Author Archives: Nate Bargmann

About Nate Bargmann

An amateur radio operator, vintage motorcycle enthusiast, and all around tinkerer interested in too many things to focus on one for very long. When I'm typing here, it's likely that I should be doing something else.

A QEMU image for Debian armel

Posted on 08 Mar 2012 by Nate Bargmann

My interest in the Raspberry Pi has led me to setting up an ARM based virtual machine in QEMU.  A bit of searching turned up instructions on setting up QEMU on MS Windows 7, which, in turn linked to instructions … Continue reading →

Posted in Amateur Radio, Computing, Hamlib, Linux | Leave a comment 258 views

Disabling the touchpad on a Dell E6400 with Xubuntu

Posted on 22 Feb 2012 by Nate Bargmann

I dislike touchpads.  Okay, that’s not quite true, I truly despise touchpads!  Given the choice between a trackpoint (the knob pointer control in the keyboard) and a touchpad (a.k.a. scratchpad), I’ll take the trackpoint every time.  I absolutely love the … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, XFCE 4 | Leave a comment 166 views

Restoring screen brightness step size on XFCE4

Posted on 21 Feb 2012 by Nate Bargmann

I’ve been annoyed by the behavior of recent Debian/XFCE4/GNOME3 releases that have reduced the number of screen brightness levels from the T60′s default of 8 to 4.  The problem seems to stem from the removal of hal from recent desktop … Continue reading →

Posted in Computing, XFCE 4 | Leave a comment 188 views

Father Time is gaining

Posted on 27 Jan 2012 by Nate Bargmann

Call me “four eyes” now.  I had to give in and get reading glasses since my arms weren’t getting any longer.  Snort! OTOH, it’s nice to have reading material in such clarity again.  I probably should have done this years … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment 97 views

Is money the root of all evil?

Posted on 09 Nov 2011 by Nate Bargmann

So you think that money is the root of all evil?  This excerpted essay from Atlas Shrugged argues otherwise.  

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment 121 views

An open letter to World Radio magazine and CQ Communications

Posted on 26 Oct 2011 by Nate Bargmann

I have been a long time subscriber to World Radio magazine dating back to the January 1984 issue when I received it as a sample copy due to my then having recently received my Novice license in November 1983.  I … Continue reading →

Posted in Amateur Radio | Leave a comment 205 views

An SQL query for unique SKCC numbers in CQRlog

Posted on 15 Aug 2011 by Nate Bargmann

As a follow-on to the MySQL server spawned by CQRlog article, I present a nice bit of SQL for your amusement.  This query is based on the storage of SKCC numbers being in the award column and in the format … Continue reading →

Posted in Amateur Radio, Software | 3 Comments 194 views

Accessing the MySQL server spawned by CQRlog

Posted on 15 Aug 2011 by Nate Bargmann

Since version 1.0.0~alpha1 CQRlog has used the ubiquitous MySQL database.  By default MySQL is used as an embedded database and the individual databases are stored under ~/.config/cqrlog/database/  This is all well and good and has the advantage of removing the … Continue reading →

Posted in Amateur Radio, Software | 1 Comment 523 views

Fun with the FUNcube Dongle

Posted on 27 Jul 2011 by Nate Bargmann

Late last year a new Software Defined Radio (SDR) project hit the amateur radio market place, the FUNcube dongle from AMSAT UK (FCD).  It is a receiver covering the spectrum of approximately 64 to 1700 MHz and presents a USB … Continue reading →

Posted in Amateur Radio, Computing, FUNcube, Hamlib, Linux | Leave a comment 906 views

Another tale on my entry to amateur radio

Posted on 18 Jul 2011 by Nate Bargmann

Looking for something unrelated I ran across this post I made to eHam.net back on 8 December 2007.  I’ll add more of such posts as I find them scattered about the Web.

Posted in Amateur Radio, History | Leave a comment 160 views