Description: A blog about ham radio, Linux and more...
Summer is in full swing here in the Hudson Valley, alternating between humid rainy days, and blindingly hot humid sunny days. Did I mention humid? So once again, on the drier days I’m out whenever possible with one of the portable setups doing a little operating. In these times of rock bottom propagation, QRP does present a challenge. Between that and the humidity, a guy can get restless.
I have not been interested at all up to now in the recent ham phenomenon of FT8 . I have done digital modes in the past, most notably PSK-31, but in recent years my interest dropped off. The current controversies over FT8 being “real ham radio” were enough to fend me off. But, to be fair I should not make up my mind about it until I tried it. So I started to think, not seriously of course, about what it would take to try out FT8. Just to be sure I have no interest in it whatsoever.
Well the first thing I would need was a computer to run the software. All of the machines in our household are spoken for, and it would inconvenient to move my office laptop for digital shack duties, so I started the usual eBay search for an old, used, cheap, Linux worthy laptop. Pretty depressing.