Yellow Perfection

Seriously, I don't know why all this yellow stuff seems to come my way, but here is a fun little "Where's Waldo/Gaston?" (And this made me look at the special ID-51 again - no yellow there. Boo!)

goTenna

Another tool to make your phone act like a radio... this time it is in the form of the goTenna hardware. (As opposed to the Firechat app.)

Basically, you pair the goTenna with your phone and use it communicate when you are in a congested area or in one with no signal.

From the Gigaom article:

"It’s an extremely low bandwidth network, so it’s really only useful for send text messages and GPS coordinates, but it’s extremely long-range thanks to the ultra-low-band frequencies 151-154 MHz frequencies goTenna uses. Lower frequencies propagate further and can punch through or wrap around obstacles like trees. To put that in perspective, the lowest-band mobile network in operation today is at 700 MHz, while Wi-Fi starts another 1700 MHz further up the electromagnetic spectrum chart."

From the FAQ:

"Is goTenna FCC licensed? 

Delivery of goTenna is dependent on FCC approval. At this very moment, goTenna is undergoing FCC testing and we expect to complete this process in a couple of weeks."

$150 for 2 (pre-orders) here.

Icom ID-51: Colors

Straight out of the Baofeng and Realistic playbook (again proving there is nothing new), Icom is releasing a limited number of the ID-51 in a rainbow of colors (PDF).

Sheldon Would Be Proud

Punny Physics!

Cool

My field setup:way more involved than I expected.Thinking of building an enclosure for SDR/Isolator/4AA @SWLingDotCom pic.twitter.com/3872Hi1Ndp
— London Shortwave (@LondonShortwave) July 16, 2014

Callsigns on Facebook

Facebook: You may now use your amateur radio call sign as Alternate Name on profile (via @IW5EDI) https://t.co/pmLD7xVKn3
— Sverre Holm, LA3ZA (@LA3ZA) July 16, 2014

Xiegu X108: COM Port

The X108 shows up as a COM Port. Woo hoo!

Xiegu X108: Videos

CW narrow filter receiver test X108's (No. T401 demonstrator):


X108 VS IC756PROIII weak signal contrast:

Soldering Tips Tips

Soldering tips - when to use which - a primer.

Via LifeHacker

Xiegu X108: Product Page

The Xiegu X108 has made it to the company's website. Product page is here.