"Basically, IT magnifies power"

I like this quote from Bruce:

"Basically, IT magnifies power"

He is using it to discuss the activities of the Syrian government to deal with dissidents, but I think it applies to more mundane situations - like running a business.

Not a Bad Day

This is how my day started on Wednesday.

I'm not really sure how it happened other than to say I wasn't paying attention. The quote to replace the three panels is almost $500. I still say it wasn't a bad day.

• My best friend's mom has pancreatic cancer.
• A good high school friend has a new born that is in the NICU because of problems with underdeveloped organs.
• My pastor's father died this week.
• A co-worker's son died this week.
• The father of another good high school friend had a heart attack and almost died.
• A co-worker's daughter, who has run several marathons, is being told she needs back surgery related to her childhood scoliosis - and that she will never run again.

Perspective. I'm getting a lot more of it right now than I care to. If you pray, you might consider saying one for these folks.

Curiosity – What’s Inside The Cube

"Curiosity – What’s Inside The Cube" is an app for the iPhone. Don't. Download. It. I read about it in Wired. It is mindless and a huge waste time. Gotta go. I've got little cubs to click.

Ten Weird Chinese Mobile Phones

Some strange phones, but one on page three, the Concox GK3537, reminds me of the Runbo X5. It does 400-470 MHz.

ianfogg42 Ten weird Chinese mobile phones theregister.co.uk/2012/11/28/ten… —> end of day funThu, Nov 29 20:18:25 from Tweetbot for iOS retweeted by tim

---

Name: Ian Fogg

Location: London, UK

Web: http://www.ianfogg.com

Bio: Analysis of mobile, smartphones, tablets & connected experiences. Head of Mobile at IHS Screen Digest. Formerly: Forrester, Jupiter. Dad. Learning photography.

Following: 854 Followers: 1676 Updates: 6561

---

Emergency Power

Some interesting emergency power options from Portable Universal Power for the ham on the go. I need a yellow or red ReVolt to match my radios. Check on the pictures on that page of the ReVolt in the Molle pouch and charging the iPad.

Via SaysUncle

Too Much of A Good Thing

Running too fast or too much may be bad for you if you are too old. Go figure.

Baojie BJ-UV55: Mini-Review

A little bit lost in the Anytone and Wouxun mobile drama is the Baojie BJ-UV55. Nate had done a write-up about it in July. Dale commented on the post that he has one and really likes it so far:

"I recently purchased a Baojie BJ-UV55 and have been using it in my car. So far I must say I am really impressed. I was initially concerned with the lack of an internal speaker, and the use of a speaker mic so I had an external speaker ready. After trying this little radio out I put the external speaker away as the audio quality of the speaker mic, was far superior to the external. I used the cable and software method of programming the radio and found it to be quite easy compared to most of the radios I have programmed. I have also had the opportunity to program and use a BJ-271 (VHF) and have found it to be a great radio too. It is only recently that I have strayed from american and Japanese radios to try out some of these very reasonably priced radios from China. So far, I am starting to think these are the radios for me. Brand names are not important to me, and I think the value for the dollar is definitely here with these Chinese radios. I will update later once I have worked the BJ-UV55 more. 

Dale
Canada"

I hope we get to see more about this radio. You can order one from the 409Shop for $223 (USD). If you are in the US, order from Kight Radio for a few dollars less ($214.95. USD).

Puxing PX-888K: Follow-Up

Hans previewed the Puxing PX-888K and I linked to his post. I even made fun of the fact that you could get a free shirt or jacket if you bought them in bulk. Some how I missed his follow-up of the actual review - Review Puxing PX-888K Part I - First Impressions. (No Part II yet, but he did mention the PX-888K in August when talking about the MYT-Q2.) Here are some key parts from his review:

Good build quality, nice features (like CTSS, DCS, DTMF, 1750 Hz burst tone, ANI), easy programming and "pleasant" receive audio, but "TX audio is still muffled, and the lack of highs makes your transmission hard to listen to."

The lone review by KD8DVR on eHam.net gives the PX-888K a thumbs up. He seems happier with the transmit audio - just comments it is a little "bassy." He's also posted a more detailed review on epinions.com. He specifically mentions that he has no trouble with the muffled audio that is common to Puxing. He does wish the battery life was better.

As with most Chinese radios, everyone is unhappy with the scanning speed.

The PX-888K has Part 90 acceptance - FCC ID: AUJPXDZ888K001. If you go to the FCC site, and search for AUJ in the Grantee Code  field, you can see the documents submitted for approval including pictures, manuals, etc.

Surprise - there is a Yahoo Group for the PX-888K! Only 77 members and 131 posts as of right now.

Current price is $80.00 with speaker mic at 409Shop. Or $89.95 at Kight Radio if you want a US dealer.

One update, there is still no CHIRP support, but it is on the list.

Here is the usual unboxing video courtesy of the 409Shop.

Sex Sells! Sex Sells Ham Radios?

It's not just Baofeng... it is all the Chinese radio manufacturers.

Baofeng BF-666: Cheap, Fixes

Hans had taken a quick look at the BF-666S (aka the BF-777S aka the BF-888S) and found them to be decent, cheap ($23.50 USD) radios. He sold a couple of them to a fellow ham - after giving him fair warning of the short-comings. As no good dead goes unpunished, this transaction ultimately turned into a bit of detective work and a project to fix the distorted audio. Along with that modification, he also suggests checking the frequency accuracy if you have have access to the appropriate tools.

Job Posting - See the World, Meet & Kill Interesting People

Target Elimination Specialist opening with Britian's MI6.

AES Promotions

k9aes Check out the radio promotions currently at AES - ow.ly/fyzyfSun, Nov 25 13:23:19 from HootSuite

CheckMark

I'm going to try out CheckMark - an app for doing location based reminders. I use Siri all the time for time-based reminders - "check the laundry in ten minutes" or "replace the air filters at 6:00 PM on Saturday." I think the location based reminders would be nice as the GPS location acts as filter, so you only get the reminder when you can do something about it - "check for .22lr when at Wal-Mart." If the granularity is good, I might even use it to remind of tasks when I am in a specific building at work.

Two Years of Brick O'Lore

I missed the actual two year anniversary on the 14th, but this is close enough for government work.

Not too much has changed since last year's review.

I still don't have an AR (but I do have two lowers!) or an M&P9. I've not been shooting in a long time.

I rarely even turn on the ham radios - partly because my KG-UVD1P that I was using in the car has died. Anyone know anything about a good, cheap Chinese mobile radio I could buy? (HA!) I did spend a little time with WSPR, but would like to invest some more. I haven't even cracked the book for the Extra Class exam.

I ran a marathon this year. I'm just crazy enough to think about doing another one. The bad news is I would need to start training now for an April race. Ugh.

I'm also getting a lot more involved at church. One week, between services, meetings, and fellowship, we were there four days out of the week.

Between family, exercising, church, work, and blogging; my days tend to be pretty full.

The radio posts are still the most popular, but that doesn't stop me from posting about anything I find interesting or funny. The blog has had 539,362 page views since I started it - around 112,000 in 2011 and 427,000 in 2012. I posted less in 2012 - 727 vs 856 in 2011 for a total of 1,583. SaysUncle is still the single largest referring URL thanks to a story about ninjas (of all things!). Makes me think I should resell radios under a zombie ninja brand.

The most popular post (15,555 views) is about the software for the Baofeng UV-3R Software. Given the endless discussion on the Yahoo groups about how to get the software to work with your Baofeng/Wouxun KG-whatever or UV-xxx, this really isn't a surprise. I think almost all of this traffic is driven via searches.

Given so much of my traffic is via search, the biggest surprise for me this year has been the jump in my RSS subscribers. Last time I checked, I think there were about 8. I could even account for half of those - me, my wife, probably Linoge, etc. I looked and found I have 100 subscribers - wow! I was and am floored. Thanks so much for reading my ramblings. If any of my RSS subscribers would do me a favor, please leave a comment on this post - anonymous is fine. I'm just curious as to how many people actually follow and would read a long post like this one.

Goals for next year... I need to build at least one of the lowers in to an actual rifle. I want to get my Extra Class license. I'd like to run a sub 20 minute 5k.

I will close the same way as I did last year...

Thanks for reading!

Programming Jargon

Funny programming jargon. Read them and then come back, so the following will make sense.

Some of these are funny to me on a couple of levels. I work with a guy whose written communication can be a little confusing. We call it Yoda Speak. However, his SQL and other logic doesn't suffer from the same aliment, so we can't accuse him of Yoda Conditions.

I'm guilty of Smurf-like Naming Conventions when I get to name objects in our infrastructure, e.g. Knox_Engineering_HP_Laserjet_Series_2.Engineering.Knoxville.TN.USA.NA.Earth.MilkyWay

We have also seen procedures named TEST_Something get promoted to production or as they say protoduction.

Lastly, the mere act of getting up to go ask a question will simulate the rubber duck effect. That happens to me way more than I would like to admit.

Wouxun KG-UV920R: KG-UV920P

Hans follows up his day one review of the KG-UV920P with some more information in Part II. He adds some pictures and a wish-list for furthur improvements, but closes with the following comments:

"The strongest point of the Wouxun KG-UV920P is the quality of the receiver. On the frequencies that matter this receiver does what it’s supposed to do. And it better be good – we lost all those RX bands we originally drooled over."

And

"Wouxun finally competes with the big three."

MYT MYT-Q1 and MYT-Q2 - Nate's Research

Mega apologies to Nate!!. He sent me this information a long time ago and I've been trying to dig out of my backlog, so I'm just now getting to it. And since I've been working from newest to oldest, I posted about the MYT yesterday without even making the connection to all of his work that you will see below. On to the radios...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

409Shop have now a new brand - MYT. Looking carefully it looks like these are VHF only with a very simple, single frequency display.

It seems like there are actually two models. First look:

MYTQ1V - comes in Black, Blue, and Yellow - It looks like they borrowed the design of the case from Icom's IC-91A (and also similar to the Puxing PX-325/PX-333, Ronson RT-6100 or TYT's TH-F5). The cost though is lower only $45.50 (compare to the Puxing brand: $59, Ronson's: $65, TYT: $64.50).

MYTQ2V - Yellow only - Looks very much like Ronson RT-966 radio design, and share the unusual spot for the alarm button on the top of the radio (where you Baofeng users are used to find your LED flashlight).

A closer look at the photos reveals two interesting points.

The MYTQ2V has a mini USB data plug, and a non Kenwood style speaker/microphone jack. My guess here is that you will be able to use any standard USB to mini USB data cable to program this radio.

The MYTQ1V has what looks like a standard Kenwood style speaker/microphone/data jacks.

Both radios have a dedicated display light button and a dedicated channel monitor. If you have a Baofeng UV-5R or similarly designed radio, you probably noticed how annoying a combined Lamp\CH.Monitor button can be.

Both radios have 7.4V 1800mAh batteries (Compare to only 1200mAh - 1500mAh)

The big surprise though is that if you look on both radios, the writing next to the display says: VHF/UHF FM TRANSCEIVER. The specs though states only the usual 136-174 MHz.

Being me, I just couldn't accept the discrepancy, and started investigating.

Who are you MYT?

A quick look around shows two web addresses, one that they own: www.myt123.com and an Alibaba sub-domain. The company name is: Fujian Quanzhou MYT Electronics Co., Ltd.

MYT-Q1

MYT-Q2

What did I find?

MYT-Q1 - Actually comes in Black, Blue, Yellow and Red
MYT-Q2 - Actually comes in Black, Blue, Yellow and Green (Brick's note - yes, that horrible green I posted about yesterday.)

The two use different antenna connectors.

It very well may be that there are MYT-Q1 single band radios and MYT-Q2 single band radio, and the same models/cases that are dual band radios as well. There is this picture:

The red MYT-Q1 shows 250.425MHz which is within Thailand's CB-style short range service, you can read more about it here.  Here is another picture showing the red radio.

At one place, it says:

Frequency Range: 400-470MHZ, 136-174MHZ, 200-26...

Snd the table below says:

Frequency Range: 136-174MHZ | 400-470MHZ

And another thing at the same page, if you scroll down, you see that only the black radio has an LED flash light on top, while the other colors don't. The black radio on 409Shop does not have the LED flashlight.

You can buy the flashlight version on Aliexpress here:  Cost: $37 + Shipping: $26.53 - they do combine shipping, the shipping for two units, for example, is only: $42.42.

Bottom line: It's not clear weather these radios are single/dual or tri-banders. I think that any brand that respects itself should be clear about these things.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks again to Nate for playing detective and pulling all of this information together. Based on what I read and the price, I'm going to assume these are all single or dual band radios with different versions for different bands to get the representative frequencies of 148, 250, and 403 as show in the picture, and as Nate says, it would be really nice if it stated more plainly. As usual, if anything is incorrect above, it is probably the edits I made.

Prepping

ConanOBrien In a survival situation, you can drink your own urine. Fortunately, my Wi-Fi came back on just as I was filling the can.Wed, Nov 14 19:23:31 from web

MYT MYT-Q1: Colors

Steve sent me a link to this MYT-Q1. It is noteworthy only for the blinding green color. I suspect it has an extra battery pack just to provide energy for the glowing case.

If that green isn't your cup of tea, then why not send in your Icom IC7200 for a multicam or safety orange paint job. (Links also via Steve.)

If you are actually interested in a MYT radio, Hans posted about the MYT-Q2.

Baofeng UV-5R: Truth

This is funny because is it is true...

"Hmmm... To get it to work properly, you need to push [the AAA battery case] in hard until it snapsinto place.

The company that makes the battery cases must also make USB programming cables.

John K3NXU"

In case you aren't familiar with the issues, being a body builder is a requirement to make the programming cable work.

Good Idea

So after all my posts yesterday about buying stuff, this is a much better thought for this Thanksgiving Day.

TheCall_Holston Look at this cool billboard over Nashville ... #umc #rethinkchurch pic.twitter.com/YewyRzXJThu, Nov 15 12:29:22 from web

Packing Heat and Trusting Providence

I still struggle with this.

CTmagazine Packing Heat and Trusting Providence: @LoveLifeLitGod explains why she owns a handgun (@ctwomensblog) ht.ly/cwINWThu, Jul 26 16:02:14 from HootSuite retweeted by TheCall_Holston

Crazy Apple Math

stroughtonsmith Apple's formula for predicting iPhone sales? "Each new generation sold approximately equal to all previous generations combined" #appsungFri, Aug 03 12:47:02 from Twitterrific for Mac retweeted by asymco

Zero Ohm

I need to order some 0 ohm resistors for my shack.

Progress

davepell Instead of having one card with which I can pay anywhere, I'll soon have a separate app to use for every store. Progress!Thu, Aug 16 17:16:06 from Twitter for Mac retweeted by harrymccracken

Running Trivia - Wow

wesrucker247 Each nation is allowed to send three marathon runners to the Olympics. Kenya had 278 guys with qualifying times.Sun, Aug 12 16:00:18 from TweetDeck

(And, yes, I am cleaning up some old drafts.)

Scams

Interesting thoughts on scams moving from e-mail to social networks. I generally agree with their reasoning, but the point below once applied to e-mails. Now we are suspicious of e-mails from our grandmother.

"They’re endorsed by your friends. You’re seeing people you know like and share these scams as that’s a condition of their “entry”. They have credibility."

TYT TH-UVF9: No Tri Band

I was just wondering around and thought I would check on the TYT TH-UVF9 that Radio-Mart was looking at modifying to be a tri-band radio. They've updated their page with the following:

"We managed to have had a prototype we were playing with that we managed "ok" results on the 1.2 band however it is not cost effective and we have found time consuming to offer this as an option and as I understand it if we sell a modified transceiver then it will itself need to be tested to see if it meets FCC approval so bottom line, sorry it does not seem worth it at this time."

Wouxun KG-UV920R: KG-UV920P

Hans got the new sample and his first tests for the version P (KG-UV920P) has got him excited - no problems with second or third harmonics on 2M or 440 and the rotary encoder problems are gone.

It is such a shame that these things start out so bad. I think the marketing teams get too far a head of engineering and manufacturing.

Extra Class Study Guide

Here is another gift idea. KB6NU has just released the Extra Class version of his No-Nonsense Study Guide. It is available in various formats (PDF, Nook, Kindle) for about $8.

Ten-Tec Holiday Specials

And via the QRPer, Ten-Tec is having some specials:

"Ten-Tec is discounting their 1380 and 1330 QRP kits for the holiday season. They’ve also extended their discount on the R4030 QRP tranceiver (details [here])."

Christmas Shopping for your favorite Ham

Here are some "neat" ham radio items that you can use to create a list for yourself or decide what to get your favorite ham.

Runbo X5: Android Mobile with UHF

Thanks to an anonymous comment on this post about the Android HT, I present the Runbo X5. The Runbo X5 is a ruggedized Android mobile phone with a built-in UHF (400 - 470 MHz) radio. Clearly, this goes well beyond the basic Android HT we were considering given the mobile phone, IP67 rating, etc. and the price goes up accordingly, but now we have an example of one Android HT implementation.

My Russian is as poor as my Chinese, but I think this post may be correct - the antenna is for the UHF radio, not the mobile phone functionality.

Here is some translated commentary from a review of the previous model, but I think we get the gist of the UHF "intercom" capability:

"Intercom function is a feature of the Runbo X3, no cell phone, no cell phone card case, within a distance of 3 to 5 km, free flowing intercom, the signal is clear, open distance greater than 10 km . The intercom function is all free, ALICE can freely travel are between the timely sharing the joy of the journey."

Ham Radio Black Friday / Holiday Sale

Ham Radio Outlet has started their Black Friday deals. Some of the deals are one-day only, so head over and check them out.

Cheap Ham has some deals as well including two Wouxun packages:

Wouxun Dual Band KG-UV6D COMMERCIAL HT - VALUE PACKAGE for $184.95
This package includes our famous Wouxun Dual Band KG-UV6D Commercial HT - 2.5K step and TX/RX 137-174, 420-520 with the latest firmware and enhancements. Included with the HT you will receive the following:

2 1700mAh Li-ion battery packs
1 AA Battery case
1 Dual Slot Drop-in Desk Charger
1 USB Programming Cable
1 Speaker/Mic
1 Earphone
1 Battery Eliminator
3 Belt Clips
Dual-Band Antenna
Owner's Manual

Wouxun Dual Band KG-UVD1P HT - 2 Mtr/70cm (UHF) VALUE PACKAGE for $144.95
This package includes our famous Wouxun Dual Band KG-UVD1P HT - 2 Mtr/70cm (UHF) with the latest firmware and enhancements. Included with the HT you will receive the following:

2 1700mAh Li-ion battery packs
1 AA Battery case
1 Dual Slot Drop-in Desk Charger
1 USB Programming Cable
1 Speaker/Mic
1 Earphone
1 Battery Eliminator
3 Belt Clips
Dual-Band Antenna
Owner's Manual

Mixed Message

Oprah tweets about her love for the Microsoft Surface from her Apple iPad.

Anytone AT-5888UV: PD0AC Review

I noticed that Dale sold out of the radios in three hours this week. I saw this morning that Ed has more of the rigs for sale and then I saw the review from Hans. Please go to his site to read the entire review.

First, Ed reports these changes:

- Updated Microphone -- Added a built-in speaker in mic's front & a switch to defeat the Channel Up/Down button (which was easy to accidently hit). This switch was also supposed to lock all buttons on the mic, but not sure about that yet.
- Bracket for mounting detachable control head.
- Updated Firmware -- Several menu functions have been added. See the owner's manual for all functions.
- FCC Part 90 Certified -- ID # T4K-5888UV

The first item may address one of the concerns in Hans' review regarding the buttons, but I don't think it would change his conclusion:

"If I may be blunt: many flaws are impossible to live with. If I transmit, I want to be heard. If I listen, I don’t want to be annoyed by noise, distortion and high pitched tones."

He even goes on to recommend the Wouxun at this point:

"If I would like to own a Chinese mobile radio, I’d rather put my money in an improved version of the Wouxun KG-UV920R."

I think this reminds us, as it certainly is not news, that the Chinese process for design and manufacturing is to roll out models as quickly as possible, let the early adopters identify problems, and then fix the problems in subsequent releases.

409Shop

So apparently the 409Shop exists in meatspace as well as the cyberworld. LA3ZA has a visit.

"Their address is on their web site, and the word "showroom" really made me expect something larger than what I found. It turns out to be just one small store among hundreds of others in this street."

Early Christmas

Slim had been encouraging me to get a lower, so I finally pulled the trigger - twice.

Mysterious Ring in China

China is building a mysterious ring in Fushun. I know what it is.

Apocalyptic Food Source Gone

Oh, no. What will we eat after the zombies come?

Hostess Brands is Closed.

We are sorry to announce that Hostess Brands, Inc. has been forced by a Bakers Union strike to shut down all operations and sell all company assets. For more information, go to hostessbrands.info. Thank you for all of your loyalty and support over the years.

Anytone AT-5888UV: Name, Numbers, and Dates

More info on the name change and an update on the production timing and volumes from Ed at Import Communications via the Yahoo Group:

Who knows why they do the things they do? To make a distinction between China mainland sales and Overseas sales, Anytone decided to change the model name to AT5888UV for the overseas market. I don't know why didn't they use this new number for the China market, especially since 888 has the meaning of good luck in China.

100 radios are being produced right now. I will get as many as 50 of these but all have been spoken for. Large production will begin Dec 1st and I'm waiting on a shipping date for December.

When I'm given a firm shipping date for December, I will email that information to everyone on my "notify" list and will begin accepting orders. To add your name to this list, look for "Request re-stock notice?" at the bottom of the web page http://www.wouxun.us/item.php?item_id=294&category_id=64

Regards,Ed GriffinImport Communications

Anytone AT-5888UV: What is in a name?

So they've changed the name of the AT-588UV to the AT-5888UV to avoid confusion between the single and dual band radios. That clears things right up.

Seriously, how hard would it be for these companies to hire an native English speaker to help with their naming, documentation, etc.

As a matter of house-keeping here, I will continue to use the label AT-588UV and the new label AT-5888UV, so you can find all the related posts without doing two searches.

CDs

I'm a month and a half late on this, but it is still hard to believe that you can get a DVD player for $50 bucks compared to where we were.

marksenk It was 30 years ago today the CD began to play - $1,000 player went on sale in JapanMon, Oct 01 12:14:52 from The Visitor Widget

Superstition

Lies! Lies! Blowing on the cartridge did fix it! You people and your science ruining all the great discoveries of my childhood.

UP - UP - DOWN - DOWN - LEFT - RIGHT - LEFT - RIGHT - B - A!

Anytone AT-588UV: Manufacturer's Website

Qixiang Electron Science & Technology Company

A little about the company...

Founded in January 1993. Factory whole area is 24,000squre meter located in Quanzhou,Fujian.There are over 300 full-time employee. Qixiang is a high-tech enterprise specialized in developing, producing and selling wireless communication equipment  such as Handheld Two Way Radio, Vehicle Radio,Citizen Band Radios,Repeater for cell phone network, Mobile phone Jammer, etc.

Qixiang annually invests over 10% of sales revenue into R&D.About 50 engineers keep transforming advanced technologies into innovative products. Qixiang is the contributor to several major international standard as FCC,CE,ROHS. We assure 18 months Quality Guarantee for product(the unit ).Strong ability in OEM/ODM, our production line has been strictly tested by QC department; out sale's team aim to supply you with high-quality after-sale service; the high-tech equipped facilities is a guarantee for high-quality products, such as HP8921, Marconi 2955 and Motorola 2600, Anritsu Ms8604A (100Hz-8.5GHz) and HP8753D (30KHz-6GHz). Besides that, we have two SMT machines made by JUKI Japan and several production lines. High & low temperature test and humidity test is our regular job every day. Your success is our achievement; let's create a win-win future together. Qixiang Electron Science & Technology Co., Ltd will be acted as your golden supplier in China.

Where is the line?

I'm struggling with this one. Rachel Held Evans - "God and our political platforms..."

"Because God is not a flag pin.

God is not a beam in a political platform.

God’s name is not something to use to score political points. It's not something to throw around lightly or to use as a weapon against a political opponent."

Where is the line between God being a part of everything we do and using God to fulfill our own wants? Where is the line between openly expressing our faith and offending others? Sometimes the line is clear.

Recently there has been a discussion about prayers before college football games as some schools are replacing it with a moment of silence. My libertarian side says that is a good thing. My practical side says people need to have thicker skin than to be offended by a 30 second prayer. My Christian side hates to see God removed from another part of my life.

And if we are going to ban prayers before games, should we also stop playing the National Anthem?

Free QST App for iOS

New from the ARRL, a QST app for iOS devices. I'm using it on my iPhone 5 and the screen is too small to be usable. I think it would work fine on my iPad.

Details:

ARRL members using Apple iOS mobile devices--iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch--can download a new dedicated app to access the digital edition of QST. The app allows ARRL members to read QST online or choose to download individual issues of the journal for offline reading.

• Free: The QST app is free in the Apple App Store. You must be an ARRL member to access individual issues of QST.
• QST Catalog: Browse all available digital issues.
• My QST Library: Download issues of QST directly to your device for offline reading.

Anytone AT-588UV: Delay and A Risque Picture

So Kight Radio is reporting a delay in the certification of the AT-588UV. I'm becoming a little gun shy about being an early adopter. (I'm pretty sure my UV-5R has several of the bugs that were reported in the first few batches.)

While we wait, Hans (PD0AC) has a NSFW* picture of the AT-588UV undressed!!!!

* Okay, not really "not safe for work", but I've always wondered if my traffic would jump if I posted anything about sex, nudity, NSFW, etc.

Fakes, Knock-offs, Seconds, Early Models

Kight radio warns of a knock-off Yaesu FTM-350AR being sold as the Luiton FTM-350AR. They've warned of Wouxun fakes before, too. Hans also had concerns about early versions of radios being dumped.

I still stand by what I said then about going cheap as like most things, these decisions are compromises. But occasionally  you get burned - more on that soon.

TYT Digital Radio

Kight Radio has a sneak preview of a dual band digital HT. Not exactly an Android HT or even a version two, but worlds will collide.

Programming Note

Sorry for the lack of posting... especially to the guys sending things my way. Life has been busy. When I finally sit down in the evening, I don't quite have the energy to fire up the ole brain to put up a post or two. Thanks for bearing with me.

Remind me...

... that I never want to get arrested. If you click on an individual's picture, the site even provides a convenient link to search Facebook.

Different

Not radios. Not politics. Just something different...

You go girl! (Mute suggested because of lame music.)



Via The Blaze

The toughest bridge in the world!



Via Pogue

Android HT

K0NR ponders about the reality of seeing an Android based HT given the availability of open source software and inexpensive hardware - like in the SDR HTs flooding in from China.

I think this would be a good side project for the folks at Flex Radio. I don't know what the business case would be, but I'd love to see what they could build.