Recycled computers (Was: Hosstraders Spring 2006 - What a Blast!)

[Bayard Coolidge]

It might also be interesting to demonstrate Linux in the
ham radio environment, running stuff like kpsk (for PSK31),
and so forth.

Remember, that many of the hams there don't need to be taught
how to read their e-mail, or be shown a "new" way to access it
(except perhaps using WinLink2000 and AirMail, the latter of
which DOES run under WINE, and is becoming the de facto
weapon of choice for emergency operations). Some of the hams
at Hosstraders have been sending third party traffic around the
world on CW, RTTY and/or SSB long before the Internet was ever conceived. The Internet is nice, but useless if the power is out
and/or the phone system is down, such as post-Katrina New Orleans. Hams need/want readily useable and reconfigurable
systems that can be (re-)adapted to any situation quickly, using a
minimum amount of power.

I've been looking at switching distros, after using SuSE for many
years, and have been playing with Debian (Sarge, and lately, Etch)
on a spare disk. I was pleasantly surprised to find many of the
popular ham radio applications readily available/installable right
from Debian's distro package, without getting into dependency
hell with SuSE, assuming I could even find a SuSE RPM for the
particular program/tool that I had planned to try.

Aside from PSK31, there are a number of other applications, such
as logging and rig control, that are available for Linux. If those
could be touted at Hosstraders alongside the general Linux Open
Source paradigm, you would probably increase Linux' mindshare.
Demonstrating the ease of installation would also help allay fears
about Linux - things HAVE changed over the last few years for
the better, and that needs to be highlighted.

And, yes, I miss Hosstraders' - I haven't seen anything like it yet
down here in Florida, although purportedly the Orlando Hamcation
comes fairly close. Thank you, Maddog, Ben, et al, for your hard work once again!

Just my 20 millidollars worth...

73,

Bayard, N1HO
"Brake for moose - it can save your life" - NHF&GD

		
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