Ham Radio

Radios, Musing, and Adjusting

by W4JDH
In about a month, I’ll have officially held an amateur radio license for 25 years. While the requirement to join the Quarter Century Wireless Association is to be in the 25th year since the date of your first licensing. Mine was in 1999, so I was eligible January 1. At that point, I was unsure ... Read More

APRS Fun!

by W4JDH
Hi folks! I’ve got a bit to report! I’ve been migrating my Linux servers to Debian from RHEL-derived distributions, and the last one to be migrated was the APRS node. I’ve had W4JDH-1 connected to APRS-IS for a long time: at least since 2011 and possibly earlier. For the longest time it was Xastir in ... Read More

CentOS 8 iGate

by W4JDH
Hey, the title rhymes! I spent the past couple of days getting most of my Linux VMs set up on CentOS 8: the two that aren’t are the PowerChute appliance and my UniFi Controller. One of the VMs was set up as an APRS iGate using Xastir on Fedora previously, so I had to come ... Read More

Hardening a Raspberry Pi-based Digital Hotspot

by W4JDH
This issue came up at work this week. I received two phone calls from customers who were having issues with their Raspberry Pi-based D-STAR Hotspot: something was corrupting the microSD card. One wanted to get the built-in halt/reboot options working, and he eventually did with the help of the image’s site. The second brought his ... Read More

We’re Back! With Radio Fun!

by W4JDH
Hi there! This is a landmark first post in almost four years here on w4jdh.net! Today we’re diving into the realm of amateur (ham) radio and Linux, specifically how to set Arch Linux up as both an APRS I-Gate and a dual-band D-STAR hotspot using the G4KLX software compiled from source. Assuming you don’t have ... Read More

The Convention Conundrum

by W4JDH
Here’s a scenario: you’ve found a {convention|hamfest|trade show|conference} you want to attend, have a hotel picked out, and have your method of transportation picked out. What you don’t know, though, is if you want to leave out Sunday evening or Monday morning. This was the scenario I ended up with in 2005 when it was ... Read More

Mobile Connectivity +α

by W4JDH
Earlier this week, I read on TmoNews.com that T-Mobile was making another promo on their webConnect (aircard) service. I had cashed in on a promo plan towards the end of last year for $50/mo instead of $60/mo, but this one is even more awesome: “Overage Free” rate plan for $40/mo. What this means is that ... Read More

GPS, Radios, and Arcane Software

by W4JDH
It’s fairly common knowledge that I possess an amateur radio license, callsign W4JDH. As such, I have this innate interest in things radio, and thanks to my overwhelmingly powerful interest in computers… I like things like packet radio and something called APRS, or the Automatic Position Reporting System, developed by Bob Bruninga, WB4APR. APRS itself ... Read More

EchoLink

by W4JDH
To introduce a new category, I present a post on an oft-discussed facet of amateur radio: EchoLink. I overheard someone at work the other day mentioning how neat it is and how it can be a good way to get young people interested in ham radio. The way he described it sounds exactly like the ... Read More