| President: | Jack Reed | WA4FXX |
| Vice President: | Dennis Bodson | W4PWF |
| Secretary: | Mike Callaham | NW3V |
| Treasurer: | Mike Ingles | KG4RKL |
| Activities Chairman: | Alan Bosch | KO4ALA |
| Editor: | Mike Callaham | NW3V |
| March 2004 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Meetings: | Usually Third Tuesday of each month, 7:30 P.M., Red Cross, 4333 Arlington Blvd. (US 50), Arlington,VA. Nonmembers are invited to attend. |
| Net: | Tuesday (except meeting nights) at 7:30 P.M., 144.87/145.47 MHz FM |
| WWW: | http://www.w4wvp.org/ |
| Roster: | http://www.w4wvp.org/roster.censored.txt |
| Affiliate: | ARRL, FAR |
| Information: | Jack Reed, WA4FXX, wa4fxx@amsat.org (e-mail), (703) 685-7933 (phone). |
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At the March 16 meeting, Ed Harris, KE4SKY, Deputy State RACES Officer for Safety and Training, and Emergency Response Planning Coordinator, Fairfax County Department of Public Works, will describe the Incident Command System (ICS). Please join us for this important program!
--Mike, NW3V
President Jack, WA4FXX, called the meeting to order at 1930L. Also attending were Dennis, W4PWF, Mike, NW3V, Mike, KG4RKL, Alan, KO4ALA, Ian, KI4DTP, Jaskaran, KG4YIQ, Jim, K9AUC, Mike, KA8OPJ, Keith, KG4UIR, John, WD4MIS, George, KR4MU, Chuck, KI4DHW, and visitors Jack, KB3KKY, Delilah, KB1IQC, Jason, AG4DG, and Tom Bartlet (unlicensed).
President Jack, WA4FXX, asked Members and visitors to introduce themselves. Visitor Chuck, KI4DHW, noted that he was active in CERT, was recently licensed, and had had his first QSO on the Arlington County Net the previous week.
Mike, NW3V, said that Mike, W4GKI, sent his regards but was under the weather and couldn't attend.
It was moved, seconded, and passed that the Minutes, as published on the AARC web site be approved. Treasurer Mike, KG4RKL, presented the financial report.
AARC Vice President and ARRL Roanoke Division Director Dennis, W4PWF, said that the League's proposal that had lain on the FCC's table for two years had finally gone to the Commissioners' office. Also, the League had filed a Petition for Rule Making regarding license restructuring with the FCC. A footnote says "ARRL does not necessarily believe that the term Novice is properly descriptive of the new entry-level license class, and is receptive of a more appropriate term. However, the Novice class license remains in the FCC's ULS database, and it was believed that retaining the term might be simple administratively and would not necessitate significant software changes."
Someone mentioned that AMRAD would demonstrate BPL (Broadband over Power Line) reconnaissance methods.
Dennis mentioned two upcoming hamfests: the Richmond Frostfest, February 22, and the VWS-sponsored Winterfest, February 29, in Annandale.
Foundation for Amateur Radio representative Alan, KO4ALA, said that he had nothing to report since the last meeting, and that the next meeting would be tomorrow night. Dennis, W4PWF, corrected hm, saying the meeting had been the previous Wednesday, in Maryland.
Arlington County Emergency Coordinator Alan, KO4ALA, said "there's a drill, but they're not telling anything about it yet; we won't know until April." George, KR4MU said "They wanted names of participants by today." "...but wouldn't say what they'll do,", added Jack, WA4FXX.
Jack said that Arlington Police Captain Holle, who came to our Field Day operation (he was then Deputy Chief of Police, and is now County Emergency Administrator), said that the new County comm vehicles were equipped with an IC-706, a Kenwood D-700, a nine-foot whip, and an antenna tuner, so that a long wire could be used. Holle said that when they get the other things programmed up, they'll bring it here, maybe for Field Day, and let us try it. Alan, KO4ALA, said "I have an M-squared square loop antenna but am having a hard time tuning it up, because I don't have a manual." Jack said, "you can bring it here and install it and test it."
Alan said "we collided with a [Fairfax County] ARES meeting tonight, on training and go kits, by Ed, KE4SKY. How many of you have go kits?" [About four attendees raised their hands.] Is there interest in that for the next meeting--either training or go kits?" Jack, WA4FXX, took a poll and announced that the answer was affirmative.
Keith, KG4UIR, said "CERT is interested in using GMRS--should we equip for that?" Dennis, W4PWF, said that there were license issues. There ensued a discussion by many. Jack summarized, "Let's do it this way: you [KO4ALA] ind out if we can license legally."
Keith said that "WAYMAC" in the Minutes of the January meeting should be "WMAC." Secretary Mike, NW3V, said that he'd amend the Minutes.
Keith then asked about the status of the "text blurb" to be included in Red Cross press releases. Jack replied, "I like it the way it is--if there's room, we can add another sentence."
Jack asked Chuck, KI4DHW, to tell us about CERT. Chuck said, "It stands for Community Emergency Response Team. A lot of people promote GMRS, and sell the stuff, without a clue about licensing, type acceptance, etc."
Jim, K9AUC, said that "at the NCAC activity, every ham who worked at [the Red Cross National] HQ was there. They're very interested in MOUs [Memoranda of Understanding]--I don't know why." There ensued a discussion of MOUs by George, KR4MU, and others.
Keith said that the Red Cross wanted to have another Radio Day, and asked about the second Tuesday in in May. Alan, KO4ALA, said that that would be OK.
Mike, KA8OPJ, asked if anyone was interested in supporting the MS Bike-a-thon; he said that it would be the weekend his daughter was getting married.
Jack, WA4FXX, said that the CQ World-Wide WPX RTTY contest had been held the previous weekend, and he operated from NN3SI at the National Museum of American History. This weekend the ARRL DX CW contest will be held. The ARRL DX phone contest will be March 6-7, and the CQ World-Wide WPX SSB contest will be March 27-28.
Dennis, W4PWF, offered to give away a TR 2400. He said "it works, and has a new battery pack, charger, and leather case." It was decided to keep it in the W4WVP shack.
Jack, WA4FXX, noted that Field Day 2004 would be June 26-27, and he handed out drafts of a Field Day 2004 info pack for the Club to use. He noted that last year the Chapter had held an excercise in conjunction with FD.
Jack also said, "As we all heard on NPR today, the commercial at sigh, called commat, is now represented in Morse code as AC [imagine a superscript bar over that digram-Ed.] or WR [ditto]."
The high point of the evening was a presentation, Next-Generation SWR/Wattmeter, by VWS Member Jason Hsu, AG4DG. Jason described how, and why, he built a digital, LED-equipped, SWR meter. He said "it gives you the best of both worlds--QRO and QRP." The tuning of the design, particularly the matching of diodes, was such a labor-intensive process that Jason thought the design had little commercial potential, but he said that one of his aims was to build an SWR meter with the performance he wanted, which couldn't be purchased commercially.
Jason showed and distributed detailed, professional schematics and design information, similar to the information on his web page at http://www.jasonhsu.com/ee-swrwatt.html. When it was time to demonstrate the meter, it didn't cooperate, perhaps having been damaged in transit. Nevertheless, we were all very impressed with the project.
Jason is finishing a MSEE degree at GMU and is already seeking employment. He is a U.S. citizen.
Respectfully submitted,
Michael Callaham, NW3V
AARC Secretary
[Revised 2004-03-16 post-meeting per amendment.]
AFU-Knoppix stands for Amateurfunk mit Knoppix, which is German for Amateur Radio with Knoppix: it's a bootable CD based on the Knoppix bootable CD but containing an assortment of Amateur Radio applications. AFU-Knoppix is distributed by Hubert Fink, DG7MGY. The ISO9660 CD image (.iso) file can be downloaded from any of several mirrors and burned to a CD-R. It's free and open-source.
I downloaded the .iso and burned a CD, and I'll be glad to burn a CD for any AARC member who requests one in the next few weeks.
The Knoppix bootable CD contains a version of the Linux operating system along with a variety of applications, including the OpenOffice.org office application suite, Konqueror and Mozilla web browsers, the XMMS (X-windows MultiMedia System) player for sound files and streaming media, and more. The AFU-Knoppix CD has those applications, plus ham radio applications.
The bottom of the web page http://hubert.fink.bei.t-online.de/knoppix.html lists the Amateur Radio apps included on the AFU-Knoppix CD. It also shows a couple of screenshots, one illustrating the KPSK PSK31 program, and another illustrating the QSSTV SSTV program.
I have two more screenshots to share: one shows the AFU-Knoppix desktop with the Xcwcp Morse code practice application and the Konqueror web browser displaying the February 2004 Arlington Beacon; the other screenshot shows the AFU-Knoppix desktop with the LinPSK PSK31 application in action...sort of. In the interest of full disclosure, I'll admit that this PC was not in the shack, so I just played a random .wav file as input, instead of connecting an HF rig to the box.
Even though I booted the CD with the US language option (notice "US" superimposed on the U.S. flag at the right of the panel [think Windows taskbar] at the bottom of both of my screenshots), some of the labels are in German--e.g., Hilfe zum Soundmodem [soundmodem Help].
The Knoppix distribution of Linux has become very popular, because users can run it without installing it on a hard drive. It doesn't mount any hard disk partitions unless you tell it to, although if it finds a Linux swap partition on the primary hard disk, it will use it by default. A downside of Knoppix-like live-CD distributions is that the loading of programs and files is slower than if it were installed to a hard disk. It can be easily installed to a hard disk, but if one is ready to take that step, one might consider installing Debian (the Linux distribution from which Knoppix was derived) instead; although installing Debian is a bit more complicated, it results in an installation that is more easily maintained and upgraded, in my opinion.
If you try AFU-Knoppix, this hint might help: When the CD boots, a prompt
boot:
is displayed momentarily along with a hint that pressing F2 will display boot options. One option is to enter
boot: knoppix lang=us
in order to set the language and keyboard to US(-English). The Catch-22 is that at this point, the system assumes the keyboard is a German keyboard, so pressing the key labeled with "=" on your US keyboard won't do the trick. You'll need to enter "knoppix lang<Shift-0>us<Ret> in order for
boot: knoppix lang=us
to be echoed and understood by the system.
In summary, this is only a preliminary review, because I haven't tried AFU-Linux in the shack--but I'd like to. The PCs in my shack are so old that they can't boot from CDs (there's a work-around for that: boot from a floppy), and they don't have enough RAM to run AFU-Knoppix with X-windows. So I'll just have to disconnect my serious Linux workstation from the LAN and drag it, kicking and screaming, into the shack for a real test, when I "get a round tuit." Stay tuned.
73,
--Mike, nw3v
ARLS005: A glimmer of hope for AO-40
ARLS004: UO-11 Satellite to Mark 20 years in Space
This is just a sample. For other recent bulletins, check out http://www.arrl.org/w1aw/, or listen to W1AW.
The Arlington ARC Roster is online at http://www.w4wvp.org/roster.censored.txt. Do we have your info correct? If not, please contact the Treasurer (Mike, KG4RKL) or webmaster (Mike, NW3V).
The Arlington Amateur Radio Club
4333 Arlington Boulevard
Arlington, VA 22203
