Busy

Sorry for the lack of posting the last few days... life is happening. Nate did send me some interesting stuff about some radios that I hope to post soon.

What Do You Mean If?

George RR Martin is a slow writer. There is now a race between him finishing the books and the HBO series based on his books catching up. This article asks if the show will catch the books. I don't think it is a question. The show will catch the books because George is a writer first and a business man second. The creative process will not be rushed.

Much to my disappointment.

Via Winter is Coming

Draw a Stickman

Just what it says... http://www.drawastickman.com. It is a neat little time waster.

Leap Motion Controller

If I wasn't such a cheapskate, I would spend $80 to try the Leap Motion Controller. I use the keyboard a lot more than the mouse (short-cuts are king!), so I don't think I would want to move my hands off the keyboard for the Leap anymore than I would for the mouse.



Via Robb

Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse & Ham Radio

Recently, I read Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse* as an apparent attempt to push myself into a state of depression. I've seen it billed as a how to manual for preppers with a story slapped on top of it. (It made me think of The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement* - a story about a plant manager who implements several changes related to the Theory of Constraints.) It is not a manual for preparedness by any stretch, but it does try to present various scenarios for one to consider. One of the more interesting parts for me was toward the end when a character was getting a lesson in Communications Security from Edgar, the communications expert:

"My goal today is to first let you know what sort of equipment is out there -- friendly, enemy, captured enemy, and to teach you ComSec in a nutshell, so you won't get yourself killed or give the enemy valuable intelligence."

Edgar covers a lot of ground over the next few pages:

• HF
• VHF
• signals propagating, bouncing off the ionosphere
• sunspot cycle
• sky wave
• ground wave
• direction finding
• near vertical incidence
• line of sight
• 2M HTs
• modifying radios that could transmit 118 to 180 megahertz, but limited by FCC to 144 to 148, so they opened them up to 140 - 170
• frequency agile radios
• mods to CBs
• SWR
• antennas

He recommends trying to find a particular radio:

"Speaking of CBs, you should try to and locate a Uniden President HR2510. This is a ham radio that you can modify to transmit and receive in the citizen's band range. You can open this model up all the way from 26 to 30 megs. It has a frequency counter that you can finetune down to 10 kilohertz."

He then continues the lesson talking about:

• modifying cellular telephones
• working split
• Kenwood TH-79A
• cross-band operating
• operating AM on typical FM frequencies

As a ham, it was a fun chapter to read. It also made me interested in the Uniden President HR2510, so I had to look it up. I found this site with a long list of tip and tricks for modifying the HR2510.

* Links via my Amazon Associate account. You don't pay any extra, but I get "rich" if you buy through the link.

Hero of the Day

What is your probable cause?

Am I being detained?

Am I free to go?


My favorite part is here at the end.

Via Uncle

Tactical Flask

Okay, it isn't branded as a "tactical" flask, but all it is missing is a rail.

"The Flask" from McAllen and Oakley is not something that I would normally associate with fine Scotch. Oakley's influence is strong as seen in both the design and the video below. You can buy your own, but hurry as they are only making 100 of these £600 (GBP) flasks.

Wouxun - Baofeng HT Coaxial Pigtail Giveaway

3-Foot Wouxun - Baofeng HT Coaxial Pigtail giveaway at American Radio Supply. Enter by liking the page and leaving your call sign by March 2.

Anytone AT-5888UV: INTEK HR-2040

A little information and a minor rant...
A post in the Anytone AT-588 Yahoo Group (that was deleted) pointed out the AT-5888UV is being sold as the INTEK HR-2040 at MoonRaker for £200 (GBP). INTEK has the radio listed on their site as well.

Now for the rant...

The owner of the Anytone AT-588 Yahoo Group closed the topic saying that it wasn't "a place to advertise other radios."

He goes on to say:

"And it could be a counterfeit which is not uncommon. I know there are counterfeit Wouxun handhelds out their that look and feel like the real thing. Anyway the less chatter about other brands in here the better."

And:

"Certainly looks like the AT5888UV. Start your own Yahoo group called Intek_HR2040 and go talk about it there."

To me this is all a little heavy handed. Based on his other posts, he has a relationship with Anytone and I suspect that he does not want to jeopardize that - thus the "advertise other radios" remark. However, I think it is of interest to owners (and potential owners) of this radio what versions of the unit are floating around out there. If the HR-2040 is actually a re-branded AT-588(8)UV, then Anytone should be happy for any sales of the radios. If they are completely different radios internally and are only cosmetically similar, that's important, too. We've already seen different versions of the 588(8), so I think is reasonable to want to know how the HR-2040 compares. If we discover it is a horrible counterfeit, it would be a great service to make that information known.

Chromebook Pixel

Sexy, probably impractical for what I do, expensive, but I'd love to play with one.

googlechrome Introducing the #Chromebook Pixel: goo.gl/9Tc2L Thu, Feb 21 14:05:54 from web retweeted by google