Brick O'Lore

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Rubberized Telescopic Antenna for Hand-Held Radios

Kinda of a neat idea... a rubberized telescopic antenna might get you the best of both worlds - performance and size. I posted about Julian's review of various 2M antennas and that got me interested in the telescoping options.

Phil, G3YPQ, posted to the UV-3R Yahoo Group about an antenna he is selling:

"Now I must declare an interest here as I supply these replacement antennas, but they are ideal for the any Handie including the UV-3R.
Its a rubberised Telescopic that extends to 1/4 wave on 2m and can be used with low SWR on 70cms either Fully down or Fully up.
On the UV-3R the LED and its surround is close to the Antenna socket so for these I shave off the rubber a little and it fits fine. It out-performs the supplied antennas without the need to change, and folds up nicely. I've been into handhelds since the crystal controlled KP202 and this things good, you can set it to exact 1/4 wave on marine band by telescoping the top section down."

He is selling them on ebay for about $28 including shipping.

Here are his notes for the video:

"Replacement for supplied rubber-duck aerials. This has advantages of being able to 'tune' as 1/4 wave as well as to easily clip on an extension for lower frequency reception"

New County Comm Website

County Comm has a new website.

Do NOT go look. At best, you will waste a lot of time looking at all the cool little gadgets and gizmos that you think you need. At worst, you will add a bunch of $5 items and then realize you have a hundred bucks worth of stuff in your cart!

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Bullet Tax

A mayoral candidate in Baltimore wants to charge a $1 per bullet tax to reduce crime. This is dumb on so many levels. The tax would just be in the city, so drive a few miles to save $50 in taxes on a $20 box of 50 rounds. Plus, I wonder how high the round count is for a typical criminal in a year - probably lower than a couple of trips to Coal Creek for me. Lastly, how many crooks are going to do budgeting... for a convenience store hold-up, I'll put six rounds in the magazine, but for the liquor store, I better go ahead and take a few extra even though it will cut into my robbery profits.

Via TNJEff.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Man Replaces Matrix Sound Effects with his Voice

Another video tonight, in case some of you aren't Rebecca Black fans.

I really didn't get it when I read ENDO's title of "The Matrix Acapella Gun Sounds Lobby Scene," but this guy has replaced all the sounds from the video clip with his own vocals - think Cadet Larvell Jones from "Police Academy."

Via ENDO

Wearable Health Monitor

I would like to try this wearable Jawbone health monitor. I am really digging the data from RunKeeper as I've mentioned before, but this would take monitoring to a whole new level.

Just over 26 miles for the month... not bad for an old man, that just started running again in June.