ham radio support

[a_hippie]

I was wondering if there were any hams on this board, then someone pointed me to this thread. I would be nice to have a ham radio section on the forum.
I recently moved from Windows to Mint and have had a problem setting things up Flrig won't initiate at all in user mode, but if I run it as an admin everything works great. I've checked my permissions, dial access, usb connectivity and permissions and I can't find a reason for this.

Hi Dave,

Sounds like you need to add your username to the group 'dialout'

Here's the command: sudo adduser USERNAME dialout

Obviously, change USERNAME to your actual user name you log in with.

Agreed, would be wonderful to have a section devoted to ham radio.

Good luck and 73
Jaye

[dobriain]

Hi,

I am a Linux Mint user and recently returned to HAM Radio. I wanted to have a Linux Mint Workstation on a Raspberry Pi in my shack, alas there there no Mint images for the ARM architecture. To get the nearest thing and to have a lightweight desktop I chose to use Ubuntu-MATE as a compromise. Here is a primer I wrote on building it if it helps. https://www.obriain.com/ei4lf/primers/h ... /index.php

73,

EI4LF

[a_hippie]

Hi Diarmuid,

GREAT write-up on the Rpi setup! Really like how many images you added to that page. Nice polish all around!

I just got my Rpi4 and will be diving into updates on it. I actually have a 256gb SSD and full sized HDMI with my case here.

Also tried the Ubuntu route, but too slow compared to the purer Debian that is used if the Raspberry OS. The native desktop is okay with me, but I actually now prefer the XFCE desktop these days.

One thing about using any of the Rpi images is that an update can take to buggers out. My plan with this one is to use Timeshift and run a full backup. If any update breaks the rpi, then I pull in the backup and wait until the update can be sorted out. I confess, I haven't found the perfect method for backups, but at least timeshift WILL WORK once installed and is fairly fast, even on the Rpi.

Tnx agn! 73

Jaye

[G1SSO_Jacob]

Hi Fellow Radio Hams
I have just installed Linux Mint 21.2 onto an old laptop, been a Windows user for years.
I don't really know what Ham Software is out there yet.
Just thought I would say Hello
Kindest regards

[a_hippie]

Hi Jacob,

Welcome here and to Linux too. There is a software program already on your computer called synaptic. You can open that and use it to easily explore many of the ham radio programs. First time you run it, it will update and show a dialog window. Once you finish looking over that window, you can close it. Then you will see the "sections" on the left side .. the one we're interested is Amateur Radio <universe>, when you click on it, all the software in that section will appear in the middle top window where you can scroll through it and add programs of interest. Once done, simply click the "apply" button top left and it will install all the goodies for you.

If you run into any issues configuring any of the software (like finding com ports or audio devices) just post a note here. Always happy to assist.

As far as differences between MS and Linux is your hard drive setup. You used to have a C: drive. That is gone now. You now have a "/" which is the root directory. Your working directory is "/home/USER" which translates to root of drive, home directory, USER in the home directory. Very rarely will you ever have to deal with anything outside your home working directory.

PS, will add a picture of synaptic if the board allows it.

73
Jaye

[G1SSO_Jacob]

Hello Jaye
Many many thanks for the most welcomed advice
That will come after the label printer is sorted ..... hi
Kindest regards
Jacob

[richard-g8jvm]

Hi
for my sins I build the linux binaries for MSHV,if you are interested in digital comms , just do a web search for MSHV.
A good SDR,software defined radio ,is GQRX, if you want to see who is working who graphically, have a look at Live MUF.
Thats written by a friend of mine, Dave G7RAU, and can be filtered by band

HTH Richard G8JVM IO82sp38 ,QRV HF through to 10GHz

[W_A_Watson_II]

"If you run into any issues configuring any of the software (like finding com ports or audio devices) just post a note here. Always happy to assist."

73
Jaye

Jaye,

Thanks, I got it installed. But now I need assistance in how to determining the port that Radio is on when it's plugged in.

Will

[a_hippie]

"If you run into any issues configuring any of the software (like finding com ports or audio devices) just post a note here. Always happy to assist."

Thanks, I got it installed. But now I need assistance in how to determining the port that Radio is on when it's plugged in.

Will

No worries. Here's a handy command you can copy/paste into a terminal window:

tail /var/log/syslog -f | grep USB

Now, unplug the rig from computer. Open a terminal window. Paste that command above and press ENTER.

Now plug the USB adapter back into your computer.

You will see where the device will be assigned. If you only have one radio, typically, it will show up as
ttyUSB0. On my system, I have 3 USB serial ports which are ttyUSB0 ttyUSB1 & ttyUSB2. Note that these ports ARE case dependant.

I'll add a text file so you can see my text output. Use Control C (^C) to stop the terminal output and close the terminal window.

Hope that helps.
BTW, what program are you setting up?

73
Jaye

[duracell80]

Thought this might be of interest to rtl_fm users. Basically send the output through sox to ffmpeg and into icecast2 from a bash script.

Code: Select all

rtl_fm -d 0 -f $1M -M $2 -s 180k -E deemp | sox -traw -r180k -es -b16 -c1 -V1 - -t flac - | ffmpeg -re -i pipe:0 -codec:a libmp3lame -b:a 192k -f mp3 -content_type audio/mpeg icecast://source:$pswd@$ip:$port/fmradio

./rtl_stream 90.3 wfm

[ydbdm]

./rtl_stream 90.3 wfm

on this topic,

nrsc5 (HD FM) radio player - web based, mobile friendly:

https://github.com/evuraan/yellowShoes

[duracell80]

Very cool !

Imagine if this was an API that could be called in Rhythmbox.

[citfta]

Has anyone gotten Chirp to work with LM21.2? It used to work perfectly with LM20.3 but now it can't seem to find the USB port my radio is connected to. Rather irritated that something that worked fine before doesn't work now after the upgrade.

I have tried two versions of Chirp. Chirp 0.3.0 dev and Chirp next 20231106.

[saikonobiwa]

Greetings,
I have installed CHRIP from the Software Manager. It fires up without problems. However, when I try to open a configuration file (.img) nothing happens : no error message, nothing at all. I am trying to open the same file I use (without problems) on CHIRP under Windows.
I've done a forum search and found some threads about problems running CHIRP, which is not my case, because the software fires up smoothly. It is at the stage of reading the .img file that it does not work.
I'm clueless, does anybody have any hint to find the culprit ?
I have posted the same question on another topic and I was told to come here for help.
Thank you in advance.

[citfta]

What version of LM are you using? I never did get Chirp to work on LM21.2. But it always worked great on LM20.3. So I reverted my OS back to 20.3 and then installed Chirp from the software manager and got the same problem you have in that it would not read my previously stored image files. So I deleted that version of Chirp and went to the Snap store and installed Chirp from there. It now loads my image files just fine. The one in the software store just doesn't work. I hope this helps.

[saikonobiwa]

What version of LM are you using? I never did get Chirp to work on LM21.2. But it always worked great on LM20.3. So I reverted my OS back to 20.3 and then installed Chirp from the software manager and got the same problem you have in that it would not read my previously stored image files. So I deleted that version of Chirp and went to the Snap store and installed Chirp from there. It now loads my image files just fine. The one in the software store just doesn't work. I hope this helps.

Thanks. I think I have the latest version of Linux Mint (I always apply all the updates suggested). If this problem comes from the OS version, I hope it will be fixed in one of the next builds.

[citfta]

You could try dowloading it from the Snap store and see if that fixes your problem. To do that just open a terminal and then type this command:
sudo snap install chirp-snap. Or just copy and paste it from this post. It does take a while for it to fully install so you have to wait until the terminal once again shows your command prompt.

[saikonobiwa]

You could try dowloading it from the Snap store and see if that fixes your problem. To do that just open a terminal and then type this command:
sudo snap install chirp-snap. Or just copy and paste it from this post. It does take a while for it to fully install so you have to wait until the terminal once again shows your command prompt.

Thanks. I'll try later today, right now I have to leave for a few hours. I'll then report back.

[saikonobiwa]

You could try dowloading it from the Snap store and see if that fixes your problem. To do that just open a terminal and then type this command:
sudo snap install chirp-snap. Or just copy and paste it from this post. It does take a while for it to fully install so you have to wait until the terminal once again shows your command prompt.

Well, this is what I get:

sudo: snap: command not found

[saikonobiwa]

By the way, here is my system

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 5.15.0-88-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.4.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 5.8.4
    tk: GTK 3.24.33 wm: muffin dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 21.2 Victoria base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: ASUSTeK product: VivoBook 12_ASUS Laptop E203MAH_E203MAH v: 1.0
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: ASUSTeK model: E203MAH v: 1.0 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends
    v: E203MAH.319 date: 09/29/2019
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 36.7 Wh (100.0%) condition: 36.7/42.1 Wh (87.1%) volts: 11.5 min: 11.5
    model: ASUSTeK ASUS Battery serial: N/A status: Not charging
  Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Mouse M185 serial: <filter>
    charge: 55% (should be ignored) status: Discharging
CPU:
  Info: dual core model: Intel Celeron N4000 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Goldmont Plus rev: 1 cache:
    L1: 112 KiB L2: 4 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1558 high: 1625 min/max: 800/2600 cores: 1: 1625 2: 1492 bogomips: 4377
  Flags: ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel GeminiLake [UHD Graphics 600] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: i915 v: kernel ports:
    active: HDMI-A-1,eDP-1 empty: DP-1 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:3185
  Device-2: IMC Networks USB2.0 VGA UVC WebCam type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-5:3
    chip-ID: 13d3:5a06
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.4 driver: X: loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa
    gpu: i915 display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 3286x1080 s-dpi: 96
  Monitor-1: HDMI-1 mapped: HDMI-A-1 pos: right model: Samsung C27F390 res: 1920x1080 dpi: 82
    diag: 686mm (27")
  Monitor-2: eDP-1 pos: primary,left model: Chi Mei Innolux res: 1366x768 dpi: 136
    diag: 294mm (11.6")
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics 600 (GLK 2) v: 4.6 Mesa 23.0.4-0ubuntu1~22.04.1
    direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Celeron/Pentium Silver Processor High Definition Audio vendor: ASUSTeK
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:0e.0 chip-ID: 8086:3198
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.0-88-generic running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Gemini Lake PCH CNVi WiFi driver: iwlwifi v: kernel bus-ID: 00:0c.0
    chip-ID: 8086:31dc
  IF: wlo1 state: up mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel Bluetooth 9460/9560 Jefferson Peak (JfP) type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8
    bus-ID: 1-9:4 chip-ID: 8087:0aaa
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 3.0 lmp-v: 5.1
    sub-v: 100
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 465.76 GiB used: 154.99 GiB (33.3%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD5000LPCX-80VHAT1 size: 465.76 GiB
    speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter>
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 456.89 GiB used: 154.99 GiB (33.9%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 6.1 MiB (1.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 548.8 MiB (26.8%) priority: -2 file: /swapfile
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 45.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0
Repos:
  Packages: 2775 apt: 2756 flatpak: 19
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/libreoffice-ppa-focal.list
    1: deb http: //ppa.launchpad.net/libreoffice/ppa/ubuntu jammy main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
    1: deb http: //packages.linuxmint.com victoria main upstream import backport
    2: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy main restricted universe multiverse
    3: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
    4: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
    5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jammy-security main restricted universe multiverse
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/skype-stable.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64] https: //repo.skype.com/deb stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vivaldi.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64] http: //repo.vivaldi.com/stable/deb/ stable main
Info:
  Processes: 218 Uptime: 1h 24m Memory: 3.65 GiB used: 2.23 GiB (61.2%) Init: systemd v: 249
  runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 11.4.0 alt: 11/12/9 Client: Cinnamon v: 5.8.4 inxi: 3.3.13