[hllug] Dell GX270 and my Ham Radio applications

From: WB5BKL <wb5bkl@xxxxxxxxx>
To: LIST - HLUG <hllug@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 20:28:46 -0600
After working with the small footprint Dell GX50 for several weeks
(thanks Lee), I finally decided that I needed a little more horsepower
to run the Amateur Radio digital mode modem program that interests me.

I now have a (used) GX270.  For not too much extra, I also got a 2G
thumbdrive and took the GX270 memory to 1G.

I have Debian Testing (Lenny) running on it as I did on the GX50.

All of my Amateur Radio apps now work great (references below):

fldigi          a modem program for several digital radio modes
Xlog            a logging program
Xdx             a DXCluster monitor
Xastir          an Amateur Radio positioning service program
TrustedQSL      for secure access to ARRL's Logbook of the World
K3_Utility      to keep my Elecraft K3's firmware up to date

Using the thumbdrive, I was able to move all of the structures that I
had created on the GX50 to the GX270 with very little trouble (including
all the Iceweasel bookmarks, the Evolution addressbook, and most of the
settings for my Amateur Radio apps.  That was nice.

All of the Amateur Radio programs that I seem to need are now off
Elizabeth Ann's Windows XP machine.  

Two did take some research:  TrustedQSL and Xlog.  

TrustedQSL was developed by the ARRL and supposedly had Windows, Mac and
Linux flavors.  I could never get the Linux version to compile - but,
after much frustration, I noticed one in the Debian repository.  Problem
solved.

Xlog (developed by a Dutch Amateur - Joop, PG4I), ran beautifully but I
had problems with the process of exporting a log from my Windows logging
program (ACLog) and correctly importing it into Xlog.  This was a major
issue as I had log* information for my contacts back to 1970 entered
into ACLog.

I solved the log translation problem using the Linux utility "sed" (for
Streaming EDitor, I suppose).  I will describe that in a later note as
it proved to be very easy with sed.

I am very pleased withe Debian Testing and the GX270.

cln
WB5BKL
Meanest Man on Emeralds Drive


References:
http://www.w1hkj.com/Fldigi.html
http://pg4i.chronos.org.uk/linux/xlog.html
http://nixbit.com/cat/communications/telephony/xdx/
http://www.xastir.org/
http://www.arrl.org/lotw/    (for TrustedQSL)
http://www.elecraft.com/     (for the K3 software utility)



*  Most "Old School" Amateur Radio operators tend to keep a record of
every HF contact they make.  At one time it was a FCC requirement, but
(sadly) that rule is gone.  Using the information kept in the log, an
Amateur could request a written confirmation of the contact and use that
written confirmation (a "QSL") to qualify for several awards and lots of
bragging rights.  My log contains my first contact (with WN5BDS in San
Antonio 05/22/1970) to my latest (with KA8RTS in Grand Rapids, MI, this
afternoon).  

Rick said it was 10F in Grand Rapids.



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[hllug] Dell GX270 and my Ham Radio applications

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