NH7QH Radio Supplies, LLC

A quick plug for NH7QH Radio Supplies, LLC (Hawaii's Ham Radio Store)... I've mentioned them before as a supplier of the Baofeng UV-3R, but the reason for this post is their RSS feed. If you aren't familiar with RSS feeds, they allow you to subscribe to a web site and have updates delivered to you. I manage my subscriptions in Google Reader. When you follow a lot of web sites, it makes the task much easier. My recent Reader stats:

From your 140 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 4,710 items, clicked 194 items,starred 339 items, and emailed 0 items.

Back to my point, NH7QH's site has an RSS feed, so I know when he's added new products to this store. It is an easy way for me to keep tabs on what he's got going on.

For example, he recently added Speaker Mic for the Baofeng UV-3R Mark II, announced his Black Friday Sale (Sorry I didn't get this posted sooner for those that are interested!), offers a USB to Serial Adapter, and has a new Mini Dualband SMA Antenna.

I wish other sites would do the same.

What rig for my wife's car?

Matt (W1MST) of AmateurRadio.com did me a favor and posed a question about what rig to put in my wife's car. Here is what I asked:

"I'd like to add a 2M mobile rig in my wife's car. Sounds simple enough, but the trick is that I need something that is as small as possible and will have a really neat installation. I'd prefer to have a mobile rig that I can wire in (power and an antenna) and see the display (versus cobbling together something with an HT). A detachable  faceplate/remote would be fine. I want 2M to hit the repeaters - any other bands or advanced features would be a bonus, but not required. The car is a 7 year-old Audi A4 and there is very little room in the footwells. It does have a neat feature - a drawer under each of the front seats. So what's small and installs such that it will score well on the WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) scale?"

If you have some thoughts, please hop on over to AmateurRadio.com and join the discussion. Thanks!

The Downside to Tactical

Linoge has an excellent post on what I am calling the downside to tactical. He takes a look at a CZ750 that is striking fear into the hearts of non-gunnys and then he strips away the new tactical-hotness to see what remains. You might be surprised.

And I do think the CZ750 looks dang sexy.

Repercussions for Winning

So you beat a younger, smaller, less talented basketball team by 98 points...

What are some potential lessons for the winners?

• Don't try too hard.
• Using your talents is unfair.
• Aim for the lowest common denominator.
• Don't be too good or people won't like you.
• Life isn't fair.

For the losers?

• Work harder! (Or not!)
• Practice and try again next year!
• How to assign blame - it is the fault of the coach or the administrators.
• If you can't beat them, then get a really good job and buy an NBA team.
• Life isn't fair.

Via No Silence Here

Ham Radio Deluxe State of the Union

If you happen to be around Tampa in early December, you can get an update on HRD - straight from the horse's mouth.

"An exciting last minute addition to the Tampa Bay Hamfest forum schedule. An overview of Ham Radio Deluxe, where it is today and where it is going will be given by Rick Ruhl W4PC. Rick is the President of W4PC Software and Managing Director, HRD Software, LLC, FL. They are the new owners of the software package."

The Thirty-Sixth Annual (2011) Tampa Bay Hamfest
December 3rd & 4th, 2011
Manatee Civic Center - Palmetto, Florida

Batman Begins with a Glove

We all thought it was the belt that made him so effective, but if he had a crime fighting armored glove* he wouldn't have needed Robin or Batgirl.

* U.S. Department of Justice Tested and Kevin Costner Approved!


Via MJM

Revolver Etiquette

As a newbie, I don't really appreciate their other "Gun Gripe" videos. When I go into the gun store, I know I am ignorant about lots of things (and being self/internet educated my teachers aren't always the best) when it comes to guns, but I hate being treated like an idiot. And I am sure they get lots of jerks and/or idiots darkening their doors.

However, I really liked this video. I bet I've fired revolvers less than 25 times, so this video did help me learn something.

Baofeng UV-3R: Second Harmonic Issue

December's QST has a Technical Correspondence (Boafeng UV-3R 2M/70cm Handheld Transceiver) article about the second harmonic issue in the Baofeng UV-3R. Bob Allison, WB1GCM (ARRL Lab Test Engineer), used an HP-8563E spectrum analyzer to determine if the radio meets the standards of FCC Part 97 for spurious transmissions. Bob finds that the radio (two units tested) failed to meet the standards and that "to legally transmit with these radios in the 2 m band, you would have to add a second harmonic low-pass filter at the antenna jack."

First, if you don't understand the basics of a spurious transmission on the harmonic, Steve (K9DCI) provides a good analogy on the of UV-3R Yahoo Group discussion on this topic:

"Spurious signals are more like driving with a 10 foot long beam sticking out the side of the car. As long as you drive on desert roads, you can relax because you "probably" won't whack any hitchhikers in the back of the head."

Some time ago, I had noted the spurious emission problem and posted a link to the mod to fix it on my UV-3R page. And I had thought the issue might have been fixed in newly manufactured radios, since the UV-3R had gotten FCC Type 90 Acceptance. For a major information dump on the topic, I would start with this UV-3R Yahoo Group post - also from Steve (K9DCI). Grant, ZL2BK, documents the magnitude of the problem at various frequencies. Basically, the filtering is better as frequency increases.

It is the issue that will not die on the UV-3R Yahoo Group:

• The original discussion
• The new discussion prompted by the QST article
• And the Mark II?
• And the Mark II again
• How big of an issue is this really?

As you can see in the above links, it does not appear that the issue was resolved in the Mark II. Some speculate that it is a quality control issue, but I am more inclined to think it is a limitation built into the design/components of the UV-3R. G4TUP suggests that Vero Telecom (and the various resellers) do not care as they designed the radio for the commercial market and, at the higher frequencies, it works within the standards. To keep the waters muddied, Bob (GM4CID) reports that Vero Telecom claims to have fixed the issue. And Andy (G0FTD) found that hisYaesu VX7R is worse than an unmodded UV-3R.

Here is the link to the low-pass filter mod that shows you how to add a 0805 size 33pF capacitor to reduce the emissions on the second harmonic.

Oh, and because I am apparently a sadist, here is a follow-up link where the same mod was performed and the results were less successful.

Misunderstood - Fear the Pants

Josh_Ward Has Tennessee's "Fear the Pants" slogan been directed at its own fan base?Sat, Nov 26 15:41:00 from TweetDeck

I can't believe we lost to Kentucky.

Dude, you are a barista

"I could never get a Samsung. I'm creative."
"Dude, you are a barista."



Via Business Insider