continue ”Ask Elmer Column”. Any articles or correspondence contact Dick WA1VUU.
E-Mail Squelch Burst: We are asking SARA members to give their E-mail addresses to Dick, WA1VUU so that the club newsletter can be sent by E-mail thus saving postage!. Your address will not be published and will be kept confidential. Please make sure Dicks e-mail address is not blocked. Postal rates are going up next year. Contact Dick at <[email protected]>
We need your ideas and input. What activities would you like the club to participate in? We also need your help in organizing these activities as well as participating in them. How would you increase club membership? Communicate your ideas and comments to any of the board members or to the editors of the Squelch Burst. Your input is very important to the continuing health of the club.
Emergency Response Team 2004 Telephone Tree has arrived in the mail. Make sure your information is correct. If you want to be added to the list contact Dick. 323-0982. Make sure you keep this list in a safe place and where you can find it!
Field Day 2004 SARA
For those who have not been to Field Day in recent years, this will bring you up to date.
Two years ago I was asked to be in charge of Field Day. I was told that the job would be easy, every one knew what to do, it would be on autopilot. I fell for it. Everything seemed to be okay for the first hour of operation. Then the generator went up in flames. No problem– we had a spare lined up. However, no one had a key to the building that housed the spare. As a result of this and other factors, we did rather poorly.
Finding that had we planned on using batteries and operating at 5 watts we would have done much better because of a 5x multiplier, we decided on trying it the next year. We were able to borrow a solar system from SolarOne. We also lucked out and picked up a cw operator from the FAA. This was a bit ironic considering the problems that we had with our old repeater having a spur that was picked up by aircraft 150 miles away. As a result, we more than doubled our score to 1950. We were first in New England and eighth in the country in our category- 3A battery.
This year, we decided to build on our past experience We were able to get more bonus points, for example, we copied the ARRL FD message both cw and SSB for the first time in a number of years We were able to put up a beam and we finally succeeded in using a logging program. We are now up to 2635 points and having learned some valuable lessons, we can do better next year.
Fred K1FC
I wish to thank all who have participated and hope that you all had fun and learned.
Fred, K1FC.
SARA
Field Day Photos
More F/D Photos From Gerry
KA2ALT.
Part 3, The Programs installed with Mandrake 9.2
Part One & Two
As mentioned Mandrake 9.2 is much more than just an operating system. It is also a collection of very useful programs. I will attempt to relate to you about the applications.
Nearly everyone that has a computer gets onto the internet and surfs the web,sends email, uses instant messages, and some use other internet service such as IRC and FTP. Mandrake is stuffed with internet applications.
The theory of having choices here is to try all the choices, choose one And uninstall what you don?t like. Doing part 3 is good for me as I have to check out ever darned application on the system, and I had barely touched the surface prior to today.
I should mention that there appear to be help files for all of these some of the applications are very extensive. There is also plenty of documentation on the web if what is supplied is not sufficient. Have you heard about Xmag. It is an application to magnify parts of your display.There are 2 file compression applications, Ark and File-Roller.
For communications there is Gnomemeeting, I presume for group internet chats, KdeprintFax and Kfax I assume for faxing. I have nobody to fax to right now. Maybe I will try faxing my resume to some uninterested company.
There are 5 Development applications, these are for programmers, not much sense in me attempting to figure them out. There are also 8 Development tools program capable of doing personal and business accounting. A view of this told me that it is probably as good as that PeachTree thing I used when I had a job.
There is an entire section for Monitoring. You can really monitor what is going on in your system. Bear in mind that Linux is used extensively as a network server and much of this stuff is beyond me. Here is a list of these app?s. GNOME System Monitor, KDE System Guard (I should mention that KDE is the Graphic
interface that I use. I do have the graphic interface GNOME installed that I have only tried once. There are KDiskFree and KwikDisk, for disk access and control. Ksim appears to monitor disk activity. Mtink -Epson inkjet printer maintenance and ink level monitor. Print Jobs is for spooling print jobs. There is a system log, but you need to go into root to use it. This would be a good time to mention that Linux is set up in a manner that users are given permissions and root is all encompassing. While in root you can change the system, add to it remove from it and you can also ruin it. So Linux users only go into root when absolutely necessary. Xconsole and Konsole are a way into the text based side of Linux. The test based side of Linux is very powerful and can speed things up when you know how to use it properly. Also, some stuff just cannot be done through the GUI and the text side is needed. There is Xkill, I have not figured this thing out and I am not sure what it is. The same thing goes for Xrefresh.
Publishing tools are KGhostView and Unicode Character Map. GhostView was transparent to me and I could not see what it is for. The Unicode Character Map however shows you all of the various characters in the fonts and Languages. I did not recognize much here and there are many screens of characters to see.
There are 2 math tools, KCalk, a Scientific calculator and Gnuplot, I assume for making plots, that is beyond me. There are 3 Text tools, GNOME Dictionary, KChar Select (for selecting characters other than the standard letters and numbers) and Kjots which appears to be for making notes, it looks like a simplified text editor to me. There is Galeon, a web browser that I am not real familiar with as yet. Then there is Konqueror, the default web browser for Mandrake. It has such features as the ability to block popup adds and to control cookies. It also has ?Tabs?. With tabs you can have several web sites loaded at the same time without having multiple windows opened. I find it a very good feature. It has a terminal emulator, you can split the screen with left and right or top and bottom. There are many keystroke shortcuts with Konqueror, for instance, just typing gg into the address bar takes you to google.com. And it links to Kmail for sending
email. Next there is Mozilla and Mozilla Composer. Mozilla is another web browser that is set up to look like Netscape. It has many of the same features that Konqueror has. The tools for Mozilla are Form Manager, Cookie Manager, Image Manager, Popup Manager, Password Manger, Download Manager and a Web Development JavaScript Console. It has a Full Screen mode that is easily turned on and off. It also gives you Text Views from 50% to 200% or you can type in and % you like. I just tested it for 500%. This is an excellent feature if you lost your glasses. You can swing over to the Composer either from the menu or with keystrokes. The Composer is for building web pages. I have not worked with this yet, so I have
no input on it as yet. There is Quanta Plus. This appears to be a browser of the system. You can surf
your system just like you can surf the web. It opens up to your home directory where you will store all of your files.
Last is Screem, the Creation and Editing Environment. This appears to be a complete document control center for creating and editing files. I will have to investigate this program when I get some time. For email there are 2 applications. Kmail is the default program and I like it. Evolution is very similar to Microsoft Outlook. I will say that I do like the spell checker in Kmail very much. It is superior to the spell checker that I have been using in Netscape Navigator on my Mac.
For File transfer there are also 2 applications. Kbear looks to be a program for transferring files around the system using the GUI and it is an FTP client. I have not done any FTP as yet with Linux. There is also gFTP which seems like a standard type FTP client. I will have to test both of these to see which I prefer. For instant messaging there is Gaim. You can set up accounts in Gaim for AIM/ICQ, Yahoo, MSN, IRC, Jabber, Napster, Zephyr and Gadu-Gadu. I never new there were so many instant message servers. I have only tried with AIM so far and it does work for that.
There is Xchat for IRC, no experience with this yet. I am not big into IRC but I
will set it up.
For Newsgroups there are 2 applications. I have set up the Knode. You should all check out alt.radio.amateur. There is also Pan. It appears to be much more extensive that the newsgroup program in Netscape. I will have to try this one, it may be better than Knode, but it is all personal preferences anyway.
For remote access there are Kppp for modem connections (not in standard installation, I had to add this), LinNeighborhood (for networks I think), Telnet, TightVNC (for connecting to VNC servers. I don?t know what they are) and Virtual Network Connection.
For amusement there are 2 Arcade Games, I am not a gamer but they do work, totally boring.
Multimedia, now here is another entire world including Graphics, Sound and Video.
For Graphics I have FLPhoto (GPhoto 2), FTKam (GPhoto 2). The first 2 are for managing your digital camera pictures. Image Magick display is a Graphic manipulation application, Kooka is a scanning application, Ksnapshot is for a screen capture and finally The GIMP. The GIMP looks like it can give Photo Shop a big run for it?s money and it comes on the disk.
On the sound side of things, there is KAudio Creator. This looks like it is for manipulating CD?s so you can make new Tracks out of the old Tracks. KsCD is for playing your audio CD?s. Last is Totem Media Player for playing DVD, VCD and CD?s, I think it views movies also.
Lastly for Multimedia is Totem Movie Player, guess what it does.
I would be remiss if I did not mention the Mandrake Control Center. This is where all system configurations are handled. Such as manage your software, add or remove users, view system logs, set up your security (firewalls etc.), set up the internet, define and resize drive partitions, set up sharing hardware, setting up hardware, changing screen resolution, set up a TV card, set up printers, etc. etc. etc. The system puts you in control of everything, are you up to the challenge?
Well, I have gone through the menu of applications. As you can see, Mandrake 9.2 is much more than just an operating system. I will probably never use all of these applications but I am sure I will use some of them extensively. After I have had ample opportunity to try everything I will uninstall the apps that I know I will never use. This will free up more disk space for me. If the description of what you get on the disks does not satisfy you, don?t worry.
I have read that there are about 50,000 possible downloads for Linux. Perhaps they won?t all work on the distribution that you choose but you will still have more than you could imagine. Also, all of the radio programs are available like SSTV, PSK31 and Echolink.
The next part will finalize this series about Linux. In it I will give my
critique and opinion of Linux. I will wait a while to write it as I need to do much more testing of the applications.
"When you say `I wrote a program that crashed Windows', people just stare at
you blankly and say `Hey, I got those with the system, for free'.'' - Linus Torvalds.
For Sale
HD-73 ROTOR w/CONTROL & CABLE, $50; Cushcraft 10-40M Vert. Ant., $15; Heathkit Station Monitor Mod. 614, $50. 2 South Bend 7.5 HP Go-Cart Engines. Call for Info. Call Irv, N1ATS, 348-3425. Posted by: WB1GRB
ESTATE SALE (N1CML) Yaesu FT-980 HF Xcvr, $475; Yaesu FT 726R 2M all mode Xcvr $325; Yaesu YS-60 SWR-Pwr Mtr, $50; MFJ Versatuner II (300W), $100; Tram Reflect meter, $15; Azden PCS3000 2M Mobile w/o Mic, $25; HP5301 10 MHz Freq Ctr. $25; Eldorado 1615 30 MHz Freq Ctr., $25; AEA PK-88 Packet TNC, $35; Leader LAC 897 2M Transmatch, $20. Call Marv, N1AWJ. Posted by: WB1GRB.
SB 102, POWER SUPPLY/ SPEAKER, AND HAND MIKE IN VERY CLEAN CONDITION. 80-10M. $150.
(203) 531-9493. Andy KA1SLG.
Icom 706mkIIG, no box, in excellent condition, have all the small connectors it came with, asking 650$ or Best offer. 203 748 7143.
FT-8100B 2M/70cm Tranceiver with factory CTCSS encode/decode, separation kit, and includes all schematics and manual. Recent o/haul at Yaesu - Installed new style transmitter board and complete alignment. Works and looks as new. $200.00 plus shipping - 203-975-8014 eves.
More Items Listed On The
Ham Radio Classified Ads Service.
Classified Ads Can be deleted, corrected or changed by contacting me at, (203) 353-8422.
John WB1GRB. If no answer, leave a short message. 1 min. I will also see you at club meetings & events.
Mailing Address:
Stamford Amateur Radio Association
Post Office Box 112833
Stamford, CT. 06911-2833.
NEXT MEETING THURSDAY AUGUST 5TH. PROGRAM - K1FC ON ANTENNA MODELING
VE SESSION SATURDAY, AUGUST 14 TH, 9:30 AM CAFETERIA, GOVERNMENT CENTER
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Monday, August 02, 2004
For those who have not been to Field Day in recent years, this will bring you up to date.
This year, we decided to build on our past experience We were able to get more bonus points, for example, we copied the ARRL FD message both cw and SSB for the first time in a number of years We were able to put up a beam and we finally succeeded in using a logging program. We are now up to 2635 points and having learned some valuable lessons, we can do better next year.