KPSK / News: Recent posts

**NEW ANNOUCEMENT!
**

The decision to port KPSK to KDE 4.x is for purposes too intensive and would take more time to do than it would if we started from scratch and developed a program via QT5 & Python (easy to learn and use). The goal is to provide users with a very nice looking, modern interface that will handle all the availalbe digital modes present today. QT5 can handle the GUI and eye candy and Python (possibly C++ as well) can handle the guts and the interfacing. ... read more

Hello hams:

I have been in touch with Ernie, KG9NI, and I explained I would be interested in developing/porting KPSK over to the newest KDE version, 4.x series so I and anyone else who is interested will immediately start on a new version for those who utilize KDE 4.x.

The new software requirements will be KDE 4.x and the usual bunch of devel packages. There will be a few new protocols and features added as well. I will follow up with a complete Changelog for the project shortly. ... read more

Made a few changes on kpsk 1.2rc1.
Replaced the admin/ folder for proper compilation under kde 3.5
Redacted a few debian files and so on..
Changes provided by Sebastian Muszynski, thanks

I've checked compilation on Fedora Core 6

I have uploaded a release candidate for kpsk ver 1.2 this afternoon. The most significant changes are in the sound server, Thanks Hansi. These changes should fix most of the recent problems. Other changes include
- Added transmit power to configuration menus and logbook entries
- Added Alt-e as a shortcut key for clear Rx windows
- Added remote logging feature using Xlog logging program
- Added 6 meters to band menu
- Revise sound processing code, Thanks Hansi Reiser DL9RDZ
- Added selection of 8/16 bit and mono/stereo modes to devices menu
- Removed references to db-3. Code only will work with db-4.0 or greater... read more

A kpsk maintenance release has been made for version 1.0.1 This release makes some small improvements to overall operation (thanks Luc). I have release the tar.gz and RPMs for Redhat 8.0 and 9.0
I have also released a separate tar.gz and RPMs for Redhat Fedora. The Fedora release is NOT compatible with either RH 8.0 or 9.0. The Fedora release uses Berkeley DB version 4.1 ONLY and is NOT compatible with previous versions of the database!!... read more

From Wolf, DL2WRJ
After changing from Suse 8.2 to 9.0, Kpsk won't compile anymore.
There is something incompatible with the db4 libs.
Changing the include from <db4/db.> to <db40/db.h> resolves this problem.

Thanks for the tip Wolf. We will include in next release

Walter Giovannini, CX7BF, graciously translated the KPSK handbook for the world -- almost a year ago! A draft of the document is posted in the DOCS section.

I assume all responsibility for the grevious delay in getting this posted to the project page. Sorry folks!

Ernie

Compiling kpsk on RH 9.0 may fail during linking with an error message referencing libart_lgpl. This library is NOT loaded by default in RH 9.0. The libart_lgpl-devel (on Disk 2) must be loaded to successsfully compile and link kpsk

It appears sleepycat has made the construct of the dtatbase "open" command incompatible with previous versions of db when they went from 4.0.14 (used in RH 8.0 and others) and their current 4.1.24 release I am basing this statement on the following web site:
http://www.sleepycat.com/docs/ref/upgrade.4.1/fop.html

Note on this web site the construct of the open
command. There is an extra NULL required in the
example for the DB_TXN parameter. ... read more

RPM & .tar.bz2 files for KPSK v.1.0 Final have been posted! The trial period for 1.0rc1 went very well with over 450 downloads within the 40 days since that release. Mostly positive comments and good suggestions from several users. Thank you to everyone who helped with the testing.

Version 1.0 Final has a few minor tweaks and a couple of new features that we just could not justify holding back until 1.1:... read more

The past month of 1.0rc1 has gone well -- > 300 downloads (from sourceforge) and no bug reports -- we have received a feature request or two and have added color text window backgrounds as a result. We should see the release of 1.0 in the next couple of weeks.

Additionally, the RPM creation process has improved a bit, so 1.0 should include KDE menu entries and icons for Mandrake & Red Hat distributions. Hopefully, we'll find someone who can roll a .deb for 1.0 to round out the offerings... ;)

John Marshall (hotrodder) has joined the KPSK development team!

Welcome to the group, John!

Just like any healthy population, we need new genes to enter the pool to continue the evolution of KPSK.

If you have something to offer to the development of KPSK, please join us! You don't necessarily need to know code to help out (but if you do it is an added bonus!). There are lots of ways to get involved!

Send a message to the kpsk-devel mailing list, accessible through the Sourceforge KPSK Project page. Ideas are always welcome.

Three lists are available and open to everyone:

1. kpsk-develop@lists.sourceforge.net -- this list is primarily for communications by the development team. Subscription is open, archives are available online.

2. kpsk-users@lists.sourceforge.net -- this list is intended for use by users of kpsk to discuss operation, troubleshooting, and new ideas. Most if not all of the KPSK developers are subscribed to the list to help with troubleshooting. By posting a message to kpsk-users, your question could answer a problem bugging someone else....and that's a good thing! Subscription is open, archives are available online.... read more

We need to hear from YOU if:

1. you have discovered problems with KPSK's operation or
2. there are additional features you would like to see or
3. you would like to join the project by helping to develop or refine code, documents or webpages.
4. you just want to say hi ;)

73 -

As a realtime application, KPSK uses the soundcard directly. Conflicts can arise between KPSK and KDE due to the default aRtsd soundserver configuration to: start at KDE startup, run with realtime priority, and autosuspend when unused for more than 60 seconds. The documentation simply advises to turn off aRtsd completely--but what if you want to keep aRtsd running?

The solution to these conflicts is to:
1. Disable system notification sounds...system sounds continually tie up the soundserver, preventing it from autosuspending. If you want to keep system notification sounds, one option is to turn off the soundserver while running KPSK and turn it on again when you are done.
2. Configure aRtsd to autosuspend after a shorter period of time (15 or 30 seconds) to shorten the wait until aRtsd suspends to allow other applications to access the card.
3. Uncheck "run with realtime priority" -- this will help to resolve any performance lagging that is observed when aRtsd and KPSK are running simultaneously, with aRtsd suspended. This may also be helped by changing the system scheduling priority given to KPSK, e.g.
user@system:$ nice -10 kpsk... read more

Thanks to John Marshall's perseverence, we now have working RPMS for kpsk in Mandrake 8.2! Please give them a test and let us know if you have any problems.

Yahoo!

RPMS have been prepared and posted for Mandrake 9.0rc1. Note that these RPMS have only been tested on Mandrake 9.0rc1 and will NOT work on Mandrake 8.2 (unsatisfied dependencies with libstdc++). If you do try it on 8.2 and are able to make it work, let us know!

We still need RPMS for 8.2 with KDE 3.x.

If you try the Mandrake 9.0rc1 kpsk RPMS and have trouble or can't install, please let us know -- we need folks to test the RPMS.

An apparent conflict between KPSK and setiathome (the popular distributed ET detection software) has been reported along with a solution.

The problem occurs when simultaneously running KPSK and setiathome (in a spare console terminal) and is manifested as sluggish KPSK performance and response to cursor movement. The apparent cause of the problem is a too-high "-nice" setting for setiathome, giving it a scheduling priority that interferes with KPSK performance.... read more

We are in need of people that can translate the user interface and help documents into other languages. This is best done using the KDE application KBabel. A tranlation PO file is included in the source distribution. At this time, we have only english language documents, but a spanish tranlation is being prepared.

If you are willing and able to help, please contact us!

A long-winded "quick-start" installation guide has been added to aid those who use the Red Hat kpsk rpm for installation. It is available in the DOCS section of this site.

An RPM for KPSK v.1.0rc1 on RedHat 7.3 has been prepared, but needs to be tested by others. Please let us know of any problems or success!

Help wanted: Packagers for RedHat and Mandrake RPMs for the eventual release of KPSK v.1.0. A spec file is included in v.1.0rc1 from an earlier version -- it probably needs some work.

The release candidate 1.0rc1 should be available this weekend as a .tar.bz2 and .tar.gz archive from the Sourceforge KPSK Project page.

The current CVS version of KPSK (with tag KPSK_0_9_4_KDE3) has been ported to KDE 3.x /Qt 3.0.3 and contains many new features, including full documentation! We expect to make a release of KPSK version 1.0rc1 very soon. Until that happens, please try the KPSK_0_9_4_KDE3 tagged code.

To checkout the latest code from CVS, issue the following command from the command line. Do this in a directory in which you want the kpsk directory to be created (e.g. /home/username/):
cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.kpsk.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/kpsk login ... read more