From nivex at nivex.net  Tue Jan 15 09:40:22 2013
From: nivex at nivex.net (Kevin Otte)
Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2013 09:40:22 -0500
Subject: [Linux-ham] Response to FCC NPRM
Message-ID: <50F56A56.6080307@nivex.net>

In which Bruce Perens makes the case for bandwidth based rather than
modulation type based band plans:

http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/view?id=7022090358

-- Kevin, N8VNR

From nivex at nivex.net  Thu Jan 17 00:29:55 2013
From: nivex at nivex.net (Kevin Otte)
Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2013 00:29:55 -0500
Subject: [Linux-ham] portable digital voice
Message-ID: <50F78C53.70100@nivex.net>

; Rationale

At RARSFest a few years ago, there was a great buzz around D-STAR. 
Unfortunately, the discussions about the non-Free codec were a bit animated.

Now that we have some options, I'd like to try to have a functional demo 
for RARSFest this year. And by functional I mean walking around using 
it, not just on a booth table.

What follows are my ramblings on how we might go about this. It is in 
some part an attempt at organizing my own thoughts, but the closer to 
the RF hardware I get, the weaker my skills are. I'd love some insight 
from others. As such, we'll start there and work our way up the stack.

; Modems

At the modem level we have a few options: FDMDV, G3RUH (the 9600 baud 
packet standard), and GMSK.

The FDMDV modem is part of the Codec2 development and delivers a 1400 
bit/s stream in about 1.1KHz of bandwidth. It is primarily designed for 
HF, but could easily be routed through an HT audio connection. Details 
here: http://www.rowetel.com/blog/?page_id=2458

Using 9600 baud TNCs would make for a nice reuse of older equipment, 
much as APRS does. Some radios such as the TH-D7 have these modems 
built-in already. I'm not sure how easy it is to lay hands on more of 
such equipment though. I also seem to recall that getting seperate 
radios and TNCs tuned up was a bit of a challenge, but that was also ~20 
years ago. (Where does the time go?)

In newer territory, using GMSK would in theory be a better use of the 
spectrum. I don't know as much about how to make this work. There is a 
Belgian ham ON1ARF doing some early work on this front: 
http://villazeebries.krbonne.net/hamstuff/?cat=5

; Codecs

The seemingly obvious choice here is Codec2. It was designed for this 
very purpose and has already earned the 2012 ARRL Technical Innovation 
Award. I even had the pleasure of meeting David at the Dayton Hamvention 
last year.

Another option would be the recently IETF standardized Opus codec. The 
drawback here is that its lowest bitrate is 6Kbit/s. Though, if using 
something that is 9600 capable, an 8 Kbit/s voice stream could be used 
for great audio quality and room to spare.

; Systems

For initial mockup and testing, full PCs will make life easy. Once you 
get into the realm of needing to carry it around, that's where it gets 
interesting.

With the recent buzz around the Raspberry Pi, this seems like a leading 
possibility. ON1ARF's work as well as some other discussion I've read 
seem to indicate that the audio capabilities of the Pi are less than 
stellar.

There are all manner of embedded systems out there these days. So many, 
in fact, that I won't even pretend to try and keep track of them all. 
Suggestions welcome.

; Conclusion

So there you have it, an attempt at a braindump of my epic idea... at 
least I hope it sounds as epic in this message as it does in my head :)

It's a lot of work, and it may not even come to fruition, but hopefully 
getting this out of my head and into the air will let my brain spin down 
a little.

73 de Kevin, N8VNR

From delsner at rensle.com  Thu Jan 17 19:06:06 2013
From: delsner at rensle.com (delsner at rensle.com)
Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2013 17:06:06 -0700
Subject: [Linux-ham] portable digital voice
Message-ID: <20130117170606.9cc159632a02e0000add598c3860b19a.80c199f58f.wbe@email06.secureserver.net>

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From nivex at nivex.net  Tue Jan 22 11:21:58 2013
From: nivex at nivex.net (Kevin Otte)
Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2013 11:21:58 -0500
Subject: [Linux-ham] FreeDV
In-Reply-To: <339481786.4298.1356712634972.JavaMail.root@amos.jamsoft.com>
References: <50DD043F.106@nivex.net>
	<339481786.4298.1356712634972.JavaMail.root@amos.jamsoft.com>
Message-ID: <50FEBCA6.2090703@nivex.net>

My USB sound card should be here in a few days. Perhaps we can try some 
10 meters locally?

-- Kevin N8VNR/4

On 12/28/2012 11:37 AM, David Black wrote:
> Neat, thanks Kevin!
>
> Just checked out the latest SVN and am going to see about building on my Kubuntu 12.04 rig computer.
> On the waterfall 14.236 looks pretty quiet.  Anyone interested in trying a FreeDV QSO?
>
> Dave
> AD6Q/4
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>> Completely free HF digital voice in 1.1KHz of bandwidth:
>>
>> http://freedv.org/
>>
>> If you attempt to build this thing, you'll see that the automated
>> scripts go and get a bunch of libraries on its own. I freaked out a bit,
>> and fought for about 2 hours trying to get it to use the system
>> libraries on Ubuntu 12.04. Sadly, FreeDV does need something from the
>> newer versions of each of those libraries. There is an effort underway
>> to make it run on wxWidgets 2.8 [1], which is good since that's the part
>> that takes the longest to build.
>>
>> Sadly I haven't been able to actually test the functionality since in
>> addition to the software fun I wrote about above, the add-in soundcard I
>> was hoping to use (an old SB Live! acquired from a hamfest) turned out
>> to be toast. I have it hooked up to my HF rig for receive only for now,
>> but I don't have an external HF antenna at the new house yet, so on to
>> the next step.
>>
>> Perhaps some of you can make more progress and report back to the group.
>>
>> 73 de Kevin, N8VNR
>>
>>
>> [1] http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=30216313
>> _______________________________________________
>> Linux-ham mailing list
>> Linux-ham at trilug.org
>> http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-ham
>>
> _______________________________________________
> Linux-ham mailing list
> Linux-ham at trilug.org
> http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-ham
>

From dave at jamsoft.com  Tue Jan 22 22:54:19 2013
From: dave at jamsoft.com (David Black)
Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2013 22:54:19 -0500 (EST)
Subject: [Linux-ham] FreeDV
In-Reply-To: <50FEBCA6.2090703@nivex.net>
References: <50DD043F.106@nivex.net>
	<339481786.4298.1356712634972.JavaMail.root@amos.jamsoft.com>
	<50FEBCA6.2090703@nivex.net>
Message-ID: <1175147498.28022.1358913259846.JavaMail.root@amos.jamsoft.com>

Sure, I'm up for that.

Since the earlier posting, I was able to hear some QSOs on 14.236.
You might want to listen a while on that frequency to test your setup.

David
AD6Q/4

----- Original Message -----
> My USB sound card should be here in a few days. Perhaps we can try some
> 10 meters locally?
> 
> -- Kevin N8VNR/4
> 
> On 12/28/2012 11:37 AM, David Black wrote:
> > Neat, thanks Kevin!
> >
> > Just checked out the latest SVN and am going to see about building on my
> > Kubuntu 12.04 rig computer.
> > On the waterfall 14.236 looks pretty quiet.  Anyone interested in trying a
> > FreeDV QSO?
> >
> > Dave
> > AD6Q/4
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> >> Completely free HF digital voice in 1.1KHz of bandwidth:
> >>
> >> http://freedv.org/
> >>
> >> If you attempt to build this thing, you'll see that the automated
> >> scripts go and get a bunch of libraries on its own. I freaked out a bit,
> >> and fought for about 2 hours trying to get it to use the system
> >> libraries on Ubuntu 12.04. Sadly, FreeDV does need something from the
> >> newer versions of each of those libraries. There is an effort underway
> >> to make it run on wxWidgets 2.8 [1], which is good since that's the part
> >> that takes the longest to build.
> >>
> >> Sadly I haven't been able to actually test the functionality since in
> >> addition to the software fun I wrote about above, the add-in soundcard I
> >> was hoping to use (an old SB Live! acquired from a hamfest) turned out
> >> to be toast. I have it hooked up to my HF rig for receive only for now,
> >> but I don't have an external HF antenna at the new house yet, so on to
> >> the next step.
> >>
> >> Perhaps some of you can make more progress and report back to the group.
> >>
> >> 73 de Kevin, N8VNR
> >>
> >>
> >> [1] http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=30216313
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Linux-ham mailing list
> >> Linux-ham at trilug.org
> >> http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-ham
> >>
> > _______________________________________________
> > Linux-ham mailing list
> > Linux-ham at trilug.org
> > http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-ham
> >
> _______________________________________________
> Linux-ham mailing list
> Linux-ham at trilug.org
> http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-ham
> 

From nivex at nivex.net  Tue Jan 22 23:30:04 2013
From: nivex at nivex.net (Kevin Otte)
Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2013 23:30:04 -0500
Subject: [Linux-ham] FreeDV
In-Reply-To: <1175147498.28022.1358913259846.JavaMail.root@amos.jamsoft.com>
References: <50DD043F.106@nivex.net>
	<339481786.4298.1356712634972.JavaMail.root@amos.jamsoft.com>
	<50FEBCA6.2090703@nivex.net>
	<1175147498.28022.1358913259846.JavaMail.root@amos.jamsoft.com>
Message-ID: <50FF674C.5030405@nivex.net>

I've received quite a few conversations there since I got my dipole up 
higher.

I rigged up another machine with the fdmdv_mod command line tool within 
the codec2-dev SVN tree to try and transmit, but alas have not yet 
worked anyone. I imagine things will go a bit more smoothly when I have 
everything on one box.

-- Kevin

On 01/22/2013 10:54 PM, David Black wrote:
> Sure, I'm up for that.
>
> Since the earlier posting, I was able to hear some QSOs on 14.236.
> You might want to listen a while on that frequency to test your setup.
>
> David
> AD6Q/4
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>> My USB sound card should be here in a few days. Perhaps we can try some
>> 10 meters locally?
>>
>> -- Kevin N8VNR/4
>>
>> On 12/28/2012 11:37 AM, David Black wrote:
>>> Neat, thanks Kevin!
>>>
>>> Just checked out the latest SVN and am going to see about building on my
>>> Kubuntu 12.04 rig computer.
>>> On the waterfall 14.236 looks pretty quiet.  Anyone interested in trying a
>>> FreeDV QSO?
>>>
>>> Dave
>>> AD6Q/4
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>> Completely free HF digital voice in 1.1KHz of bandwidth:
>>>>
>>>> http://freedv.org/
>>>>
>>>> If you attempt to build this thing, you'll see that the automated
>>>> scripts go and get a bunch of libraries on its own. I freaked out a bit,
>>>> and fought for about 2 hours trying to get it to use the system
>>>> libraries on Ubuntu 12.04. Sadly, FreeDV does need something from the
>>>> newer versions of each of those libraries. There is an effort underway
>>>> to make it run on wxWidgets 2.8 [1], which is good since that's the part
>>>> that takes the longest to build.
>>>>
>>>> Sadly I haven't been able to actually test the functionality since in
>>>> addition to the software fun I wrote about above, the add-in soundcard I
>>>> was hoping to use (an old SB Live! acquired from a hamfest) turned out
>>>> to be toast. I have it hooked up to my HF rig for receive only for now,
>>>> but I don't have an external HF antenna at the new house yet, so on to
>>>> the next step.
>>>>
>>>> Perhaps some of you can make more progress and report back to the group.
>>>>
>>>> 73 de Kevin, N8VNR
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> [1] http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=30216313
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Linux-ham mailing list
>>>> Linux-ham at trilug.org
>>>> http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-ham
>>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Linux-ham mailing list
>>> Linux-ham at trilug.org
>>> http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-ham
>>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Linux-ham mailing list
>> Linux-ham at trilug.org
>> http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-ham
>>
> _______________________________________________
> Linux-ham mailing list
> Linux-ham at trilug.org
> http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-ham
>

From dave at jamsoft.com  Wed Jan 23 14:11:40 2013
From: dave at jamsoft.com (David Black)
Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2013 14:11:40 -0500 (EST)
Subject: [Linux-ham] FreeDV
In-Reply-To: <50FF674C.5030405@nivex.net>
References: <50DD043F.106@nivex.net>
	<339481786.4298.1356712634972.JavaMail.root@amos.jamsoft.com>
	<50FEBCA6.2090703@nivex.net>
	<1175147498.28022.1358913259846.JavaMail.root@amos.jamsoft.com>
	<50FF674C.5030405@nivex.net>
Message-ID: <495832399.31176.1358968300638.JavaMail.root@amos.jamsoft.com>

If you'd like a copy of the compiled freeDV app for Ubuntu 12.10, I could also give you that.

Dave

----- Original Message -----
> I've received quite a few conversations there since I got my dipole up
> higher.
> 
> I rigged up another machine with the fdmdv_mod command line tool within
> the codec2-dev SVN tree to try and transmit, but alas have not yet
> worked anyone. I imagine things will go a bit more smoothly when I have
> everything on one box.
> 
> -- Kevin
> 
> On 01/22/2013 10:54 PM, David Black wrote:
> > Sure, I'm up for that.
> >
> > Since the earlier posting, I was able to hear some QSOs on 14.236.
> > You might want to listen a while on that frequency to test your setup.
> >
> > David
> > AD6Q/4
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> >> My USB sound card should be here in a few days. Perhaps we can try some
> >> 10 meters locally?
> >>
> >> -- Kevin N8VNR/4
> >>
> >> On 12/28/2012 11:37 AM, David Black wrote:
> >>> Neat, thanks Kevin!
> >>>
> >>> Just checked out the latest SVN and am going to see about building on my
> >>> Kubuntu 12.04 rig computer.
> >>> On the waterfall 14.236 looks pretty quiet.  Anyone interested in trying
> >>> a
> >>> FreeDV QSO?
> >>>
> >>> Dave
> >>> AD6Q/4
> >>>
> >>> ----- Original Message -----
> >>>> Completely free HF digital voice in 1.1KHz of bandwidth:
> >>>>
> >>>> http://freedv.org/
> >>>>
> >>>> If you attempt to build this thing, you'll see that the automated
> >>>> scripts go and get a bunch of libraries on its own. I freaked out a bit,
> >>>> and fought for about 2 hours trying to get it to use the system
> >>>> libraries on Ubuntu 12.04. Sadly, FreeDV does need something from the
> >>>> newer versions of each of those libraries. There is an effort underway
> >>>> to make it run on wxWidgets 2.8 [1], which is good since that's the part
> >>>> that takes the longest to build.
> >>>>
> >>>> Sadly I haven't been able to actually test the functionality since in
> >>>> addition to the software fun I wrote about above, the add-in soundcard I
> >>>> was hoping to use (an old SB Live! acquired from a hamfest) turned out
> >>>> to be toast. I have it hooked up to my HF rig for receive only for now,
> >>>> but I don't have an external HF antenna at the new house yet, so on to
> >>>> the next step.
> >>>>
> >>>> Perhaps some of you can make more progress and report back to the group.
> >>>>
> >>>> 73 de Kevin, N8VNR
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> [1] http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=30216313
> >>>> _______________________________________________
> >>>> Linux-ham mailing list
> >>>> Linux-ham at trilug.org
> >>>> http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-ham
> >>>>
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> Linux-ham mailing list
> >>> Linux-ham at trilug.org
> >>> http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-ham
> >>>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Linux-ham mailing list
> >> Linux-ham at trilug.org
> >> http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-ham
> >>
> > _______________________________________________
> > Linux-ham mailing list
> > Linux-ham at trilug.org
> > http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-ham
> >
> _______________________________________________
> Linux-ham mailing list
> Linux-ham at trilug.org
> http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-ham
> 

From nivex at nivex.net  Sat Jan 26 13:48:15 2013
From: nivex at nivex.net (Kevin Otte)
Date: Sat, 26 Jan 2013 13:48:15 -0500
Subject: [Linux-ham] FreeDV
In-Reply-To: <50FEBCA6.2090703@nivex.net>
References: <50DD043F.106@nivex.net>
	<339481786.4298.1356712634972.JavaMail.root@amos.jamsoft.com>
	<50FEBCA6.2090703@nivex.net>
Message-ID: <510424EF.7080802@nivex.net>

Sound card arrived and I appear to be transmitting. Hoping to test on
14.236 with the DV net coming up at 1900 UTC.

Kevin N8VNR/4

On 01/22/2013 11:21 AM, Kevin Otte wrote:
> My USB sound card should be here in a few days. Perhaps we can try some
> 10 meters locally?
> 
> -- Kevin N8VNR/4
> 
> On 12/28/2012 11:37 AM, David Black wrote:
>> Neat, thanks Kevin!
>>
>> Just checked out the latest SVN and am going to see about building on
>> my Kubuntu 12.04 rig computer.
>> On the waterfall 14.236 looks pretty quiet.  Anyone interested in
>> trying a FreeDV QSO?
>>
>> Dave
>> AD6Q/4
>>


