I make no suggested or implied statement here regarding whether the software I am listing will work for you perfectly or not, it just works fine for me. You be the judge of it yourself. I will try to create meaningful headings so that each type of software is a little easier to find. If you have some pet software, whether for PC, Mac, iPod Touch, or iPhone you think would be helpful to your fellow amateur radio operators please send along links to it. If it gets approved by our extensive staff (me) then it will get added here.
iPod Touch
The iPod Touch has some handy features that I have only recently begun to appreciate. One is that if you have a WIFI setup in your home or office you can use your iPod to listen to worldwide radio broadcasts using software to link through the internet. If you are a scanner enthusiast you can make use of another piece of software to link to various scanners around the world which are also tied into the internet. WARA (West Coast Amateur Radio Association) has recently tied the audio of its main repeater into the internet and anyone linked in can listen in. Besides all that there are programs to help you learn Morse Code and to better understand electronic circuits. All of that available through a device 2 1/2" X 4 1/2" X 3/8" thick that can easily fit into your shirt pocket. Not bad.
Morse-it - an excellent Morse Code training package for 99 cents from the iTunes store.
Morse Code Study Buddy, no cost - free - from the iTunes store.
Electronic Tool Box, $2.99 cost from I Tunes, amazingly comprehensive. It has voltage regulator circuits with component values. Same thing for op-amps. It has hundreds of listings of transistors and their characterists but no base diagrams and no gain figures.It has color codes. It even has some schematic diagrams for a few small projects.
Transmission Line Calc, a $2.99 software package covering several types of coaxial cable, the line loss over any given length at any chosen frequency, the velocity factor, the impedance. Very handy especially if you are trying to tie multiple antennas together with phase matching lengths of cable, or impedance matching transformer sections, or stubs for lightning protection. This is "the" tool you need.
Scanner 911, a free utility that allows you to connect your iPod or iPhone through a WIFI connection to scanners that are internet connected around the world.
TuneLn Radio, a $1.99 app from te iTunes store similar to the above app in that it allows you to connect to various broadcasts around the world from commercial broadcast radio via a WIFI connection. If there is an ethnic music you're interested in you're probably going to find it on the listings on that. Of course there is talk radio too. Nice app and the listings are updated very regularly.
Aye Tides, an expensive Tide table software at $9.99 but very helpful if you have a need for such information. I consult mine before going off to the beach with my grand kids. Not much use getting there and there is no beach because the tide is up.
iPinSafe, a $2.99 program to save your pin numbers in an encoded place in your iPod touch. The actual key you use is not a text format but instead is a sort of graphical format. I like it, it works for me even with stumpy pudgy fingers it would be no struggle. PIN numbers are those secret pass words or codes you need to get into all sorts of things these days including the electronic locks on some peoples doors. This takes away some of the burden of trying to remember all of them.
Pocket Universe, a $2.99 app that assists you in making sense about the universe around you. I use it with my iPod but believe it works better with an iPhone because the iPhone had a GPS and I believe also an electronic compass. I can point mine towards a particular direction any time of the day and orient the display, then can get an indication of what planets,major stars, and constellations are within my view. That and a telescope or pair of binoculars and you are all set for some interesting viewing.
Knot Guide, a $1.99 app that teaches you how to tie knots for all purposes. Very well presented. I don't know how it could be improved upon. I give it a 10/10.
Skype, a free application allowing you to chat with someone peer to peer over the internet via a WIFI connection. I subscribe to something called Skype Out which is a Skype function you pay for allowing you to call people on their land line phones around the world. I am too cheap to pay money for cell phone and so if I'm in town close to an open WIFI link I can use my iPod to call anyone I want anywhere in the world. Pretty neat. I got Skype and subscribed to Skype out a few years ago when my son was going off to Europe to do some work for U-Vic. I was able to chat with him in France and in Scotland for cheap. I think that it's something like 2 cents a minute. Anyway around 20 Euros worth of time has lasted me a very long time. When I talked peer to peer with my son via the internet it cost me nothing at all. You can also subscribe to something called Skype in which provides you with a phone number on your computer of a location wherever you want. If I had children in Ottawa and I was living in Victoria BC I could take out an Ottawa Ontario phone number listing and my kids could call me using a local call. Likewise anyone else in that calling area could call me. I would get dinged for the call but at a couple of cents a minute not going to go broke fast. Kids on a tight budget going to university would appreciate something like that.
One thing to know about Skype is that if you Skype someone across town peer to peer, computer to computer, you may or may not get a really good connection. Not sure why that is. On the other hand most of my long distance calls have been excellent.
PC Software -
IDM (Internet Download Manager) - $24.95 - An internet download manager and accellerator. A really amazingly helpful piece of software for the investment. It manages your downloads into separate file compartments, such as music, images, You Tube Videeos, etc. and at the same time it speeds up your downloads by up to five times. When I read the promotional material about it I was quite skeptical. Not skeptical any more, it really makes my computer seem like it has a lot more horsepower.
Irfanview - A freeware piece of software that you can use to display your graphic files such as JPG, PNG, BMP, etc etc. It allows you to rotate images, flip them, resize them, sharpen the image, change the brightness and contrast, and to crop to areas of interest. This is just a small sample of the capabilities. I use it for putting on slide shows using my little HP laptop and a Dell multimedia digital projector. I also use a clipping program to grab images from off my computer screen when web browsing. That clipping goes into my computer's memory from which I then paste it into Irfanview and tidle it up a bit more then paste it into a MS Word document.
MS Office 2007 Home and Student Edition - Yes I know it's not free. I got mine for $100 at Staples when it was on sale when I was buying my little HP laptop. The sales guy mentioned I could install it on up to three computers. Wow! I did have three computers, my wife and I both have desk toip machines plus this laptop. It was a bargain. I had been using the previous version of MS Office but it was only able to be installed on one computer. I particularly like MS Word and it's mostly for one particular function that I don't find in other word processor packages, a function most people aren't even aware of its existance. That function is - "Pull Out Boxes." What is that? You must have seen cartoons with text balloons over people's heads. There is a little pointer from the balloon to whoever is supposed to have spoken. Pull out boxes are like that. They allow you to take a photo and insert it into the middle of a page and then put text boxes around it with pointers into locations on the image. I started doing that several years ago when I was in telephony engineering. I could have an installer build a bay of equipment and get it the way I wanted it and then I'd take a digital picture of it. The image was very helpful in writing up succeeding equipment specs. An image with pull out boxes told a real story better than just words alone. I often use the pull out box function when making up antenna drawings for this web site.
CCleaner, formerly known as crap cleaner is used to clean up the gunk that accumulates with use in your computer. You may have noticed your computer slowing down over time and were wondering if you had a bunch of viruses in it or that it was just getting old. You may have viruses, that's always a possibility. One thing that happens is that as you web browse you get tagged with little programs used to accumulate information about your browsing habits. It's a way for web sites to get better at targetted advertising or even become more user friendly. The down side is that as a bunch of this material accumulates it uses up your computer's resources. Another thing is that you gradually accumulate debris in yhour register area. This also slows things down. CCleaner helps to clean up and speed up your computer by tossing the stuff that is not needed and gets in the way of progress.
Eusing Free Registry Cleaner - http://www.eusing.com/free_registry_cleaner/registry_cleaner.htm
This is another free registry cleaner. It goes a bit further than CCleaner and I use them both on a regular basis.
Advanced System Optimiser - http://www.systweak.com/aso/
This software package is a paid for, $29.95, set of utilities. Some are to clean up registry but there are just too many to mention. I use it and it has been beneficial.. In general - laptops are more sluggish than their desktop partners. Therefore, regular use (weekly use) of optimiser software like this is much more important on a laptop than a desktop.
This is a radical replacement for Adobe Acrobat Viewer, the program most of us with PC's have been using to view PDF files. PDF-XChange-Viewer is a bit quicker but it also has some interesting features such as giving you the ability to add comments to a PDF. You can draw on the PDF too. What it ammounts to is a fantastic way to edit and annotate a document someone emails to you so that you can send it back with suggested changes, additions, or corrections. That and a number of other things too numerous to mention. There is a Pro "paid for" version that is supposed to have even more functionality but the free version is adequate for my needs.
Open Office- http://www.openoffice.org/
Open Office is very similar in capability to MS Office. It has spread sheet, word processing, presentation software, and more. So far it does not seem to have pull-out boxes, something I enjoy using in MS Word. You can save or load documents in many formats, it does pretty decent translation from/to other softwares. If you don't have deep pockets to be able to afford MS Office then you can't go wrong downloading and using Open Office and it's free from Sun Microsystems. Pretty hard to beat that.
Depiction - http://www.depiction.com/
Depiction is a powerful tool allowing you to do numerous things. One of its greatest features is the ability to overlay data onto a map (in one or more layers) and then distribute the map data to those involved with a storm or cleanup after a storm, or track a forest fire and the elements being used to try to snuff the fire out. Many ways it can be used. For those involved with APRS you can overlay APRS data. For those who are involved in LDS work such as visiting teaching or home teaching or emergency preparedness specialists creating emergency preparedness zones this has to be the answer. You can build a list of members and their addresses and let Depiction populate a map for you.
I am just learning about Depiction and want feedback from others who may be using it for church, municipal, or amateur radio applications so that I can tell others about results both pro and con. This is one of those things we need to help teach each other about so that we can grow together by sharing. Looking forwards to your comments on this one.
Key Strokes to Do Tasks in Windows
Once you get onto them they can be faster than mousing around to do the same thing.
CTRL + A will select all
CTRL + C will copy text after it has been highlighted.
CTRL + V will paste text that you have copied.
CRTL + Z will undo any change that you have done.
CTRL + ESC will bring up the Start Menu.
SHIFT + F3 will turn all capitalized text into lowercase.
SHIFT + DELETE will delete an item immediately without placing it in the Recycle Bin.
ALT + TAB will bring up a Window with a list of icons representing programs which are currently running on your computer. While holding the ALT key, press and depress the TAB button to cycle between each icon task.
ALT + ESC will switch to the next task running on your computer. Hold down the ALT before pressing and depressing the ESC key to cycle to the next task.
CTRL + ALT + DELETE will bring up Task Manager and allow you to end a process (terminate a program) if it has crashed or has stopped responding. Select the process which has stopped responding, and then press "END PROCESS''.
SHIFT + INSERT will paste any text that is in your clipboard. Your cursor must also be placed in an area that will accept keyboard input for this to work.
TAB to moveforward from space to space when filling in a form.
Shift + TAB to move backwards when filling in a form.
Have you got some software you can recommend that may be of help to us struggling hams? Send me the links. Tx!
Donn at: ldsradiobc@gmail.com
Please advise me if there are any failed links. Thanks!
