Surfin’: Finding the Good Stuff

This week, Surfin’ reveals where to find the websites and software that comprise “the good stuff.”

Surfin’: Going to the Source

This week, Surfin’ visits a website that is the host for thousands of free software applications.

Surfin’: Old Magazines and More Ducks

This week, Surfin’ tries to unclutter the house and learns about more open source software.

Surfin’: Open Source Ducks

This week, Surfin’ rediscovers the wonders of open source software.

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': 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.

Surfin': Radio Shack Historically Speaking

This week’s Surfin’ looks back on radio and electronic history via vintage Radio Shack catalogs.

Did you know that Surfin’ is a weekly column published on ARRLWeb that 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 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': Old and New, But Nothing Blue

Like a bride, this week's Surfin' features some new things and some old things, but no borrowed blue things.

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.

Bad link in this week's Surfin': Skimming the Code

This week's Surfin', Skimming the Code, has a bad link, which may be fixed by the time you read this. If not, the bad link is the word "tutorial" in the last line of the third paragraph. The link should be http://www.dxatlas.com/CwSkimmer/Files/Skimmerintro.pdf

By the way, the link was OK when I wrote the column, but Murphy changed it in the meantime!

And one more thing, 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.

Surfin': Still Got User Interface?

In this week’s Surfin’, readers of this column consider the user interface of Amateur Radio software. After you read that, 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.

Surfin': Logging Online

In this week’s Surfin’, we consider Google Docs as an online Amateur Radio application. After you read that, 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.

Surfin': Got User Interface?

In this week’s Surfin’, we consider the user interface of Amateur Radio software. After you read that, 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.

Surfin': LOU on SDR and GPS

In this week’s Surfin’, we consider two initialisms that are on the cutting edge of Amateur Radio. After you read that, 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.

Surfin': Google Earth's Ionosphere

This week’s Surfin’ explores the Earth's ionosphere via Google Earth. 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.

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.

Surfin': Whispering on 30 Meters

In this week’s Surfin’, read about a new soundcard-based digital mode that will have you whispering. 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.

Surfin': Splat That Path Online

In this week’s Surfin’, read about a Web site that determines how well your signal gets from here to there. 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.

Winter 2008, #104 issue of Packet Status Register (PSR) is now online

The Winter 2008, #104 issue of Packet Status Register (PSR) is now online. The new issue of my favorite quarterly contains the following:

• President's Corner


• HPSDR Project Status


• Minutes of TAPR Board of Directors Meeting


• DCC 2008 Plans


• NUE-PSK


• Beam Steering in Combat...


• FDMDV


• Click Once


• Preliminary Treasurer's Report for 2007

Read more here