Save offline activity on Strava

 I went for a bike ride today morning and recorded on Strave on mobile. Back home and saw the phone had restarted and Strava did not capture anything. But I wanted to log the activity on Strava. Here is what I did. 

1. On Google Maps, plotted my route. Basically added points to draw along the roads.
2. Exported as gpx using an amazing online tool found here. Maps to GPX
3. Added start time and average timestamps in gotoes.org tool. (here). A new gpx file is created.
4. Added the activity in Strava as File upload.

Amazon Fire TV disconnecting from network very often

I faced this issue when the 2018 Fire TV stick was disconnecting soon after connecting to the WiFi network. I tried restarting multiple times, switched 2.4/5/ GHz networks, and even restored factory settings, but it was consistently loosing network after a while. Soon I was suspecting some hardware issue.

As a final try, I logged on to my Asus router console and checked for the connected wireless devices. Surprisingly, there was two devices with the same IP address! So there you go - an IP conflict. Never have I experienced a conflict on my router - Asus RT - N66U running Merlin firmware.

Quickly assigned a permanent IP for the Fire TV stick and the problem is solved. A very rare problem and lucky to have it solved sooner than throwing the stick away.

The Fire TV is live and kicking now. Its a tough beast!

Raspberry PI Zero W as Print server

I bought a Ricoh SP111 Laser printer and unfortunately it is only USB and having experienced WiFi printing, it proved to be a serious inconvenience.

Enter Raspberry Pi Zero W !

I bought Raspi Zero W to make my printer available over WiFi. Basic idea was to have the RasPi as a Linux print server running CUPS.

There are several details available on the internet on how to do this. But I had to struggle to get it working in the end, due to some missing subtle details. The following steps were done to make it work.

1. Install Raspbian Stretch Lite. (Followed this blog post https://www.losant.com/blog/getting-started-with-the-raspberry-pi-zero-w-without-a-monitor). The SSH and Wifi credentials are enabled/stored in the sd card, so that the PI will come up online after the first boot and available over network.

2. Install CUPS. (Followed this blog post https://rux.vc/2017.03/raspberry-pi-zero-print-scan-server/)Caveat ^^ Do not set the DefaultAuthType to None. Leave it to Basic, otherwise it is not possible to Add Printer via the web interface.

3. Install Ricoh SP111 printer. (Followed this post https://askubuntu.com/questions/641405/ricoh-sp111-printer-setup-help)

4. Share the printer. Make Shared to Yes in /etc/cups/printers.conf

5. Install the printer in clients. I installed the printer in Windows 10. Followed this post (https://zedt.eu/tech/windows/installing-an-ipp-printer-in-windows-10/) Note that the Windows driver need to be downloaded from Ricoh website.

PDF Trouble

I was able to print from Word but the PDFs were not printing. The CUPS log says that the print job is sent to printer. There is no error whatsoever, but no print out. Tried various setting in Adobe Reader (where I opened the PDF) print setting. Finally only when I opted for "Print As Image" the print came out.

How to get an Amateur Radio (Ham Radio) Licence in India

Licensing
There are two categories of license:
1. General Grade
2. Restricted Grade

The restrictions in the second category are:
1. Transmitted power (only upto 50W in HF and 10W in VHF/UHF, compared to 400W and 25W respectively for General Grade).
2. Terrestrial only (operating through Satellite repeaters is forbidden, receiving is OK).
3. Voice only communication (with some exception in the VHF/UHF bands)
4. 5GHz band not allowed (wonder who uses it anyway)



The written exam consists of two parts:
1. Radio Theory and Practice (Exempted for those holding degree in Engineering/Science or Diploma in Engineering and have subjects electronics/telecommunications)
2. Radio Regulations

Morse Test - transmit and receive at 8 words per minute (only for General grade)

Reference:
http://www.wpc.dot.gov.in/DocFiles/a...guidelines.pdf

Tests are conducted monthly at metro cities and once in 4 months at other monitoring stations (mostly state capitals)

For starters the Restricted Grade is the way to go. It hardly makes a difference, unless you really want to get into serious contests, DXing, etc.
I would suggest the best option for aspirants is to join a local Ham club, preferably one which conducts exams regularly. There are many in South India, PM me if you need any contacts. There are many active FB groups also. The Vigyan Prasar website has a search facility to find out the nearby Hams.

Sequence of events are like this:
1. Apply for exam (filled up forms, gazetted officer attested copies of supporting documents, exam fee DD(₹100))
2. Wait for hall ticket.
3. Write the exam.
4. Wait for result (2-3 months)
5. Result will be forwarded from local WPC office to Delhi.
6. WPC will share the details with IB dept.
7. WPC will wait for clearance from IB.
8. IB will forward the papers to the local police station.
9. Local police station will verify the applicant address. (mostly they will give a call and ask to visit the PS)
10. Verified papers sent back to IB, then to WPC
11. WPC gets the IB clearance and initiates the license issuance.
12. WPC sends a letter requesting to send license fee(₹1000/2000) and another set of attested documents.
13. Once WPC gets all the required papers, it will issue the license and send to the applicant.

* Update: The IB clearence has been removed for a majority of the Indian states, except for some areas that still requires it.

In my case, the entire process was done in 11 months, and I consider myself very lucky. But this seems to be the order now, atleast in major cities. Usually the delay is caused by the local PS. I joined a club and it also helped in getting the papers in order.

But I urge anyone not to get let down by this process. It is a govt process and it will eventually happen. Things have very much improved in the last few years and many steps are streamlined.

Getting Started
Once you get your license, you can immediately be on air. One catch, you need to have the equipment, and to import one you need to have license. But you can always make one your own which is fun.

Regarding the cost, it depends on your budget and sky is the limit. A descent low power HF radio can be built for as low as 2k. A lot of Chinese manufactures have sprung up making cheap VHF/UHF radios, costing as low as 3k, which are not cheap at all in performance.

Amateur Radio (Ham Radio) in India

I am sure most of us know something about Amateur Radio, but did not pursue the hobby due to various reasons. Radio Amateurs (a.k.a Hams) are traditionally pioneers in many technological experiments. Be it any DIY stuff, Hams would have been there done that. The "first true" social networking, it brought like minded people across the world together. The invasion of computers and internet affected the hobby and there were a dearth of youngsters taking up hobby.

I myself believed that the hobby was dead, during the late 90's, with the advent of mobile phones an cheap internet. But the Hams kept innovating and evolved making better use of the latest technologies and kept pondering over the never ending challenges in radio communications.

Amateur radio for the uninitiated, is "establishing a radio station at home and communicating using his radio equipment wirelessly to another radio station". The communication could be in voice or digital mode - from the vintage Morse code, to the more advanced digital modes using computers. The kick for many Hams is the fact that they are "off grid", not dependent on any public or private infrastructure for communication. You have your own radio frequency spectrum. (BTW, the RF spectrum is the most expensive "natural" resource in the world raking in huge revenue for the governments.)The government grants the license to operate the station after successfully passing the written test and other formalities.

The Indian scene is not for the light hearted, especially the licensing part. The antiqued procedures will set back the aspirant by 1-2 (or even more) years, waiting for his license after writing the exam. Compare this to a 10 minute procedure in many other countries. Also the rule does not permit one to operate the radio at other locations than the home station, where the license was granted. This means one cannot operate "mobile" e.g. on his vehicle. These are the some deterrents for many aspirants to take up this hobby, in the modern world.

While the procedures may be age old, we are definitely not lagging behind, in terms of technical achievements or dedicated Hams. We had our own satellite - Hamsat - launched by ISRO in 2005 which served the hams worldwide for almost a decade.

Within the Ham community, there are varied interests, while some chase "DX" contacts, some like to "home-brew" their equipment, while others chase the "birds" (satellites). Popular activities include Hamfests, DX-peditions, Fox hunting, providing communications to motor sports. Hams provide voluntary emergency communication support during natural disasters, when all the other means of communications fail.

I am sure there are many Hams on the forum, and I hope they will contribute to this thread.

BTW, I got licensed last year and got my call sign Victor Uniform 3 Bravo Oscar Juliet
(pretty late in the game actually, I am the 3rd gen ham in my family and I hope my next gen too take up this wonderful hobby, someday!)


Some links in the Indian context.
http://vigyanprasar.gov.in/ham/ham.asp
http://wpc.dot.gov.in/exam_amatr.asp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_radio_in_India

Raspberry PI Notes

Getting Started

On Windows PC, get the following to connect directly

1. DHCP server from http://www.dhcpserver.de/
2. Putty from http://www.putty.org/
3. TightVNC viewer from http://www.tightvnc.com/download.php

Setting Remote

1. Telnet connection: follow - 
2. Remote desktop: follow - https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/remote-access/vnc/

Setting WiFi

Reference:

http://www.howtogeek.com/167425/how-to-setup-wi-fi-on-your-raspberry-pi-via-the-command-line/

sudo nano /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

Compare the contents of the file, if it exists, to the following code. If the file is empty, you can use this code to populate it. Take note of the commented lines (indicated by the # marks) to reference which variable you should use based on your current Wi-Fi node configuration.

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1

network={
ssid="YOURSSID"
psk="YOURPASSWORD"

# Protocol type can be: RSN (for WP2) and WPA (for WPA1)
proto=WPA

# Key management type can be: WPA-PSK or WPA-EAP (Pre-Shared or Enterprise)
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK

# Pairwise can be CCMP or TKIP (for WPA2 or WPA1)
pairwise=TKIP

#Authorization option should be OPEN for both WPA1/WPA2 (in less commonly used are SHARED and LEAP)
auth_alg=OPEN
}

Web server

CherryPy

1. Commands for installation:
   sudo apt-get install python-pip
   sudo pip install cherrypy
2. The package will be installed under:  /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/cherrypy/

Reference sites:

• http://docs.cherrypy.org/en/latest/tutorials.html
• https://raspberrypiwonderland.wordpress.com/tag/cherrypy/

3/6/2020
On Pi 2B , installed the latest Raspbian Full version with Kernel version 4.19.118-v7 #1311
WiFi did not work out of box with the RTL 8188EU dongle.
Installed driver using http://downloads.fars-robotics.net/ script
http://downloads.fars-robotics.net/wifi-drivers/install-wifi


14/6/2020
Pine 64. Xenial
Wifi Driver Update
https://medium.com/@daniel.cohen/setting-up-usb-wifi-dongle-on-pine64-dc41def83c75

Amateur Radio Licence

Here is the timeline of my amateur radio license application and further milestones.

2010 December: Wrote General Grade Exam at Bangalore (Little Elly School)
2011 January: Gave the Morse Code Test (Did not clear the receive part)

[Goes to cold again]

2013 November: Joined IIH and attended classes (Only the regulations)
2014 January: Wrote Restricted Grade Exam at IIH Bangalore (25/1/2014)
2014 April: Results declared (11/4/2014) +76days
2014 July: Got a call from the Police Station for the verification (17/7/2014) +97days
2014 Sep: Got the letter from WPC notifying grant of licence and payment of fees (01/09/2014) +46days
2014 Sep: Got a letter from WPC stating that the attestion has deficiencies - Attesting officer's Name, Designation and place of posting should be mentioned. (26/09/2014)
2014 Oct: Re-sent the attested copy for age proof (08/10/2014)
2014 Nov: Called WPC Delhi to inquire the status. Told that the license is under approval and it would be sent in a week's time. (13/11/2014)
2014 Nov: Got the license by speedpost (28/11/2014)

Took 307 days from the day of writing exam.

How to add Point of Interests (POI) to Nokia Lumia device

All Nokia Lumia comes with Here maps that work offline. You can download the maps available for any region worldwide. "Here" maps allow to search for locations and is fairly accurate. But many times, the places may not turn up in the results, especially remote getaway places. You found the place in Google map but how do you store the location in your Nokia Lumia?

Here is a way to do it.

• Login to here.com from desktop and choose Collections. Here you can add locations that get sync'd up with your Nokia Lumia. (In the Here application in phone, login using the same id)
• Any arbitrary location on the map can be right clicked and "Collected" (Right click and choose "Collect this location"
• If you need to add a point from Google maps, copy the location (lat, lon) from google and paste in the search box of here maps and the location will be pin pointed.
  (for copying the lat/lon, enable the "Drop Lat/Lon" tool from the Beta labs in Google Maps).
• Organize the newly added location to collection/folders. The new locations will be sync'd up with the phone in no time.