💾 Archived View for alaskalinuxuser.ddns.net › 2022-12-13.gmi captured on 2024-09-29 at 00:20:57. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
">
024w, https://alaskalinuxuser3.ddns.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/
IMG_20221206_073829_510-300x227.jpg 300w, https://alaskalinuxuser3.ddns.net/wp-
content/uploads/2022/12/IMG_20221206_073829_510-768x582.jpg 768w, https://
alaskalinuxuser3.ddns.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/
IMG_20221206_073829_510.jpg 1060w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px"
/>
FreeData is “a free, open-source, multi-platform application for sending files
and messages, using the codec2 HF modems.” [1]
Of course, I’m an amateur radio operator, also know as a ham. And, if you read
this blog at all, you know I’m pretty into Linux and open-source software. So,
it should come as no surprise that I’m interested in FreeData. Basically,
FreeData is a replacement for ARDOP (an older open-source radio software), that
allows you to set up networks or send and receive files, such as pictures,
emails, chat, etc., between two or more radio stations.
When I first heard about FreeData from a telegram group I frequent, I wasn’t
sure what to make of it, and to be honest, I’m still just testing it out.
However, it looks to be really promising, though there doesn’t appear to be
enough users yet to determine how well the system works. Hopefully, by testing
it out myself, I can add one more user and one more data point to the pool, and
if enough folks give it a try, perhaps it will become a new standard for
digital communications.
One really irritating thing to me is the new digital mode that seems to be
sweeping through ham radio and taking it by storm, which is VARA. VARA is a
closed source protocol for communications that is controlled by one person.
That’s fine, but what is odd to me is that it seems to be against everything
amateur radio stand for or was founded on. The charters of ham radio spell out
that it should be used for scientific experimenting, discovery, and secondarily
for things such as emergency communications and the like. The problem I see
with VARA is that it circumvents any scientific experimenting and improvement.
No one (except the original designer) knows exactly how it works, or has seen
the code to offer improvements.
Not only does it need improvements, such as the fact that it takes an
unprecedented amount of CPU horse power to run compared with any other digital
protocol used in ham radio, but it is also only available for Windows machines
in it’s native form. Many programs and methods exist, of course, to bring it to
Android, or Linux, but they are hacks, and not directly compiled for their
architecture.
It also is really astounding to me that VARA costs money to use at peak
efficiency. There is a free version available, but it is throttled and hampered
from full functionality unless you pay a fee to use it. This is becoming a toll
road of the digital airwaves! Not only is there a fee, but it is expensive!
Perhaps not to the average American, but for all the countries around the world
that don’t even have running water, it seems ludicrous to charge them such an
exorbitant fee to use software in what should be an open hobby.
I do understand that software developers need to make money to live, and I’m
not against them getting paid for their work. However, when huge infrastructure
in the amateur radio community, such as Winlink, used almost exclusively for
emergency comms during a disaster are tied hand in hand with software such as
VARA, it seems like we’ve fallen off the tracks somewhere.
Enough of my rant…. Back to FreeData.
I followed the install guide [1] for compiling it yourself in Ubuntu 20.04, and
only ran into one snag. When it says it is optional to compile their version of
codec2, they should probably put “mandatory”. I couldn’t get FreeData to run
with the native libcodecs from the Ubuntu 20.04 repository. Once I followed the
instructions and compiled their latest codec2, everything started working, so I
highly recommend that you use their version on your system.
So far, I have not been able to connect with anyone, unfortunately. They have a
map on their website where you can view all the operating stations that allow
their information to be posted to the internet, and if you check it out, you
will see that I am the one lone station in all of North America, with the
majority of the stations being in Australia and Europe. I’m going to stick with
it a while, though, and see if others start to setup stations. Hopefully I can
find someone else willing to test with me soon.
">
024w, https://alaskalinuxuser3.ddns.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/
IMG_20221206_073825_357-300x183.jpg 300w, https://alaskalinuxuser3.ddns.net/wp-
content/uploads/2022/12/IMG_20221206_073825_357-768x469.jpg 768w, https://
alaskalinuxuser3.ddns.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/
IMG_20221206_073825_357.jpg 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px"
/>
Linux – keep it simple.
[1] freedata.app