78 lines
3.1 KiB
HTML
78 lines
3.1 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
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<HTML>
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<HEAD>
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<title> Packet Radio Issue 10 </title>
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</HEAD>
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<BODY>
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<H4>"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>
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"</H4>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<!--===================================================================-->
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<center><h1>Hams, Packet Radio and Linux</h1></center>
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<center><h4>by Phil Hughes, WA6SWR, <A
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HREF="mailto:phil@ssc.com">phil@ssc.com</A></H4></center>
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<center><H5>Copyright (c) 1996</H5></center>
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<center> <H5>Published in Issue 10 of the Linux Gazette</H5></center>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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This year's ARRL/TAPR sponsored conference on Digital Communications
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was in Seattle on September 20-22.
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Being a ham, a packet fan and 18 miles away from the conference, I decided
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to attend.
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I also offered to bring some <I>Linux Journal</I> magazines to give away.
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By the end of the conference "some" had become about 100.
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<P>
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The papers presented varied from very introductory material to a
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serious look at how to equalize group delay of IF filters.
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Many of the papers and one of the three workshops dealt with a system
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called Automatic Position Report System.
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For those not familiar with this, a GPS receiver is combined with
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a packet station to send out position reports.
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<P>
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But, the purpose of this article is not to talk about the
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"ham content" of the conference (if you want more info on
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that, check out <A HREF="http://www.tapr.org/">http://www.tapr.org/</A>,
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but to talk about the L-word.
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<P>
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In the first workshop (on APRS), Keith Sproul demonstrated both a Windows
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and a Mac version of the system, but regularly referenced the fact that a
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Linux version also existed.
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I was surprised (as there was no mention of a Sun version or any other
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Unix-like version), but I was now sure that Linux had infiltrated the ham
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packet radio community pretty seriously.
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<P>
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The L-word then continued to come up in discussions with people.
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It varied from comments about installing Linux to how Linux became a
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significant part of a ham network.
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For example, in Barry McLarnon and Dennis Rosenauer's presentation on
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Wireless Networking Using the WA4DSY 56K RF Modem Technology, Barry said
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"Linux is the platform of choice".
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Later, when describing the Ottawa MAN (Metropolitan Area Network) he
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pointed out that their Internet server (hydra.carleton.ca) is a Linux box, and
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they, when talking about the packet gateway machine, said "It hasn't been
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converted to Linux yet."
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<P>
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At the end of their presentation we had a chance to play with a wireless
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network set up in the room.
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The machine on one end of the 56K link was running Linux as was one
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downstream machine off the other end.
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<P>
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All in all, the conference was good for Linux.
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<P>
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Phil Hughes
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