tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-112829592008-05-07T17:16:48.461-04:00Martin Ewinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329680325036851280noreply@blogger.comBlogger62125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11282959.post-66871912632039546982008-03-24T15:39:00.004-04:002008-03-24T15:47:23.389-04:00

Here's a little plug for "The K9YA Telegraph", an electronically published free magazine about Amateur Radio. Inside the April, 2008, Issue... Etah, Greenland or Bust By Philip Cala-Lazar, K9PLThe "Magic of Radio" By Kelly Klaas, K7SUThere She is Again By Scott Laughlin, N7NETGeorge W. Leck, W2POC By Bob Ballantine, W8SU"Tilted P" By Bud Frohardt, W9DY/mJauhelihapiiras is Meat Loaf By Rod

Martin Ewinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329680325036851280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11282959.post-4379692358438885902008-03-10T23:33:00.003-04:002008-03-10T23:38:54.698-04:00

Some text and a photo This time I sent a plain text message, with an attached photo. That did the trick for the simple case, but I don't expect I can intersperse text and photos.

Martin Ewinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329680325036851280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11282959.post-25928126136355463662008-03-10T23:22:00.002-04:002008-03-10T23:36:25.160-04:00

Here's one: That's what I got when I sent an HTML email with a graphic inline. (but sent as an attachment, I think.) It did not work.

Martin Ewinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329680325036851280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11282959.post-21444884233359341812008-03-10T23:20:00.001-04:002008-03-10T23:20:45.890-04:00

This yet another test of the blogging system.  This time, we publish to the blog from an e-mail. Question: Does the HTML get interpreted correctly?  Do links show up the way they should?

Martin Ewinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329680325036851280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11282959.post-10911881617768883622008-03-10T17:31:00.004-04:002008-03-10T23:40:19.276-04:00

Just testing... This entry comes to you through the "gnome-blog" posting program from my Linux environment. If you can read this, it does work.I have also tried BloGTK 1.1, which looked even more promising, but it does not seem to give good results with Blogger.com sites, which this one is. It does not treat titles correctly, for example.Note added: Gnome-blog also appears unable to set an

Martin Ewinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329680325036851280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11282959.post-50400042379114191912008-02-25T17:32:00.002-05:002008-02-25T17:43:24.656-05:00

At the prompting of some church associates, I have launched into yet another Internet domain: Facebook.com. This is a "social networking" site, made popular as a gathering place for young people, typically of university age. There appears to be room for some of us senior citizens, too. There are groups for amateur radio, politics, religion, and other areas of life. Yale Alumni and student

Martin Ewinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329680325036851280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11282959.post-11716267574862777582008-02-20T22:40:00.005-05:002008-02-20T22:57:10.759-05:00

It's not ham radio, but it's a once in a few years opportunity. The clouds that earlier threatened our viewing here in Connecticut finally cleared away to reveal the total eclipse. Temperature was 25 F, pretty cold on a clear night! So here's my shot from about 10:30 PM EST, about the center of totality: (Click for full resolution!) That was on a tripod of course. Before that, I tried

Martin Ewinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329680325036851280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11282959.post-23452429056082161582008-02-18T12:18:00.006-05:002008-02-25T17:26:41.072-05:00

Here's an old-fashioned (CLI-based!) but useful Python program that lets you create mailing labels and examine and dump records from the QRZ.com XML database. (Online.qrz.com account required.) The program is developed for Linux and other Unix-like environments, but could readily be adapted for other operating systems. For mailing labels, qrzpy supports 3 x 10 standard stick-on label stock

Martin Ewinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329680325036851280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11282959.post-24327984336839833802008-01-29T11:52:00.001-05:002008-02-25T17:27:43.368-05:00

After a little discussion with Jack Smith about the inner workings of his Z100 Tuning Aid (last post), one thing led to another. The result is another little Python utility that does much of what the Z100 does, but in software under Linux. The scoop and download are available here.

Martin Ewinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329680325036851280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11282959.post-41597972614669568892008-01-24T15:49:00.000-05:002008-01-24T16:37:09.841-05:00

This is the Z100 "Tuning Aid" from Clifton Laboratories, as described by Jack Smith K8ZOA in the January/February, 2008 issue of QEX. I bought the kit and put it together as sort of a post-Christmas present to myself. The Z100 is a pseudo-spectrum analyzer, using a simple zero-crossing detection and averaging algorithm as I understand it. It is intended to help "zero beat" a received CW or

Martin Ewinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329680325036851280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11282959.post-88552692282487179482007-10-06T11:03:00.003-04:002008-02-25T17:29:09.817-05:00

When working PSK31 or other "digimodes" on HF (high frequency) radio, we commonly use computer soundcards to analyze and transmit data. I like to use the Linux program fldigi for this, along with my Ten-Tec Orion transceiver. The soundcard takes in the entire audio output from the Orion, typically 100 - 3,000 Hz. Fldigi (and similar software) allows you to point to a transmission of interest

Martin Ewinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329680325036851280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11282959.post-54148227503156770612007-09-30T16:16:00.001-04:002007-09-30T16:43:19.341-04:00

About 200 hams and friends gathered at the 26th TAPR/ARRL Digital Communications Conference for 2007 was held in Windsor Locks, CT, Sept. 28-30, 2007. Many great papers and conversations. I presented my talk (PDF), "SourceForge, Hamlib, and Rigserve: Free Beer, Free Speech, and Rig Control", which is also printed in a somewhat different form (PDF) in the Proceedings. A few cheap photos from my

Martin Ewinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329680325036851280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11282959.post-79922338877097255292007-07-31T09:53:00.000-04:002007-07-31T16:04:23.926-04:00

My contribution for the TAPR/ARRL Digital Communications Conference, Sept., 2007 appears here, as a PDF. DCC is always a good show for advanced Amateur Radio technology. This year, it will be in Windsor Locks, CT, not too far from me. Previous Conference Proceedings are available.

Martin Ewinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329680325036851280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11282959.post-36126803099585853542007-06-16T20:18:00.000-04:002007-06-16T20:46:41.882-04:00

The "SoftRock" receiver kits have been around for a while. These are very inexpensive and basic quadrature sampler devices with a crystal controlled local oscillator. They make a complete receiver front-end for a Software Defined Radio. You can buy a version 6.2 SoftRock Lite kit from Tony, KB9YIG, for $10. I thought it was time to take the plunge. For your $10, you get to spend hours

Martin Ewinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329680325036851280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11282959.post-31557136540122155542007-05-20T07:33:00.000-04:002007-06-22T09:25:24.652-04:00

A couple of short video panoramas from the Dayton Hamvention! In the Hara Arena -- a small part of the exhibit space. The fleamarket scene.

Martin Ewinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329680325036851280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11282959.post-10714831024295105452007-05-19T23:00:00.000-04:002007-06-22T09:25:24.653-04:00

Photos without comment from the Dayton, Ohio Hamvention, 2007. (Click for high-resolution versions.)

Martin Ewinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329680325036851280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11282959.post-14099867973974567212007-05-06T15:35:00.000-04:002007-05-21T20:39:24.812-04:00

Thanks to Slashdot for the following provocative video link. Van Johnson talks to Google about what comes after the TCP/IP Internet. In a nutshell, we have seen telco-style circuit switching morph into the current TCP/IP packet switched network, and the goal has always been to support end-to-end conversations. But the current Internet is dominated by fetching data (e.g. web pages), and TCP/IP

Martin Ewinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329680325036851280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11282959.post-45184154511689834222007-03-14T10:55:00.000-04:002007-03-16T21:28:55.750-04:00

Recently, I had a QSO with GP0STH, Ron, on Guernsey Island. Nice to have that new country! He gave me an unsolicited "great audio" report. Now, that was interesting... I had just resuscitated my 30 year old Kenwood TS-520S to see how well the old rig was running. The Orion was sitting quietly on my desk. The funny thing is that the Orion is well-known for great audio, and my Kenwood and its

Martin Ewinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329680325036851280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11282959.post-47193319539208022642007-03-02T18:04:00.000-05:002007-06-11T21:27:45.945-04:00

Along with a number of other Linux users, I noticed that my Keyspan 49W 4-port USB serial converter stopped working when Fedora Core 5 updated to kernel version 2.6.18 late last October. Ever since then, I have not been able to update to the latest kernels. So, I reported the bug to Fedora's bugzilla (#21300), and sat back to see what would happen. The bug percolated through the Fedora and

Martin Ewinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329680325036851280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11282959.post-35093573806611640142007-02-18T14:11:00.000-05:002007-03-15T15:36:40.868-04:00

Inkscape is a cool, open-source and free program for vector graphics drawing. It produces output in the SVG (scalable vector graphics) format, which is human-readable XML, and which can be used directly in future web pages. (Version 2 of Mozilla/Firefox, for example.) Inkscape is available for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X. I'm not a graphics pro by any means, but I was able to put this program

Martin Ewinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329680325036851280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11282959.post-22998197217147164322007-02-16T12:12:00.000-05:002007-06-11T21:30:14.679-04:00

Some of you know that I've been working on "Rigserve", which is meant to be a much streamlined server-style application providing much of the functionality of Hamlib. We avoid most of the cross-platform problems by defining our API over an IP connection, which is human-readable and even testable over Telnet. Rigserve is implemented in object-oriented style using Python, which should allow it

Martin Ewinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329680325036851280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11282959.post-45051498740379573362007-02-16T12:05:00.000-05:002007-06-11T21:29:47.904-04:00

I finally made the leap into the new Google-authenticated scheme on blogger.com. It was a good thing I did, because I found quite a number of user comments for the blog that were pending. All moderation requests were going to an obsolete email address. Apologies to readers who made great comments along the way. They should now be posted. -Martin

Martin Ewinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329680325036851280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11282959.post-1165508970978268642006-12-07T11:19:00.000-05:002007-03-14T12:45:01.546-04:00

On a recent evening at the W1YU Club at Yale, we had a program on QRP operation. That got me thinking. What equipment do I have for QRP work? Well, I have an Elecraft XG-2. It puts out a fairly well calibrated 50 μVolts into 50 ohms. That is about 50 picoWatts on 20, 40, or 80 meters. So here is my QRP transmitter. All it needs is a CR-2032 battery. I find it is tricky to send CW with

Martin Ewinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329680325036851280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11282959.post-1163825626315225322006-11-17T23:49:00.000-05:002007-03-15T18:04:02.245-04:00

I see we made the big time with a listing in AwfulBlogs. You know what the doctor says, when you say "it hurts when I do this"? He says, "well then don't do it any more." Moving on...

Martin Ewinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329680325036851280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11282959.post-1163740327915387822006-11-17T00:07:00.000-05:002007-06-11T21:27:45.946-04:00

Rigserve is a new approach to local and remote control of ham rigs, inspired by work on Hamlib. Rigserve is an IP network server, programmed in Python, that provides a simple text-based interface to control an arbitrarily large number of rigs. The code is compatible with Linux-like OSs and Windows. Rig backends are provided initially for the Ten-Tec Orion (I and II) and the Icom R8500. See

Martin Ewinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329680325036851280noreply@blogger.com