This Sunday morning we have had a good dumping of snow over the Midlands area..
Around 12:00 GMT as I write this, my VHF/UHF array of antennas strapped to the side of the house are well plastered with the white stuff.
Outside Temperature is Zero Centigrade.
It's always interesting when I write, to see what feedback or help is out there. I encourage you all to write back your thoughts in the comments below.
So a quick trip down to the link https://www.armbian.com/ Reveals a good download area for hardware which you may like to try it out on. Although the Raspberry Pi is not listed, surely it can't be long before something is ported over.
I know recently Ubuntu Linux has been ported for the Raspberry Pi. But are there cheaper methods of playing around with Linux and using it to advantage our hobby?
Paul mentioned he uses an old Android TV Box. I have one of these which I use coupled up to my main TV for watching Youtube on.
The advantage of the Android TV box they are cheap! A mini computer all self contained inside a little box. Normally they include a power supply, simple remote, and work straight away out of the box when you plug them into your TV, booting from their internal Android firmware. They are also very simple to get running with Linux (in most cases). Adding a keyboard and mouse, blow the Linux firmware on to an SD card, and away you go (In theory anyway).
If you would like a little play around with Linux they have got to be an excellent starting point, and if you don't like it or get get fed up, brick it, or just end up throwing it into the corner of the shack, you haven't lost much.
You buy them from the likes of ebay, just type in Android TVBOX. You need to check first that the processor type is supported before you buy. Here is an example at around £20 UK:
As well as the Armbian website support there are lots of videos on Youtube to a show you how to go about installing Linux.
(Depending on processor type):
Here is one I dug out, there are plenty of others, but it shows you the basics how to go about and get it running with Armbian.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xezRDUCDkg
Hope that helps!
The online G4DYA Kiwi SDR receiver is just 9 miles North of my QTH. Situated at Stone, Staffordshire. UK.
It has an excellent range of Amateur bands, and even goes down to LF 136KHz and 472KHz, it also has some good decoders built in to play around with for CW, PSK and even WSPR.
Ideal to test band conditions and your equipment.
Join in the fun here http://kiwisdr.lamont.me.uk:8073/
Latest version of Linux Mint released https://blog.linuxmint.com/
I am hopeful there will be a version for Arm processors soon?
Already there are moans from buyers, "they have charged me VAT!"
ebay have now rolled into the mix, implementing the 1st January 21 VAT rules for UK buyers, and EU. As I mentioned at the start of writing this thread, they will nail it at source at the time of purchase:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/listings/default/vat-obligations-eu?id=4650
Where this leaves the likes of Aliexpress, Banggood and individual traders from China and the rest of the world not registered, I guess HMRC rules in Notice 143 will click into place?
LCSC has been in my Far East component suppliers list for sometime now.. I was short of a few obscure components so I thought I would give them a whirl.
Website was easy to use, ordering was very quick, straight forward and simple. A small handling charge was added if the order was below a certain value . So I just ordered more components to the list to overcome the charge, the ease of paying by Paypal gave the order some security.
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Based in Shenzhen, China, the consignment took no longer than anything else you would order from the far East, and was provided with live tracking as you can see from the package dates and path below:
I will certainly be using them again in the future!
"Yes it got in with no added VAT or PO charges Hi! :-)"
Even companies exporting to the UK are now caught up in the confusing VAT debacle ..
The BBC are now picking up on the story: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55530721
Why wasn't a transition period put in place for all this, allowing a smooth change over?
Your confused, I am confused. Standby for the next exciting episode...
