[Ham-Linux] Which Distro/Apps/Apps development software to use?

[Leif Asbrink]

Hi Richard,

> I wouldn't recommend linrad for a linux novice, albeit one of the most
> powerful weak signal programs, it does lack an intuitive front end.
> Sorry Leif, but you have heard me say this many times.
And you are totally wrong!!!
Linrad is not for a RADIO novice - unless he is prepared to
spend some time in learning basic principles of radio....

If you have basic understanding of receiver technology, Linrad
is available and works equally well under Windows as under Linux.

Richard, you say the user interface is not inthuitive. I would
argue that a more appropriate description is that it is not 
conventional.

Unfortunately the radio communities (except for the EME community)
are very reluctant to give any feedback at all. You have for example
written that you were unable to get Linrad running, but you never
sent any information about how far you got. It is hard for me to
make guesses on what problems you may have encountered. Remember
Linrad is rather new and still suffers from various bugs. It is
not trivial to write software that will work for all kinds of hardwares
(most of which you do not have yourself.) Please remember that
sound systems under Linux have been rather buggy until recently 
with the need for various work-arounds. With Vista, Windows started 
to get the same type of problems.

> for SDR dttsp is very nice, its the only software that will find weak
> signals in the noise that I cant hear.
> I moved from Mandriva about 18 months ago to Ubuntu, and the prime
> reason was the developers of dttsp use it, like all distros its got it
> good point and a few bad.
> you can find details of dttsp at www.dttsp.org
Linrad will work with all Linux distributions, but the person
doing the installation must use his own skils to find out how
to install the C compiler, nasm, the make system, the sound system
libraries and the X11 libraries. Some (good) distributions have
everything needed by default. Others do not even have a working 
C compiler.

The recommended procedure is to send a question to the Linrad
mailing list: "I try to install under the Ubumandwhatever distribution.
When I try to install Linrad I get this error message:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
as the response to the installation step ./configure (or make linrad)"

Someone will answer and tell you what you will have to install.
Linrad uses no fancy tools and it is version independent. It works
with Linux kernels 2.2.12 and above  (as well as with Win98 and
above.)

The next version, linrad-03.02 is a bit more verbose than previous
versions. It is also more conventional in the way it selects
default parameters (for newcomers.) I will upload it within a couple
of days to the bottom of this page:
http://www.sm5bsz.com/linuxdsp/linroot.htm

For an introduction, look here:
http://www.sm5bsz.com/linuxdsp/usage/newco/newcomer.htm

I would greatly appreciate if many of the readers of this mailing
list rather than proceeding in blind would send a question to me 
or to the Linrad mailing list at the first point in the setup 
procedure where you are not quite sure what to do. Such questions 
are needed for me to know what to explain better.......

The mailing list is here:
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/linrad
 
> If your just using SDR for HF, you dont need to worry about weeding
> signals out of the noise so much, but if your into EME or any thing on
> the civilised bands above 30 MHz your noise floor will be much lower.
I am sure HF operators who suffer from powerline noise, cow fences
and all sorts of local QRN can find a significant improvement in
receive capabilities with SDRs. (Particularly with Linrad.)
Many other kinds of interference can be suppressed (in principle,)
but the total lack of interest from HF operators has left this
field of software development closed. 


 73


Leif / SM5BSZ