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Multitasking

Subject: Multitasking
From: K8DO@aol.com (K8DO@aol.com)
Date: Tue Aug 22 10:59:37 1995
Hi steve...
Thanks for the copy of the Email to Howie...
I truly don't know much about the newer, super sophisticated, operating
systems, but I have been around awhile and I do have a gut feeling for the
reality of the cold, cruel universe...<no free lunch, gimmicks cause
problems, the fancy solution ain't,  etc.>
I started using computers, in industrial automation, in the early 70's...
These were 16 bit machines out of california (Computer Automation, Inc., as I
remember, that had to do two 8 bit fetches for each instruction...This was hi
tech stuff in those days... We used teletype machines, Model 33 TTY's, as the
keyboard/monitor (paper screen! :)....To boot (cold start) a computer we
stood in front of the computer rack <24 of them> and using a row of  toggle
switches keyed in a bootstrap program one byte at a time - using the toggle
switches to set each bit of the byte < 01010011, etc>, then pressing the
'STEP CPU' push button twice <while holding up a spring loaded, safety
switch> to load that byte into ram (2 nibbles make a byte) -  This took 5 to
10 minutes, depending on what you did the night before... If you made a
mistake you had to start  over from the beginning, i.e. serial data
input...The bootstrap program made the computer able to accept data from the
tape reader on the TTY... Then you loaded the portion of the main program
handled by that processor, by running the paper tape through the reader,
which took another 22 minutes....Needless to say, the programmer who caused a
major crash, and a subsequent cold boot of the entire system, had a lot of
paper clips shot at him...

I can tell you many stories, like the programmer working for me, who balanced
his checkbook in binary... and another, who left notes in hexadecimal which
had to be converted into ascii to be read...and another, who would fix a
crashed computer by sitting in front of the machine in the lotus position
going "Ommmmmm     Ommmmmmm   Ommmmmmmm"....Then, without having so much as
even glanced at the multi-hundred, paged book of source code, he would
slowwwly rise to the standing position, input bytes through the boot
switches, and walk away, with the computer back on line and working...I still
suspect he programmed bugs in the code just so he could do his shtick,
although he stoutly denied it...
I moved on to various projects, PDP's were popular in those days, the 6's,
7's, 8's, 9's, 10's, 11's....etc... Used some DEC stuff, used some ALTOS,
used others I have forgotten, etc...All mini's, never got into mainframes...

For home computers I started with a kludged 4004 and 256 bytes of RAM...
Later had the ALTAIR kit, which had 4K of RAM and thought I was in hog
heaven...Then went to S100 bus machines... From there to Apple / Apple I /
Apple II / Lisa... Passed through Sinclair's {Clive was a real trip} - Trash
80's - Commodore's  - 8088 - 8086 - 286 - 386 - 486, and into the present...
Having said this I will admit that my area of (so called) expertise is/was
electronics, 3 phase power systems, and automated machinery...(things with
hundreds of electrical motors, and thousands of limit switches and machine
tool relays)  I was only by osmosis/necessity a computer
operator/programmer... 
Non the less, I have at times become handy at writing code in various
languages to fix bugs in the software... 99% of the CPU's / Languages / OS I
have worked with are gone, vanished, kaput, i.e. history, because they were
not THE ANSWER...

 Given this experience, you will begin to understand my cynicism about
WinDoz95 <and for that matter OS/2 and DeskView>  In 10 years they will be
history just as Applesoft, PowerBasic, and a heap of Languages/OS are
now...Threading is merely a software device to allow the OS to use CPU idle
time more efficiently... It does not change the physical reality that
operating code (and immediate data) have to be in RAM for efficiency...Any
time the CPU has to fetch code/data from a drive there is a heavy hit on
speed...If the CPU has to shuttlle baskets of code/data in and out of the HD
the hits are even heavier...What is really hitting performance is the current
fad for GUI's...

They are  writing these humongous OS that require 8 meg's of RAM to hold the
operating code and data for one program... The Intel's and MicroSoft's have
become complacent dinosaurs...They are merely hanging more chrome on the same
chassis - working on the 686 - 786, etc... They have quit evolving and
therefore they are doomed to become extinct....Out there, somewhere, are a
couple of bright guys saying to each other, "Hey, wouldn't it be neat if
instead of DOS and a CPU we did... etc.", and when their neat idea becomes
reality the newest Intel CPU and biggest MS OS will suddenly look like my old
4004 and 256 bytes of RAM...

Sorry to ramble on like this... You pushed one of my hot buttons...

Cheers ... Denny    k8do@aol.com

>From Marijan Miletic <s56a@ljutcp.hamradio.si>  Tue Aug 22 15:10:50 1995
From: Marijan Miletic <s56a@ljutcp.hamradio.si> (Marijan Miletic)
Subject: Juicy Bev ground
Message-ID: <75169@ljutcp.hamradio.si>

Dave, W6QHS while expanding on Randy, K5ZD/1 article on <50$ Beverage kit gives
a good example of common sense ground at P4 location by using weed juice flow!
As we are talking about 400-600 Ohm antenna impedance terminated in pure
resistor (powerful enough to sustained induced RF from nearby TX's), we can 
allow few tens of Ohms grounding resistance without affecting performances
much.  However, this approach is NOT valid for quarterwave verticals (36 Ohms).
This all brings nice memories of my YU1PCF county site some 25 years ago with
20m vertical for 80/40m and my, then new, TH6DXX with hand rotation.  I put 
my first Beverage toward West and terminate it by 560 Ohm/2W resistor and 
matched it to RX with PI filter (3:1 fixed C as far as I remeber).  
73 de Mario, S56A, N1YU.
P.S. Sri for typos on PR-Internet link with no chance for correction.

>From George Cook <george@epix.net>  Tue Aug 22 15:39:28 1995
From: George Cook <george@epix.net> (George Cook)
Subject: NAQP restults p/t
Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.91.950822103136.4345B-100000@peach.epix.net>


This was a great test of the new amplifryer and I am happy to say that it 
preformed admirably!  Also found out that the kids telephone downstairs 
works as a pretty darn good shortwave reciever when exposed to enough 
RF.  Also found out that the computer that I built is far more RF proof 
than the old one was no lock ups at all.  Lastly found out that Jim Black 
Baluns have lots and lots of smoke trapped inside them.

Don't know what all the belyaching was about on 80 meters I thought that 
the band was ok and had rates upwards of 150/hr.
Was only on for 3 hours.

Likely will go for the gusto next year had a pretty good time.


Band              Qs                Mults
15                1                 1            Groundplane @ 25 ft
20                91                27           Groundplane at 30 ft 
80                63                33           Yaggis at 75 ft
160               2                 2            Folded Dipole at 70 ft
-----------------------------------------------
Totals          157                63     
----------------------------------------------- 
              Score               9891
              ---------------------------------

*************************************************
* George Cook   AA3JU  Bangor, PA  FN21         *
* george@peach.epix.net  AA3JU@N3IQD.EPA.USA.NA *
* If you're not FRC remember:...............    *
* .......There's no shame in being 2nd best!    *
*************************************************


>From Trey Garlough <GARLOUGH@TGV.COM>  Tue Aug 22 16:10:01 1995
From: Trey Garlough <GARLOUGH@TGV.COM> (Trey Garlough)
Subject: Multitasking
Message-ID: <809104201.973395.GARLOUGH@TGV.COM>

> For home computers I started with a kludged 4004 and 256 bytes of RAM...

We have gotten a bit out of the scope of contesting here.  I think
it's time to move on to the next thread.

--Trey, WN4KKN/6


>From aa4lr@radio.org (Bill Coleman AA4LR)  Tue Aug 22 16:22:52 1995
From: aa4lr@radio.org (Bill Coleman AA4LR) (Bill Coleman AA4LR)
Subject: DSP Radios
Message-ID: <v01520d01ac5fa3acd167@[205.160.29.40]>

>Where will it all end? Will the DSP (and all the other computers) end up in
>the radio, or will the radio end up inside the PC?

I'm sure the radio will end up inside the PC.

Look at the trend. Already, modems are appearing inside the PC. NeXT and
Apple both briefly flirted with putting DSPs in their boxes, but recent
innovations made that obsolete. With today's RISC processors, the DSP
function can be performed by the host CPU.

Apple has been shipping such a solution for modems for two years, first
using the DSP chip, and in March 1994 moving totally to the host CPU. Intel
is talking about doing the same thing with Pentiums with their NSP (Native
Signal Processing) standard.

Given that the power of the desktop CPU continues to increase, it won't be
long before a lot this DSP processing could be done by the host CPU without
significant performance degradation. A V.32 modem chews up a lot of CPU
power, yet it doesn't cripple even the slowest of Apple's PowerPC
offerings.

All that will be needed is the appropriate signal interfaces - RF front
end, Mixer, DDS generator, short IF strip, and a digitizer. The rest could
happen inside the computer, with audio output and input handled via the
host sound I/O.

I'm sure this could happen today, especially on some of the 604 offerings.
Put it on a PCI card, and the hardware can plug into an Intel PC or a newer
Mac.

>Someone mentioned the Comfocus "Softwave" radio-on-a-PC-plugin-board product,
>which was at Dayton 94. Apparently Comfocus has become unglued somehow.
>
>THis year at Dayton, another of these boxes appeared. It's called "Radware",
>and is built by Comer Communications of San Diego, CA.

See? Someone is already doing it!

>Again - this is not to be construed as a plug for Brian's product (and no, I
>don't have one myself...). However, the performance possible using the
>>resourcfes
>of a PC and DSP-based sound peripheral is getting darned good.

Soon enough, you won't need that DSP for a sound peripheral, either.

Bill Coleman, AA4LR      Mail: aa4lr@radio.org
Quote: "The same light shines on vineyards that makes deserts." -- Steve
Hackett



>From David & Barbara Leeson <0005543629@mcimail.com>  Tue Aug 22 16:44:00 1995
From: David & Barbara Leeson <0005543629@mcimail.com> (David & Barbara Leeson)
Subject: Q re Bev. kit
Message-ID: <24950822154442/0005543629NA5EM@MCIMAIL.COM>

K5GN asks why not just run the terminating radials on the ground, and do
they screw up the F/B?  Operating in haste and ignorance (typical contest
condx, no?) I figured that the radials should be closer to the ground so
they would have substantially less signal pickup, but should not be so close
as to be lossy enough not to show any resonant behavior.  I ran them in the
same direction as the beverage at both ends, trying not to have pickup in
some other direction.

Although signals didn't rise out of the noise like magic, they did the 
job, both at P40V and HC8A.  It would be worth modelling or experimenting,
but antennas close to the ground require more than MININEC, of course.  It's
hard to model the wild donkeys and goats, but the electromagnetic part should
be interesting.

73 de Dave, W6QHS


>From Ronald D. Rossi" <rrossi@VNET.IBM.COM  Tue Aug 22 17:43:02 1995
From: Ronald D. Rossi" <rrossi@VNET.IBM.COM (Ronald D. Rossi)
Subject: Big Blue  - Team Score

Ref:  Your note of Tue, 22 Aug 1995 11:32:10 -0500 (CDT)

Subject: Big Blue  - Team Score

|corrected the call...SORRY Rich...thanks George!

WQ5G    332 Q X 119 M =  39,568   paper log
| WB5M    340 Q X  83 M =  28,220   8 hours
N1PBT   241 Q X  86 M =  20,726   no excuses
WA1PRY  241 Q X  48 M =  11,568   almost 20m only
WA2IBM  000 Q X  00 M =  00,000
                        -------
                        100,082 Total

Well it would be nice to say that we were all running our favorite
loggers on Aptivas under OS/2 given our affiliation, but we weren't!

I personally was not able to scrounge up any 15m or 10m contacts.
I called to deaf ears many times and never heard any of the multis
that alerted this multiplier to their presence.

Thanks to all the great ops that pulled me out of the noise on 80m.

73 de N1PBT...Ron  (rrossi@vnet.ibm.com) ><>

>From Straw, Dean,  N6BV" <rdstraw@arrl.org  Tue Aug 22 18:21:00 1995
From: Straw, Dean,  N6BV" <rdstraw@arrl.org (Straw, Dean,  N6BV)
Subject: Q re Bev. kit
Message-ID: <303A12A0@arrl.org>


Dave: That can be modeled using NEC2 or equivalent. I think you're right.

73, Dean, N6BV

 ----------

K5GN asks why not just run the terminating radials on the ground, and do
they screw up the F/B?  Operating in haste and ignorance (typical contest
condx, no?) I figured that the radials should be closer to the ground so
they would have substantially less signal pickup, but should not be so close
as to be lossy enough not to show any resonant behavior.  I ran them in the
same direction as the beverage at both ends, trying not to have pickup in
some other direction.

Although signals didn't rise out of the noise like magic, they did the
job, both at P40V and HC8A.  It would be worth modelling or experimenting,
but antennas close to the ground require more than MININEC, of course.  It's
hard to model the wild donkeys and goats, but the electromagnetic part 
should
be interesting.

73 de Dave, W6QHS


>From Steve Runyon WQ5G  512-838-7008 <steve@austin.ibm.com>  Tue Aug 22 
>19:28:50 1995
From: Steve Runyon WQ5G  512-838-7008 <steve@austin.ibm.com> (Steve Runyon WQ5G 
512-838-7008)
Subject: Integrated Rig and PC (was DSP Radios)
Message-ID: <9508221728.AA25133@runyon.austin.ibm.com>

I found Bill's note (and this thread) extremely interesting:

I like the idea of an integrated rig/PC - just plug the 
optional 'ham radio card' into the expansion slot (user modifiable 
for 10 meters upon supplying proof of valid amateur license of course)...

I guess instead of knobs, we'd have to use the mouse to select the 
functions, tune the rig, etc ... well, OK, I could get used to that. 
I'd definitely want the optional heavy-duty computer power supply to 
get the full 100 Watts output - I need it to drive the external 
linear, plus I don't want to be QRP all of the time! I could even go for  
the optional fiber-optic interface to allow placing the amp at the 
base of the tower and get rid of the feed-line losses. (Those 
searching for the last fraction of a dB could even mount the 
PA right below the beam, as was suggested yesterday.)

Of course, it'd come with a built in packet controller, and the 
supplied logging program would interface directly with the 
'ham card' via the system bus instead of this archaic RS-232 
stuff... 

Bill's right, this could be designed and built today!

COOL!! Sign me up for one! I guess I'd prefer one of the PowerPC 604 
models (I did a lot of the physical design of the chip, it'd be a gas 
to have a processor I worked on be the heart of my rig as well 
as my computer!)
de Steve 
(standard disclaimer: obviously anything said here is strictly 
my own opinionated opinion)
------- Forwarded Message
From: aa4lr@radio.org (Bill Coleman AA4LR)
Subject: Re: DSP Radios

I'm sure the radio will end up inside the PC.
...
Look at the trend. Already, modems are appearing inside the PC. ...
...With today's RISC processors, the DSP function can be performed 
by the host CPU.
.....
All that will be needed is the appropriate signal interfaces - RF front
end, Mixer, DDS generator, short IF strip, and a digitizer. The rest could
happen inside the computer, with audio output and input handled via the
host sound I/O.

I'm sure this could happen today, especially on some of the 604 offerings.
Put it on a PCI card, and the hardware can plug into an Intel PC or a newer
Mac.
......



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