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Posts tagged with 'planetubuntu'

Steve

Antenna modeling using nec2c on Ubuntu Linux

July 22, 2011

by Steve

Under amateur radio , ham , ham radio , hamradio , linux , open source , planetubuntu , ubuntu , ubuntu linux , ubuntu-hams | Comment

New Thing! Video!

I’ve been playing with antenna modeling, and decided to make a video series introducing this to other people who may be interested.

I’m new to this, but I think it came out pretty well. I only misspoke a couple of times, but it will probably only be noticed by the technical pedants (I count myself among these).

The first episode covers the basic user interface and some basic concepts. I already have plans to make more episodes, possibly with these topics:

Basic data input file format for xnec2c
Antenna tuning, resonance
Single band beam antennas, more elements for more directivity
The dB (Decibel) – as a unit AND a referenced quantity
SWR – what it is, why it matters, and when it doesn’t
How antenna height affects gain and impedance
How to model traps in xnec2c
Near field analysis – why do you need it and what does it mean?

I need to figure out where to place show notes for these, as there are a lot of good information sources about these topics on the internet already, and I need to reference those in each episode. I’ll get smoother at all that.

For the first episode, here’s how you can fetch the example files:

git clone git@github.com:sconklin/Antenna-Modeling.git

Here’s a link to my show page on blip.tv

And here’s the embedded episode:

Steve

Crowdsourcing incentives, and applications for open source communities

May 30, 2011

by Steve

Under linux , open source , planetubuntu , ubuntu , ubuntu linux , ubuntu-kernel | Comment

While it’s only a single study (disclaimer, blah blah blah), Here is some interesting data to consider for everyone involved in open source projects which have a community, or would like to. Especially for corporations for whom a community is an important part of your model, and community leaders for whom a corporation is a major driver of your project.

The study isn’t directly related to community, but you should be able to make your own connections.

I will point out one result in particular, which is that “[the results] suggest that workers perform most accurately when the task design credibly links payoffs to a worker’s ability to think about the answers that their peers are likely to provide.” When I read this, my first thought was of the Linux kernel process, in which contributions generally undergo public review on mailing lists. New contributors quickly learn to think about what mailing list participants will think about their contributions. We use the same process within the Ubuntu kernel team, with public review by peers. Many other projects do as well. So is the kernel development process the same scheme, with a feedback loop wrapped around it? (i.e. you actually DO get the feedback, you don’t just think about it).

This reward scheme, called “Bayesian Truth Serum”, produced more accurate results than schemes which awarded a bonus for accuracy!

I can think of a few really simple redux statements that might be made about how this applies to community projects, but (as this blog is subtitled) I think it’s more complicated than that. I’d rather just throw this much to community leaders and let them think about it.

Steve

Rescheduled: Ubuntu and Amateur (Ham) Radio for Ubuntu Open Week

May 5, 2011

by Steve

Under amateur radio , ham , ham radio , hamradio , linux , planetubuntu , ubuntu , ubuntu linux , ubuntu-hams | Comment

Note that this was rescheduled due to me being busy with disaster recovery. We can talk about that, too if anyone is interested.

–

Please join us on Friday, May 6th at 14:00 UTC for:

Ubuntu and Amateur (Ham) Radio for Ubuntu Open Week

Steve Conklin AI4QR, and Kamal Mostafa KA6MAL

Curious about what you can do with Amateur Radio and Ubuntu?
Curious about Amateur Radio in general?

Steve and Kamal will take questions and do their best to answer them.

—-

Amateur Radio is a hobby and a public service enjoyed by at least a million people around the world. Whether you are interested in transmitting and receiving radio signals around the world to meet new people, in being of service after disasters, or in the technical aspects, there is probably something for you.

Amateur Radio covers a huge number of interests, including local and long distance communications, emergency communications, satellite communications, digital networks, competitions, and electronics design.

Ubuntu offers many software applications related to Amateur Radio. We’ll discuss some of our favorite apps for use in the “ham shack”, and show how you can receive and decode digital conversations and telemetry with Ubuntu and any shortwave radio receiver (no Amateur Radio license required!).

We will be holding an open Question and Answer session:

When: Friday May 6th at 14:00 UTC

Where: In the #ubuntu-classroom and #ubuntu-classroom-chat channels on freenode IRC.

For more information about IRC:

Here’s a web client for IRC:

You don’t have to wait until the session to learn more about Ubuntu and Amateur Radio and meet other interested people. Check out our team information page or drop into #ubuntu-hams on freenode IRC.

73, DE AI4QR

Open Source amateur radio apps at the Huntsville Hamfest

August 12, 2009

Under amateur radio , hamradio , planetubuntu , ubuntu

Dave Freese, W1HKJ will be presenting a forum at the Huntsville Hamfest titled “Emergency Communications using HF Digital Modes”. Dave and a core group of contributors have been working for the last few years on a suite of open source applications for amateur radio. The fldigi application is the flagship of these.

Fldigi is a digital modem application which generates and decodes a number of digital modes using the sound hardware in your computer. Amateur radio using digital modes has been growing in popularity, and with good reason. These modes offer a variety of tradeoffs between rf bandwidth, data bitrate, error correction, and noise immunity.

These modes are all sent and received using audio frequencies that fall in the normal voice range used in amateur radio, about 300-3000 Hz. Some modes use very little bandwith, as low as 31Hz, allowing many contacts to take place within a frequency range that would be occupied by one voice contact. These modes are most commonly used with a text interface that resembles internet chat, but are also suitable for inclusion in a higher layer of protocol which allows further error correction, block sending, and retries. When used with a ‘stack’ like this, it is possible to send binary files over amateur radio error-free. This is useful for emergency communications. An example is to be able to send a spreadsheet listing items needed at a shelter, instead of reading and copying every line in the document by voice. The low speeds of these modes limit the usefulness to relatively small files, but a lot of information can be passed in small text files.

Fldigi runs on Linux, Free BSD, Windows XP, W2K, Vista, and OS X. At the hamfest, Dave will be demonstrating using windows and a Linux platform, and I will be helping him demo with my Ubuntu system.

The forum is at the Huntsville Hamfest from 14:00-16:00 on Saturday August 15th, in Salon 10. For more information about these apps, see Dave’s site

Presenting at Atlanta Linux Fest

August 11, 2009

Under planetubuntu , ubuntu

I’ll be presenting a session at Atlanta Linux Fest titled “Debugging the Kernel”. This presentation originated with Colin King, another member of the Ubuntu kernel team. Colin’s blog has a wealth of debugging information.

The presentation is an overview of various methods used, as applied to increasing difficulty. What can you do when you have no video, no console, no serial ports, and no network? Come find out.