Free Zombie Book

Mad Ogre is giving away a free e-version of his Zombie thriller Uprising USA.

I have not read the whole thing, but I am about 10% in and I can tell you it is a radical departure from your common zombie book where the survivors panic and try to make it easy to be bitten.

Here is the condensed versions of what I read so far - minus the actual zombie shooting:

"Ho, hum, the zombie apocalypse is here. Grab the guns and let's head over to the gun shop to pick up more ammo. We should probably round up the rest of our family, too. We can grab a sandwich and a Mountain Dew while we are out."

It makes for a fun read when people aren't just running around advertising themselves as zombie bait. Maybe these characters are a little too calm and collected, but it has been a cool read so far.

Wouxun KG-UV6D: FCC Update

There are some new entries on the FCC site for Quanzhou Wouxun Electronics Co., Ltd. (Go the the FFC site here and type WVT for Wouxun in the "Grantee Code" field to see all the files.) I was hoping to see a new entry for the KG-UV920R, but, alas, no. Looks like they want all models of their radios to share the same FCC ID. From the cover letter:

"We declared, added models KG-UVD1P, KG-UVD1P V2, KG-UV2D, KG-UV2D V2, KGUV3D, KG-UV3D V2, KG-UV5D, KG-UV5D V2, KG-UV6D V2, KG-UV6D-E, KG-UV6D-A, KG-UV6D-R, KG-UV6X, KG-UV7D, KG-UV7D V2, KG-UV8D, KG-UV8D V2, KG-UV9D, KG-UV9D V2, KG-UVA1, KG-UVA1 V2, KG-UVA2, KG-UVA2 V2 basis of the original models KG-UV6D. These models are identical circuit, PCB LAYOUT to the original model, only the appearance and name are different. All models sharing the same FCC ID without permissive change would be electrically identical."

Baofeng UV-3R: + Plus in Colors Now

Now in Red, Yellow, Camo, and Blue at the 409Shop.

 

 


Thanks to Steve (KF9ZA) for the tip!

TYT TH-UV3R: Available Now

Kight Radio has updated their web page and says the TH-UV3R is "available now" with "delivery in 10 days or less."

Import Communications still lists the radio as "coming soon."

Baofeng UV-5R: TYT Spare Batteries

Hans compares the TYT TH-F8 and Baofeng UV-5R batteries. The batteries appear to be the same except for a slight weight difference and some cosmetic molding. And despite the different rated capacities, he suspects they may be identical internally. He's going to do some more looking, but if that is true then the TYT battery is a much better deal at $4 less than the Baofeng. Looks like the Baofeng brand is beginning to be worth something.

Game of Thrones: Religions of Westeros

This video is a good review of the religions in Westeros from the A Song of Ice and Fire series of books and the HBO Game of Thrones TV series. One of my favorite things about the books is how tightly the culture, geography, religion, fashion, and architecture are tied together.

 

Literati

The Kindle Index: e-Literacy in America:

"To identify the most electronically literate places in America, we analyzed the Priceonomics database of eight million electronics for sale by city. We examined how prevalent the Amazon Kindle was by city to rank how popular e-reading was across the nation (we also examined Nook sales, which didn’t change the results). To our surprise, the most populous and culturally-reputed cities in America did not rank among the most digitally literate."

Emphasis is mine. I can explain this. They are counting Kindles as a proxy for literacy. Hipsters have iPads - not Kindles. Hipsters live in big cities.

107 Days

I missed it by a little, but good news anyway... you have now worked enough days (107) to pay your taxes for the year. You can now use the rest to buy frivolous things like food and shelter.

Macs Stink

Despite what some will tell you, Macs stink and stink some more.

And they smell, too.

(I really don't have any problems with Macs - I just cannot let go of the statement by a co-worker at a sister company that they are "impervious" to viruses.)

Baofeng UV-5R: Off Frequency Receive Problem?

There have been more than a few reports of an off frequency receive problem (here, here, here, here, here, and there).

Remco, PA3FYM, did some testing and had no problems with his UV-5R. Full results here.

"Hans [1] asked me to measure the frequency accurary of my Baofeng UV-5R too, because some people claim the UV-5R being 'off frequency'. I assumed that the transmit frequency is an indicator for the PLL accuracy for both RX and TX, as I did not open the UV-5R to measure the local oscillator frequency itself. Measurements with a HP-5326A (yes, nixie tubes! ;-) and a homebrew prescaler, in conjunction with a calibrated rubidium standard as time base, revealed the following results (sample time: 10 sec, accuracy 10 Hz):

UV-5R display        frequency
145.000 (MHz)      145.000.040 MHz       (+ 40 Hz)
432.000 (MHz)      431.999.930 MHz       (- 70 Hz)

My UV-5R frequency accurary @145 and 432 MHz is (far) better than 0.5 ppm, which is very good. 

References
[1] http://hamgear.wordpress.com"