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   1 [14:50] <kamal> ***** Ubuntu and Ham Radio ***** Session begins here in about 10 minutes *****
   2 [15:00] <kamal> Good morning / Good evening folks ...  we will get started with the session "Ubuntu and Ham Radio" in just a moment.  Please join us here, and also in #ubuntu-classroom-chat
   3 [15:00]  * jcastro taps the mic
   4 [15:00] <jcastro> kamal: all set?
   5 [15:01] <kamal> jcastro: yup, lets get started :-)
   6 [15:02] <kamal> Hi folks, lets go with "Ubuntu and Ham Radio"! ....
   7 [15:02] <kamal> ==========================================
   8 === ChanServ changed the topic of #ubuntu-classroom to: Welcome to the Ubuntu Classroom - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Classroom || Support in #ubuntu || Upcoming Schedule: http://is.gd/8rtIi || Questions in #ubuntu-classroom-chat || Event: Ubuntu Open Week - Current Session: Ubuntu and Amateur (Ham) Radio - Instructors: sconklin, kamal
   9 [15:02] <ClassBot> Logs for this session will be available at http://irclogs.ubuntu.com/2011/05/06/%23ubuntu-classroom.html following the conclusion of the session.
  10 [15:02] <kamal> Amateur radio, often called ham radio, is both a hobby and a service in which licensed individuals ("hams") use various types of radio communications equipment to communicate with other hams -- locally, and around the globe -- for public services, recreation, and self-training.
  11 [15:03] <kamal> In order to transmit on ham frequencies, you must hold an amateur radio license issued by your country's radio authority (the exam won't be hard for a technically minded person).
  12 [15:03] <kamal> But anyone can *receive* ham radio signals using a shortwave radio receiver, or over the Internet, as we'll demonstrate in a bit!
  13 [15:03] <kamal> If you do become a ham, you will be issued a "call sign", unique in all the world...
  14 [15:04] <kamal> I'm Kamal Mostafa from Boulder Creek, California, USA.  My callsign is KA6MAL.
  15 [15:04] <sconklin> and I'm Steve Conklin from Madison, Alabama, USA.  My callsign is AI4QR.
  16 [15:04] <kamal> Today, we'll talk about just a few of aspects of ham radio...  If you have questions (and we hope you will!) please ask in the #ubuntu-classroom-chat channel using the format "QUESTION: What does CQ CQ mean?" so the ClassBot will recognize your question.
  17 [15:05] <kamal> With that, I'll turn it over to Steve AI4QR, to tell us about how hams serve our communities in major emergencies, and how Ubuntu helps us do it.
  18 [15:06] <sconklin> Amateur radio is really diverse, but you can't learn much about it without hearing about public service aspects
  19 [15:06] <sconklin> This is because time and again, when disasters strike, amateur radio has been the first communication method to be restored.
  20 [15:07] <sconklin> This is a timely topic for me, as I spent a lot of time last week helping with the recover after the tornadoes that struck Alabama
  21 [15:07] <sconklin> I've blogged an account of that, and please hold off reading it until after this hour here ;-)
  22 [15:07] <sconklin> But feel free to ask questions.
  23 [15:08] <sconklin> By the way, we'll continue any conversations here over in #ubuntu hams chat after the end of this session.
  24 [15:08] <sconklin> When the tornadoes came through here, they were reported live using ham radio.
  25 [15:08] <sconklin> After power was lost for over a million people in Alabama, ham radio provided critical communications.
  26 [15:09] <sconklin> http://illruminations.com/2011/05/04/april-27th-2011-tornadoes-and-the-week-following/
  27 [15:09] <sconklin> That's my brin dump on what I did for the week following.
  28 [15:09] <sconklin> er brain . . .
  29 [15:10] <sconklin> At one point during the tornados, even the municipal radio radio systems were off line, and they used an amateur radio repeater as a backup
  30 [15:10] <sconklin> You can hear that on the audio from our local repeater, recorded during the emergency
  31 [15:11] <sconklin> There's a lot of training available to help hams be prepared to respond to disasters. I'm preparing a long blog post about it, there's too much to list here.
  32 [15:12] <sconklin> The main representative organization for hams in the US is the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) http://www.arrl.org/, and their site has lots of resources linked.
  33 [15:13] <sconklin> I think their web site is a bit intimidating to new hams, but don't be put off
  34 [15:13] <sconklin> Questions?
  35 [15:13] <sconklin> Let me paste a link to the audio from the tornado day. April 27th. I will not forget the date
  36 [15:14] <sconklin> http://www.ustream.tv/channel/madscientistsclub
  37 [15:14] <ClassBot> nigelb asked: Not entirely on-topic, but do you get to chose your call signs? Like vehicle registration.
  38 [15:14] <sconklin> I was on the ait that day as what we call a "net control station" or NCS
  39 [15:14] <kamal> I can address the first question from nigelb ...
  40 [15:15] <sconklin> I only decided to stream the audio at the last minute, and used a receiver that is connected to an Ubuntu machine
  41 === david is now known as Guest15395
  42 [15:15] <sconklin> go ahead Kamal
  43 [15:15] <kamal> yes, some countries do allow hams to select their own callsigns (within some limits).  I did select mine to match my name.
  44 [15:15] <ClassBot> saimanoj asked: What about the people in Other countries?
  45 [15:16] <sconklin> In most countries there are restirctions on the format of call signs according to the privileges your license has
  46 [15:16] <sconklin> And some allow custom call signs (called 'vanity' signs here)
  47 [15:17] <sconklin> One thing I would love to do as an ubuntu ham community is put together a set of wiki pages for many countries with country-specific information
  48 [15:17] <kamal> I will also chime in here...  saimanoj, if you're asking about how to become a ham in other countries ...
  49 [15:17] <kamal> I would advise you to search google for "ham radio {yourcountry}" ...
  50 [15:18] <kamal> you will certainly find lots of links to the active hams near you (and there will almost surely be many of them!)
  51 [15:18] <sconklin> also, you can try asking in #ubuntu-hams, we have a few countries represented in there most days
  52 [15:18] <kamal> they will be very happy to invite you to their local ham clubs and give you more information about how to become a ham in your country.
  53 [15:19] <sconklin> Unless there are questions about emergency communications, meybe we should move to the next topic
  54 [15:19] <kamal> We will pause for more questions in half a moment, but before we do ...
  55 [15:19] <kamal> The next segment of our session today will be about "Software Defined Radio" -- we'll get you set up listening to LIVE ham radio signals, using your web browser.
  56 [15:20] <kamal> First though, you'll need to make sure you have the Java web browser plugin installed...
  57 [15:20] <kamal> If you'd like to try this demo (and trust me, you do -- its very cool!) ...
  58 [15:20] <kamal> Please start up a terminal window, and cut-n-paste this command into it (without the '$'):
  59 [15:20] <kamal> $   sudo apt-get install sun-java6-plugin
  60 [15:20] <kamal> if it says says you already have the latest version installed, great!  otherwise, you will need to type your login password and answer "Y" if prompted.
  61 [15:21] <kamal> IMPORTANT: After installing the Java plugin, you'll need to close your web browser and start it up again.
  62 [15:22] <kamal> Lets wait a moment for everyone to get that Java plugin installed ...  any more questions in the meantime?
  63 [15:23] <kamal> Lets do this... if you've got the Java plugin installed, and your web browser up, raise your hand in #ubuntu-classroom-chat:    o/
  64 [15:23] <sconklin> from AC6SL: Information about amateur radio licensing in various countries is at http://www.qsl.net/oh2mcn/license.htm
  65 [15:24] <kamal> OK lets move on
  66 [15:24] <kamal> === SDR: really cool cutting edge radio stuff! ===
  67 [15:24] <kamal> "SDR" (Software Defined Radio) technology is what makes it possible for your whizbang new smartphone to support multiple radio modes and frequencies (3G, WiFi, GSM, CDMA) in one pocket-sized device.
  68 [15:24] <kamal> Traditional radio receivers are build from lots of electronics to select a specific radio signal and convert it to audio that humans can hear ...
  69 [15:25] <kamal> An SDR radio is built from just a tiny bit of electronics by comparison -- instead of doing all the work to select and convert signals, an SDR radio relies on a computer to do all that hard work (the computer in your smartphone, or maybe an Ubuntu system).
  70 [15:25] <kamal> Like a lot of radio science, much of the pioneering work on SDR technology was done by hams.
  71 [15:25] <kamal> A "WebSDR" is a radio receiver connected to the Internet which allows many listeners to use it simultaneously -- each with the ability to tune to the frequency of their choice.
  72 [15:26] <kamal> I'm going to show you a WebSDR receiver that you can use to listen to ham radio signals from around the world, using just your web browser!
  73 [15:26] <kamal> OK, start up your web browser, and visit this WebSDR site: http://w4mq.com/  .
  74 [15:26] <kamal> (If your browser prompts you asking for permission to run the Java plugin, do give it permission)
  75 [15:27] <kamal> If that site says its "too busy" ...
  76 [15:27] <kamal> then try this one instead:  http://outside.wallawalla.edu:8901/
  77 [15:28] <kamal> The award-winning SDR system at ham station W4MQ is near Washington D.C.  Its running Ubuntu, no surprise!
  78 [15:28] <kamal> Many other WebSDR systems (set up by different hams around the world) can be found at http://www.websdr.org/ but (unless it says its too busy)
  79 [15:29] <kamal> lets all try to jump onto one of those two (w4mq or wallawalla)
  80 [15:29] <kamal> After a moment, you should hear radio static!  yes?  no?   Answer in #ubuntu-classroom-chat.
  81 [15:30] <kamal> I'll pause for a moment to see if we can help some folks get this working
  82 [15:32] <kamal> the w4mq.com site seems busy, try the wallawalla site folks: http://outside.wallawalla.edu:8901/
  83 [15:32] <kamal> Or pick one at random from www.websdr.org
  84 [15:33] <kamal> OK, lets proceed ...
  85 [15:33] <kamal> Once you see the purple scrolling "waterfall windows", you should hear radio static
  86 [15:33] <kamal> Click the frequency digits below any of the three waterfall displays to tune to that frequency -- the yellow lines mark the frequency you're tuned and listening to.
  87 [15:33] <sconklin> once you have some vertical scrolling display, you may have to click in the area with the frequency display to actually be listening to a station
  88 [15:34] <kamal> You can also tune to a specific frequency by entering it into the Frequency: box below the waterfalls.
  89 [15:35]  * kamal is listening to 14014  right now
  90 [15:36] <sconklin> click the USB button also if you're trying to hear 14014
  91 [15:36] <kamal> In the "Bandwidth" block below the three waterfalls, the 'LSB' and 'USB' buttons will "flip" the audio signal that you hear ...
  92 [15:36] <kamal> If you hear a voice, but it sounds garbled, you're on the wrong USB/LSB mode setting -- note that switching between them moves your yellow marker "listening" position a bit though.
  93 [15:36] <kamal> For 1800 or 7100 kHz, use LSB   //   For 14000 kHz, use USB
  94 [15:37] <sconklin> USB stands for Upper Side Band, and means that the audio band you hear is located higher in frequency than the frequency that you are set to
  95 [15:37] <kamal> In general ...
  96 [15:37] <kamal> look for voice signals ... Frequency: 14200 +/-    Bandwidth: USB
  97 [15:37] <kamal> look for Morse code signals ...  Frequency: 14000 to 14100
  98 [15:37] <kamal> look for ham digital signals ...  Frequency:  14070    Bandwidth: USB
  99 [15:39] <kamal> from AC6SL: kamal: 14014 is a CW frequency where I hear W7Q calling CQ
 100 [15:39] <sconklin> very few voice signals at the moment
 101 [15:39] <kamal> from gordonjcp: look for SSTV on 14.230MHz
 102 [15:40] <kamal> ok, well I had hoped to find some voice signals for you to listen to, but ...
 103 [15:40] <kamal> I can't find any -- guess friday morning isn't the optimal time for that!  It will sure be hopping this weekend though!
 104 [15:40] <sconklin> Some of the websdr sites do not decode the parts of the ham bands commonly used for voice
 105 [15:41] <kamal> Check out some of the WebSDR sites on Saturday, especially around the 14200 KHz range -- you'll here hams from many countries making contacts with each other.
 106 [15:41] <kamal> After this session (or really any time), I'll be available in the #ubuntu-hams channel where I will demonstrate a more advanced set-up...
 107 [15:41] <kamal> By routing the audio from WebSDR to  ham radio digital communcations app called 'fldigi', you can search for and decode many different kinds of digital signals.
 108 [15:42] <kamal> You can *hear* some of those digital signals right now, by tuning your WebSDR to "14070 / USB"
 109 [15:42] <kamal> okay, brief pause for questions, then on to the last part of our presentation
 110 [15:43] <sconklin> for those interested in what the different types of digital signals they hear are, there's a good resource here:
 111 [15:43] <sconklin> http://www.w1hkj.com/FldigiHelp-3.20/Modes/index.htm
 112 [15:44] <kamal> And that leads us nicely to our last segment...   "Ham radio digital modes"
 113 [15:44] <kamal> Hams communicate using many different radio "modes" -- Morse code, various voice modes, and nowadays "digital modes" which use computers to encode and decode text or other information sent by radio.
 114 [15:44] <kamal> Here's a short screen capture video of me making a digital (keyboard-to-keyboard) contact with another ham station using the mode called "PSK31".
 115 [15:45] <kamal> (Of course, this is all on my Ubuntu system)!
 116 [15:45] <kamal>      fldigi - KA6MAL works W9JD using PSK31     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hlf_sUk358
 117 [15:46] <kamal> This particular mode (PSK31) is very slow (only 31 baud!) but also very effective for world-wide communications.
 118 [15:46] <kamal> In the video, you'll see the other station "W9JD" transmitting "CQ CQ" which means he's looking for anyone to contact him (not calling a particular ham).   I transmit my callsign "KA6MAL" in response and then we exchange a bit of information.
 119 [15:47] <kamal> Unfortunately, the audio of my transmitted signal didn't get recorded (the sound "mutes" in the video), but my signal sound just the same as his
 120 [15:47] <kamal> In this instance, he's participating in a ham radio contest called a "QSO Party" where hams in his state (Nebraska) try to make as many contacts as possible in a 24-hour period.
 121 [15:48] <kamal> Ham contests like this happen almost every weekend.  Participating in contests helps us keep our operating skills and our stations in top form (i.e. ready to go if an emergency strikes).  Plus, they're just a lot of fun!
 122 === yofel_ is now known as yofel
 123 [15:48] <kamal> Okay, questions?
 124 [15:49] <sconklin> One of the properties of radio governed by basic physics is that the less frequency bandwidth you use to transmit a signal, the further you can be heard with the same amount of transmitted power. That's why morse code is very efficient, and why PSK31 mode is also efficient. I have worked stations around the world with a power output of 50 Watts on PSK31 - less than a light bulb!
 125 [15:49] <ClassBot> zerwas asked: Do you always transmit on the same frequency where you receive using digital modes?
 126 === nug_ is now known as auo
 127 [15:49] <sconklin> I'll take this one
 128 [15:50] <sconklin> There are certain ranges of frequencies which are commonly used for certain types of activity - morse code, voice, and digital modes
 129 [15:51] <sconklin> Some of these are legal limitations, but within the ranges set out in the rules, there are conventions for where people meet
 130 [15:51] <sconklin> These are called "Band Plans", and while they may not have the force of 'law' they are generally abided by
 131 [15:52] <sconklin> So on the twenty meter band for example, PSK31 activity is just above 14.070 megahertz
 132 [15:52] <ClassBot> There are 10 minutes remaining in the current session.
 133 [15:52] <sconklin> Unless you want to answer someone, you don't transmit exactly on his frequency
 134 [15:53] <kamal> zerwas might have been asking about whether we sometimes contact other hams with one person transmitting on one frequency and the other person transmitting on a different frequency ...
 135 [15:53] <kamal> That is called "operating split" -- that method is used for Morse code and voice occasionally, but rarely for digital signal I think.
 136 [15:53] <sconklin> But since PSK31 signals are narrow, a lot fo them can fit in the same space as a voice would
 137 [15:54] <sconklin> If you are interested in electronics, you can buy cheap SDR hardware and build your own receiver. It's fun
 138 [15:55] <kamal> zerwas: There is no technical reason why you *couldn't* work a digital contact with "split" frequencies, its just not as useful as it would be in the Morse or voice situation.   More gory details about that in #ubuntu-hams later, if you like.
 139 [15:55] <sconklin> But that could fill another hour - we can take that to #ubuntu-hams
 140 [15:55] <kamal> ok, running out of time folks, and that's the end of our prepared presentation ...
 141 [15:55] <kamal> Any final questions?  Please ask in #ubuntu-classroom-chat.
 142 [15:56] <sconklin> One final thing for fun
 143 [15:56] <sconklin> I'll not go into detail, but there is a ham technology called APRS (Automatic Packet Reporting System) which uses packets broadcast on one frequency by all users.
 144 [15:56] <sconklin> http://aprs.fi/?call=N56ML&mt=roadmap&z=11&timerange=10800
 145 [15:57] <sconklin> check this link
 146 [15:57] <ClassBot> There are 5 minutes remaining in the current session.
 147 [15:58] <sconklin> APRS is used with GPS to automatically report position of stations. What you see on that link is an airplane with APRS which is  right now flying over the tornado-ravaged area from last week's storms very near me.
 148 [15:58] <sconklin> It looks like he's doing aerial damage assessment.
 149 [15:59] <sconklin> There are so many diverse areas of amateur radio that you can spend a lifetime and not run out of new things to try.
 150 [15:59] <kamal> On that same aprs.fi page, in the panel at upper right, click the "Show All" link to see lots of other ham vehicles driving around in that area too!
 151 [15:59] <sconklin> Time to wrap it up, let's move to #ubuntu-hams for anyone interested
 152 [15:59] <kamal> Thanks very much for joining us!   We're usually on freenode in #ubuntu-hams if you want to drop by to talk about radio stuff -- everybody's welcome!
 153 [15:59] <kamal> More general info about ham radio:  http://www.hello-radio.org/whatis.html
 154 [16:00] <kamal> 73 de KA6MAL   (means "Best regards from KA6MAL" in ham lingo)
 155 [16:00] <sconklin> 73, de AI4QR