Garmin 610

A few months ago, I mentioned I was tempted by the Garmin 610 GPS watch for capturing my run data. I broke down and got one off eBay. One big reason is my Android phone is having lots of problems and I did not think I could count on it to work for 4+ hours while I run the marathon next week. I like the watch so far, but I normally wear my watches with the face on the inside of my wrist. The watch is so bulky I really cannot do that with this one.

Decline of Civilization

I was in the local bookstore and noticed this... When "Teen Paranormal Romance" gets its own section, the end is near.

Baofeng UV-5R: Performance

First some good news.. no spurious transmissions on the harmonic (unlike the UV-3R):

"Looking at a scope there is no unwanted 2nd harmonic on 145 Mhz" Jaap (PD0JDG )

And some notes on the power output:

"I measured mine with a Welz wattmeter and a 50 ohm dummy load. I get a little more than 5 watts on both 2 and 440." Brent (WB4SPA) 

"I measured power output with digital swr/pwr meter. Maximum Power output is 4watts on both vhf and uhf. I got swr of antenna suppleid with uv5r as, 1;1.5 on 143.000mhz vhf and 1:1.5 on 475.000mhz uhf. And on all other freq swr is more than 2." Puranik (VU3KOD)

And Steve (WB8GRS) has some squelch, sensitivity, and power output measurements.

TYT TH-UV3R: Import Communications

Ed is quickly living up to his new, broader name of Import Communications. He has updated his website with a place holder for the TYT TH-UV3R (or UV-3R - it is listed both ways). The site says coming soon, but no date or price.

Baofeng UV-5R: Alphatags 7 Characters Hack

Six characters not enough for you on your UV-5R display? Despite a limit in the current version of the software, you can manually edit the .dat file and add a seventh character. I recommend adding the first six characters via the software and then only editing the file to change the extra character.

All credit for this hack goes to Szombathely-77 Zoli (http://frekik.hu/) who was kind enough to post this information in a comment. The instructions are here in Hungarian and English!

[[[ UPDATED 2012-04-09: Google Cache Link to the Instructions UPDATED ]]]

New iPhone Concept

Wow, that is very sexy looking. We need to get this guy to design some HTs. Image from ADR Studio. Visit the site for more images and information about this conceptual design.

Via Business Insider

Chinese Radios - The Center Part II

A commenter on yesterday's post about which Chinese manufacturer is really making all these radios pointed me to this link at Kightradio. (He is the one offering the TYT TH-UV3 for sale.) There are multiple updates on the page:

03/19/12 "The TYT TH-UV3 Dual Band HT is on the way to me now. I will update everyone as soon as I receive them."

So he could have the TYT TH-UV3 any day now. We do live in interesting times.

02/20/2012 "Baofeng UVD-5R Dual Band 4 watt HT was just released for sale in China. This is a nice little Dual Band rig but as of now, the menuis only in Chinese. This is howthe first UV-3R started out and then they made the english menu later. I would like to note that this radio looks exactly like the TYT F8 Radios. In talking with TYT I found out this is a COPY and not a radio made by TYT and sold to Baofeng. TYT has a patent on the case so we will see what TYT does about this later. So if you buy one of these on the internet, BEWARE, its menu is ONLY IN CHINESE and hard to figure out. I have one to test and I am having the menu translated and I will update you later on this.

Dual Band mobiles are not anywhere close to being released. I would not look for them at Dayton this year. Maybe if we are lucky, a few months after Dayton but this is just my personal guess with info I hear in talking with the MFG's every few days."

We know that are now versions of the UV-5R that do Chinese only, Chinese & English, and English only. And he has been told that Baofeng is ripping off TYT's case. More interesting is his claim that the dual band mobiles (KG-UV920R anyone?) won't be available for a few more months.

No Date "We attended the Hong Kong Electronics Fair and the Canton Export Fair Oct 15,2011

We will be updating the site in a few days with all the New Goodies we found at the show. Lots of exciting things in the works so be sure to check back with us and get updated.

We are in China now so if you have any special radios you would like us to purchase for you, contact us and we will be glad to purchase for you.

Call 405-227-9980 (Our time is opposite the USA time so when its 11 am in the US, its 11 pm in China) Please call late evening your time to reach us.

We can get you the latest versions of Wouxun,TYT, Baofeng and others at Hong Kong Prices."

Pretty cool that he offers to ferry radios back from China. Shipping and wire transfers can make a good deal go bad very quickly.

11/11/2011 "Wouxun is going to raise the price effective now of the KG-UVD1p & UVD3 about $22.00 This is because of dealer requests to add 2.5 steps to those models. Its seems more like a move on Wouxun's part to increase the retail price like they have been wanting to do for sometime. They also increased the min wholesale order to 500 units. This is going to put the Wouxun HT's in a higher price class and TYT and others will have the advantage. Hong Kong will have a much lower price and attract more customers. As far as the Dual Band mobile, I would not look for it anytime soon and when it does come out, I am anxious to see the price. Wouxun is not aware of other companies working on Dual Band Radios because they pay little attention to their competition."

Build your brand and demand higher prices. It is the American way!

Chinese Radios - The Center?

The Baofeng UV-3R is a re-branded Vero Telecom UV-3R.

The Vero Telecom VR-2200 is a re-branded TYT TH-9000.

The Baofeng UV-5R (which I cannot find on the Baofeng site) is similar to the TYT TH-F8.

When the UV-3R came out, I thought VeroTelecom was going to be the actual manufacturer - if not the design house, too. The UV-3R was availible as a Baofeng UV-3R, Magiksun UV-3R, Comtex UV-3R, and a Zastone ZT-UV3R. Vero Telecom was going to be the source.

Now it appears that the VR-2200 is actually a TYT TH-9000. And the UV-5R looks like it has it origins in the TYT TH-F8.

Is TYT going to be the center of the ham radio world for China manufacturers?

Does ICOM buy Yaesu radios and re-brand them? Is Elecraft reselling Ten-Tec rigs? The game is different in China. Maybe they just like to keep us on our toes. I am going to need a map.

There Be Dragons in Knoxville

One my favorite authors, George R.R. Martin, linked to an article about a dragon coming to Knoxville.

And speaking of GRRM and a Game of Thrones... the HBO series is so good, it is leading people to a life of crime (written version, cartoon version).

Baofeng UV-5R: A Rainbow of Screen Colors

We had colorful UV-3R radios, but now we have colorful screens on the UV-5R. Picture via K6FIN as part of his unboxing and review of his UV-5R.