Linux for Ham Radio

Fedora 9 and Ham Radio Software

ww7ba — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 14:10:27 +0000

While looking for another software package, I discovered that Fedora 9 does have ham radio software in the standard repository. They are hidden in the “Other” category in the Add/Remove Software menu. Unfortunately, this is one huge category. I know that the repository contains hamlib and grig. I am still exploring. This is a slow [...]

openSUSE 11.0 and Ham Radio

ww7ba — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:37:20 +0000

The ham radio repository is available for openSUSE 11.0. You can either use one-click or add http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/hamradio/openSUSE_11.0/. Thanks to Tim (DG7GT) and Jan-Simon for making it happen. With out doubt, openSUSE now rivals Debian for the number of ham radio packages available.

Desktop Menu Update

ww7ba — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:33:40 +0000

I just looked at version 1.0 of the Desktop Menu Specification. On June 17, I ranted that HamRadio was not a registered category. Appendix A now lists HamRadio as a registered Additional Category, whose Main Category is either Network or Audio. The next step is for ham radio package developers to comply with the freedesktop.org [...]

Confusion Reigns

ww7ba — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:16:18 +0000

When I install a ham radio application, I have no idea where, or even if, there is a menu entry for the executables in the application. The hamradiomenus packages was supposed to solve the problem for Debian and its derivative distros. Even if the package worked, it still requires that the user edit the [...]

hamradiomenu

ww7ba — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 22:04:22 +0000

Package: hamradiomenus version: 1.0-1 Distributions: Debian Summary: The package installs, but fails to create a separate menu for ham radio applications. The purpose of this package is to create the necessary menu structure for Ham Radio applications for both Gnome and KDE. You won’t automatically see HamRadio in the application menu structure. The menu heading appears only when there [...]

Ham Software for Fedora

ww7ba — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 22:07:08 +0000

There are ham radio packages available for Fedora, and the Fedora community does have a SIG for Amateur Radio. Alas, it is still getting off the ground. You can find out what is available for Fedora Bob Jensen’s site: http://bjensen.fedorapeople.org/pkgs/hams/. It is a start, and they are making progress. [...]

openSUSE Ham Software Repository

ww7ba — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:35:17 +0000

While it is not well published, openSUSE does maintain a repositories for ham radio software. You won’t find it in the list of repositories, but there is a repository for each version since openSUSE 10,0. The URLs are as follow: download.opensuse.org/repositories/hamradio/SUSE_Linux_10.0 download.opensuse.org/repositories/hamradio/SUSE_Linux_10.1 download.opensuse.org/repositories/hamradio/openSUSE_10.2 download.opensuse.org/repositories/hamradio/openSUSE_10.3 download.opensuse.org/repositories/hamradio/openSUSE_11.0 You will be surprised at how much software is available. [...]

Splatter – July 2008

ww7ba — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:31:05 +0000

From discussions on Wednesday night’s TechNet and emails with Bob (WA7YNU), it appears that the difference between a virtual console and a virtual terminal deserves more discussion. While both allow you to enter commands, they are different. If you were to boot your Linux box in text mode, you would be presented with a virtual [...]

Splatter – June 2008

ww7ba — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 16:12:47 +0000

When you first start using Linux, it is hard to tell where applications are installed, and how to start them. To shed a little light on this topic, I am going to use unixcw, cw (command-line application), and cwcp (graphical application) as example packages (RPM distributions bundle all the application into a single UnixCW package). [...]

Splatter – April 2008

ww7ba — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:54:25 +0000

In an earlier article, I mentioned that each Linux distribution has software repositories. The major advantage of these software repositories is that the software has already been compiled for a particular version of a Linux distribution. You just need to use the package manager for the distribution to install the package. If you go to [...]