Happy New Year!

I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year!

I think 2011 will be a better year. It looks like more and more Hams are looking into digital. I have already been asked to make several presentations ant various clubs in the area. The more we talk and show the better it gets! Winlink and HSMM are still moving forward and expanding. It should be a great year. Thanks to all that have read my Blog, come back next year for more!

A Ham Radio Cellphone Network

N9XLC has a very interesting post about cellphones. His thoughts are leanning towards a Ham Cellphone Network. I find this very interesting because it could tie into HSMM-Mesh and give us Hams another way to communicate. Check out his blog and the sites he recommends. This will also be an area I will have to look into more.

http://n9xlc.blogspot.com/2010/10/ham-radio-cellphone-network.html

Wi-Fi scanner software, inSSIDer

 I needed a Wi-Fi tool to help with a site survy for the HSMM-Mesh Nodes and my laptop runs Vista, so Netstumbler would not work. MetaGeek has created a replacement for Netstumbler. Open-source Wi-Fi scanner software, inSSIDer, actually works with Windows Vista, Windows 7, and 64-bit PCs. This is also free software that will work with current generations of  Windows operating systems. I really like this software and find it easy to use.

From their site:

What's Unique about inSSIDer?

•Compatible with Windows XP, Vista and 7 (32 and 64-bit)
•Uses the Native Wi-Fi API and your current Wireless network card
•Sort results by Mac Address, SSID, Channel, RSSI and "Time Last Seen"
•Compatible with most GPS devices (NMEA v2.3 and higher)

How can inSSIDer help me?

•Inspect your WLAN and surrounding networks to troubleshoot competing access points
•Track the strength of received signal in dBm over time
•Filter access points in an easy-to-use format
•Highlight access points for areas with high Wi-Fi concentration
•Export Wi-Fi and GPS data to a KML file to view in Google Earth
•Filter through hundreds of scanned access points

Check it out and download here:

http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider

New Sound Card Mode V4

V4 is a sound card digital protocol optimized for keyboard operation over HF. It uses 4FSK modulation and strong Viterbi FEC encoding for robustness even in weak signal or poor propagation conditions. V4 can be implemented on most computers using standard PC sound cards with radio interfaces. It is in Alpha testing but looks like a good start. This mode may be a good one for NVIS for digital nets. Watch this one for a good future.

The Alpha version of the software can be downloaded from the files section of the V4 Protocol Yahoo Group.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/V4Protocol/
 
V4 Protocol and V4 Chat document
http://www.winlink.org/webfm_send/169

HSMM-Mesh Up and Running

I now have two WRT54g routers running HSMM-Mesh. The next step is to get them configured properly and in their boxes. I will have these within about 6 city blocks of each other when they are mounted. The testing has begun.



www.hsmm-mesh.org/

Microsoft Windows 25 Years

Microsoft Windows turned 25 on November 20th. It has been a good and bad history. It has been a good thing for computers but I have had some "issues" with some of the practises of late that I have already Blog about. Windows has also helped move Ham radio forward with digital communications. So checkout this brief history of Microsoft Windows.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/history

The Flight of BLT-26

These guys did a great job at planning and deploying a balloon "to the Edge of Space". This is a very interesting website detailing what they did. The best part of it is that they included a WRT54GL for HSMM testing. They launched the balloon August 21, 2010. Check it out!


http://www.w5acm.net/b26.html

RADIO-EMAIL PSCM MPG RELEASE NOTICE

This is looking good for Digital Traffic. I have started reading this notice and find it is going in the same direction as we are in Kentucky.

"The Area Staff Chairs of the NTS have approved updates to the ARRL PSCM Appendix B, Methods and Practices Guidelines, Chapter 6, NTSD and Radio-email. These revisions provide for a structure and guidance on how the ARRL Field Organization may use Radio-email to provide nation-wide messaging in the modern email format via Amateur Radio with near real-time delivery anywhere in the country, 24/7. It also provides for integration of the ARES®, NTS and NTSD efforts nation-wide.

The new Radio-email system uses the Winlink 2000 network, infrastructure independent local automatic email service modules, plus station-to-station, radio-all-the-way transport services provided by the NTS/D to support all Sections. The Winlink 2000 network also provides us with a firewall and white list protected interface with the public internet for handling welfare and agency messaging with internet addressees. New types of message formats are included, and guidance on handling ICS-213 and other similar message formats is included."

Please go to the site and read more.

http://wx4j.com/MPG6_NTSD_RADIOEMAIL.htm

Travis County TX ARES Uses HSMM in Their SET

Travis County TX ARES Uses HSMM Mesh in Their SET on November 6, 2010. I like to see this happening in the world of HSMM. I would like to see more of this. Great job to Travis County TX ARES. Here is a write up about it at their site click here.


http://tcares.org/

Linux Software Update

I have been looking at several distros for Linux and I am starting to like what I see. Linux Mint is a nice looking OS as is Xandros. I also looked at Freebsd. These all looked ok but I chose to install Ubuntu 10.10. It was very easy to install and setup. I like the new OS so far but am still playing and tweaking it. I know that in April when they upgrade to Ubuntu 11.04 it will have Unity as the default desktop interface. I have no problem with that as long as it still meets my needs. This has been and will continue to be an interesting project.




http://www.linuxmint.com/
http://www.xandros.com/products/desktop/
http://www.freebsd.org/
http://www.ubuntu.com/