User:G0hww

Hi all,

I'm Darren, G0HWW, in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, UK. JO02if. Originally licensed in the early 1980's, I am back on the air after a lapse of about 15 years, during which time I became a computer geek.

I'm currently running Ubuntu Dapper Drake Flight 6, 2.6.15-20 AMD64 kernel on an Intel Pentium D dual core architecture in my main PC. Occasionally I boot Windows XP but it currently involves opening the machine and messing around with IDE cables. I also have an Apple iBook G4 running Mac OS X 10.4.6.

I've got an old PK232 without a mailbox, and an old AOR AR-21 with a mailbox but no KISS mode. I use these with a rather deaf Stornophone 5000 for run-of-the-mill local packet network and an FT-817ND for more interesting stuff.

I use gMFSK for digital modes on HF, mostly some PSK31, Olivia or Hell. I also use Cocoa-Modem on the iBook. All this through a SignaLink SL-1+ radio interface and a Griffin iMic external soundcard with a USB interface. I have CAT control of the 817 via a serial cable with built-in level converters bought on eBay and plugged into a Keyspan USB/RS-232 adaptor. These two USB connections get plugged into whichever computer I'm primarily working on.

For aerials, I have a 1/2 wave doublet for 40m, tunable on 160m to 6m with a Z-11 Pro auto-tuner. I have a dual-band co-linear in the loft for 2m/70cm and also up there currently is a Miracle Whip pressed into service on 2m for local rag-chewing or packet work.

On my iBook, I've recently started to use MacDoppler for satellite operations. I've managed to receive UI frames digipeated from the International Space Station (ISS) decoded with the pk232. I'm going to try using soundmodem to see if it is more sensitive and get Xastir setup with decent maps.