Affinity

Back in last August, I found myself in West Des Moines, Iowa, I was in a Taxi on the way from my hotel to work, When the taxi driver asked me if I knew Bill Bryson, I had just told him that I lived in South Yorkshire, (Bill had lived in North Yorkshire).

I said I knew of his work for the CPRE, to my shame I had not picked up on his work as a writer, The Taxi driver told me he had been at school with Bill and asked me if I had read any of his books, I had to admin that I hadn't.

We walked about this and that and it wasn't too long until I arrived at work. I opened my laptop and made a note to look up Bill Bryson. I read quite a lot, and I mostly go for books that have been recommended.

Well I just finished my third book from the collection that Bill wrote "Notes on a Small Island" I was surprised, on just how many of the places that Bill visits in his book that I had visited also. I am finding that I have an affinity will Bill and his work and look upon him as some sort of kindred spirit.

I am just starting a Walk in the Woods, and very much looking forward to the joys and gems I am sure its going to offer.

Question is how in the first place did I miss his books for so long and what others am I missing ?    

Great New Amateur Radio and Blog site found

Great New Amateur Radio and Blog site found

Keep updated and follow a journey in to Amateur Radio (ham radio) at http://www.amateurham.co

A Good Flat Bread for Camp ? -- Roti

A Good Flat Bread for Camp ? -- Roti

I was just having some left over curry for lunch, when I decided that it would be even better with some of these amazing flat bread.

I like to make these when camping and they are good even when backpacking or Canoe Camping.

I was given this recipe by a good friend and understand these come from Nepal, they are very good with Curry or Stews, and for Breakfast I like them with scrambled egg and a little bacon.

This makes about six which is normally good for me, the dry content can be bagged up and sealed, and packed in your rucksack, or canoe barrel.

100g strong (bread) wholemeal or brown flour

(you may need a little for rolling out)

A small pinch of salt

60ml water

Optional - melted butter (if liked)

Mix the flour, salt and water in a bowl, don't add all the water, you may need a little less or more. Using your hands knead until smooth - can take 2 to 3 minutes.

Roll out into a sausage shape and divide into six, and roll into balls. ( try and get these as round as you can).

Using some extra flour roll out each ball into a thin circle about 15cm / 6in across.

When I am on a standing camp or taking the canoe I have a small cast iron griddle, which is excellent for these (you can use any heavy based frying pan). 

Unless you mad your not going to take a lump of cast iron backpacking. These can be made in a Tranga pan (I use a non stick one) you need a medium heat which is not easy on a Tranga (take can not to over heat your pan).

When the pan / griddle is hot, place the first roti on it, for about 30 to 50 seconds, you will see some bubbles, then flip it over, hopefully it should be slightly browned, with some dark spots. Flip it over over again, the bubbles should get bigger. Flip it over one more time and if you are luck the whole roti will puff up (my first one never seams to) turn a few more times and you are done, depending on how much colour you like.

You can brush them with melted butter at this point, but I don't.

You can keep them warm in a clean tea towel.

Even when light weight camping I take these, you can make them in less time than it take to boil some rice. ( I have a round water bottle which makes a good rolling pin !).

Raspberry Pi - Second helpings

Gave a talk at the Radio Club - "Raspberry Second Helpings"

This was a follow on talk from my introduction talk, the first Item was how to set you Raspberry Pi to run 'headless'

This involves setting up a static IP Address.

Using your favorite editor, setup the following:   (I use Vi).

edit /etc/network/interface (to match your network settings).

iface eth0 inet static

address 192.168.1.6

netmask 255.255.255.0

gateway 192.168.1.1

You also need to edit /etc/resolv.conf

Add the details for your dns server or your ISPs dns server

nameserver 192.168.1.1

Connect your Raspberry Pi to the Network

Connect the power supply and allow it to boot

Then use an ssh client to connect to your Raspberry pi

(I recommend putty from putty.org)

This will give you cmd line access, however you may want to make it a bit more secure

and easier to use.

Lets make the login secure

Using putty and pageant we will create a public /private key pair and use them to 

login.

Use PuttyGen and create a new pair of keys by clicking the “Generate” button. You can

keep all the options at their default settings. It is be a good idea to set a passphrase for 

your key. Then, save both public and private key to a safe location.

Name your public key .pub and the private key .ppk.

* Pageant / PuttyGen are also from Putty.org

Copy your public key to your /home dir

Then:

ssh-keygen -i -f key.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Replace key.pub with the path to your key. Now log out and setup pageant and restart 

putty.

If you are using a windows PC I recommend WinScp to use to copy your key.

In the picture above you can see your key file.

Problems ? Key Not working ?

Check the permission on the .ssh dir

Only the owner should have rwx

$ chmod 700 .ssh (for example)

Also check the authorized_keys

This should be rw write for the owner only !

This is all well and good but where is the GUI ?

For this we are going to install a VNC Server on the Raspberry Pi.

And a Vnc Client on the Windoze PC ! * not shown !!

Installing VNC on the Pi

Using the cmd line

$ sudo apt-get update

$ sudo apt-get upgrade

(before installing any software and from time to time it’s a good idea to update your o/s).

This can take a while if its not been done for some time.

$ sudo apt-get install tightvncserver

Once installed you need to run

$tightvncserver

Off to the BATC CAT13 again this morning, looking forward to some good stuff

Looking forward to more from the BATCs CAT13 today, on the Agenda for today Sunday 27th Oct. 2013

10:00    10 GHz tx multiplier from 13cms

10:30    PLL LNBs on 10 GHz

11:00  Locking PLL LNBs

11:45    HAM TV on ISS

13:30    ATV in practice - 10 GHz ATV in the N West

14:00    DATV express update & Narrow band modes below 432 MHz

14:30   Digital update - including the latest news from Digilite team 

The BATC 2013 event is streaming live from the Finningley Amateur Radio club - http://www.batc.tv/ch_live.php

Keep an eye on it and check the agenda to catch some fantastic talks today.

TNC-Pi Raspberry Pi Packet Radio Board

Just Reading round the Amsat Uk web site when I came across this:

TNC-Pi Raspberry Pi Packet Radio Board

Which is just what I was looking for, it comes in kit form which should be fun to build, not that my hands or soldering are that good, just as well that there no surface mounted components. Bonus !

Its looks like its going to provide me with  a low cost means of using amateur radio AX.25 Packet Radio and APRS.

Aprs is the thing I am most keen on, as well as Microwave and AVT.

Fun times 

see http://amsat-uk.org/2013/10/16/tnc-pi-raspberry-pi-packet-radio-board/

Sport Radio – UKACs – What is it all about ?

Sport Radio – UKACs – What is it all about ?

The main word that springs to mind for me is Fun! However, it is much more than that, by taking part in these my operating techniques have improved and there have been a number of other benefits as well.

When the word contest comes to mind, I used to picture one of those events on HF which has been likened by some as ‘Swimming with the Sharks’, but not anymore.

So what’s different about the UK Activity Contests?  Apart from the fact that they take place on VHF, UHF and SHF? Well to use an old term, I would sum them up as a, gentlemanly contest. Where everyone is very welcoming.

So who can take part in the UKACs? “All entrants and operators of UK stations must be RSGB members except visiting amateurs, not normally resident in the UK” Except if the operator is a member of an RSGB Affiliated Society (AFS).

When do these UKACs run? They take place on a Tuesday evening, between 19:00 and 21:30 (UTC), there are four sections you can enter – which are mainly dependent on your power output. You need to log your contacts and this is time, RST (Rx and TX) , Serial Number(Rx and TX),  Locator. Once the contest has finished you need to upload them to the contest web site. See the RSGBs web site http://rsgb.org.uk  for full information.

I like to operate portable /P which is a good job as my home QTH is down in a bit of a dip and although I hold a full licence I prefer to use a maximum of 10 watts, if I am operating on my own I use a pen and paper to log, backed up with a recorder. Then transfer to minos to upload, you can type your log directly online, but I have found minos works well for me. When I can find someone I prefer to get someone to log for me, and when I do this I get much better results, and less errors! (due to my poor handwriting)(HI).

A typical contest starts a couple of days before when I make sure my batteries are charged up and put my ‘sotabeam’ in my vehicle, log, tea making equipment etc. I plan when I am going to setup.

When the evening arrives, it’s normally a bit of a rush, getting home from work around 18:15 and getting setup on a site somewhere for the start. I can normally be setup now in 10 minutes, and I am getting used to it all now. I start off pointing the antenna, North and call CQ for around 10 minutes, then scan the band and then move North East and repeat the process, again and again. This works well for me but, I am sure you will find what’s best for you.

I find it useful to listen to a weak station until I hear the locator, and then move the beam by hand, so that it’s pointing in the best possible direction. If there are two of us my logger normally moves the beam for me, which helps.

I  find the evenings great fun !!, when I am finished I go home, put the kettle on and make a cup of tea, get the laptop fired up and go online to summit the results, then have a good look at other peoples submitted scores. I find myself checking the results section of the RSGB web site a couple of times a day. Once the new results are up, someone in the club normally post them on out facebook site and we have a bit of a rag chew.

Very often these discussions result in sharing ideas on how we can improve. I also found the people from other clubs are happy to help you improve too. Even if you are competing against them. This says a lot about the friendliness of the contests.

One of the other areas that I enjoy is getting those who are new to the hobby to come and take part, after we are all here to learn, and we all started at some point as a beginner.

Look forward to working you – Paul

Sota Summit G/SP-017 Billinge Hill - Sunday 21st April 2013 - A tail of two Summits ! Part 2

Sota Summit G/SP-017 Billinge Hill - Sunday 21st April 2013 - A tail of two Summits ! Part 2


We found a parking place, just past the 'old vicarage' and then a short walk on to the top of Billinge Hill. This is a one point Sota Summit and had some nice easy access.

On our way to the top of the Sota Summit.

Once you get to the top you will find the 'trig point' and a square 'folly' type building - here is a nice panoramic view from the top.

So we set up our Sotabeams and 40/80m dipole - and started to operate, once again we had quite a bit of QRM on 70cms / 2m /4m.

Here is Denis working 40/80m :

And Mick 2E0MKE - working on 2m :

We had an excellent day, despite the problems with QRM, thanks everyone who answered our CQ called - quite a few people on 40/80m wanting WEB Squares. 

Look out for us on another Sota Summit soon ! - please note that reports from SWL are always welcome.

Sota Summit G/SP-010 Winter Hill - Sunday 21st April 2013 - A tail of two Summits ! Part 1

Sota Summit G/SP-010 Winter Hill - Sunday 21st April 2013

Myself Denis M0USV and Mick 2E0MKE, left a bright and sunny South Yorkshire, to go and operate this Summit.

We had a good if show journey over to Winter Hill, we found  a place to part the car near the Summit, this information we found off the Sota Web site which had been posted by other people who have activated this Hill.

We made the short walk to the trig point, and began setting up our kit, the sky was overcast and the wind had got very cold, we were going to operate 70cms, 2m, 4m FM and 40m and 80m SSB.

40m and 80m being operated by Denis at 5watts and the other by Mick and myself. I soon found it hard going on 2m FM I was picking up loads of QRM from the nearby masts and working stations was difficult, thanks to the operators who helped I managed to work 12, but I had a problem with my electronic log and it lost the information for some of my contacts, so it was back to pen and paper. 

70cms was no better, and 4m was much worse. Well we had planned to activate a second summit. So we headed off to a nearby pub, for a quick pint, a bite to eat and to pick the next summit.

We had already been working on a short this. 

We picked Billinge Hill (not a great pick as it turned out). More later 

50/50 Bread

For some years now I been making 50/50 Bread - that is to say 50% unbleached stone grounded white flour and 50% wholemeal flour.

Mainly this came about because when my children were small I could not get them to eat brown bread.

This is the result I get :-

If you want to make this - these are the instructions:

Ingredients :

(cup measure based on 8fl oz cup size).

Water 1 1/2 Cups (may be a little more dependent on the flour)

Olive Oil - 5 Tbsp

Salt - 1 Tsp

Strong White Flour - 2 cups

Strong Wholemeal flour - 2 cups

Dry Easy blend yeast - 1tsp

Mix everything, taking care to keep the salt away from the yeast.

Kneed until you have a nice elastic dough.

Leave to prove in an oiled bowl and cover with cling film until doubled in size.

Knock back and shape for the type of loaf you want.

Put on a baking sheet, I put baking paper on the sheet, you can use flour too.

Clover with cling film and allow to rise until its doubled in size again.

Bake at 220 C for about 30 minutes.

If you want to make bread rolls, then cooking them for around 15 minutes - this will make a dozen.

Leave to cool on a wire rack.

I am not sure how long this keeps, because it all gets eaten in a Day at home !

   

Sota Summit G/SP-002 Black Hill - Saturday 13th April 2013 (SE 078046)

Sota Summit G/SP-002 Black Hill - Saturday 13th April 2013 (SE 078046)

After such a great day the weekend before, it wasn't going to be long before we were back out again, some questions during the week about which day would be best weather wise. We picked Saturday.

Only three of us this time Denis, Graham and Myself, the route up taking us about an hour, there was still quite a bit of show about and some very muddy / boggy patches. The streams crossing the path being fun to cross.

We walked up following the pennine way, North to South to the 'trig point' on the summit.:-

The top of Black Hill is quite interesting, you might expect to see the trig point from some way off, but you are almost on top of it before you can see it.

Some views from the Summit ;

 Again I took my trusty, wouxun, and sota beam, 18 QSOs were soon, carried out. Put out a couple of CQs on 2m - nothing was coming back. The wind was now quite strong and it kept moving my beam back to the same direction.

I thought that it was about time I had some lunch and went over to see what Denis and Graham were upto.

I found Denis working a pileup on 40m - quite a number of people asking for his WAB Locator. Denis was using his homebrew 40m dipole and his FT-817 and on 5 watts was working Scotland, Ireland, and Parts of Europe.

Above showing Denis (M0USV) working 40m, (sotabeam in the back ground) and Graham (2E0TRU) (pictured) and myself causing some local QSB (HI).

Had a great time again, this Sota stuff is addictive ! Had quite a number of people stop and ask what we were doing, have to take some info next time !

Also had chance to use my map reading skills, was able to give help and advise to a number of walkers.

 

Sota Summit G/SP005 Pendle Hill - Saturday 6th April 2013

Well, I have been Hill Walking for years, and for a little over 2 1/2 years I held an Amateur Radio License. I had been up on a couple of Sota (Summits on the Air) hills before, but never activated them.

(see www.sota.org.uk ) for more information about Sota.

Well for a number of reasons we didn't, pick the quickest or the easiest route up. 

Our Route is pictured here :-

 
We had the afternoon to make the assent and activate the summit, I took with me my Wouxun KG-UVD1-p 5w on 2m FM and my sotabeam, (these were in addition to all the 'normal' safety equipment I take into the Hill). I had used the sotabeam a number of times before - so I was able to set it up quickly, and start some QSOs on 2m - they came flooding in.

After a short while the weather turned much colder and we started to pack up and make our way off the Hill. Stopping for a quick Photo at the 'trig point' before starting the journey back.

On the journey back we stopped to look at the cairn - in which there are a number of monument to Scouting - the one in the picture being of the 100 years (2007).

 Many thanks for a great day, to Denis M0USV, Graham 2E0TRU and Mick 2E0MKE. We are already planning the next Sota Summit.

Also thanks to Denis and Graham for the pictures and allowing me to share them.

New Diet

Well Started a 'new' diet on the 9th Feb, 2013.

Weight 87Kg

The main driver for this being my increasing use of Insulin, and not being able to get my average blood sugar below 7mmols.

Its a low carb diet with few rules.

Firstly its limited to a 20g carb intake a day. Also no Alcohol, no added sugar, and no carbonated drinks.

Most other things are allowed, butter, cheese, eggs, meat, low carb veg.

Well so far I am down in weight to 82.5 kg, last weeks blood sugar average was 6.4 mmols. The amount of insulin I am injection has fallen from 16 units x 5 per day of novo rapid and 25 units of Slow acting at night.

This is now 6 units x 5 per day and 15 units at night.

Do I feel good ?  you bet !

GPS Tracking

I have been looking at GPS tracking for some time, whilst my phone will do this sort of stuff I been looking at the following device.

Haven't got one yet to try.

Have a look at:

http://www.hamradio.co.uk/gadgets/mydel/mydel-ventus-g730-gps-logger-pd-3934.php

Asparagus!

Asparagus.

Even if the season is very short, English asparagus is always top quality and in my view is well worth the wait. It has an unbeatable freshness and flavour. Not like the stuff our supermarkets fly half way round the world.

I always try and get mine from a Farm shop / Farmers Market or a local market such as Chesterfield, Doncaster or Sheffield.

 I have to say that I like my asparagus lightly cooked and served with melted butter or a fresh poached egg, yum! – And if it does all get eaten I will often make an Asparagus risotto.

I just love the simple qualities of fresh seasonal food.

Amateur Radio

There are a few people I know that knock Amateur Radio and I not sure why, of course there is the view of the hobby as shown in the Simpsons but who takes that seriously?

I consider myself fortunate to have had contact with People all over the world on my radio. I found that they all are helpful and very friendly.

The BBC’s Motto is “Nation shall speak peace unto nation”

It’s really what I have found happens in Amateur Radio (or Ham Radio if you like).

51 QSOs on PSK31 in the last week.

All this was carried out, by getting my half size G5RV in place, not quite where I wanted it, but its working okay.

Station Details

Radio FT897
Interface ZLP
Aerial G5RV

Software HRD


QSL cards via www.eqsl.cc or via bureau.

Remote Sysloging for Wireless Access Points

Having an number of issues with some wireless access points. I decided that it would be  a good idea to enable the remote syslog utility on them.
 
The next question was to which server would they send there syslog details to, well for me it had to be one of the linux servers we have on site, so I chose out ubuntu utility server running Ubuntu 10.04.3 LTS.
 
First I made sure that the server was up to date
1. I know I shouldn't by I sudo su -
Then
2. apt-get update
3. apt-get upgrade
4. Back up the server
5. The server was running the ubuntu default of rsyslog daemon, I could have chosen syslog-ng - but I am more comfortable with sysklogd.
 
# apt-get install syslogd
so then I made a copy of the syslog.conf file
cp /etc/syslog.conf /etc/syslog.conf.b4change
and added the line
# Access Point Logging
local7.debug     /var/log/wap.log
The sends all the messages from facility local7, having the priority of debug or greater
to the above file.
 
I started with the facility local7 as I often found it to be the default on some comms kit.
Later I planned to add;
*.*;local7.none;
auth,authpriv.none        -/var/log/syslog
 
to filter out the WAP entries from the syslog.
now to create the log file
touch /var/log/wap.log
 
Now to make syslog listen to messages from remote machines:
edit /etc/default/syslogd to include the -r option:
SYSLOGD=”-r”
and restart the syslog daemon.
# service sysklogd restart

Needed to open the port on the fire wall and as I using ufw it was;
# ufw allow from 192.168.3.107 to any port 514

Now on the Wireless Access point - as we were using a Netgear WG102 - it was just a couple
of settings to enable in the  menu.

Now testing, nothing was being added to the log from local7 - however log entries were being placed in the syslog and user.log

Using logger I tested as follows
logger -p local7.debug "is this working?"
 
That worked as it should
 
So I checked the WAPs docs but nothing about the facility it uses.
so on the server using tcpdump
# tcpdump -s 0 -v -X port 514
 
I checked and found it was using both User and Auth.
After a bit of round and round the mulberry bush - I got to speak to netgear support and found that the facility could not be changed.
 
So I writing a shell script to sort the filtering out !

Pneumonia

Well haven't been up to much lately managed to get Pneumonia before Christmas and had a lot of time off work and only managed to start back last week.

Did pick a good day to go back either as Ofsted were in School, still from the IT point of view it hasn't yet caused us to many problems.

Unlike some staff members who expect you to drop everything and find space on a server,  load their new application and then will not give you the staff laptops to update. All this must be done for Wednesday Morning !

Tempted to quote" Prior planning prevent P*ss poor performance" but I better not !

Theresa May

Rt Hon Theresa May

Here we go

Re Theresa May

As Home Secretary the 'buck' should stop with her.

Blaming Staff like she has done is appalling.

I for one and I am sure all of the public are sick and tired of MPs like her.

She should for all our sakes she resigns

Where is the Leadership and ownership – the accept the money for doing the job
But as always Blame Someone Else.