Re: Thoughts on forming a GNU Radio Amateur Radio monthly meeting group

[Kristoff]

Hi Barry,



Concerning the separate GR-ham mailing-list, I don't know if it really 
needs to be a "GR ham-radio" list,  but what I think would be useful is 
a separate mailing-list to discuss signal-processing (that happen to use 
GNU Radio), separate of the 'discuss-gnuradio' list that is more related 
to questions on GNU Radio itself.

I am also still learning SDR, and I have a number of question on how to 
decode signals (e.g. "I want to decode RTTY with 1.5 stop-bits, what's 
the best way to handle that half a bit at the end without impacting the 
clock-recovery block?") here I have been hesitant to post here in the GR 
list as it's more about signal-process then about GNU Radio.
When talking to fellow hams who tried GNU Radio, a lot of them have the 
same problem: how to create a working flowgraph? What blocks to use? 
What do all the parameters of that block really do and what do I value 
should I put in there?

So, yes, a separate list would be nice. .. but I don't know if a "GR Ham 
Radio"  is  the best combination.

- Why only Ham radio?
SDR and GNU Radio seams to me one of the best tools to promotion 
amateur-radio, especially if you target people from the open-source / 
hackerspace / maker scene. Focussing to much on amateur-radio will -I 
think- might mean you lose this opportunity.


- For the amateur-radio community, focussing to much on GNU Radio might 
not be ideal neither. For me, the main topic here is SDR, 
signal-processing, DSP and data-communication, ... GNU Radio is only 
part (be it, a very big and important part) of that.
Most hams start out with a simple RTL-SDR dongle and just *use* it for 
some project: APRS receiver, beacon receiver, to track HABs to listen to 
weather-satellites, listen to QO100, ...
It's usually only in a later stage that they move to GNU Radio, when 
they are comfortable with using SDR and are interesting going the next 
step: learn how SDR works internally and develop SDR applications 
themselves.




73
kristoff - ON1ARF



On 22/09/2020 14:30, Barry Duggan wrote:
> Thank you for your feedback! It looks like we have a viable idea.
>
> Here are some additional items to consider:
>
> ** use BigBlueButton or Zoom
>
> ** have a host / moderator present a topic with a demonstration
>
> ** limit to one hour (especially if using BigBlueButton)
>
> ** a time on the weekend might be better - something like 20:00 UTC?
>
> ** I will put out a news entry on the gnuradio.org homepage as soon as 
> a kickoff seems feasible. Marcus will help "as much as he can"
>
> ** possibly start a GR Ham Radio mailing list like discuss-gnuradio
>
> Thank you for your continued interest and ideas.
>
> 73 and stay safe,
> ---
> Barry Duggan KV4FV
> https://github.com/duggabe
>
> On Mon, 21 Sep 2020 11:13:29 +0200, Marcus Müller wrote:
>
> Hello Barry, hi everyone,
>
> I just wanted to say I was very impressed with all the activity in the
> breakout session, and how productive everything was.
>
> I'd find it super interesting if aside from the social benefit of
> ragchewing (no matter whether that happens on a video conference, via
> pure voice comms, or in a text chat), people had would also take the
> chance to give a short "impulse" presentation on what they think would
> be interesting for the rest; for example, I think Barry's digital
> modulations tutorials would be extremely interesting for a lot of people.
>
> But also, a bit on stuff like (brainstorming here) "how to make use of
> the new digital predistortion module to get the most out of my system",
> "I've invented a digital mode, and you'll never guess what happened
> next", "how it took me a month to figure out why I wasn't seeing any
> satellites and why I hate storks", "SDR in club education settings", ….
>
> Nothing that takes 2 hours, but something to get discussion off the
> ground, and then if discussion shows people like where things are going,
> go deeper into it.
>
> Cheers,
> Marcus