Category: Uncategorized

More on Icom IC-F3S

JSEvans2 Comments

I finally bought one a couple of weeks ago. I got it off ebay for less that $10, though S/H brought it up to nearly $20. I also had to pick up three extra pieces of hardware. First, I got the programming cable and software, also from Ebay. Secondly, I got an alkaline (AA) battery pack and a rubber duck antenna from American Communication Systems.

The software is easy enough to use. However, it is very odd that the programming cable was not compatible with either of my two laptops. One is a P1 166mhz, the other a P4 1.7Ghz. However, it worked fine with my desktop. Also, if you are running Windows 2000 or XP, you must make an MSDOS boot disk to run this software unless you are a real guru and know about dual booting different partitions. For the majority of folks out there, that is not an option. Sorry Mac users, I’m not aware of any options for you.

I set up my frequencies, CTCSS tones, and button options, and “cloned” the new information to my radio. It works great for an HT that costs under $50 total. The 5watts really does a good job, and I’m sure that once I get a real 2m antenna on my car, it will work much better for mobile use.

A note about the antenna. This radio uses a Motorola MX connecter for the antenna jack. This is not a standard kind of jack, though you can buy an MX to BNC adapter so that you can use standard antennas with it. The cheapest adaptors that I have seen are around $16. Yeah, that’s a lot of money for a little piece of metal.

The biggest downer about this radio, and the thing that will keep a lot of people away, is that it is only programmable by computer. I handle this by doing research ahead of time. I looked up all of the local repeaters and simplex frequencies and programmed them in the radio ahead of time. That way, I will be able to hear what I need ahead of time. Each channel can also be given a 7-digit identifyer, so you are not totally blind to what you are hearing. For example, #16 on my radio is the JARS repeater is Clayton, NC. I programmed the indentifyer to read “JARS” when it gets to that frequency. The radio holds 36 channels (i.e. memories) and that should be good for most hams who want something cheap to keep in their cars or while hiking.

One last thing, this radio is a Police/Military issue device. Therefore, it transmits and receives the entire 138 to 174Mhz portion of the VHF band. This makes it a much more powerful radio that your average ham HT. It’s not my job to lecture anyone on being a good ham, so I won’t. It’s just good to know that this is there. I personally think it’s nice to be able to pick up the weather band on a ham HT, because you never know when it is going to come in handy

Technorati Tags: , , ,

Icom IC-F3S Radio

JSEvans2 Comments

I haven’t posted here in a while.  I just found some useful information on a radio that I am researching. 

Ebay has tons of these radios for dirt cheap.  According to several websites, they are sturdy and very reliable, but they are only programmable via PC.  Details about how to do this are scant.

The programming software is Icom CS-F3 software.  It is for MSDOS and Windows in DOS mode only.  If you take your time, you can find this software on Google for free rather than spending $35-40 for it.  It took me around an hour to find it.  I’m not going to say anymore than that Russians can be friendly.

The programming cable is Icom OPC-478.  There are a few homebrew designs for this cable out there.  This cable is used for many different Icom models and can be easily found online.

Programming guides, user manuals, and even repair manuals can be found on Google with enough patience.

My adventure with Windows

JSEvansLeave a comment

So, I upgraded the memory in my laptop and decided to try something crazy. I installed Windows 98 on it.

Win98, required a lot of work to gather up drivers for my ancient hardware, but it does handle the hardware, namely my wifi card, better than Linux. However, there is a really big problem. It is nearly too slow to be useful. I’ve installed Firefox, Opera, K-Meleon, and the usual I.E., of all of them, Opera is the fastest, but it still sucks badly. Reading websites is painful. I’ve considered even installing Netscape 4.7, and even though that would be a faster browser, it lacks CSS capabilities. DSL Linux is just all around faster. One kudo for Windows is all of the software out there for it. I found a couple of programs that I am really enjoying. They are yBook and yWriter. yBook is a “paperback emulator” (LOL!) it can open txt, rtf, html, and pdb ebooks and display them as if you were reading them in a book. It’s a little slow, but quite usable. yWriter is a “novel builder”. I’m working on some fiction and this little program is very handy. If this software were made available for Linux, I would go back to Linux and never look back. So, I think I will keep a dual boot between Win98 and DSL for the time being. It’s sad that Microsoft doesn’t put more thought into being backwards compatible whith their operating systems, but that wouldn’t make them as much money.

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

Minimum requirements for Windows Vista

JSEvansLeave a comment

This article details the requirements for the new Windows Vista OS.

Minimum Requirements (Vista-Capable PCs):
* 800 MHz Intel-compatible processor
* 512MB of RAM
* DirectX 9.0-Capable Graphics Processor
* 20GB HDRecommended Requirements

(Premium-Ready PCs):
* 1 GHz Intel-compatible processor
* 1GB RAM
* DirectX 9.0-Capable Graphics Processor, with 128MB graphics memory. (64MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor less than 1,310,720 pixels [no more than 1440×900]; 128MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor at resolutions from 1,310,720 to 2,304,000 pixels [no more than 1920×1200]; 256MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor at resolutions higher than 2,304,000 pixels [more than 1920×1200]).
* 40GB HD with at least 15GB “free space”

It goes on to say,

Of course, we here in the Orbiting HQ want to stress that these specification recommendations are minimum, minimum, minimum! If you have a PC with a 1 GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 128MB DirectX 9.0-compliant video card… you’d be insane to install Windows Vista (in our not-so-humble opinions.)

And then the Linux users laugh with glee at the sad little Windows users.

Greetings from the new laptop!

JSEvansLeave a comment

Well, I’ve successfully installed DamnSmallLinux, and I like it. 50 Megs, and I have everything that I want. Right now, I am writing this using Flock, which does not come with D.S.L. It is being processed by my main pc and is being displayed on my laptop though something called X11 Forwarding. I’m just thrilled. This kicks some real butt!

technorati tags: ,

About the Linux Community

JSEvansLeave a comment

I’ve always sort of compared the Linux community to the Ham Radio community of a previous generation.  I can say this both as a dedicated Linux user and as a ham.  The Linux community is as diverse as any.  There are going to jerks and snobs.  There are going to be people who demand that everyone compiles everything from source or use an archaic distribution, and there are those who are happy just installing everything from a Knoppix CD.  The people and the support are there, and since we are living in an online world, it doesn’t really matter a whole lot where the help physically comes from.  Quite frankly, I’ve come to embrace the Linux community more than any other online, because there are so many of newbies who want to learn and who want to help each other out.  Open Source is a new frontier, and many of us just want to help each other out.

I was a Mac user for around 6 months.  I had a 500mhz G3 iMAC.  It ran OSX 10.2 well, though slowly.  I experienced more putdowns and snide remarks about my ancient hardward from the Mac community than from anyone in the Windows or Linux community.  Maybe, I just happened to run into a few jerks, and everybody else is cool, but I really got the feeling that Mac users just used their computers to do the basics, and very few really questioned how things worked.  “It just works” is (or was) an Apple motto.  Those who got everything to work, never questioned it.  If your scanner doesn’t work with OSX, don’t worry, Apple will gladly sell you an overpriced one that will do everything you need and you will never have to configure anything manually.

In the Linux community, a lot of things don’t work right.  We come into Linux expecting that fact, and so we are there to help each other.

Technorati Tags:

A New Linux

JSEvansLeave a comment

I changes Linux distributions like I change blog templates. I’m always looking for something new. I’m currently trying Zenwalk linux. It is my first Slackware distro. and I am having a lot of fun with it. It is a clean, simple distribution without a lot of bells and whistles. The developers are using the KISS principle which I appreciate. I’ve had to install a few packages that do not come with the distro., but that’s not much of a problem. It’s just a something that you have to deal with. I think I even like this better than Ubuntu, and I would not be afraid of sitting a Linux newbie in front of it, especially if they just want internet, email, and chat. The XFCE interface is one of my favorites. It is simple, sleek, fast, and it will remind you of Windows. It even comes with Java 1.5 preinstalled, so that’s one less worry.
There are three software packages that I can not live without, and I’ve had some trouble finding them, but they are here or at LinuxPackages.net. They are amaroK, Lyx, and Scribus. Amarok is my iTunes, Scribus is my Microsoft Publisher/Adobe Illustrator, and Lyx is a program that will make any written piece of tripe look like a professional publisher put it together. It is a godsend for writing college papers.
I will eventually go back to Ubuntu, but I want to stay here for a bit. Maybe until the next Ubuntu version comes out. The problem with Slackware packages is something called Dependency hell. This is something that I have seen little of in Ubuntu. Dependancy Hell is not a problem for the novice who is content with a few pieces of software that work well, but for the Linux adventurer, it can drive you insane.

Technorati Tags: , , , , ,

Learning

JSEvans1 Comment

So far, my journey to increase my knowledge of electronics has been going pretty slowly. Thanks to Pete Millett's Technical Books Online site, I have learn a lot about the basics of electronics, and I am beginning to really see how oscillators work. This is something that isn't really explained in most resources that are online or otherwise.

To those who put electronics tutorials and the like online: Why must you assume that the reader is either a math whiz or already intimately understands the workings of electronics. You don't explain how things work without tons of math, you assume that we just need to know that they work. Maybe I'm dumb, but I learn best by being able to picture what is going on and then applying math to it. The ARRL Handbook is guilty of this as well! The only books that really take time to explain most of this stuff is the older books and books like "Now you're talking!"

Anyway, I'm going back to the old books and the books for true amateurs. I really need to enroll in an online algebra/geometry/trig class.

Technorati Tags: , ,