Update

Posted on April 29, 2011 by

Quickly while I have network access, and mostly pasted from an email.

Feel free to pass all this to any friends, family or coworkers.

The area near us which had the most damage is called Anderson Hills,
and the same cell passed just north of my QTH and within sight, we
could see the rotation forming before the tornado formed. It destroyed
a neighborhoos about 7 miles from us, with fatalities.

I’ve been at the Red Cross chapter building today with my son Nick
(N1CKC), helping hook up phones, learning to deal with the generator,
and working the radio in turns with other folks

This area is much less affected than other areas – our problems are
mostly due to lack of power, and a lot of the calls we are handling
are for prolems like finding oxygen vendors for home bound patients.

We will probably be at the Red Cross again tomorrow, helping as we can.

The major hospital here is back on the grid, and the other two are
expected to be connected soon. TVA has said that they may have the
main interconnects to the city back up by Monday, and then the City
utilities will work as they can to restore power. Apparently power is
also restored to the water pumps so we should not run out of running
water. Also, the cell carriers are bringing in resources, so service
continues to improve slowly. Data connections are very spotty, and SMS is still more reliable than voice. Of course, HF has been very
reliable.

At home, we have our camping gear and a large bottle of propane, and
could cook for a week. Today is the last day we’ll be able to cook the
frozen food that has thawed, and we’ll be into canned goods and dry
stores. We’ll do fine, but by Monday we might be eating food we don’t
like too much. Not a bad problem to have in Alabama now.

I can’t think of much else now, the days run together a bit. I think
I’ll still make it to UDS, but I hope I have a chance to do laundry
first.

Thanks for the good wishes from everyone. I feel very fortunate not
only to have come through without any major problems for my friends
and family, but to be able to help during recovery. It’s been really
great to have Nick helping with me.

Until I’m connected again,

Steve

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Ubuntu and Amateur Radio for Ubuntu Open Week

Posted on April 27, 2011 by

Please join us on Tuesday, May 3rd at 16:00 UTC for:

Ubuntu and Amateur (Ham) Radio for Ubuntu Open Week

Steve Conklin AI4QR, and Kamal Mostafa KA6MAL

Curious about what you can do with Amateur Radio and Ubuntu?
Curious about Amateur Radio in general?

Steve and Kamal will take questions and do their best to answer them.

—-

Amateur Radio is a hobby and a public service enjoyed by at least a million people around the world. Whether you are interested in transmitting and receiving radio signals around the world to meet new people, in being of service after disasters, or in the technical aspects, there is probably something for you.

Amateur Radio covers a huge number of interests, including local and long distance communications, emergency communications, satellite communications, digital networks, competitions, and electronics design.

Ubuntu offers many software applications related to Amateur Radio. We’ll discuss some of our favorite apps for use in the “ham shack”, and show how you can receive and decode digital conversations and telemetry with Ubuntu and any shortwave radio receiver (no Amateur Radio license required!).

We will be holding an open Question and Answer session:

When: Tuesday May 3rd at 16:00 UTC

Where: In the #ubuntu-classroom and #ubuntu-classroom-chat channels on freenode IRC.

For more information about IRC:

Here’s a web client for IRC:

You don’t have to wait until the session to learn more about Ubuntu and Amateur Radio and meet other interested people. Check out our team information page or drop into #ubuntu-hams on freenode IRC.

73, DE AI4QR

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Back in business

Posted on April 26, 2011 by

I changed domain registrars, and this resulted in a hiccup that I’ve now solved. The site was inaccessible for the last few days, but as soon as the DNS records propagate, everyone should be able to get here again.

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Transatlantic balloon attempt coming up!

Posted on March 24, 2011 by

White Star plans to launch a transatlantic balloon flight attempt at 0000 UTC (Thursday evening for most of the US). If you’re a ham operator set up for digital modes, you can monitor the telemetry transmissions on the 40m band and automatically report them. The flights predictions call for a three day flight.

Here’s the White star site

Here’s a link to their HF radio info page

Telemetry data is received and reported using the dl-fldigi application. The project page for that is here, but if you’re running Ubuntu Linux, just grab it from this ppa.

During the flight, you’re likely to find other people who are following the action in the #highaltitude chat on freenode IRC.

Also if you’re a ham using Ubuntu, check out the Ubuntu-hams team, or drop into the #ubuntu-hams chat on freenode IRC.

It can be a lot of fun to help track the balloon flights. Here’s a previous post I made about a tracking adventure.

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How to really help in a disaster

Posted on March 14, 2011 by

A few words about disasters . . .

The best way to help the people in Japan is with cash.

Blankets, shoes, books, and other physical goods are counter-productive. Cash travels to the most effective place for the acquisition of the most needed materials, to be transported to the place of need.

I recommend donations to the Red Cross. They have a good track record, don’t have a high administration overhead, and are neutral in politics and religion.

Now, about local disasters . . . How can you help?

By volunteering and being trained now, before the disaster. There’s not much use for untrained “spontaneous” volunteers after a disaster. But there’s a great need for trained volunteers. The training isn’t hard. No matter what your everyday skills are, they can use you in a disaster. I’m a Red Cross volunteer, ready to use my skills in amateur radio to provide communications either locally or in any place where I’m needed. Working in a disaster zone requires all sorts of help – administration, logistics, driving, damage assessment, feeding, shelter operations, and IT operations. So even geeks have a place.

When it all goes wrong, you can be another mouth that needs feeding or sheltering, or you can have the skills it takes to help.

Call your local Red Cross chapter and ask about how to become a trained volunteer.

 

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The Second Cooler, a documentary film

Posted on March 3, 2011 by

The Second Cooler is an amazing film. I’ve been following the production sort of third hand, as I know someone working on the project.

Martin Sheen and Microwave Dave? Good projects pull great people.

If you are so moved, they could use some cash to wrap it up.

 

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