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Showing posts from August, 2019

Ubuntu 18 and ThinkPad X201 - Surprise

Being frustrated by excruciatingly slow speed of Android Studio on Windows 7 on one of several of my beloved ThinkPad X201's, I switched to Ubuntu 18 as a trial. The laptop has 128GB SSD and 8GB RAM. I have had nothing but bad impression and experience of Ubuntu Unity so I was skeptical first. Ubuntu installation was smooth as it should except my SSD not being recognized by BIOS first right after removed the old HD and inserted a used SSD into it to the laptop's HD slot. I had to adjust the location of the SSD to fit into SATA port inside the laptop just right and it took some trial and error but the BIOS finally recognized it and the rest was very easy. After that, as I always do with Linux, I ran updates. I preferred Xubuntu before this, but this time, I really like just plain Ubuntu. Everything seems quick and the UI does not get into my nerve any more, and I rather like it. I installed Chromium browser, Android Studio, SDR# using Mono, gqrx, gnuradio, TeamViewer, Ora...

Icom ID-1 and D-Star DD mode

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I have been interested in combining my knowledge of computer network and ham radio. I acquired 2 ICOM ID-1 23cm FM/D-Star transceivers in 2017 from eBay. It was not cheap even for used ones. Back then, Icom ID-1 was the only D-Star DD mode capable transceiver. DD mode allows TCP/IP communication via 1.2GHz radio wave. This year, Icom started selling IC-9700 which is V/UHF FM/D-Star radio in addition to 23cm coverage. According to D-Star repeater lists, only 23cm D-Star repeater in NYC area is K2DIG. I wanted to set up ID-1 to try out DD mode using K2DIG repeater to get a lightening fast (!)128kbps internet. I wanted to know the assigned IP address from D-Star admin server. I contacted NJ2DG which I registered my call sign with. They replied with the required info but they told me that K2DIG has been down for a while and 23cm repeater was down longer than that. I tried to connect to NJ2DG from my apartment but it was unsuccessful. In case anyone in Queens, NY area wanted ...