Surfin’: Where’s Sebastian?

This week, Surfin’ asks “Where’s DO8SEM?” and finds him -- along with some cool Mac OS X SDR applications.

Surfin’: Got Updates?

This week, your old -- but young at heart – Surfin’ conductor provides updates to past episodes the column.

Surfin’: Got Parts, Maps and Macs?

This week, Surfin’ returns to RadioShack, Google Maps and Steve Jobs.

Amazing

I was editing the Winter 2011 issue of TAPR PSR on Sunday afternoon with my Mac Pro in my lap and a cup of coffee on the arm of the sofa.

As is my wont, I bumped the coffee cup and it began a descent towards my Mac Pro. I quickly intercepted its fall and changed its trajectory but in the process, I karate-chopped the 16-Gbyte USB flash drive inserted in my Mac and broke it.

I ordered a replacement on Wednesday from Amazon. I was amazed to find it in my mailbox on Thursday.

Kudos to Amazon and USPS.

Surfin: Snow -- Is There an App For That?

This week, your Surfin’ editor gets his mind out of the snowbank and explores the new Mac App Store searching for Mac ham applications.

Surfin’: Stuff for Hamming (Not Stuffing for Turkeys)

This week, Surfin’ reveals the contents of a folder filled with stuff.

Surfin’: Finding Where the Hams Are

This week, Surfin’ checks out a cool Google Maps application that reveals where the hams are in your burg.

Surfin': You Get What Your Pay For -- Learning the Hard Way

A freak accident --- that is the only way to explain it!

Read all about it in this week's installment of Surfin'.

Surfin': Software Defined Radioing with a Mac

This week, Surfin’ looks to the Mac OS X for a Software Defined Radio.

digital television’s dirty little secret

My daughter gave me eyetv as a Christmas gift. It allows me to view television broadcasts on my Mac.

It works great. My only complaint is that right after I got it, they came out with a version that also allows you to listen to FM radio broadcasts on a Mac.

Anyway, I connected the eyetv to my 25-element log periodic antenna, which is at the top of the tower, about 1000 ft ASL.

eyetv receives both analog and digital television broadcasts and that capability soon revealed to me the dirty little secret about digital television. The quality of digital television video is much better than analog television video, however, in order to view digital television video, the signal at your receiver must be stronger than the signal strength required to view analog television video.

Today, I can receive the analog television broadcasts of New York City channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13 with my eyetv and log periodic antenna, but I cannot receive any digital television broadcasts from New York City. So, when they finally shut down analog television broadcasts, I lose New York City. Similarly, I will lose other distant television stations once digital becomes the only television broadcast mode.

Is digital television a technological advancement? Not in my book.

new external hard drive

Daily, Retrospect runs automatically to back up my Mac at 2 AM to two 160-Gbyte SmartDisk external hard drives. I inherited one of the drives, so I put it to work and on even days, Retrospect backs up to drive "A" and on odd days, to drive "B."

Problem is that some days, depending on what projects I am working on, Retrospect cannot do a backup because there is not enough space on Drive "A" or "B." When that occurs, I delete some of the project files from my Mac and when 2 AM rolls around, Retrospect can do its thing.

This occurs about once a week and has gotten old fast, so every once in awhile I consider buying a larger external hard drive. That once in awhile occurred again last week and when I checked online, I was amazed how low the prices for hard drives have fallen. So I bought one: a LaCie 1-Tbyte external hard drive that includes a slew of interfaces including Firewire 800, which is the interface I was after. (The SmartDisks only had Firewire 400, while my Mac supports both 400 and 800.)

The LaCie arrived yesterday and I connected it to my Mac last evening. When I made the connection, my Mac asked me if I wanted to use the new drive with Time Machine to do backup. I clicked positively and my Mac informed me that Time Machine would do a backup on the hour.

I finished some work, then went downstairs to clean the litter boxes and walk the Pies. After I finished my sanitation assignments, I returned to my Mac to see how the backup was going. A progress bar indicated that there were over one million files to backup and that Time Machine was about one-third of the way through.

The Harmonic phoned and I talked with her for a half hour or so, then I checked my Mac again. The progress bar was nearly at its end and less than a minute later, the progress bar disappeared and the initial backup was complete.

I was impressed! Firewire 800 is fast. I expected that the initial backup would take the better part of the evening, but I estimate that it took no more than 90 minutes.

By the way, the new hard drive (specifically a LaCie 301827U d2 Quadra) is soundly constructed and not much bigger than the SmartDisks. It includes a bundle of software that I have not explored yet.

Surfin': Upgrading Computers

In this week’s Surfin’, read about Web sites I found to load my new computer with Amateur Radio software. After you read it, come back here to post your comments, if any.

By the way, Surfin’ is a weekly column published on ARRLWeb features Web sites related to Amateur Radio, specifically, and radio, in general. If you have any suggestions for Surfin’, please contact WA1LOU using the e-mail link to the right.

new mac

Over a year ago, I wrote about the defective LCD on my 17-inch Powerbook G4 1.67 GHz Mac.

Last count, there were over 100 vertical lines on the LCD. They did not pose a problem using text-based applications, but they did make graphic-based applications very hard on my eyes, so much so that I stopped using my Mac for those applications.

Meanwhile, I had been following the situation closely. I had become resigned to the fact that Apple seemed to be ignoring everyone with the defective LCD and that I was stuck with a bad apple.

My daughter felt my pain and decided to call Apple in late February to fight for my cause. After 90 minutes on the phone, Apple agreed to fix my Mac for the cost of labor, $325, which was a bargain since the replacement part alone cost about $1000. Next day, Apple sent me a box to ship my Mac to their Texas repair center and I sent it on its way.

Day after day, I checked the status of my computer online and day after day, the status was that the part was on order.

Tuesday, Apple called to tell me that the part was expected on Friday and if it arrived on schedule, I would have my Mac back on Monday.

I was pleased with the news.

The man from Apple then said that if Monday was not soon enough, they would ship me a brand new Mac that was equivalent to my defective one. The equivalent is the brand new 17-inch 2.5 GHz MacBook Pro with 2 GB of RAM and a 250 GB hard drive. I jumped at the proposal; it is not often that someone offers me a $2800 computer for $325.

The new Mac arrived yesterday. Last night, I decompressed the backup files from my old Mac and began installing software.

I am still in shock over my good fortune!

MacLoggerDX 4.3.3 released

Dog Park Software is pleased to announce that version 4.3.3 of MacLoggerDX has been released and can be downloaded here.

What's New in this version:
* Elecraft K3 Driver.
* Fix for DXCC 9M
* Ten-Tec Argo V S-Meter fix.
* Yaesu FT-450 VFO Select fix.
* Yaesu FT-450 Power report fix.
* Added FJ St. Barthelemy.
* Band Plan digital modes fixed.
* TS-480 use data connector for software transmit.
* IC-703 Digital modes & report power setting.

Surfin': Widget to Read This

This week’s Surfin’ reveals a new Amateur Radio widget for the Mac OS X. Read it here, then come back here to post your comments, if any.

By the way, Surfin’ is a weekly column published on ARRLWeb features Web sites related to Amateur Radio, specifically, and radio, in general. If you have any suggestions for Surfin’, please contact WA1LOU using the e-mail link to the right.

online interactive sky chart

I am still following the progress of Comet Holmes. If the sky is clear, I go outside with my binoculars at night and view the skies.

I also check the Sky & Telescope Web site for news regarding the comet and anything else that is newsworthy in the sky. Today, I discovered that the web site has an interactive sky chart that allows you to "create a custom naked-eye map of the whole sky for any place on Earth, at any time of day or night, on any date from 1600 to 2400." Their sky chart works in most Java-enabled Web browsers.

You have to register with Sky & Telescope in order to access the sky chart (registering is no big deal and its free). Once you register, you can access the chart and customize it for your location, which takes about one minute to do.

I do have Stellarium on my Mac, which provides the same functionality, but I can access Sky & Telescope's sky chart from any computer with a browser and that can come in handy when I don't have my Mac at ready.

MacLoggerDX 4.3.2 released

Dog Park Software is pleased to announce that version 4.3.2 of MacLoggerDX has been released and can be downloaded here.



What's New in this version:

* Updated for Leopard
* Intermittent crash fixed
* Ten-Tec Omni VII S-Meter adjustment
* TS-480 S-Meter adjustment
* K2+XV50 Driver 50 MHz.
* HamCall fix for Hughes ISP
* Added 'Include Host in URL' check box in Station Info
* New Free Internet lookup format fix
* Yaesu FT-450 and FT-950 Drivers added.

new antenna design software for the Mac OS X

Today, Chen, W7AY, released cocoaNEC 2.0, an antenna design and modeling program for Mac OS X. It is free and is available for downloading from Chen's web site.

Surfin': Take a Longer Mac Break

In this week's Surfin', we visit the best Web site, bar none, that is devoted to ham radio application for the Mac. After you read Surfin’, you can leave your comments here.

By the way, Surfin’ is a weekly column published on ARRLWeb that finds and features Web sites that are related to Amateur Radio, specifically, and radio, in general. If you have any suggestions for Surfin’, please contact WA1LOU using the e-mail link to the right.

Surfin': Take a Mac Break

In this week's Surfin', a new ham radio application for the Mac occasions a visit to a Mac ham app Web site. After you read Surfin’, you can leave your comments here.

By the way, Surfin’ is a weekly column published on ARRLWeb that finds and features Web sites that are related to Amateur Radio, specifically, and radio, in general. If you have any suggestions for Surfin’, please contact WA1LOU using the e-mail link to the right.