ubuntu

Packet Radio is Making A Strong Comeback

Fellow hams, if you think packet radio is a relic of the 1980s and 90s BBS era, it’s time to tune in again. This resilient digital mode is experiencing a notable resurgence, driven by its proven reliability in off-grid scenarios, modern software tools, and renewed interest in resilient emergency communications.

For operators who remember connecting to distant nodes with clunky TNCs, everything is now done with software. All you need is a computer with a sound card, free modem / TNC software such as Direwolf, and you are good to go. I have several Packet stations running on Raspberry Pi’s. My WB8ERJ-1 packet BBS runs on a Raspberry Pi 3B+ and a USB sound card.

Why The Comeback?

Packet radio, built on the AX.25 protocol, breaks data into packets for efficient transmission over VHF/UHF (and sometimes HF). While the internet boom reduced its everyday use, recent events—natural disasters, infrastructure concerns, and a broader focus on grid-independent operations—have highlighted its value.

Modern implementations use sound card modems like DireWolf, and software such as BPQ32, making setup far easier and more powerful than the hardware-heavy days of old. Clubs and regional networks are reviving or expanding packet infrastructure, with active BBS systems and forwarding links.

Here is a map of some of the Packet BBS nodes in Ohio. For a complete list, OhioPacket.org has a list by county.

Packet Radio Is Making A Strong Comeback

Operators report renewed activity on traditional frequencies like 145.010 MHz for BBS traffic. High-profile emergencies have demonstrated packet’s role when cellular and internet services collapse. The WB8ERJ-1 BBS is on 145.030 mHz in the Mansfield Ohio area with a backhaul link on 223 mHz to KB8UVN-1 in Johnstown as well as to KD8FTR-1 in Ashland Ohio.

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How To Program Yaesu’s FT5DR With Chirp In Linux

For the first time in several years, I was able to go the the 2023 Dayton Hamvention. If you have ever been, it is perhaps the best hamfest there is. If you did go to the Hamvention, did you get your Yaesu hat? I did – as well as my daughter, KC8GRS, and her two kids. It was a great 3 day event with approximately 35,000 hams present. One of my goals was to purchase a Yaesu FT5DR radio.

Bought the FT5DR

So I wanted to pick up a digital radio that supported Yaesu’s System Fusion. After chatting to one of the guys at the Yaesu booth I went straight over to the Ham Radio Outlet booth and bought the Yaesu FT5DR handheld radio. I also bought the RT systems USB-68 cable, but not the software since I don’t really have a Windows computer, except for an old laptop that does dual boot into Windows 7, but I almost always boot into Ubuntu. Since most of my computers are now Linux based, so the software that they provide won’t work anyway. Instead I use the Chirp program for my radios.

CT68 cable not working

After I got home and started looking at my shiny new Yaesu FT5DR, I quickly found out, that Chirp can’t see the CT68 cable! So the first thing I did was open up a terminal window, and issued lsusb to see if Ubuntu can see the device. Sure enough, as you can see in the screenshot below, its there!

program yaesu ft5dr in ubuntu with chirp

But when I type ls /dev/ttyUSB* it doesn’t show as being available as shown below:

My first thought was that I had a defective CT68 cable. But then I remembered that I had my old linux laptop with Windows 7. I was able to put an old version of Chirp on it on the Windows 7 side, and sure enough I was able to program my FT5DR radio. But the old version wouldn’t let me program the radio for digital modes.

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Field Day Logging Software For The Raspberry Pi

I have been searching for a Field Day logging program for a couple of years that works on a Raspberry Pi and also works with Winkeyer. A lot of people like CQRlog, but it doesn’t seem to have the “flow” for me when entering QSO’s during Field Day. Another logging program that is used with the Raspberry Pi, is HamRS. It looks like a good choice, however I like to run CW on Field Day and HamRS doesn’t have any support for CW, specifically macros, as well as sending them to Winkeyer.

Just after last year’s Field Day, I stumbled on to FieldDayLogger written by Mike Bridak, K6GTE. He also has a companion program, PyWinKeyer, that works with Winkeyer as well as the CW Macro’s that are part of FDlogger. So this year, I gave FieldDayLogger and PyWinKeyer a try on My Raspberry Pi based Go-Frame.

Field Day logging software for Raspberry Pi

The look and feel is similar to the infamous N3FJP Field Day software but with a different color scheme – its actually easier on the eyes, especially at night. The FieldDayLogger program uses the same keystrokes as the N3FJP software so if you are familiar with N3FJP’s Field Day logging program, the transition to FieldDayLlogger will be a snap. The one down side to the FieldDayLogger software is that it doesn’t support networking, which is fine for my 1E / single transmitter operation.

UPDATE: Michael Bridak has added Multi-station networking support. This is great news! I haven’t tried it, as I only run one transmitter. You can read more about it in his manual on github. Thanks for your hard work and great contribution Michael!

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How To Reset MySQL Root Password

The other day I needed to reset the root password for a mysql database because I forgot it (oops!). Fortunately, there is a simple solution to resetting root password in mysql.

he first thing you need to do is login to your server as root. Next,you need to stop mysql with the following command:

/etc/init.d/mysql stop

Once Mysql is stopped, you need to restart it, but in the background with the mysql_safe command like this:

/usr/bin/mysqld_safe –skip-grant-tables &

The & shoves the process into the background. Once MySQL is up and running you will see the following output:

[1] 6831
Starting mysqld daemon with databases from /var/lib/mysql
mysqld_safe[6961]: started

You can see the new job number, in this case, [1] has started and the server is running with the process ID of 6831. By using the –skip-grant-tables option you can connect to the MySQL database without a password, which will allow you to change it to a password that you know.

VERY IMPORTANT: You must enter the following commands exactly as shown. Particularly, words in upper case, and having a semi-colon ( ; ) at the end of each command.

OK now we are going to login to the MySQL database with the following command:

mysql –user=root mysql

It will ask you for a password. Just press the [Enter] key.

At the mysql> prompt enter the following:

update user set Password=PASSWORD(‘new-password-here’) WHERE User=’root’;

NOTE: in the above command, you must use single quotes around the new-password-here part. MySQL will return the following:

Query OK, 2 rows affected (0.04 sec)
Rows matched: 2 Changed: 2 Warnings: 0

Next type the following: flush privileges;

And then: exit

Now that the root password has been changed, you need to stop the MySQL server so that you can go back to running a secure MySQL server with password restrictions in place. So you need to bring the MySQL server running in the background into the foreground by typing “fg” and then kill it by pressing “Ctrl+C” afterwards.

Now just start the MySQL server with the following command:

/etc/init.d/mysql start

You now should be able to login to your MySQL server with your new root password by using the following command:

mysql –user=root –pass=new-password

This should let you in to your MySQL server.

This article was originally posted on www.mikestechblog.com Any reproduction on any other site is prohibited and a violation of copyright laws.

How To Install Equipment Into A 19 Inch Rack

I needed to install a transmitter into a 19″ equipment rack. Since it was heavy, and having installed heavy equipment into a rack I needed an easy way to do that. If you have ever installed something heavy in a 19 inch equipment rack, it is rather difficult. Even with two people. Sometimes three people are needed. This is what I came up with to make installing equipment into a rack a lot easier.

Since almost all 19” equipment racks use 10-32 screws in their side rails, get two of them and put two 10-32 nuts on the screw, and jam them together. Then clamp the whole thing in a vise.

Below is a photo of what I am talking about:

How to install equipment into a 19 inch rack

Once the screw is in the vise, take a hacksaw and cut off the head of the screw. Then cut a vertical slot with the hacksaw right where you cut off the head. The purpose of the vertical slot is so you can use a screwdriver on it. so make sure you cut the slot deep enough. You will need two of these for installing equipment into a 19 inch equipment rack.

To use them, you need to figure out which holes in the side rails you will be using for mounting your equipment in the rack. In the top most hole that you are going to use on each rail, simply screw in one these special screws.

Now its time to mount your equipment. All you do is slide your equipment’s top mounting holes on to the screws. This will properly align your holes, and all you have to do is push the bottom of your equipment up against the rack, and these two screws will hold the weight of your equipment for you. Just put in the two bottom screws first, then the rest of them into the rails of your equipment rack.

Here is a photo of one of the customized screws after the equipment is installed:

To finish the job, simply take a screwdriver and unscrew these two screws and replace them with the proper screws and you are done installing your equipment into the rack.

This article was originally posted on www.mikestechblog.com Any reproduction on any other site is prohibited and a violation of copyright laws.

DIY Your Own Equipment Rack With a Lack Table – LackRack

Recently I needed a 19″ equipment rack. But being cheap, I decided to build one. While searching the Internet, I found what is called a LackRack, which uses IKEA‘s Lack Table. However further reading revealed a couple of things that I thought were lacking in the original design of the LackRack.

Upon doing further research on using a Lack Table for a 19″ equipment rack, I found out that the legs of the Lack Table were hollow, except for the top two inches, and the bottom inch. Which would probably be ok if you only needed to rack one piece of gear, but that sort of seems to defeat the purpose of having a 19 inch rack.

What I decided to do on my 19″ equipment rack was to use metal reinforcing strips as rack rails. But first, here is a photo of the completed 19 inch equipment rack using an IKEA Lack table:

DIY 19 inch Equipment rack Lack table lackrack

I chose to mount my equipment on the inside of the legs for a neater appearance, since I was mounting metal rails on the legs of the Lack table. This also gives me a more comfortable feeling when I put my coffee cup on top of the Lack table, as coffee spills are inevitable, mounting the equipment as shown will provide more protection from such accidents.

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