Redhatter’s Web Blog

Note: This story has been unwittingly picked up by John Edwards’ Election Blog. Please note the individual I speak of in this post is another chap entirely, and just happens to have the same name, as the US election candidate.

Well, this last few days, I’ve been camping once again. This time, at Basket Swamp National Park, which is about 20km northeast of Tenterfield, NSW. We left Brisbane early in the afternoon. On route to our destination, we happened to stop at a service station outside Warwick — whilst getting some ice for our water cooler, I happened to look around, and see this vehicle:

My father said “Go on, take a photo, you won’t see that vehicle again for a long time.” Not being quite the geek I’m made out to be, I said “No, you like it so much… you go take it.” and handed him the camera. He shot the photos you see above (click to enlarge). Well, it wasn’t the last time we saw it… we saw it parked right beside us when we stopped for dinner in Stanthorpe, parked in the campsite the following morning, and again parked in a carpark at the start of the walk to Wellington Rock. Apparently Linus has seen it, and was quite impressed at the time.
We had some fun finding the actual entrance to the national park… the GPS unit in our car had no idea about the roads inside the national park (funnily enough, it did know the roads at Gibraltar… ahh well), thus it directed us to go travel cross-country through the scrub. Some distance down the road, we found the true entrance, which had suffered some erosion during the recent storms in the area. We set up camp around 9:00PM that evening (Queensland time… we don’t pay attention to that DST nonsense).

Day One saw us walking down to the Basket Swamp Falls, which were flowing rather spectacularly after the recent rain. On route, we saw some trees with an odd foreign growth on the top — the photos below show what I mean:

As for the falls… well… the photos speak for themselves… the creek was flowing well…

On Day two much of the group climbed up to Wellington Rock. John & Di Edwards were doing some exploration elsewhere, but we had amateur radio contact. In fact, my first ever successful amateur radio contact, was with John this weekend — apparently his set would only transmit at 0.5W, but despite this, I received a very strong clear signal (S8~9/5) about 1~2km through the scrub. Some of the adventurous ones in the group actually climbed on top of Wellington Rock, which apparently offered some stunning views. I stayed put, capturing some shots of the group that stayed behind:

Kym Schluter happened to notice that Little Wellington Rock was nearby on the map… and in his words, “had to be walked to.” So after some bush bashing, we arrived at the aforementioned rock. I managed to get an almost 180-degree panorama — which I’ll put up once I’ve constructed it. In the meantime, the pieces are here:

My father managed to get a bit further along the rock, and caught these snapshots:

Later that afternoon, we drove up to Timbarra Lookout. Sadly the ladder up to the top of the actual lookout was locked, thus we couldn’t see any of the really stunning views from the top. However, I did manage to get this panorama… which again is in pieces for now.

Last trip I went on, we complained about leeches… well… it seems trip leader, Brian Reid, scored the ultimate prize in leech collection… taking off his gators, he watched this whopper roll out onto the ground. Beside is a 1920 six-pence coin as a size reference… the leech is so fat it can’t move, it just squirms on the spot.

The weather had been pretty good so far. I had the “dodgy dipole” 40m-band antenna (made from 15m of speaker wire — a knot tied at 10m and the pairs split out) and figured I’d go and see what I could hear on the shortwave bands. Well, in the distance we saw the thunderstorms roll in. It at first got windy… then it started to spit… then it poured… then… hale!

Some of the tent sites got a little damp after that… being mostly decomposed granite (similar to Gibraltar) much of the water drained away, however there were still some significant puddles left in certain spots around the camp.

Day three most of us packed up. The weather was glorious as we pulled down our tents, which was great — on the Gibraltar camp, it poured with rain on the last day, thus we had to spend a good week drying out the tent. A few of the group planned to stay until tomorrow, but for the rest of us, the trip out was uneventful.

Well… there have been rumours about Gentoo dying… it certainly is alive and well from where I sit.

The last few days have been spent polishing off what will become the first LiveUSB image for the Lemote Fulong computer based on the Loongson2E processor.  The image consists of a netboot image (which can be used on its own to perform a rescue or installation), and a 870MB SquashFS image, which contains the full live OS.  I’ve set it up to be a demonstration of Gentoo on the Fulong, as well as being a useful installation environment.

Software Included:

• Complete KDE 3.5.8 desktop environment
• Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.11 (Bon Echo)
• KOffice productivity suite
• Konversation IRC client
• Amarok music player
• Video playback software (mplayer with Mozilla plugin, Kaffeine Player, kmplayer)
• Quake II qmax (bring your own game files, yes … it’s quite playable on these systems, even without 3D accel.)

The desktop is available in two languages, English and Chinese (Simplified) — you select the language at the login prompt by logging in as the appropriate user (gentoo-en or gentoo-zh) — both are password-less logins.

I’ll leave putting up screenshots until I actually release it… there’s still some kernel tweaking to do… and of course being a first ever release, the distribution should be considered alpha-grade.  I’d like to release it with at least a 2.6.23 kernel, probably 2.6.24-rcX, which should allow OpenGL capability (nice framerates in Quake II, the present kernel lasts about 5 seconds before crashing with hardware OpenGL) .  The entire build has been constructed by hand at this stage, since I’m yet to learn how to produce proper LiveCDs in catalyst

But in short, I hope to have this up before the month’s end.  It’s based on the 2007.1 stages I built at the end of last year.

Well… I’ve done it. I can now add “amateur radio operator” (or HAM radio operator) to my skillset. I’ve kept pretty quiet about this thus far, but needless to say, I’ve been curious about radio for a very long time. Longer than I’ve been into computers.

It’s only recently that I’ve bothered to do anything about it. Having learned about the various modulation techniques (SSB, FM, PM, VSB, DSB) work, I’ve been keen to put some of these theories to practice and actually get a real-world understanding of them. Well, I’m now an amateur operator on a foundation license — this doesn’t give me the ability to build my own transmitters, but the plan is I’ll stick with this for a year, then I’ll upgrade to an advanced license (ditching the rather awkward F in my callsign) after some study. I figured I’d start with the basics that I knew I could achieve, while for the advanced license, there are some gaps in my knowledge that I’d like to fill in first.

Scratching the itch…

If you’ve got the itch too, like I did… this is what you do to go scratch it. This applies to those in Australia only.

1. Get the Foundation License Manual

The Wireless Institute of Australia sell a softcover book entitled “Your Entry Into Amateur Radio — The Foundation License Manual”. Get it, and have a good read. It covers all the basic principles of radio transmission sufficient to pass the Foundation license exam. Much of what’s covered will be familiar to those who have done 2nd year Electrical Engineering at university.

Once you’ve read through it, and made sure you’re clear on the regulations, and how to connect transceiver, SWR meter, ATU and antenna together, and the procedure for tuning the assembly, you should be set for the next step.

2. Do the exam

This may be organised via the local radio club — the exams are set by the Wireless Institute of Australia. To sit the exam, you must first book in advance — if you’re not affiliated with any radio club, you can usually contact one of the group leaders and they can often refer you onto someone who organises the bookings.

You’ll need the following organised for the exam:

1. Government issued photo ID: Either a driver’s license, passport, or 18+ proof-of-age card*
2. A passport photo (dimensions: 35mm×45mm) to be sent with the license application
3. About $100 for the examination, and to cover the cost of licensing (payment made in cash, cheque, credit card…etc)

(* For minors without a passport, guardians can certify a child’s identity, but must bring their own photo ID)

The exam for the foundation license consists of two parts:

• a practical examination, where you’re asked to identify basic electronic schematic symbols, types of cable/connector, how to hook the station up, and basics such as Q-codes and how to give signal reports.
• a 25-question multiple-choice written examination, where you’re asked about basic theory and regulations (the latter, mostly common sense!). Pass mark is 18/25.

Note you won’t need to know about morse code, but you’re welcome to learn about it if you wish. It’s no longer a requirement.

The exam paper will be marked shortly after the exam, and you’ll know that day if you passed or not.

3. Application and Payment

If you’re unlucky enough to fail, there’s no charge, just go back to step 2 and try again. Otherwise, you’ll be able to fill in the forms to actually apply for a license and callsign, the licensing and exam cost is about $100 (a little less, so bring about $10 in change to cover if you’re paying in cash).

The photo you provide will need to be signed in permanent ink across an area of the photo that doesn’t obscure your mugshot. And make sure it’s the right dimensions (35mm×45mm) — I made the mistake of signing a larger one, and had to rush a correct-sized version to the post office to be sent via express post to the WIA in Victoria.

4. The wait

This will be sent to WIA’s exam service in Victoria for processing. This takes a few weeks (limited resources). The WIA will notify you via post when they forward your details onto the ACMA to assign you a callsign.

In my case, my exam happened on the 16th of December last year. On the 14th of this month (Monday) they forwarded my details onto the ACMA, with this notification arriving in the post today. The ACMA were particularly fast in my situation, looking up my surname in their Register of Radiocommunications Licenses revealed that my license had been approved, that my callsign had been assigned, and was valid from now until the 15th January, 2009.

The ACMA apparently send you a license in the mail, about a week after it appears on the site.

Catching me on-air

If you’re up for a QSO, there are a few repeaters in my area (two of them IRLP nodes) that I should be able to access. Sadly, I can only participate on the 2m and 70cm bands, as I lack transmission equipment for HF (the Kenwood TH-F7E I use can receive, but can’t transmit on HF… and I’m not sure where I can string 20m of cable up in the air in our yard). The repeaters I listen to:

• Mt. Glorious Repeater — 147.000MHz FM: This one is geographically closest to me, and I should definitely be around Wednesday evenings when the Brisbane Amateur Radio Club have their weekly net.
• VK4RBA UHF Repeater — 438.950MHz FM: This is the club repeater operated by the Brisbane Amateur Radio Club. Not sure whether this is accessible from my home location, but I may be able to pick it up when I’m mobile.
• VK4XH IRLP Node 6139 — 146.450MHz FM: This one is located on the South side of Brisbane, thus I may be able to pick it up when mobile.
• VK4ACN IRLP Node 6406 — 146.575MHz FM: This is one is geographically close to where I live in Brisbane.

I’m not sure what other repeaters are in my area… I dare say I’ll learn of their existence over time. I’m rather new to all of this, having just recently joined the community… but as I say, I’m happy to meet up with people on the amateur bands, now that I’ve got my license.

Well, as I said in my last post, I went camping for a few days. 5 days, with no mobile phone reception (it stayed quiet until we got into South Grafton), no internet connection, and complete peace & quiet. It was great.

This map shows our approximate route. We actually made a detour into Ipswich to pick up a friend of mine, Jason Dawes who joined my father and myself on this trip, and on the way out, we took the Lions Road through Cougal, up through the middle of Border Ranges National Park, and into Queensland on Running Creek Road. I tried to convince Google Maps of this, but it wouldn’t believe me — it seems Google hasn’t quite finished mapping out these roads.

I’ll have to assemble some of the panorama shots I took and process the videos (they’re uploaded, but I’ll have to convert them to Theora and MPEG4 for public viewing). The weather was rather intermittent, fine one minute, pouring rain the next. The only time it poured solidly, was when we were packing up to leave for home!

Below are some interesting shots taken on the trip. Click on the thumbnail to bring the image up full-size. The full gallery can be viewed here.