Green Power Supplies

Recycle!

Computer supplies converted to 12vdc 20a running great as station DC power source. pic.twitter.com/gIuwFQGxDS
— Dave Hockaday (@WB4IUY) January 22, 2015

Binary

No offense to your dots and dashes, Mr. Morse, but how much can you ever do with just a binary code? #hamradio pic.twitter.com/C9r17KBFxi
— wa1gov (@wa1gov) January 31, 2015

Via LA3ZA

Grapevine DMR Radios

Ripped from a Grapevine e-mail that was forwarded to me:

"Wow, brand new from BFDX, this is a very nice radio. Right out of the package, you can tell this is a well-made piece of equipment. Heavy-duty, durable and stylish. The large TFT color screen looks great and is easy to read. A voice prompt, which you can turn off or on, talks to you and tells you which channel you are on. All channels and zones are customizable with names and many characters that you can set to read whatever you like. This unit comes with built-in GPS, so your transmit location is viewable by others with a GPS receiver in their radios. This feature can be turned off or on. The "On" mode of the GPS has 2 settings, one for higher performance, and one for battery saver." "We're carrying the Connect Systems radios for the purposes of promoting DMR. At $199, you'll pay exactly the same price from us that you'd pay from Connect Systems. Drop by the store and take yours home today! We'll even program it for you with the DFW-area codeplug at no additional charge. Of course you can order from the website also." "TYT's MD-280 DMR HT holds just 16 channels with no display, but offers a lower cost solution for DMR. Perfect for businesses or for a young ham who just needs a few talkgroups. Comes with programming cable and free software."

Queen of Code: Grace Hopper

I've posted about Grace Hopper before, but here is a new video. I'd like to get one of those clocks that runs backwards.

QYT KT-UV980: Hans Review

Full details here, but his bottom line:

"$151 (409shop) isn’t much for a full featured dual-band mobile, but don’t expect much either. The tested QYT KT-UV980 has quite a few flaws and quirks, and factory specs prove to be a bit optimistic." 

Baofeng Squelch Fix

You may have seen it elsewhere, but CHIRP now has ability to modify the squelch levels for some Baofeng radios. I'm really excited to test this with the BF-F8HP that BaofengTech has provided.

Here is the overview from Miklor of the squelch settings:

UV5R / UV82 / F8HP series CHIRP Daily Build 20150111 or newer   Modifying settings will change the way your radio performs. Change them at your own risk. This is not compatible with UVB5/B6 or BF888S models due to differences in firmware.

The factory squelch settings on these models has long been known to have little or no impact on the actual squelch level. The smallest noise burst would easily pop open the squelch. Until now, it was one of those  little 'quirks' you just needed to tolerate.   But no longer...  Through the efforts of Jim KC9HI and the CHIRP development team, this has become a thing of the past.  A new 'Service Settings' tab has been added to CHIRP which allows you to alter the factory level settings, so a weak signal can open level 1, and only a monster signal can open level 9. At this time we are not aware of any measurements made with actual test equipment that is designed to measure actual squelch sensitivity, but on the air testing confirms that it definitely works. Compatibility There are too many Baofeng/Pofung models, variants, and firmware versions to be certain which radios are compatible and which ones aren't. Testing that has been done indicates the following:   The CHIRP Service Settings will adjust the levels on: -  UV82 series radios (82C / 82X) -  F8HP series radios -  UV5R series radios with firmware BFB291 and later. PowerOn while holding '3' button displays firmware on UV5R. The Fix The lowest factory levels were 14 > 22, and the highest were 40 > 48. Using the settings below spreads the range from 24 > 64 in increments of 5. This is a good starting point, but can fine tune these  to any value or increment desired from 1 to 64. You also have the ability to change the VHF and UHF values independently. After changing the level values, test the different levels to determine which is the best for your type use.

You can see the defaults I just pulled from the BF-F8HP.

Troubleshooting

Anyone need any help freeing up some conventional memory?

TDXOne TD-Q7

Via Nate...

A sorta big brother to the TDXOne TD-Q3... the TD-Q7 even has an external antenna! While a "FUN" button is always nice, I'm still looking for the tiny VHF radio.

TDXONE TD-Q7 Black 400-480MHz 3W Radio

Is Customized : Yes

Talk Range : 3.0Km

Type : Two Way Radio

Radio Type : Portable

Storage Channel:99

Maximum Range : 1.5km-3 km

Is Display : Yes

Dimensions : 10 x 5 x 2 cm

Frequency Range : 400-480MHz

Model Number: TDX-Q7

Instructions:

1.       Delicate and  ultrathin appearance, Small and exquisite, Convenient to carry

2.       Various function,prolonged standby time,loud and clear sound.

All of our item are brand News
Model	TD-Q7
Frequency Range	UHF
Channel capacity	16/99
Output power	<=3W
Operating Voltage	3.7V
Antenna	undetachable
Working Temperature	-20°C+50C
Frequency Spacing	12.5/25kHz
Battery capacity	1800mAh
Color	yellow,blue,red,white,green,black
size	14x5x2cm
Weight(Include Battery)	102g
Feature
FM radio	Yes
Emergency alarm	Yes
Flashlight function	Yes
Scan function	Yes
Monitor function	Yes
Key lock function	Yes
Volume adjustment	Yes
Low battery indication	Yes
Voice purification function	Yes
TOT(timer-out time)	Yes
CTCSS/DCS	38CTCSS/83DCS

US Licenses as Percentage of US Population

Next comment, next chart - licenses as a percentage of US population...

Licenses Source
US Population Source

US Licenses vs. US Population

More playing... prompted by this comment.


Licenses Source
US Population Source

"Friends of Miklor" Discount at BaofengTech

Original here:

"BaofengTech.com is running a Friends of Miklor promotion as a way of saying thank you for the assistance that the Miklor website and everyone has given helping new owners of the Baofeng BF-F8HP, UV82, etc.

Starting at 10PM EST (7PM CST) this evening, Jan 26, by entering entering promo code Starting at 10PM EST (7PM CST) this evening, Jan 26, by entering entering promo code  miklor10 the price of the Baofeng F8HP will be reduced by $10.

This is the 1, 4, 8W handheld with High Capacity battery. (30% larger than the standard battery) They will be running this promo for 1 week. They will be limiting the promo to One per Customer." 

Link to BF-F8HP on Amazon.

Just Say No

A PSA...

Via Facebook

QYT KT-UV980

The QYT KT-U980 VHF (40/10 Watt) and UHF (30/10Watt) mobile transceiver for $151 at the 409Shop.

Via Nate:

"On a first glance, it looks like a Anytone AT-558/TYT-9000, then I noticed the dual band display. 

Looks like you can get a dual band single receive for the price of a single band radio (similar to the Baofeng UV5R), $151 on 409shop. 

Pufang BF-9500U (another clone of the Anytone AT-558) sells for $148."

• Model: KT-UV980
• This product has the function of the new development menu Personalized design operation, male it easy for you to use Exquisite volume and reasonable price will meet you requirements.
• Frequency Range: 136-174/400-480MHz SW Receiving
• Phase Lock Step: 5/6.25/10/12.5/15/25KHz Working Voltage: 13.8V DC
• Aquelch Way: CTCSS/DCS/5 Tone/2 Tone/ DTMF
• Output Power : 40W/10W(VHF) 30W/10W(UHF)

Function
1. Dual Band Frequency waiting
2. Step Frequency 5/6.25/10/12.5/25KHz
3. 10 Level Squelch step
4. High/Low Transmitted Power
5. Voice Encryption
6. Time out Timer
7. Launch end early warm
8. Wide/Narrow switchable
9. Auto light
10. Voice to switch
11. Receiver retuned/ Receiver analog retuned
12. Launch digital retuned/ Launch simulation retuned
13. Lateral sound switch
14. Busy channel lock
15. Add Scan Channel
16. Priority Scan/Channel
17. Scan back way
18. Optional signaling
19. Horn loudspeaker
20. PPT launch
21. Sending additional
22. Issue informational
23. Alarm Mode
24. Alarm Channel
25. Ring time
26. Channel name edit
27. A/B Channel display mode
28. Key lock
29. Boot mode
30. Standby/Receiving/Transmit light choice
31. 200 Channel Memory
32. Erasure Channel
33. Frequency direction
34. Repeater activate/mode

Total US Ham Licenses - Zero Base

With a fixed zero as the base this time... The change is much less dramatic using this scale.



Date Source: ah0a

TERA TR-590 Dual Band VHF/UHF 200 Channel Handheld Commercial HT

TERA TR-590 Dual Band VHF/UHF 200 Channel Handheld Commercial Radio:

"Dual-band, 200 channel Part 90 commercial transceiver w/ Alpha-Numeric Display and True Dual Receive (V+V, U+U, V+U). Ideal for Fire, Search & Rescue, EMS, Sheriff, Forestry and Security operations. Includes dual control volume knobs. 136-174/400-470 MHz. 

TERA TR-590 is a rugged, high-performance, simultaneous dual receive VHF/UHF commercial handheld transceiver with a six character back-lit alpha-numeric display providing up to 5 watts of RF power. 

True Dual Receive
Allows reception of two communication channels simultaneously (V+V, U+U & V+U) in dual receive mode. Single receive mode is also available.

Dual Volume Knobs
Controls the main and sub band speaker audio independently. Ideal for critical communications.

200 Channels
Store up to 200 memory channels with back-lit LCD display. User programmable 6-character alpha-numeric display.

2 Year Warranty
Backed with an industry leading 2 year limited warranty. Supported and serviced in the USA."

Garmin Connect Full-screen Map Fix

When you do longer runs, the map of the route on Garmin Connect is woefully inadequate. It is way too small. I found this fix for the problem. It adds a button to the map, so you can do full screen. It does not work for me with the "Modern" view.

Total US Ham Licenses

Just something I am playing with...



Date Source: ah0a

Tactical Drone

You too can own a tactical drone for penetrating the White House perimeter.

It is apparently very popular. (#10 on the list at the time of this post.)

BaofengTech: BF-F8HP and UV-82C

So I am a bad, bad blogger... the very kind folks at BaofengTech sent me a BF-F8HP and two UV-82 models (including one in camo) radios to test. That was before Christmas. I did an unboxing post, but have only used the radios sparingly.

I don't have a bench (much less all the technical knowledge) like Hans, but I did want to do some subjective testing: How do they sound? Can I tell any difference with the extra power? How's battery life? What's my impression of the selectivity? Etc.

So this is post is my kick in the rear end to get going on this again. In addition to any information you might get from my posts, there is another reason to encourage me to get to work... BaofengTech has been generous enough to allow me to give the radios away when I finish my testing. (And yes, I'm sneaking this juicy bit here at the end of the post to see if anyone is paying attention.) Details coming as I do the testing!

Random Castaway Note

A random conversation led to talking about Castaway. I ended up looking to see if it was based on a true story. (It's not.) I did discover this interesting note about a parody commercial:

A FedEx commercial during the 2003 Super Bowl parodied the final scene of the film, in which Chuck returns a package to its sender. In this version, the woman answers the door, and when Chuck asks what was in the box, the woman replies: "Just a satellite phone, GPS locator, fishing rod, water purifier, and some seeds. Just silly stuff."

BaofengTech Teaser

BaofengTech has posted a teaser about a big announcement. Sign up here to get notified. I must admit, I'm curious.

Books - Archive Mode On!

I mentioned the books I was purging, but I want to reiterate that I liked most of those authors. Some of them were fun reads, some had a little more substance, etc.

The books by the following authors I will keep - at least until I decide I should get rid of them all! Then it will be library books or e-books here on out!

Actually, some of these probably won't ever go away as they have my notes from high school or college in the margins. I've re-read some of them and it's interesting to see what I thought was important 20+ years ago. For some of the "fun" books,  I remember, during my youth, I would stay up until the wee hours of the morning to read just a few more pages.

Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
J.R.R. Tolkien
Robert Asprin
R.A. Salvatore
William Gibson
Neal Stephenson
Gene Wolfe
Tom Robbins
Issac Asimov
William Faulkner
Richard Wright
Orson Scott Card
Robert Jordan
Terry Goodkind
Huston Smith
William James
Richard Matheson
Ernest Hemingway
J.D. Salinger
C.S. Lewis
Robert Heinlein
William Golding
Eugene O'Neill

METERS Knoxville Marathon Support

In the latest newsletter from the Knoxville Track Club, there is an article about a woman who cheated during a marathon by not running the full distance. One of the local ham radio clubs gets an acknowledgement for their part in ensuring the integrity of the results:

"At our Knoxville Marathon, we have a somewhat similar course layout. Our full and half marathons start simultaneously, and both finish on the 50 yard line of Neyland Stadium. They run together for 12.5 miles before the half splits off toward the finish line. Every year, we get folks who have signed up for the full and for some reason (bad day, cramps, underestimation of the hills), opt for the half when the split comes. One of two things has always happened."

 ...

"We get novices that don’t know better. They finish the half, grab some food and drink, and then they head home. They assume that we’ll know that they only did the half. Do we?

Yes. We use METERS (Middle East Tennessee Emergency Radio Service) to spot participants running the half wearing the full bib. They radio in the bib numbers so we can switch them in the results. Our timing crew also checks the top finishers to make sure that they have a 10k split, a half marathon split, and a 20 mile split that correlate to their marathon time. If someone only has a split at 10k and it is for a 10 minute mile, there is no way that they finished the marathon averaging 7 minutes a mile.

Never, have I ever, seen one of these folks stick around for the full marathon award ceremony and attempt to claim an overall or age group award."

PMI Renewal

I rejoined PMI and all I got was this lousy t-shirt. Seems a clumsy bit of marketing to me. Although, they did get me to post about it.

Cord Cutting

ESPN has been one of the main reasons I've not considered cutting the cord and dumping cable TV. Things are starting to get interesting as Dish announces a streaming service that includes ESPN for $20/month:

"But what is Sling TV? For $20 a month — yes, twenty dollars — you get access to a lineup of cable networks that includes TNT, TBS, CNN, Food Network, HGTV, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, the Disney Channel, ESPN, and ESPN2. ESPN is obviously a huge get for Dish and could earn Sling TV plenty of customers all on its own."

Via lifehacker

A Solution for Hans

If he decides to move away from Intermod Alley, he could go to West Virginia.

Squelch Threshold Adjustments

Jim (KC9HI) writes on the Baofeng UV-5R Yahoo Group about making squelch threshold adjustments through a software change to the image file:

"This capability isn't available in CHIRP (yet).

I am working on it and wouldn't mind a few testers. 

The oldest radios must get the settings from firmware and can't be adjusted. My UV-5R with BFB231 firmware can't be adjusted. 

I first tried this out on a UV-82L with success. Then later on a GT-3. Earlier this week, I got to try it on my own UV-82 and BF-F8HP radios. The difference is amazing. I don't know why Baofeng ships these radios with the squelch so "broken"."

 And continues:

"Here is your .img file back with the updated squelch settings. Make sure you have a backup image before you get started. I now have a backup here. ;-) 

I believe that you will now find that Squelch 9 can really squelch out stronger stations and you will have to reduce squelch to 6 or maybe 5 for normal operation.

If you like these settings, don't upload any other image file into your radio or they will be reset to the values in that image file. If you don't like these settings, or that don't appear to do anything, then just upload your original image file and everything will be as is was before."

I'll be following this to see how it develops.

Buy VV-898, Get Free BF-F8+

Get a #free Baofeng BF-F8+ #amateurradio when you buy a Leixen VV-898 mobile! http://t.co/JHqtQDXxuM @amatradio @brickolore #hamradio #hamr
— BuyTwoWayRadios.com (@2wayradios) January 5, 2015

Westeros Transit System

From FencingNArchery comes the Westeros Transit System.

Via WinterIsComing.net

Iowahawk 2016

The campaign promises are starting already...

I would be horrible at managing the US economy. So I won't. #Iowahawk2016
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) January 4, 2015

Instead of worrying about what other countries think about us, I will make them worry about what we think of them. #Iowahawk2016
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) January 4, 2015

Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms: the theme of my inauguration party. #Iowahawk2016
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) January 4, 2015

I promise to create an economic depression and confine it to a 40 mile radius of the US capitol. #Iowahawk2016
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) January 4, 2015

Li-Fi and NLOS Lightwaves

Tangentially related...

Near Line of Sight (NLOS) Lightwave experiments

And Li-Fi:

NoteSlate SHIRO

A new year, a new video and more...

"Thank you for your patience and amazing support. This video is for you. It's showing drawing and writing on actual Noteslate SHIRO prototype, monochrome paper alike 6.8inch tablet device with simple pencil interface, the first and the earliest available Noteslate device. Paper replacement. Pre-order will be launched on 15th January 2015. We'll keep you posted. Thank you!"

There seems to be a lag between the writing and the appearance of the lines. Does it look that way to you? It says this is a prototype, so I will cut it some slack, but it doesn't look like the elegant paper replacement solution for which I was hoping.

Red Rising

And speaking of books, I just finished Red Rising. It was a $2 Kindle book, so no worries on the taking up space front. I really enjoyed it... put Harry Tris Ender Katniss Stark on Mars and that's a good starting point. I'm being glib, but it did have elements from each. And good news for me, the second book, Golden Son, comes out in three days.

Books - Purge Mode On!

If it's not nailed down, it's at risk for getting tossed, sold, recycled, etc.

Books from these authors didn't make the cut:

David Baldacci
Gene Kranz
Ken Follett
Larry Correia
Matthew Pearl
Nelson DeMille
Stephen Hunter
Tom Clancy
Tom Wolfe
W.E.B. Griffin

I'm not saying I don't like the books, but I'm still keeping a ton and I don't see me re-reading these anytime soon. For a lot of these, I've got stacks by each author.

I'll do another list of the authors I did keep.

Cisco Policy-Based Routing (PBR)

Configuring an ACL, route-map, and IP policy:

Evil Bit

This is an old April Fool's joke, but I wanted write the post, so I could easily find it later.

The Security Flag in the IPv4 Header

Request for Comments: 3514

RFC 3514          The Security Flag in the IPv4 Header      1 April 2003


   The bit field is laid out as follows:

             0
            +-+
            |E|
            +-+

   Currently-assigned values are defined as follows:

   0x0  If the bit is set to 0, the packet has no evil intent.  Hosts,
        network elements, etc., SHOULD assume that the packet is
        harmless, and SHOULD NOT take any defensive measures.  (We note
        that this part of the spec is already implemented by many common
        desktop operating systems.)

   0x1  If the bit is set to 1, the packet has evil intent.  Secure
        systems SHOULD try to defend themselves against such packets.
        Insecure systems MAY chose to crash, be penetrated, etc.

Icom IC-2730A

The IC-2730A has just shipped! Check with your local dealer for availability on this new mobile radio! #IcomAmateur http://t.co/jJ2rkBwwBq
— Icom America Inc (@IcomAmericaInc) December 31, 2014

Chromecast

An appropriately titled lifehacker post: Four Things You Didn't Know You Can Do With Your Chromecast:

"Forget your TV remote—if you have a Chromecast hooked up and always powered on through the usb adapter, you can turn your TV on and even switch to the Chromecast's input with your mobile device."

Sure enough, it worked like magic. I had always been turning on the TV and switching the input.