Zenith X390W Long Distance Radio

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Click the picture to see more of the Zenith x390W Radio.
Click the picture to see more of the Zenith x390W Radio.

Today I found a new toy. Whenever the opportunity comes my way, I like to collect old radios.  Here is another one for my collection.

The radio is a Zenith Long Distance Radio, model X390W.  I think the “W” stands for “wood”, as there is also a X390 model that looks like it has a plastic case.  This radio WORKS! And it “glows in the dark” like all good radios do.  The radio seems to be in pretty good shape except for a label on the bottom of the wood case.  It looks like it was scrubbed partially away.  The Zenith X390W is and AM and FM radio that has a nice clock, and alarm function.  Click on the picture to see more.

Audio

John – K7JM

How To Display A Text Document On Your Web Page

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A Corner of My Web Page
The corner of my web page with a link to view my Ham Radio log file.

Being a Ham Radio operator, I’ve wanted, for some time, to display my log file on my web site. I’ve been researching it for some time, and mostly ran into methods that require java or php, or some sort of web scripting. This is beyond me and I wanted something simpler; and this is what I have come up with.

My computers run on the Ubuntu Linux Operating System.  I came across a small command line utility program called txt2html.  The name pretty much explains what it does.  It has many features that include many formatting options; one being, that I can pre-append a file to the front of another file.  I tested this feature to apply a preformatted html heading to my log page.  I made a simple sample of a text log page listing contacts, and ran it through txt2html and it attached my header to the log page and spit it all out as an html file ready to display on my web page.

My sample log page was called log.txt and looks like this:







call            QTH
k7jm            Helena, MT
wa7vxm          Butte, MT








My sample heading was called ‘log_file_heading.html’ and looks like this:


K7JM’s Log File


I put it all through txt2html with a command like this:




txt2html --append_head ./log_file_heading.html ./log.txt >./log.html




And the output file ‘log.html’ looks like this and is ready to display on your web page:








K7JM’s Log File


call            QTH
k7jm            Helena, MT
wa7vxm          Butte, MT








I wanted to automate a way to put this file on my web site without getting too complicated.  The simple ftp command would work, but it takes a bit to automate it. After a bit of research, I came across ‘kermit‘.  ‘kermit’ is a simple program that takes data from a file and performs the commands listed in the file.  Perfect.  I put the following commands in a file called ‘log.kermit’:


ftp open ftp.myhostsite.net /user:myusername /password:mypassword

put ./log.html /www/whereyou/wantit/log.html

exit


I then called kermit like this:


kermit ./log.kermit


and it is done.


To make things a bit cleaner and more automatic, I created a script file called ‘log_doit.sh’ that looks something like this:


txt2html –append_head /home/john/Desktop/log_file_heading.html /home/john/Desktop/cqrlog.html >/home/john/Desktop/log.html

kermit /home/john/Desktop/log.kermit

exit


Now, to do the whole process, I just had to update my log file, save it, and run the script ‘log_doit.sh’ and it would be on my web site.


A New Way – With cqrlog


After I put all this together, I remembered hearing about a Linux logging program called cqrlog, on the ‘Linux In The Ham Shack‘ (link updated 9/2010) podcast.  If you are a Ham Radio Operator or use Linux, I strongly suggest you give this great podcast a listen.  It is always entertaining, and they have covered some very useful stuff for the Ham that is running a Linux operating system.


Anyway, I downloaded and installed ‘cqrlog’ and started playing with it.  I was specifically looking for a way to export the log file so I could run it through ‘txt2html’.  Lo and behold, ‘cqrlog’ does one step better; it exports the log right into the ‘html’ format.  Wow! Perfect!.


I learned a lot by using txt2html, but now I can skip that step completely and just export the log file in html format and run a simpler script that runs ‘kermit’ to upload the file to my web site.  Click HERE to see the actual page on my web site.  As of when this was written, the file is a test one that was created by playing with ‘cqrlog’.  It will change once I start using ‘cqrlog’ for real.


John – K7JM




K7JM’s Log File


call            QTH
k7jm            Helena, MT
wa7vxm          Butte, MT

Convoy of Hope Implements Ham Radio Initiative

John1 Comment
img_usdisaster

I was very interested when I read an article in an Assemblies of God newsletter that I received.  It makes so much sense, like Salvation Army‘s SATERN, that Assembly of God’s Convoy of Hope, disaster response organization, should also have Ham Radio involvement.  Here is text from the newsletter:

Federal Communications Commission has authorized Convoy of Hope to form a ham radio club called the Convoy of Hope Amateur Radio Response Service (CARRS). Additional technology will assist in keeping lines of communication open to organization as natural disasters often disrupt commercial communications. For more information, e-mail USDRField@convoyofhope.org.

Convoy of Hope, a disaster response organization and partner with the Assemblies of God, has embarked on a campaign to network with ham radio operators within the Fellowship as a way to improve response to crises.

Because many commercial means of communication are unavailable during a natural disaster, 19 Convoy of Hope staff members have obtained a first-level technician amateur radio license, which allows for local area transmission. Several of those are working on a second-level license that would allow communication globally.

The Federal Communications Commission has authorized the organization to form a ham radio club called the Convoy of Hope Amateur Radio Response Service (CARRS).

“Having this technology in place and building a network through CARRS provides a platform for us to share critical disaster response information around the world with our adherents and missionaries,” says Convoy of Hope U.S. Disaster Response Field Services Director Paul Coroleuski.

Through CARRS, volunteer ham operators in the vicinity of a disaster will be able to relay initial damage assessment information that will help Convoy to better use resources as well as speed up response time.

Ham radio technology today has advanced capacities that include the ability to send e-mail and upload pictures.

“The initial response to this initiative has been overwhelming, and local chapters are expected to form around the nation,” Coroleuski says.

There are an estimated 6 million licensed ham radio operators around the world. For more information, e-mail USDRField@convoyofhope.org.

–Today’s Pentecostal Evangel

Resistors, Insulators, and Conductors

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Recently, our family made our annual trek up to Glacier Bible Camp. Two of the speakers were Rudi & Sharon Swanepoel.  Rudi and Sharon have a vibrant ministry and are missionaries FROM South Africa to the United States.  Yes, we have come full circle as being founded as a Christian Nation to the sad state that we are in now.

Rudi and Sharon’s web site has an article that caught my eye.  Resistors, Insulators, and Conductors.  It makes one think.  What are YOU?  A Resistor, an Insulator, or a Conductor?

John

Jaunty Jackalope Revisited

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Click to get Jaunty Jackalope

After I installed Ubuntu 9.04 – Jaunty Jackalope, I posted a lengthy list of problems I encountered during and after the process. You can read it by clicking HERE.

I received a great reply from Rob laying out some important facts about updating a major distribution of most any variety.  I encourage you to read Rob‘s reply Here: May 9th, 2009 at 11:25 am.

It seems, however, that my experience with Jaunty was not unique.  My blog post has been ready by many other users looking for solutions.  Here is a partial list of search entries that resulted in finding and reading my post.

  • solution gdesklets jaunty

  • menu bar missing gnome ubuntu 9.04

  • jaunty jackalope install/upgrade experie

  • install kept back upgrade brasero jaunty

  • desktop effects could not be enabled

  • ubuntu 9.04 partial upgrade brasero

  • error gdesklets ubuntu 904

  • partial upgrade ubuntu 9.04

  • tracker jackalope reindex

  • ubuntu alternate install +grub boot load

  • +nvidia +drivers +jaunty +not +loaded

  • jaunty partial upgrade problem

  • jaunty jackalope partial upgrade

  • ubuntu 9.04 no menu bar

  • ubuntu 9.04 failed to open gdesklets

  • ubuntu 9.04 sansa not connecting

  • missing menu bars jaunty

  • 9.4 jackalope indexing error

  • downloading files from sansamp3 player t

  • ubuntu 9.04 tracker applet missing

  • jaunty jackalope menu bar disappear

  • ubuntu jackalope tracker reindex

  • ubuntu 9.04 missing password

  • ubuntu jaunty not detecting sansa

  • upgrading to jaunty jackalope partial up

  • gdesklets jaunty fix

  • desktop effects could not be enabled

  • ubuntu jaunty sansa

  • tracker indexing error jaunty

  • how to start the compiz gui in ubuntu 9.

  • ubuntu 9.04 recovery menu

  • menu bar missing in ubuntu 9.04

  • applet is not loading ubuntu jaunty jack

  • ubuntu update manager icon disappeared

  • jaunty jackalope recovery menu

  • “open movie editor” ubuntu 9.04 mp3

  • ubuntu 9.04 problem hp laserjet printer

  • ubuntu 9.04 sansa not connecting

  • how to install gdesklets in ubuntu 9.04

  • compiz buggy since upgrade to jaunty

  • kernel failed install when updating to 9

  • partial upgrade jaunty error open office

  • sandisk jaunty

  • nvidia picked up during live not after I

  • missing 9.04 from grub

  • jaunty install software failed

  • ubuntu 9.04 missing compiz menu

  • ubuntu 9.04 tracker “what is”

  • how do i fix a failed ubuntu 9.04 instal

  • sansa clip not working on ubuntu 9.04

  • reindex ubuntu 9.04

  • not work tracker ubuntu 9.04

  • ubuntu 9.04 gdesklets

  • tracker ubuntu 9.04 “re-index”

  • jaunty disable tracker

  • ubuntu 9.04 partial upgrade cannot resta

  • jaunty compiz startup

  • ubuntu 9.04 + update error

  • ubuntu 9.04 nvidia not detected

  • power button missing from ubuntu 9.04

  • sansa not connecting in jaunty

  • kino ubuntu 9.04

  • ubuntu partial upgrade jaunty

  • some of the menus are missing on ubuntu

  • ubuntu 9.04 reindex

  • tracker applet missing ubuntu jaunty

  • ubuntu 9.04 gdesklets

  • ubuntu jaunty auto detect sandisk sansa

  • ubuntu 9.04 vlc media player error

  • xbmc failed to detect distribution jaunt

  • upgrade ubuntu jaunty jackalope gui err

It is obvious that there were too many errors, many of the same ones I encountered, while installing Jaunty.  I (and others) would love to hear about your experience installing Jaunty.  Good or bad.

John – K7JM

My CK722 Transistor

John3 Comments

I’ve acquired an old Ratheon CK722 transistor several years ago. I knew it was a find when I got it, but then it sat, stored away, for many years.  Today I took some pictures of it and here they are.  If you have never seen one of these beauties, they are royal blue with a red dot on them.  It has a date code on it that says “542”  That means it was built in 1955 in the 42nd week.

The inside of the package has the strangest disclaimer.  It reads “The purchaser or lesee of this device shall not be granted by implication, estoppal or otherwise any license under the patent rightsof American Telephoneand Telegraph Company andits subsidiaries for any combination of another element orelements with such device.”

The CK722 started out costing more than $12.00 to purchase and later went down to $7.50.  WOW!  I have no idea what that is at the current rate, but it is expensive.  I could not find the current price of one of these gems.

Click a picture to see a larger view.

John

The Beautiful Blue Raytheon CK722 Transistor. Package Front Package Back The Inside Of The Package. A Very Interesting Disclaimer.

My Experience Installing Ubuntu 9.04 – Jaunty Jackalope

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Click to get Jaunty Jackalope

Ubuntu 9.04 – code named Jaunty Jackalope, was released on April 23. I am always (maybe too) eager to upgrade to the next version of Ubuntu as new features are always added, making it an even better operating system. Yes, for the uninformed, Ubuntu is a computer operating system. Your computer may run Windows or if it is a Mac, it may run OS X. My computer, along with millions of others runs the totally free and open Linux version called Ubuntu.

Typically, version updates are made right over the Internet. It will download a zillion files and update everything, taking, possibly, several hours to do. I read an article on some web site that I could download the distribution and update it from a burned CD. Since I had two computers to update, I decided this might be a time savings way to go.

Here is my experience:

I downloaded the Alternate Install disc over night. I popped the disk into my computer and it immediately detected that the disc had a distribution upgrade on it and asked if I wanted to “upgrade”. I said yes, and off we went. It then asked if I wanted to update any files that may be newer than on the disc, by connecting to the Internet and downloading them. If I selected “NO”, I could “simply” update my system later and it would pick up the needed files. I chose to do this as I figured it would get the system up an running the quickest.

Before I go into details, I must say that I have a co-worker that also runs Ubuntu. He chose to update from over the Internet. He said that he had to restart the process several times because it kept on stopping. It was probably because there were millions of others trying to do it at the same time. Also, it downloaded over a thousand files. It took a long time, but in the end, he said everything seemed to work ok.

Back to my update. As the update progressed, it asked several times about configuration files, and whether I wanted to keep the current ones or up date them. I had no idea what to do on these. One option was to merge them, which I did several times. I have no idea if that did anything. I kept getting an error saying the latest kernel version xx-xx-xx would not start. Oh, Oh. That is very not good. It came down to one of my choices in updating the grub menu.lst. After several errors, it came back and asked that question again. I chose “update to developers version” or some such thing. Yeah, the new kernel loaded.

The process finally finished and it was time to reboot. When it did, my 3D graphics did not work. Meaning Compiz was disabled. I tried to load a new Nvidia driver with not much luck. I decided maybe I needed to do that update that was mentioned earlier. I chose “update” and boom, it decided to download several hundred files. This was the part that I though I was avoiding. Once it downloaded them, I got a message saying that all the files weren’t downloaded, and suggested a “partial upgrade”. I chose to do that. I ran “update” again and it picked up more files, but this time the update process crashed when it was time to install them. After much head scratching and searching the Internet, and many hours passed, upon boot-up, I selected “recovery mode”, and selected a sub menu that said something about repairing packages. I chose that option. It recognized that there were updates, and it loaded them successfully. After that, my “update manager” seemed to work. There were many other users out there that were looking for the same answer.

My Nvidia drivers were still not loaded. It detected a new version of the driver, but when I tried to enable it, it gave me a message back that said it was previously enabled. So did I just disable it, or was it enabled? I went into the settings, and this time I was able to turn desktop effects on. But, the Compiz GUI was missing. I re-installed Compiz and I was able to turn everything back on. What a pain.

Somewhere in all of this, my screen locked up because the screen saver came on. When I tried to log back in with my password, it said my password was “invalid”. Oh, no. I clicked the “Switch user” button, reselected myself (which said I was already logged in) and it took my password correctly. After several more hours of Internet searching, I found that many other have had this problem even before the new version of Ubuntu. I eventually came up with the fix after digging into the depths of files that have never seen the light of day.

Before I started the upgrade process, I did a complete partition clone saved to an external drive. I also separately backup the home directory of my and my family’s accounts. I also went through and did screen shots of all the menus. I did this, because I had a past experience that failed and I had to reinstall the entire operating system, and I couldn’t remember all the different programs I had installed. This was a good idea, as I was soon in for a big surprise.

It seemed that everything finally came out ok, but I noticed that an icon on my menu bar was missing. It was for the search applet. I very much needed that. It indexed all of the files in my home directory, and could search for anything in a second. I have the “open clip art” collection on my drive which consists of thousands of pieces of clip art. There is no way to search this collection without the indexed search applet. The applet also categorized its results and actually displayed thumb nails of its results. A very handy thing for searching through clip art. The problem was, I did not even know what this little program was called. I could not even search for it on the Internet. It took another hour or so of time to finally figure that it is called “Tracker”. I reinstalled it. The configuration files were in place so it came back like it should – except, it kept saying there was an error and had to re-index. Oh no, maybe this is why it disappeared. It seems to be buggy. I don’t know what I will do without it.

Since this program was missing, I though I would check around and see if anything else was missing. Oh boy, was I in for a shock. I am very glad I took those screen shots. I printed them out and started comparing new menus with old ones. Here is what came of it. Almost all the old configuration files were still present, which made setup a lot easier.

  • Tracker – missing. When reinstalled, it appeared to be buggy.
  • Gnome Do – missing. Reinstalled. Old configuration files still intact.
  • Firestarter the firewall would not activate. Reinstalled and it started up ok.
  • Dropbox would not start up. I had to go to their web site and download and install a new version.
  • Brasero disc burner. This was my favorite disc burner. It was missing. Reinstalled.
  • VLC Media Player – missing, reinstalled.
  • Gdesklets – missing, reinstalled
  • BitPim – missing. Reinstalled. This program downloads and uploads pictures and info from our cell phone. It was a real pain to get it going originally. I have not been able to get it running yet.
  • Childsplay – missing. Reinstalled. This is an educational children’s program.
  • OpenOffice Database – missing. I selected the entire suite to be reinstalled. It found the pieces that were missing and only installed them.
  • PyCrust – missing. Reinstalled. This is a Python programming language front end GUI
  • DeVeDe – missing. Reinstalled. This is a DVD menu creator which I really like.
  • Kdenlive – missing. This is a video editing program. I have been using Kino and Open Movie Editor, so I did not reinstall this one.
  • XBMC – media player – missing. I didn’t use this much either so I didn’t reinstall it.
  • todisc GUI – missing. Reinstalled. This is another DVD menu creator.
  • My Sandisk Sansa MP3 player would not work. This took hours of research to figure out. When I plugged it in, it did not come up in “mass storage” mode that it should have. It also spit out an error message and apparently thought it was a camera. After pulling the last two hairs out of my head, I found a solution and deleted a file somewhere on the system and it corrected the problem. I’m sure that file was there for something though!

SO, so far I have been able to get everything back working except Tracker, and BitPim. What a very large head ache.

I love using Ubuntu, but with this experience, I can tell you it is definitely not ready for the masses. How would mom or dad ever deal with something like this? Also, many “Gurus” will tell you that you should always do a fresh install when there is a distribution upgrade. How ridiculous is that? I finally got my computers networked, sharing printers, and files. I’ve configured it to death to how I want it. How is the normal Joe ever supposed to wipe all of that out and start over? I can’t remember what I did yesterday, it would take months to get everything back to normal.

As I said before, my co-worker’s upgrade turned out fine. It just took a long time. But— not as long as mine did.

John

Samuel Morse’s Birthday

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Can you decode this Morse Code?
Can you decode this Morse Code?

Today is Samuel Morse’s birthday. Samuel Morse is the inventor of the Morse Code which many Amateur Radio Operators around the world (including me) use every day for fun and efficient communications.  Today, Google celebrated the day by modifying their search logo.  Can you decode it?

John

Field Day 2009

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Field Day is just around the corner. If you are not involved with a local Amateur Radio Club, Field Day is just the way to start getting involved. To find a location near you, visit http://www.arrl.org/fieldday

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