USCA and the legacy of assault

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College life can be difficult with all the work students are given. However, when a bad professor enters the mix, the entire experience becomes a nightmare. Many of you have heard the story of my daughter’s sexual assault and denial of ADA Accommodations from the Fall of 2021 semester. That issue was never fully resolved by the administration of the University of South Carolina in Aiken.

This semester is not even going good and I have already had to deal with a professor who decided that my ADA Accommodations are open for debate. She felt so strongly about this that she resorted to simple assault in order to get her point across. And sadly, despite filing a police report, little if anything will be done by the administration as assaults are permissible by the University of South Carolina as a whole.

I would love to blame this institutionalized failure on the lack of a President for the entire University system. However, as we have been told time and again, USC in Aiken does not have to follow the directives of the mother system USC. Instead, they are allowed to break policies and procedures whenever and wherever they like. It seems that this permission extends to breaking the law as well. Professors are allowed to assault students and the Vice-Chancellor and Director of Human Resources who are the Title IX Coordinators can overlook these assaults in order to make the institution look better.

That’s right folks, the people tasked with investigating things that reflect badly on the university are people also tasked with making the university look good. Yet, we are to believe that they can be objective in their decisions and that they will fully and unbiasedly investigated all assault claims against professors. They will ignore their first duty to protect the institution from scandal or bad light and do what is morally right.

Once you stop laughing, you can continue reading.

They do nothing to stop assaults. They do nothing to actually investigate. They do everything they can to defend the institution and to protect it from a bad image at all costs. This is a good ole boy’s club on steroids. The victim will be blamed at every opportunity and they well-being of the students will be ignored in favor of protecting the institution and/or the professors.

Why do I care?

I am tired of having to defend my need for ADA accommodations to people who should know the law. This university prides itself on being the most ADA friendly in the area. How they got that designation, without paying for it of course, I have no idea. I have fairly mild issues with my physical and mental health and my accommodations do little to actually help me. The layout of the campus is entirely hostile to those with mobility issues. The staff and professors are very hostile to any accommodations. They view them as unnecessary and the student being a whiny little b-word.

They do very little to enforce ADA accommodations and they have no one tasked with investigating violations of the ADA. They would likely appoint someone who has a vested interest in protecting the university just like they always do, but at least there would be someone on paper as being the person in charge of complaints and investigations.

And that is not even getting into the whole issues of the Campus Police Department. They are extremely militarized so that they present the standard wartime us against them mentality. Beyond that, they could care less about helping the students. Sadly, the most I have ever seen them do is hand out parking tickets. They do not investigate anything, but rather rubber stamp everything as a-okey!

I fight because I want to see this university be the best it can be. As they prepare to celebrate Dr. King’s legacy, they forget one of his biggest statements, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” And lastly, Dr. King said, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” Far too often these administrators and people in power forget that their call is to elevate the lowly and powerless and to cast down the powerful and arrogant.

One side note about this Psychology professor: in their first assignment to the class, they passed out a form that asked how society should treat the “mentally disturbed”. This is an archaic and outdated way of discussing people with mental health concerns. It is also very triggering to those who deal with mental health concerns on a daily basis. They also showed a 20 year old video to the class in which the idea that mental health concerns were only a sign of weakness or “madness” was promoted. The whole video made it seem like the person was a bad person if they had mental health concerns. This is very disturbing for a Psychologist in private practice who teaches the next generation of therapists to be showing such films as though they are accurate.

UPDATE: 2:40 PM ET

Campus Police LT. Chavis took my report and was going to discuss with the professor the allegations. Of course, this meeting was recorded for future record. It is clear that nothing will come of an “investigation” as the powers that be are more than willing to sweep this incident under the rug. If there is no assault, then they have the safest campus in the south.

How not to be a good parent to a transgender child

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There was an article referred to me by a concerned conservative Christian who believed I might have an insight into the very damaging behavior revealed. After reading this article entitled “What I’ve Learned Rescuing My Daughter From Her Transgender Fantasy” by the
“author” Charlie Jacobs (a pen name), I believe the person who wrote this article needs to be arrested for child abuse. Sadly, the Daily Signal, the propaganda arm for the Heritage Foundation, had no issues releasing an article that encourages other parents to abuse their children in the same manner.

You may think I am being too harsh on this false identity who claims to be the parent of two teenage children, one female and one male being abused into remaining female for fear of being further abused. I am not being harsh enough in my opinion. Let me show you what I mean. All quotes used here are free use under the educational exemption under US Copyright Law.

My daughter’s story is no longer novel. Stories like it are occurring in your state, your town, and perhaps even on your street. Gender dysphoria—the incongruence between the mind and the body—moves stealthily and quickly to invade girls and boys alike.

But this isn’t a cautionary tale. It’s a warning.

“What I’ve Learned Rescuing My Daughter from Her Transgender Fantasy.” 2021. The Daily Signal. December 13, 2021. https://www.dailysignal.com/2021/12/13/what-ive-learned-rescuing-my-daughter-from-her-transgender-fantasy/.

From the very first blush the author makes it out like they are a hero. They think they are saving their child from some monstrous agenda to turn all children transgender. However, they are really working to make themselves look like less of a monster when you read the abusive and damaging behavior they participated in. They want to create a narrative where when their child commits suicide or accuses them of child abuse later in life, then they can point to this article as their defense from the consequences of their actions. And trust me, one of those outcomes will happen. Study after study have shown that this is what happens when this form of child abuse is prevalent in the home.

Then, my daughter immersed herself into anime art and cosplaying, the hobby of dressing like fantastical characters. I supported her creative side.

I didn’t know that anime and cosplaying can overwhelm a young mind. I didn’t know that anime and cosplaying involved gender-bending themes and that the community crosses into pedophilic and sexual themes.

I also didn’t know that the older cosplay community groomed the younger cohorts. 

During that same time period, my daughter went through Teen Talk—a Manitoba, Canada-based program that says it provides “youth with accurate, [nonjudgmental] information” on “sexuality, reproductive health, body image, substance use awareness, mental health, issues of diversity, and anti-violence issues”—at her public school.

She came home with a whole new language. She and all her girlfriends discussed their labels—polyamorous, lesbian, pansexual. None of the five girls chose “basic,” their term for a straight girl. 

“What I’ve Learned Rescuing My Daughter from Her Transgender Fantasy.” 2021. The Daily Signal. December 13, 2021. https://www.dailysignal.com/2021/12/13/what-ive-learned-rescuing-my-daughter-from-her-transgender-fantasy/.

In other words, anime and proper, biologically correct sex education turned her daughter transgender. None of that has caused the millions of children around the world to turn into mindless droves of transgender children seeking out hormones at all cost. Neither have they turned into “pedophilic and sexual” beings. There have been 4 arrests of members of the cosplay community in North America (USA and Canada) in the past 10 years. That is out of nearly 200 major cosplay events (over 100 attendees) and thousands of smaller cosplay events (under 100 attendees) in the past 10 years. That is far better record than the January 6, 2021 insurrection in the United States capital inspired by conservatives groups like the Daily Signal cater to.

The summer before ninth grade, she announced that she was transgender. Post-announcement, she began to threaten suicide. She sunk into deep depression…

They talked about how they are really boys, not girls. They discussed “top surgery” (that is, having their breasts removed) and “packers” that create a bulge in one’s pants to imply the presence of a penis.

My daughter’s electronic devices were filled with TikTok videos and YouTubers talking about how great they feel now that they had “transitioned.”

There were messages in which strangers told her to kick my head in because I was a “transphobe” for refusing to call her a male name.

“What I’ve Learned Rescuing My Daughter from Her Transgender Fantasy.” 2021. The Daily Signal. December 13, 2021. https://www.dailysignal.com/2021/12/13/what-ive-learned-rescuing-my-daughter-from-her-transgender-fantasy/.

She admits prior to this that she banned her child’s girlfriend from having anything to do with her. All because she was supportive of her desire to present as a male. She “claims” that they learned later that she molested their child. I find that hard to believe given the abuse this child endured from her parents. They would likely say anything to please their parents in order to stop the abuse.

Video of people expressing how good they feel after transitioning is not horrible or horrifying. This “parents” reaction to their child coming out is abusive. I also highly doubt that anyone suggested that the child “kick my head in”. Proof of this claim would need to be provided which this author does not do. So far, no proof of anything they said is given. Rather you are to take their word for these things and accept that they are the hero of the story.

I went nuclear. I took the phone and stripped it of all social media—YouTube, Instagram, Discord, Reddit, Pinterest, Twitter. I even blocked her ability to get to the internet. I deleted all of her contacts and changed her phone number.

I sat next to her while she “attended” school online via Zoom. I deleted YouTube from the smart TVs and locked up the remotes. I took every anime book from her room. I threw away all of her costumes. I banned any friend who was even the slightest bit unsavory.

I involved the police about the porn. I printed out the law and informed her that if anyone sent her porn, I would not hesitate to prosecute.

She hated me like an addict hates the person preventing her drug fix. I held my ground, despite the constant verbal abuse.

After going through seven mental health professionals, I found an out-of-state psychiatrist who was willing to examine the causality for my daughter’s sudden trans identity.

“What I’ve Learned Rescuing My Daughter from Her Transgender Fantasy.” 2021. The Daily Signal. December 13, 2021. https://www.dailysignal.com/2021/12/13/what-ive-learned-rescuing-my-daughter-from-her-transgender-fantasy/.

The only truthful thing this author says is in bold above. They went nuclear and fully abusive of their child. They isolated their child, took away any contact with the outside world, removed everything they liked and enjoyed and worked to psychologically abuse their child into submission. They did things that the seven mental health professionals they doctor shopped likely told them was highly abusive and would likely land them in jail. However, they continued to illegally doctor shop for one willing to assist in their abusive behavior.

This child hates their parents because their parents made it clear, you will be the child we want you to be, you will deny your real self or you will be abused until you die or are old enough to leave and never have anything to do with us again. Sadly, as a minister, I see tons of adults whose parents treated them like this as teenagers who now have nothing to do with their parents. They are finally happy and living their authentic lives without their parents. I have also met many parents who regret having abused their children for being their authentic selves but never got the chance to apologize because they had to bury their child after the committed suicide. In their notes left behind, they blamed the lack of love and support from their parents as they sought to be their authentic selves as the reason they killed themselves.

And yet, parents like the cowards who wrote this article under a false name, continue to abuse their children in the hopes that they will live the lives the parents want them to live. A parent’s love should be unconditional. They should love their child no matter who their child is. This poor child now knows that their parents hate who they really are and cannot be themselves around them or they will not be loved. That is the greatest form of abuse a child can have visited on them.

After a year and half of utter hell, my daughter is finally returning to her authentic self—a beautiful, artsy, kind and loving daughter.

I am not sure what the actual ingredients for the magic potion were for alleviating gender dysphoria in my daughter. The formula will vary, but what I did was, after a very brief misstep of using a male name, our family and all of the adults in my child’s life only used her birth name and corresponding pronouns.

We did not permit social transition, although we could not control the school setting. Unbelievably, our local Catholic high school refused to follow our edict. 

As I mentioned previously, we pulled the plug on all social media and her access to anyone other than those persons we vetted. I forced my daughter to listen to specific podcasts on the subject while driving her to school. I printed out stories about female detransitioners (women who had medicalized, but then regretted their actions and returned to living as a woman) and left them throughout the house. 

I left all of my research out in plain view, including “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters” by Abigail Shrier, “Gender Dysphoria: A Therapeutic Model for Working With Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults” by Susan Evans, and other books.

I followed the advice of Parents for Ethical Care’s podcasts and the book “Desist, Detrans & Detox: Getting Your Child Out of the Gender Cult” by Maria Keffler…

I let her see my posters from the protests I attended.  I peppered her with questions that demonstrated the illogic of the gender ideology. I happened to have funny gender-critical memes on my computer when she walked into my office. Most importantly, I held my ground. I refused to accept her delusion with compassion.

I know that I have to continue to be tenacious as the gender ideology has crept into every facet of life. But for now, I can breathe a sigh of relief.   

“What I’ve Learned Rescuing My Daughter from Her Transgender Fantasy.” 2021. The Daily Signal. December 13, 2021. https://www.dailysignal.com/2021/12/13/what-ive-learned-rescuing-my-daughter-from-her-transgender-fantasy/.

All of the above shows the lengths this parent when to in order to brainwash their child into being a different human being. These are tactics that are outlawed by international laws as being abusive of any human being much less a child. It is little wonder that their child changed who they are. The most hardened soldier put through this type of abuse would likely crack too.

It is my hope that Canadian officials investigate these “parents” and remove those children from them. Hopefully after real therapy and assurance that they can live their lives without abuse and manipulation, they will find happiness and peace living their authentic selves.

In conclusion, when my daughter came out as transgender, I offered my love and support. I helped her establish her identity as she felt it should be. I fought for her every step of the way when family, schools, and random strangers misgendered her. I fought transphobes and the trolls and terrorist like these parents on the internet. Today, my daughter is a happy and healthy young woman of 21 years old. Maybe the depression and suicidal ideations were not because their child was transgender. Maybe it was because the child knew their parents did not love and support them as who they were.

Cyber Terrorism and the blind eye of Americans

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For the last year and two months, my family, my church and I personally have been attacked, threatened, harassed, abused, bullied, and doxed by cyber terrorist on every social media platform known to mankind. This blog post is the beginning of my effort to tell my story so that others can hear and hopefully work to stop the abuse and hatred in our world. You can visit https://flab.godseyonline.net/ to read more and to see the proof of my statements here.

In August of 2020 I started a video ministry on the app TikTok in an effort to reach out to hurting and lonely people. The pandemic was starting to really effect people’s mental and emotional health and I was encouraged to start a TikTok account to help people with a safe place to be themselves and find support. For the first week, things were amazing. We met wonderful people who needed support and care and we worked to provide that to them.

However, when people found out that I was a part of the LGBTQIA+ community and so was my daughter, things turned sour. It started with someone in North Carolina coming into our TikTok live and threatening to kill me. From there, the long line of cyber terrorist started to visit our lives with increasing frequency. They posted my home address, my cell phone number, all my email address, pictures of my home and vehicles, as well as pictures of our church with statements that they were coming to shoot up the church.

The Aiken County Sheriff Department refused to help us. They felt the threats were justified because we were members of the LGBTQIA+ community. The cyber terrorist ceased on that and started claiming that they were a member of the Sheriff’s Department. I have come to believe they are likely a part of Law Enforcement somewhere as they seem to access to information that only Law Enforcement would have. (BTW, the Aiken County Sheriff Department routinely ignores crimes against the LGBTQIA+ community. I would love to plan a rally to demand they take our concerns seriously, however, no one in the local LGBTQIA+ Community cares about our struggle.)

As of today, October 14, 2021, the attacks continue. We have thousands of screengrabs posted at the above website. They have started coming in to our TikTok Lives using screen names of my relatives including my dead loved ones. There is nothing they respect, no one they care about except themselves. Surely there are people out there they have bragged to or that recognize their behavior. Yet, no one will come forward to stop this abuse.

They got me fired from my chaplain job at a local hospital by email them demanding I be fired. They claimed I was a pedophile because I am LGBTQIA+ and that I would end up hurting someone at the hospital. The hospital caved and fired me. They decided to rehire me under a long list of conditions that are untenable to my ministry. So I cannot go back to work there without ending my public ministry.

They got my wedding ministry closed by spamming the request for information form. They have worked to destroy every source of income for my family so that they can come into the Lives on TikTok and tell me to get a job and stop being a lazy fat-ass. This is the kind of hateful abuse that they visit on our family everyday. And no one care. WRDW-WAGT, WFXG, WJBF, The State, The Atlanta Journal Constitution and all national media refuse to even acknowledge this story. It is not sensational enough for them to run.

Abuse has become the American Way. Harassment and bullying (cyber terrorism) is our new favorite past time in America. And it must stop. Please help us. Please help end this abuse. Please stand with us!

An open letter to Bill Maher

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Today I woke up to find at comedian and sometimes progressive talk show host Bill Maher had hosted a segment on his HBO show on fat shaming. Hoping that he would present a sound defense of those of use who have struggled with weight issues most of our lives, I tuned in. I was devastated by what I heard.

Maher spoke about how fat shaming should make a comeback in our nation (not that it ever ended). He called fat people disgusting, slobs and gluttonous. He goes on to say that fat people are doomed to all kinds of health issues, don’t poop right, and will remain life long virgins. He says that we are the reason for the Amazon fires, climate change and all the economic issues in the world. His audience and the panel laughed and clapped about it the whole time. His panel was comprised of Rep. Joe Walsh, Christina Hoff Sommers, Rep. John Delaney, Maria Teresa Kumar, and Matt Welch. And they loved his fat shaming of people who struggle everyday.

Why am I fat? A lot of reasons. I eat less than everyone around me, even those who are thin and trim. Ask all the people at our National Church Synod in August. Many of them are thin and health looking and I ate less than they did! I struggle to eat 2,000 calories and day and still weigh 367. I go to the gym now 5 days a week and work out harder and longer than police offices built like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Ask anyone who knows me and they will attest to all this. Ask my doctor!

And yet, I get shamed all the time. People pass me in the store and make oinking noises. One lady a few months ago walked up to my table at a Resturant and told me to, “Back away from the table, piggy.” I had ordered a salad with no meats or cheeses and a fat free dressing. But who cares! Fat shaming should make a comeback according to Bill Maher.

So why am I fat? I was never really fat until I injured my back working at a tire company. I was 18 years old at the time. I was 5’10” and weighed 200 lbs. My co-workers thought it would be a great hazing for the new guy to have me work on a rear tractor tire (liquid filled) and not to help me get it back on the tractor. I had to try to lift (only a few inches) a tire taller than me onto an axle. I managed to do it, but damaged my back in the process. I had to be helped to the car because I could not stand up straight. And they all thought it was funny. They laughed and laughed. I spent the next week barely able to walk and mostly laying around crying in pain. The doctors at the time said it was just a pulled muscle. Years later, orthopedic surgeons determined I had damaged my back and now had arthritis and several bulging and slipped discs.

After my injury, I could not get around as well I once did. So I started to gain weight. I was horrified. I tried not eating as much. I tried diets. I ended up in the hospital suffering from malnutrition because I was starving myself. And yet, I continued to gain weight. The heart issues started. Then the diabetes came. High blood pressure followed. And the shaming continued to increase. First from my mom, who was larger than me, and then from the friends who would eventually decide they did not want to be seen around someone who looked like Shamu (their actually words). My girlfriend stood by me and eventually became my wife. I struggled for years with the feeling that I had saddled her with a broken and worthless husband. The pain got so bad that for several years I was walking with a cane and stooped over like a 90 year old man.

People felt so emboldened that they would comment about my weight in public and quite loudly. They wanted me and everyone around me to hear it. And most people laughed with them. Even some of those who were also weight challenged would laugh. It was painful and started to cause me to have Social Anxiety Disorder. It was not bad enough I had been raped and molested by a family member as a child. It was not bad enough that my mom had abused me and my siblings physically, mentally and emotionally. I had managed to stay rather fit despite the depression and PTSD. And now I was fat. I was made to feel ugly, unlovable, disgusting, and worthless.

It has taken years of therapy to overcome these issues. I tried to kill myself twice. I have spent years on diets. Many of them for a year or two each. And I would loose 20 or 30 lbs and then nothing for months on end. I am finally starting to loose more weight by going to the gym. I record everything I eat and still struggle to get to 2000 calories a day. Folks, I am not fat because of what I eat or how much I eat. There is far more to being fat than food.

Study after study has shown this. However, no one cares. They only want to get rid of fat people. A few years ago a republican lawmaker in California wanted all fat people to be castrated so that they could not make more fat people. Bill Maher and his laughing guest and panel want to make people feel more shame. I guess they are hoping we will kill ourselves so that they don’t have to look at “gluttonous slobs” all the time.

Bill Maher, his panel, and his audience should be ashamed of themselves. Fat shaming should be ended. And no, Bill, I don’t tell fit people to eat something. I honor their body struggles just like I want them to honor mine. But I guess you can never understand that.

Raspberry Pi, Direwolf, Digipeater, Igate, Soundcard version

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This is copied and adapted from https://n1aae.com/raspberry-pi-aprs-direwolf-linux-igate-digipeater/ who did a great job of putting this together.

What hardware you will need:

Quick Considerations:

The above setup is not going to be the most optimal setup available, however it is cheap, quick, and easy.

Due to the less than desirable receiving and transmitting qualities of a Baofeng, especially with the stock antenna, your range and APRS usefulness will be limited.

In my own personal RX/TX I-Gate and Digipeter, I use an outdoor, external antenna connected to my Baofeng. This dramatically increases the quality of the overall setup, however, I am still limited by the low overall power of the Baofeng radio. With that said, I’ve still had my own APRS packets heard at 100+ miles away.

For a permanent, 24/7 running installation you will need to purchase a cheap Baofeng battery eliminator kit and wire it to a 12V power supply or rotate between batteries to keep your setup online.

I’m assuming you are somewhat comfortable using the Linux terminal and that you already have your RaspberryPi setup with Raspian.

 

Installing Direwolf on Linux

Open up your Linux terminal of choice and let’s get started! If you are not working directly on your RaspberryPi and instead need to SSH into it over your at home network, go ahead and do that. By default the default user is “pi” and the default password is “raspberry”.

Let’s make sure your RaspberryPi system is up to date with the latest software and firmware updates. Run the following commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo rpi-update
sudo reboot

After your RaspberryPi has rebooted and you’re back in, let’s proceed.

Lets remove pulseaudio from the system if its installed by default. Although it works fine on most systems, it does not play well with ARM based devices such as the RaspberryPi. Let’s see if it’s installed, and if it is, remove it.

dpkg-query -l 'pulseaudio*'

Your terminal output will appear as below if pulseaudio is missing:

||/ Name                         Version  Architecture  Description
+++-============================-========-=============-=========================
un  pulseaudio                    <none>   <none>       (no description available)
un  pulseaudio-esound-compat      <none>   <none>       (no description available)
un  pulseaudio-module-bluetooth   <none>   <none>       (no description available)
ii  pulseaudio-utils              <none>   <none>       (no description available)

It should show as <none> under the version column. If pulseaudio is in fact installed, no worries. We’ll uninstall it with the following commands:

sudo apt-get remove --purge pulseaudio
sudo apt-get autoremove
rm -rf /home/pi/.pulse
sudo reboot

You’ll need to install Git on your RaspberryPi in order to download Direwolf in the next step and libasound as another dependency. To do so, simply issue the following command:

sudo apt-get install git-all libasound2-dev -y

The above will install what you need to move forward to the next step(s).

Visiting the Direwolf GitHub page, we can begin following the published instructions. This is the easy, copy/paste initial setup phase. Let’s go….

cd ~
git clone https://www.github.com/wb2osz/direwolf
(You can transfer to the beta channels here by follwing the instruction at 
the GitHub page. I used 1.5-beta-3)
cd direwolf
make
sudo make install
make install-conf
make install-rpi

Direwolf is now ‘installed’, but not quite ready for use. We’ll get there soon. Hang tight.

Playback and Capture Devices for APRS

We must now determine what your audio playback devices are for the Direwolf configuration. With your USB sound card plugged in, you can now issue the following command:

aplay -l

The output of this command should appear as shown below:

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: ALSA [bcm2835 ALSA], device 0: bcm2835 ALSA [bcm2835 ALSA]
  Subdevices: 8/8
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
  Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
  Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
  Subdevice #4: subdevice #4
  Subdevice #5: subdevice #5
  Subdevice #6: subdevice #6
  Subdevice #7: subdevice #7
card 0: ALSA [bcm2835 ALSA], device 1: bcm2835 ALSA [bcm2835 IEC958/HDMI]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Device [USB Audio Device], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

You can see that the USB soundcard is recognized as “card 1” in the above output.

To view your audio capture devices, which will be on the same USB soundcard, issue the following command:

arecord -l

Your output in the terminal should show the following. Since the RaspberryPi does not have a built-in capture device, the only device shown should be your USB soundcard.

**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 1: Device [USB Audio Device], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Take note of these.

Configuring Direwolf

Now for the fun part, actually configuring Direwolf! We’re almost there.

Let’s enter the directory in which Direwolf is now installed.

cd
cd ./direwolf

Now open up direwolf.conf in nano (if not already installed, do so by simply issuing, “sudo apt-get install nano”)

nano direwolf.conf

The direwolf.conf file in your terminal is now displayed and ready for editing. We must edit a few items in this configuration file for our use.

First, locate (Line 69):

#ADEVICE  plughw:0,0

You will need to uncomment this line and enter the correct hardware device values that we found in the previous steps, which was card 1, device 0. Change this line in direwolf.conf to:

ADEVICE  plughw:1,0

Scroll down until you see the following, and change N0CALL to your call sign.

MYCALL N0CALL

“N0CALL” should be changed to your callsign, with the SSID of your APRS station after it. For me, I use K5CVD-5. You may wish to use the SSID -0 after your call.

TIP: Choosing an APRS SSID to add after your callsign:

-0 Your primary station usually fixed and message capable
-1 generic additional station, digi, mobile, wx, etc
-2 generic additional station, digi, mobile, wx, etc
-3 generic additional station, digi, mobile, wx, etc
-4 generic additional station, digi, mobile, wx, etc
-5 Other networks (Dstar, Iphones, Androids, Blackberry's etc)
-6 Special activity, Satellite ops, camping or 6 meters, etc
-7 walkie talkies, HT's or other human portable
-8 boats, sailboats, RV's or second main mobile
-9 Primary Mobile (usually message capable)
-10 internet, Igates, echolink, winlink, AVRS, APRN, etc
-11 balloons, aircraft, spacecraft, etc
-12 APRStt, DTMF, RFID, devices, one-way trackers*, etc
-13 Weather stations
-14 Truckers or generally full time drivers
-15 generic additional station, digi, mobile, wx, etc

If your callsign was K1ABC and this is your primary APRS station, this line in the configuration file will show as:

MYCALL K1ABC-5

Moving forward…

If you wish to broadcast your APRS station on a map with a position beacon, you can do so by finding, uncommenting, and adjusting the following line for your individual location and setup:

#PBEACON delay=1 every=30 overlay=S symbol="digi" lat=42^37.14N long=071^20.83W power=50 height=20 gain=4 comment="Chelmsford MA" via=WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1

Uncomment the line, so Direwolf will not ignore it while running. Change the latitude and longitude settings to match the location of your location. The power, refers to the output power of your radio, height refers to the height of your antenna above your average terrain, and gain would be the gain of the antenna. The comment variable is for what you want the world to see when your beacon packets are received or when your station is shown on maps like at https://aprs.fi

You can easily find your latitude and longitude using an online tool such as this which is what I used.

Assuming you live in the middle of New York City’s Central Park, are using a Baofeng radio and your antenna is located ontop of a 20m mast, and you want your beacon comment to be, “New York City Central Park APRS” your PBEACON setting should look like this:

PBEACON delay=1 every=30 overlay=S symbol="digi" lat=40^46.3143N long=073^58.4963W power=5 height=20 gain=4 comment="New York City Central Park APRS" via=WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1

I see people using beacon comments advertising club information, APRS setup details, scheduled nets, etc. Mine shows up on APRS.FI as seen below:

APRS map view of station

 

If you wish to digipeat packets, you can do so by uncommenting the line shown below. Keep in mind that not all areas need another digipeater and if you live anywhere populated you may be doing more harm than good by operating a digipeater if it’s not needed. Being in a relatively rural area, I have a digipeater enabled.

#DIGIPEAT 0 0 ^WIDE[3-7]-[1-7]$|^TEST$ ^WIDE[12]-[12]$ TRACE

 

Now, let’s setup the Internet Gateway (I-Gate). Scroll down until you find the Internet Gateway section of direwolf.conf

#IGSERVER noam.aprs2.net

If you live in North America, all you must do is uncomment the above line. If you do not live in North America, change the value of IGSERVER to the appropriate server.

noam.aprs2.net – for North America
soam.aprs2.net – for South America
euro.aprs2.net – for Europe and Africa
asia.aprs2.net – for Asia
aunz.aprs2.net – for Oceania

In the lines below you will enter your login and passcode for the APRS network. You can generate a passcode for your APRS callsign with SSID instantly at this website.

IGLOGIN K1ABC-0 41325

Assuming your callsign with SSID was K1ABC-0 and the website linked above generated the passcode “41325” the line in direwolf.conf would look like the above. Change this to match your details.

Find the following line and uncomment it, make sure that you also adjust the latitude and longitude used as we did above.

#PBEACON sendto=IG delay=0:30 every=60:00 symbol="igate" overlay=T lat=42^37.14N long=071^20.83W

Setting Up Your Baofeng for RX/TX

If you followed everything above, you should now be (almost) ready to go. Before we run Direwolf for the first time, let’s go ahead and make sure our radio is turned on, connected to the APRS interface cable, which should be connected to the headphone/mic audio Y splitter, connected to your USB soundcard to your RaspberryPi.

  • Tune your Baofeng to the appropriate APRS frequency. In North America this is 144.390
  • Adjust your Baofeng’s squelch setting to “1”, I find this is what works best for me.
  • Adjust your Baofeng’s VOX setting to ‘on’ with setting “1”.

 

Baofeng, RaspberryPi APRS setup
It’s a horrible photo but it should give you an idea of how things get connected if you somehow were unable to figure it out on your own.

 

Running Direwolf

If you’re not already in the Direwolf folder, go ahead and move to it.

cd
cd ./direwolf

Now, you can run Direwolf.

direwolf

direwolf linux

 

You’ll should see something similar to the above. This shows that direwolf started, read the configuration file, PTT is not enabled because we are using VOX, ready to accept KISS TNC client on port 8001 which we’ll use later for Xastir, and it shows that direwolf connected to one of the North American APRS IGate servers.

The first packets shown are my own, being transmitted directly to the internet via the gateway.

The packet shown starting with [0L] is my own beacon being transmitted on channel 0 with low priority. (Transmitted packets are shown in magenta)

Shortly after running Direwolf, I heard the station K14BGI which is about 15 miles away from me. (Received packets are shown in green)

If you are seeing red errors regarding volume, adjust this in alsamixer:

sudo alsamixer

Hit F6 to select the soundcard the RaspberryPi is using, and then hit F5. Very important that you hit F5 because it only shows you the transmit volumes first. Spent an hour trying to figure that out. You will need to lower the mic input volume until these error messages disappear or when the general average of received audio level is around 50.

At this point, you should also be able to see your own station on https://aprs.fi

Autostarting

I worked for hours to figure out how to make autostarting work. No matter what I did, I could not get dw-start.sh to work properly. Yes, everything was installed right. It just would not work.

So I ended up doing this:

sudo nano /home/pi/.config/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart
@lxterminal -e /usr/local/bin/direwolf -c /home/pi/direwolf/direwolf.conf

Make sure the -e is the right path to your Direwolf binary and the -c is to your config file from above.

Then whenever the Pi reboots and loads the GUI, it will automatically load Direwolf.

Final Thoughts

This is by no means a perfect setup. I’m leaving comments open on this one to gain feedback as this is very much a learning process for myself as well and I by no means claim to be an expert.

If you’re using Baofeng’s stock antenna, you likely will not receive much (if anything) or transmit far. If you are limited to a whip antenna only, I highly suggest using a SignalStuff Antenna, made and sold by the gentleman who has brought the amateur radio world HamStudy.org, otherwise look into connecting your radio to an outdoor base station antenna. On my setup I’m using a Diamond x200A and it greatly extends the usefulness of such a cheap radio, however I will likely build a dedicated 2M antenna for APRS use so my desktop 2M/70cm rig can have it’s Diamond antenna back.

I’m also unclear if it is counterproductive having both Direwolf and Xastir set to transmit and digipeat, or if Direwolf must be configured that way to grant Xastir that capability.

Please leave a comment with any questions you may have, advice or tips on how to improve this as I’ll change this article as new information is received.

I like give credit where credit is due, as most of these installation instructions are from a great YouTube video I have found which helped me with my original install on my desktop PC before setting up a RaspberryPi for APRS use. You can watch the video here, which is made by Retro Tech & Electronics. This is a great video that will go more in depth of the how and why. My guide is simply a quickstart guide to get you going and skips some of the steps in the linked video as I found they were  not needed for my particular use. Subscribe to his channel for other great amateur radio and related videos. Additional guidance was provided by the official Direwolf documentation for Raspberry Pi.

Hospital and sexism

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I hate to write blogs like this one. But sometimes I have no other idea of what to do to effect change.

My wife works for a local teaching hospital. She has worked there since 2003 and for the most part, she has enjoyed working for them. Over the past year or two, things have taken a very dark turn and she is constantly being mistreated by her co-workers and management.

The hospital was a great place to work for in the beginning. The benefits were good, pay was ok and the work environment was good. Lately, her supervisor, with the blessings and help of the Lab management, has worked to make my wife’s life a living hell.

She was hired to work 3:30PM to Midnight 5 days a week and one weekend a month. Shortly after being hired, they asked her to take on an extra weekend a month to help with the shortage of staff. That was in 2003. She has never been moved from that every other weekend schedule. She asked for 4:00 PM to 12:30 AM because our son was in High School and sometimes she would need to pick him up before going to work.

They gave her that schedule, but over this summer asked her to take 3:00 PM to 11:30 PM because a co-worker was out with an injury. Now that the co-worker has come back, my wife asked to return to 4:00 PM to 12:30 AM as school will start soon. Her supervisor, a man, told her that he was not going to give it to her since she thought she was “owed” it. She never said she was owed it, in fact, she was merely asking for her old schedule back.

This same supervisor has male employees under him. He allows them to take long breaks, to sit and surf the internet when there is work piled up, and refuses to say anything to them when they make a mistake or fail to follow protocol. Yet, he will happily, almost gleefully, go after any female employee who make a mistake, who is as little as 1 minute late to work or back from a break, and will do everything in his power to hound them to work faster and harder.

This recent schedule issue is only the tip of the sexism iceberg. However, every time my wife goes to management about it, they report her interaction to her supervisor and then tell her to deal with it. Then, of course, he makes her life more difficult for daring to say anything. This is appalling!

Repeated attempts to resolve this issue have failed. She comes home upset, depressed, and exhausted. She cannot afford to quit, there are no local jobs in her field right now, and she is scared to death to talk to anyone else about this for fear of being fired. In fact, we both fear this attempt to blow the whistle on the labor violations and the sexism at her work will result in her termination.

However, I must say something. I cannot continue to keep silent about it. I am hoping that rather than punish her, the hospital will work to resolve these issues and correct them. I am hoping they will come to her and assure her that she is a valued employee and that they want to correct the illegal behavior of her supervisor, not punish her into silence.

I can hope. Please God, let them hear her.

Sprint: The nightmare that never ends

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Update: The problem is fixed, but I still won’t see much in the way of compensation for my ordeal. See below. 

I am putting this in writing so that there is a permanent record of the nightmare that I have lived through. It is still on going as of this moment, but I hope to resolve it shortly via the courts if necessary.

On June 29, 2017 at about 1 PM EST, I learned that my Sprint account had been locked. I could pay my payments, and see my information, but I could not make any changes or upgrade my wife’s phone. I wanted to upgrade her phone as a late birthday present to her. Instead, Sprint has made this a birthday nightmare.

I immediately began to contact Sprint to see why my account was locked and how I could get it unlocked.

The first person I chatted with, “Katey”, said it was an issue with my browser. I used Opera and Microsoft Edge browsers to view the site, but she said I needed to use Firefox, Chrome, or Internet Explorer. I have Firefox installed, so I tried with it. No joy. I tried with Internet Explorer. No joy. I downloaded and installed Chrome and tried Chrome. No joy. She proceeded to tell me it was a cookies issue in Chrome. Mind you, I had just installed Chrome and there were no cookies!

When I explained this to her, she got rude and shoved me off to another person who hung up on me.

The next person I spoke to, “Jessica”, kept putting me on hold for long periods of time until I told her I wanted to talk to her supervisor. I think she kept putting me on hold hoping I would go away.

The next person was “Bridget”. She finally said there was fraudulent activity on my account and she could not help me. I would need to speak to someone from the Fraud Department. I asked her to transfer me to that department, but she said she could not. They would have to call me. Before I could say anything else, she hung up.

Four hours later, after waiting for the call from the Fraud Department, someone called with a very heavy accent. I did not get her name. She told me there was no way to fix it short of going into a Sprint store and showing them my drivers license and they could unlock my account. I said this is ridiculous. I asked to speak to her supervisor. She said she would have to call me back later and then hung up on me.

Thirty minutes or so pass and “Ladonna” called me. She was a supervisor in the Fraud Department. She said that there was nothing she could do to fix my account. I would need to take 2 forms of ID to the store and they could unlock my account. I asked if she was sure they could do it and she said she thought they could.

I asked to speak to her supervisor and she sent me to the Executive Support Staff. About 30 minutes later an “Ari” called me to help me from the Executive Support Staff. She said that I did not need to go to the store, that she could verify my identity over the phone and the Fraud Department would unlock my account. After an hour on the phone with her and a small chat with “Axel” to verify my identity, she said the Fraud Department would unlock my account and I would hear from someone in Executive Support the next day.

I hoped and prayed that this nightmare of nearly 9 hours was over. Boy was I wrong!

June 30, 2017 – 4:00 PM EST – Some one from Executive Support called. She did not give her name and when I asked she moved on to other topics. She said that Ari was wrong, I would still need to go to the store and show my 2 forms of ID to the staff and they would unlock my account. She promised me that they could do it and it would be cleared up if I did. I asked if the CEO could fix this, she said no. Asked if I could speak to the CEO, she said he could not be bothered with me. Told her I could get an attorney and court order if it would help get my account unlocked, she said go ahead their legal team is the best and they would be happy to take me on. I asked to speak to her supervisor and she said he would have to call me back. She hung up.

At 5 PM EST, I arrived at a local Sprint store. I waited for an hour to be helped. Once I was called up, I told the young man, who was very nice, what was going on and that I had been through the ringer on this. I laid out 6 different forms of ID for him to see that I was indeed who I said I was. Get this, he then had to call the Fraud Department because they cannot unlock the account in the store!

After 30 minutes on hold at the Fraud Department, he passes his phone to me because they need information from me. The lady on the line said that she could unlock my account if I could just answer some questions about my account. She said I did not need to go to the store, they could have done this over the phone. When I explained to her all I had gone through, she wanted me to tell my story to her supervisor so he could fix this.

I asked for him to call me back, so I could give the young man at the Sprint store his AT&T Cell Phone back and he could return to helping customers. “Farnz” called me and we discussed everything that had transpired over the past two days. He said he deleted my online profile and that in 4 hours I could register a new one and my account would be fine then. He gave me a $230 credit on my account. At least he said he did.

I cannot see if he did because 6 hours later and the online site still says I cannot register because there are too many profiles linked to my account. But, my previous account is unaccessible as well. So I contact support again and the Fraud Department is closed. I have to wait until tomorrow to chat with them. So I will have to deal with this a third day in a row.

Bottom line, so much is wrong with Sprint. Here is what I think:

  1. Each rep, all 9 of them, called me on my Sprint phone. The same phone listed in my account as the primary phone. That should be their first indication that I am who I say I am. But if not…
  2. I gave them my security pin, backup question answer, my date of birth, SSN, and address each time and they matched the account information. This too should have been an indication that I am who I say I am. But if not…
  3. Who in the heck would spend 9+ hours fighting to get an account unlocked just to steal a phone??? There are easier ways to steal a phone than to spend all this time fighting with Sprint.

I would also like to point out that at no time since the supposed fraud on April 7, 2017, did Sprint ever notify me of a problem. This is a violation of S.C. Code § 39-1-90, Kan. Stat. § 50-7a01 et seq., 815 ILCS §§ 530/1 to 530/25, and Federal Law 15 U.S.C. § 1681a(p). Each holds for fines starting the day the breach occurred until the date I found out about it (June 28). I will be writing complaints to the US Attorney’s General office, and to the Attorney’s General of each state Sprint does business in. I will also file complaints with the FCC, FTC, SEC, CFPB, and the BBB.

This is a nightmare. And of course, I am under contract so I cannot move my service. Not to mention my credit is still messed up, so no one will give me service. I am royally screwed. Such is life in my world.

July 1, 2017 – 1:15 PM – Update: Call from “Eldon” in the Fraud Department. He says, finally, it is not a specialized team in the Fraud Department, like the last 9 people told me it was, but actually an algorithm that blocked my account. And the issue is supposedly with the IT department now. They may or may not have anyone in that department on a Saturday, so it may be Monday before they can fix it. Lucky me! Oh, and Eldon does not work on Monday, so someone else will contact me on Monday from the Fraud Department to let me know what new lie they can tell me about why it is not working.

Supposedly, the Executive Support staff is going to call me to help me with the phone upgrade so that I don’t loose my grandfathered plan. That has never quite worked out in the past, but we will see what happens. Stay tuned for the next installment of How the Bishop Turns.

July 3, 2017 – 8:50 PM – Update: Day 5. Still no solution in sight. No one from the Executive Support Team called me on Saturday like they said they would. “Nora” called me at 8:50 PM and said she would try to help me. I told her I seriously doubted that she would be able to resolve any of these issues. She did not seem too nice. At least the website is no longer telling me there are too many profiles attached to my account. Now it is giving me the error of [MySprint : Register for My Sprint : mysprint_register_for_my_sprint_error_validation_modal : en_US]. This is after it sends a security code to my phone and I put the code in the box and hit enter. Five times I tried this process and all five times it gave me the same error. “Nora” had no idea what that meant and would have to “discuss it with her team” and get back to me within the hour. Twenty minutes left of that hour and we will see if she was telling the truth or just lying like the last 10 reps.

It is really sad that it has taken 5 days, 11 reps and over 25 hours of manpower and wasted time on my part and there is still no solution to be found. This is unconscionable. As big as Sprint is, they should be able to deal with these issues on a much more expedient way. Besides, it was an error on their part and an over zealous computer algorithm that causes the error to begin with. Yet, me the customer, has to deal with the headache and is punished for their mistake.

I hope they intend to do better than a $230 credit considering what a nightmare this has been.

July 3, 2017 – 9:47 PM – Update: with 3 minutes left of the hour she promised me, Nora did indeed call back. She walked me through the steps to get my new profile established and the account now works. It took 26 hours, 11 reps, and 5 days to get it working. I have to say, I appreciate Nora working to get it resolved.

I did managed to get a $230 credit on the account. While that is far from equal compensation for the ordeal I went through, I guess it is the best I can hope for.

Dana’s phone and Thomas’ phone are now upgraded. I am paying a fortune for 32 GB iPhones. They wanted $100 down to get the 128 GB version. They both have 64 GB versions right now. So I am not sure how happy they will be with the 32 GB versions. But such is life. If Sprint wants to make this right, I have a couple of ideas:

  1. Give me 3 months worth of free service. That should be compensation enough for all I went through. Or,
  2. Change my upgrades of Dana and Thomas’ phones to the 128 GB versions at the 32 GB version price with no down payments. Or,
  3. Clear all our leases out (except for the ones I just upgraded) and let us keep the equipment.

I think any or all of those would be a step in the right direction to truly resolving this horrible ordeal.

Issues with OpenDKIM

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I spent the better part of two days trying everything under the sun to get OpenDKIM to work on our server. Finally found the solution.

No matter what I changed, OpenDKIM would not listen on port 8891. Finally, I discovered that in the opendkim.service file it was not loading it to 8891, but to a sock file.

[html]ExecStart=/usr/sbin/opendkim -P /var/run/opendkim/opendkim.pid -p local:/var/run/opendkim/opendkim.sock[/html]

It needed to be changed to:

[html]ExecStart=/usr/sbin/opendkim -P /var/run/opendkim/opendkim.pid -p inet:8891[/html]

Restart OpenDKIM and Postfix and you should be up and running again.

Zebras, ulcers, and me

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A friend of mine asked me the other day if I knew why Zebras don’t get ulcers (a concept that also has a book written about it). I did not have a clue why they didn’t especially since they are hunted by so many predators.

Unlike us human beings, Zebras deal with the immediate danger by flight or fight, however, once the immediate danger is over, the Zebra continues like nothing happened. The Zebra does not revisit the issue, analyze the good and bad, or dwell on the hurt or betrayal. It moves on like nothing happened.

The Zebra also doesn’t worry about the next attack or predator. It does what it normally does until faced with danger again. It does not worry about its next meal or drink. It just looks for it like it always does until it finds what it needs.

We dwell on issues. Someone hurts us, then we dwell on it. We follow them, keep them close. Hence the old adage, keep your friends close and your enemies closer. In reality when we do that we continue to allow them to affect our lives, we keep reliving the past hurt, pain, frustration, and etc.

This is a hard lesson, trust me, I know! I am still trying to learn this. I go and visit the websites of people who hurt me. I look them up on Facebook to see what they are saying and doing. And by doing so, my blood pressure goes up, I get frustrated and angry. Or I get sad and depressed. Either way, it only damages me. It does not damage them. They could care less!

So my lesson for today is to learn to let go. Stop living in the past. Stop worrying about what was and what could have been. Instead, I am going to focus on today. I am going to focus on the future, free of the hurt and pain of the past. (And I am going to use the Facebook block people feature more often!)

Will you walk this path of letting go with me?