Misc ramblings

After dinner I went back down to the man cave (my office at one end of the basement and my workbench in the utility room at the other corner of the basement.) I grabbed the Netbook and fired up EchoLink (with WINE running on Ubuntu 9.10) while working on a project.

Tonights mini project: I had three capacitors for the XV144 that had not made it onto the board for some reason. One was part of the 28mhz bandpass filter. The other two are used across a power regulator to prevent oscillations across the power supply and rails.  They were pretty simple to add.

While working on the transverter I chatted with several folks on the QRP conference. We have started to meet there informally outside of the normal Sunday & Wednesday group. Last night we talked about ordering, sorting, and stockpiling parts. Tonight we talked about making homebrew printed circuit boards. I received a lot of questions about how the process works. I outlined the important steps and referred people to my blog since most of the notes are already covered here. We also had HL2KAQ join the conversation from South Korea. It was kind of fun adding an international element to the conversations. HL2KAQ was connected in via a 70cm link on his end.

When I am over at the workbench working on a project and melting solder it is fun to be able to talk with folks about radios, rf, computers, and other topics. My wife and kids are normally winding down their day between 8:30-9pm so it is a good time to escape to projects in the man cave.

FYI... the XV144 and XV432 kits are completed awaiting testing and final configuration.  (I needed to get them completed before I start putting another project on the work bench.)

73 de NG0R

Echolink on Linux

I have not used EchoLink in almost 5 years. I had it setup briefly at my last QTH for short period of time just to see if I could get it work. Since I am rebuilding my XP laptop as a Linux Ubuntu based machine I am looking at my list of software to install and configure.

I decided to revisit EchoLink in hopes that I could get it working with Linux and that maybe I could find some other link minded people that want to talk about RF design and construction. (I like to think of myself as a builder.)

As I searched around on the internet it really seemed like EchoLink is focused on Windows based machines and the Linux and Mac community was left with what ever they could figure out on their own. I noticed that there are a couple of groups that are trying to come up OpenSource answers to EchoLink for Linux and Mac based users. I did see one brief mention of someone using WINE to host an EchoLink session. I decided to give EchoLink+WINE a try as I am having reasonably good success getting Windows based applications to work with WINE for the applications that I can replace with a native Linux solution.



The install was very straight forward. I spent more time getting the callsign validation completed and configuring my firewall for the proper port forwarding than installing the software. (I have two ISPs running into a router with dual WAN interfaces. I had to configure the EchoLink firewall rules to favor one ISP so the bits would land at the right spot behind the NAT.  Not overly hard to configure... just a bit of testing & tweaking.)

I ran a couple of tests within EchoLink to tweak my software based upon the system performance. I then connected to Node 9999 which is the EchoTest conference. I ran some tests until I got my microphone audio dialed-in reasonably well. (I should keep my eyes out for a better microphone at some point in the future.)

While I would rather talk with another Amateur Radio operator via a more traditional RF to RF method this might be a good way to talk with builders (even folks outside of my geographical region.)

--Time for me to head to the workbench and focus on building something

73 de NG0R

PS... Some follow-up notes:

• I spent about 90 minutes on the QRP conference last night. That was a lot of fun while doing other things in the shack. On my main machine the performance was pretty solid & the audio quality was decent.
  
• I decided to install EchoLink on my ASUS EEE netbook so that I can take it to work bench with me in the evening. It installed and connected fine but I had a problem getting the computer to acknowledge the MIC jack for an external microphone. I eventually found a quick mod to the sound card configuration that solved my problem. Notes below.
  

In order to get the microphone to work when using Ubuntu 9.10 for the ASUS EEE 900HA you only need to patch the ALSA configuration file as described above:

Patching of the ALSA configuration file (/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf)

1. Open a terminal window
2. Enter 'sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf'
3. Search in the file whether a line including 'snd-hda-intel' exists,
if so please delete that line
4. Add the following two lines to the configuration file:

===start here===
# eeePC 900a patch
options snd-hda-intel index=0 model=quanta
===end here===

Moving to Linux

I have been planning on moving my PC (in my case a laptop) from Microsoft XP over to Linux for a while. The timing is never convenient to do this kind of project so I have been pushing it off. This machine is about 3 years old and is the longest time between rebuilds that I can ever remember going.

Chores & tasks:

• After work today I drive to town and bought a new hard drive (250gb SATA) for my laptop. (I will actually swap out the drive so that my old XP image is stored for a while as a backup.)
  
• I also bought an inexpensive 2gb SD card. I will reformat it and put it into the integrated SD slot to use as a SWAP drive partition under Linux. This should make for an extremely fast SWAP. (I will also create a SWAP partition on the new HD.)
• Earlier in the week 4gb of ram arrived via Amazon & the USPS. That is a BIG step up from the original 1gb that I have been trying to survive on for a couple of years.
• I started making a list of the applications that are installed on XP. (I do this for every machine rebuild so that I know what I need to install again & what I can skip.) See the picture below.
  

• I built an XP image to run in an Sun VirtualBox session. I will use this XP virtual machine to run any applications that I am unable to either replace with something else that runs natively on Linux or get to run under WINE. (I have some apps that I have bought over the last few years for Amateur Radio and GeoCaching that come to mind. I also use some Electrical Engineering software that appears to be Windows Specific.)
• I am going copy the contents of "My Documents" to an external USB drive. (It is the same drive that store my photos, engineering notes & designs, MP3s, etc.)  I try to run a monthly backup of the external USB drive to another drive.
• Thinking of the backup... I probably should mirror/backup that USB drive prior to the rebuild.
• I need to export my bookmarks from Firefox on XP to the USB drive so that I can import them once the Linux image comes up.
• I need to find my Ubuntu build CD or burn another one prior to removing the XP hard drive.
  

Here is a list of software that I either need to get to work under Linux, replace with something else, or reinstall on the XP virtual machine running in a Virtual Box session.

• AADE filter design software
• Adobe CS2
• Adobe Photoshop Elements
  Gimp + UFRaw Plug-in  sudo apt-get install gimp-ufraw
  digiKam (Library Management & Editing)
  
• Adobe Preimier Elements
• All Music Converter
• Arc160 software for scanner
• Audacity
  Available in Linux
  
• Audible Manager
• BeyondCompare
• Blackberry Device Manager
  
  
• BlogJet
  I am using ScribeFire as a FireFox plug-in. BlogJet was a good tool if your an IE user looking for a good offline authoring tool for your blog. ScribeFire is an awesome solution if you are a FireFox user and it runs on Windows & Linux. I have used it with DasBlog and now with WordPress.
  
  
• Cacheberry desktop
• CS-208 programmer
• CutePDF
  Not needed as you can natively print to PDF in most situations
  
• Eagle
  I am not actively using Eagle, but it available on Linux
  
• Express PCB
• FireFox
  This is there natively.
  
  
• FreePCB
  This installed fine with WINE. I have not thoroughly tested it yet but it seems to be fine with some initial testing.
  
  
• FT-7800 programmer
• GeoBuddy
• ITunes
• KiCad
  Available on Linux. I am not actively using it at the moment.
  
• LED.exe
• Link700 (Kenwood D700 software)
• LTSpice
• Magic Gallery
• McCAD GView (Gerber files)  --skip--
• Microsoft Outlook
  Evolution with IMAP support
  
• Mikroelektronika (basic IDE and compiler for PIC development)
• MioMoov software
• MS Age of Empires
• MS Age of Empires II
• MS Age of Empires III + add-on's
• MS Flight Simulator X
• MS FrontPage
• MS Visio
• Nec2Go
• Network Stumbler
• OpenOffice
  Available natively on Linux
  
• Paint.Net
  GIMP
  
  
• Pentalogix Viewmate (Gerber files)
  There are a couple of approaches to this.
  
  You can use "Gerbv" to view the gerber file natively with Linux. This seems to work ok, but I need to figure out how to print the image in an invert fashion. I think that I can tweak the print driver to it (that is how I did it in Windows) but it is not just a simple check box.
  
  I did install ViewMate once I discovered a cool hack to be able to get the C++ 2008 SP1 library installed. Run the C++ install with the Winehack script:  http://wiki.winehq.org/winetricks  Then ViewMate will install fine. Once again I need to figure out how to print the inverted image. I noticed that ViewMate looked like it had a broken trace when used with WINE. I will need to test it some more.
  
  Another approach is instead of using the Gerber file from FreePCB that I could just use the PNG version of the file and Print it from GIMP which should allow me to invert the image at the same time.
  
  Another approach to this might be to install ViewMate in the VirtualBox XP session as a backup. Some times I am in a hurry when I need to print a file to make a homebrew circuit board and this is probably a good fall back just in case.
  
  
• Primal Script
• Putty
  Running native SSH via a terminal window
  
• RealVNC (to remote to ASUS EEE laptop)
• Roxio Easy CD Creator
  Ubuntu has a natively bundled CD/DVD burner
  
• RSS Bandit
  Gmail reader at the moment so that I can use it across multiple machines.
  
• Scribe fire
  Available for Linux
  
• SnagIt
  Using the built in screen capture tool.
  
• Spybot
• Sun VirtualBox
  Available for Linux
  
• Sync Backup SE
  
  
• TinyCad
  This will install under WINE once you add the MDAC components and then upgrade the JET to Service Pack 8 (I choose the Win95/NT4 update for SP8). TinyCad seems to open & print fine via WINE. --One issue so far... the Tool Dialog box does NOT open up. I am running TinyCad in a Virtual XP session until I figure out a work around.
  
  
• TomTom GPS software
• TravelPlus for repeaters
• VMWare server console
• Winamp
  Using built in MP3 player for Linux
  
• WinDVD

Once I move some data & mirror the external USB drive I am probably ready to start the rebuild. With a little bit of luck maybe I can start that after dinner tonight.  This is going to put a big dent in my productivity for a while this weekend as this is my main PC for productivity work on the home front.

I am excited to remove XP and move to Linux on this machine. Once I am done it will signal that I have pretty much moved from XP to Linux as it is the last major machine here that is still based 100% on Windows.

More posts & updates as the project progresses.

The ‘Retro-75’

This looks like another fine project from Dave over at Small Wonder Labs
http://smallwonderlabs.com/Retro-75.htm


This is a 2.5 watt AM carrier/8 watt peak kit for AM. How cool is that?

You probably will not work much DX with it... the regional QSOs should sound awesome given that it is AM after all. I have to admit that I have never spent much time working on AM. I am going to see if I can get some of the local folks in my region to get one as it would be a fun way to work some of my friends around the state.

Yes... I already placed my order via Paypal this evening.  :-)

FYI... I found this on the KE9V blog... scooped again!

XV432 Night Two

I put in about 75 minutes or so tonight. (I wish I had a bit more time.)

The transverter is pretty much done. The remaining piece is the final power transistor as the case is put together. I will try to tackle that sometime on Monday as it only take a few minutes to finish that up.

I am not sure when I will do the final alignment testing. I need to build the serial cable to hook up the XV144, XV222, and XV432 together. I also need to extend a serial cable from the shack to where next room where the transverters and amps live. (I have a coax patch panel in the next room to reduce the mess in my office, provide some flexibility so that any room can  be a future radio room, and to give me centralized location to disconnect the coax in case of a lightning storm.)

I actually need to test my Elecraft K2 on SSB prior to aligning the transverters and integrating them with the amplifiers. I have had the SSB board in my K2 since it was built but I have never tested it, nor have I even hooked up a microphone to that rig... it has been CW only so far.

I would guess that I probably have about 5 hours into this kit with all of the starting/stopping and distractions. With some luck maybe I will have it on the air over one of the next couple of weekends as time permits.

73 de NG0R

Coolest Motorcycle Commercial Ever

Very Cool... the kids and I like it a LOT!

Don’t try this at home — unless your crotch rocket will go from 0 to 60 in 2.9 seconds…

I found this on the Signal and Noise blog by ke9v

Arduino based DDS-60 controller for QRSS

I stumbled across an interesting email from "the Knight's" mailing list from Ross KB1KGA.

The Knights is an email list that is focused on QRSS building and operation. It tends have a lot of participation from Europe and Australia with some momentum building in the US and Canada.   The reflector is located at: http://mail.cnts.be/mailman/listinfo/knightsqrss_cnts.be  QRSS is a good topic to investigate if you are interested in QRP and especially if you are a "builder."

Here is an excerpt of the email:



I bet that he has pictures and a schematic at that link....
http://www.theladderline.com/node/10



Click around on the links. He includes a schematic and some details on the project.

Notes:
The Arduino community has a lot of traction at the moment.  I am really impressed with amount of people talking about the Adunio project board and Atmel in general. I happen to be investigating the Microchip based PIC platform at the moment but the Atmel folks are really making me think that I should revisit my platform choice. Most the folks that I know locally and through work happen to be focused primarily on the PIC so has influenced me since I can lean on them for support.  :-)

73 de NG0R

XV432 Night One

I worked on the main RF board tonight off and on 10-15 minutes at a pop.

The board is slightly different than the ones for the XV144 & XV222. While very similar there are subtle differences and you can probably pick some of them out from the picture.  :-)

So far the construction is going ok. There were a couple of parts that I had hard time finding that appear to be in the finishing bag instead of the main bag which is slightly different that the parts bags for the XV432. Most people would probably not notice the inconstancy in the part bags because they are not building two transverters back to back.

I should be able to find an hour or two on Sunday to spend on this project. I am getting down to the inductors, filters, and some other small parts that were hidden in the "432 finishing" parts back like a 2 watt resistor. I think that kit will should largely be assembled tomorrow (Sunday.)

73 de NG0R

XV432 Day One

The project has started....


The front panel pcb is done. It is a mix of the parts on the front and on the back. It is a pretty simple board with probably about 3 dozen components. Once the parts are sorted this takes about 45 minutes to stuff the parts, solder, and trim.

73 de NG0R

XV144 Night Three

I finished the transverter Thursday night but did not post the notes to the blog. I have held the post for a couple of days while I was migrating the content from my old blog/server to the new blog/server.

I will try to post a follow-up picture later this weekend if time permits.

I will wait to test & adjust the XV144 until I am done with the XV432 kit. I figure that I might as well deal with the XV144, XV222, XV432 and K2 all at the same time as migrate these to an Elecraft centric approach to the shack integration.

I just popped the box open for the XV432 kit. I hope to make a dent on the construction this weekend.

73 de NG0R