I am a Linux *user* out in Columbia County; I don't usually contribute much here but I *do* read occasionally to learn more. I basically drive a desktop for personal e-mails and printing out correspondence.
A 10yr old m/b died on me and I had a local store build me a recycled tower out of refurbishable components, so it's cool. Just now getting used to Ubuntu 12.04 and I may attempt to move the desktop to Cinnamon because I don't like the appearance constraints of the "Ubuntu One" environment. I began getting interested in amateur radio because of the increasing strictures on physically modulating electronic communications devices while driving, and noted that these silly laws exempted ham radio transmissions. Looked into it; found that several anime fandom friends also happen to be hams, boned up on my highschool physics and passed the Tech and Gen in one go. Went back and hit the Extra with a 100% score and so now I am AF7FD. Traded an unfired specimen from my "2nd Amendment collection" (BTW I also have a C&R FFL if anyone has anything 'interesting' I may wish to add to my collection.) in exchange for a Kenwood TS850R & power supply. Bought a bunch of Belden 9913 cable and I installed a ground system in the house and had a friend turn me an adapter out of delrin that couples 1/2" PVC conduit to 11.5 tpi garden hose thread = cheep-cheep underground conduit for the HF cable. Just finished putting in 26 x 35ft radials of aluminium fence wire last weekend, Next up is to build a collapsible antenna mast and then spring some $$$ for a 80m - 10m aluminium Christmas tree of sorts to stick up into the sky. (Does anyone know if that anti-oxide spray is worth it?) I have not transmitted yet but I did spend a couple hours with a line connected to the ctr conductor and run out to the electric fence wires out at the pasture. There's easily a 1/2 mile of insulated wire out there and I was listening to signals from the world over. Fun! Currently I am also studying to take the Patent Bar Exam too, so my hobby time will be limited until I can nail that, but in the meantime I have a little MFJ code practice generator that generates random words and calls. You can use these while driving and try to transcribe in your head - it's legal. I am currently using the Farnsworth system to try to learn to copy CW. I can hit 9wpm now with the characters set at 25wpm. I have an iambic paddle but I may have bought that too early in the game; I want to see if I can get a used straight-key on the cheap and build up skill from scratch. I also eventually want to kick around some ionosphere up on 160m... What's all this digital mode stuff people are taking about? - Guy L. -.- -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [PLUG] Hams and Linux Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 11:34:10 -0700 From: Keith Lofstrom <[email protected]> Reply-To: [email protected], Portland Linux/Unix Group <[email protected]> To: Portland Linux/Unix Group <[email protected]> On Tue, Mar 25, 2014 at 06:07:29PM -0700, Tyrell Jentink wrote: > There seems to be a good number of hams around here, but I sure have a hard > time finding much talk about digital modes in the area... We should do > something about that ;) _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
