W5IG's Cool Transmitter

Via KB6NU

Legalize Nukes

Compromise I can get behind.

Michael Z. Williamson:

"I am the counter to the extreme "no guns" camp. I am the "legalize nukes" camp. Somewhere in the middle is a bargaining point. As long as it includes machine guns and cannon, I'm willing to compromise on nukes. 

What I am not willing to do is say, "We gave up nukes, arty, machine guns, so let's compromise on rifles." Because that is NOT compromise, it is piecemeal surrender, with nothing given in return. 

In exchange for compromising on nukes, I expect the CMP to not only sell weapons to civilians, but to furnish a crate of ammo per buyer every 5 years, to support its Congressionally mandated charter of equipping the militia--all able bodied adults. 

See? Compromise. :)"

Via The Smallest Minority

TH-9800 and X1M at Dayton

Ed at Import Communications passed along a couple of tidbits:

TYT TH-9800

He has a final version of the TH-9800 quad-band mobile and he'll have it on display at Dayton. There are no firm production dates yet, but he will add the radio to his site with the ability to get notifications when it becomes available.

Xiegu X1M
He will also have the X1M QRP radio on display and about 40 for sale. He's sold about half of the first batch of 100 and deliveries will begin in early May. Import Communications is the factory's official North American distributor for this radio.

Alianza DXB

The Alianza DXB by Bricom Solutions
(Alianza= latin for 'Alliance') (DXB = Docking Cross Breed Technology)

It isn't bad looking and cool in a way, but I cannot imagine throwing several hundred dollars after a docking accessory that "turns your smartphone into a full working traditional multi-band walkie-talkie." You'd have to be very committed to your iPhone 5 if you were going to keep it and the DXB. The KickStarter site for the DXB is here. I think their timeline is very aggressive, too.



You only get UHF, but the Runbo X5 might be a better alternative.

Via Hans

Live Forever

Live forever (or a few years longer on this big blue marble) by going to church.

D-STAR Raspberry PI board

moleculo This is interesting: D-STAR raspberry PI board for cheap: bit.ly/12GHVIU D-STAR becoming more accessibile for all #hamradio Tue, Apr 23 20:42:18 from TweetDeck

Run the Dinosaur

andrewchen Could you outrun a Tyrannosaurus rex? bit.ly/16EFHKP Mon, Apr 08 15:06:12 from Buffer

Bikini Wax - 2 Locations

"Bikini Wax - 2 Locations" - that was the subject of an e-mail I got from deal site LivingSocial this morning. While I don't recall getting a bikini wax, I am 100% certain that I have never needed one in "2 locations." I don't even want to think about where the second location would be.

Xiegu X1M: Review

A really good review of the X1M:

"I also received my X1M from the manufacturer yesterday.    I will do a written review,  while video would be better, youtube is blocked here and so I did not bother to make a video, play with the VPN to upload it, etc.    I can do that during the weekend.  

Initial opening the box observations:

Unit arrived in bubble wrap, no outer box or other packaging.   Instruction "manual" is 1 page front and back printed, which gives basic specs and menu functions -  good enough that even an inexperienced ham could be up and running.   The units that I am procuring are fully assembled, not kit form.    The box contained the radio as well as a hand microphone wired for the radio.  It also included a phono jack for CW key (wire yourself) and a power jack (wire yourself).   I wired the power jack, plugged it into the ps and the radio and turned the radio on  -- nothing.    OK,  quick inspection of the power plug reveals that the barrel is too wide and the pin is too narrow - the plug fits snugly into the jack, but the inner barrel does not connect to the inner pin.    I unplugged my AT-100 auto-tuner (that is wired with similar barrel) power jack, plugged it into the radio just to try things and the radio turned right on.  

Radio is light weight.  All metal enclosure and looks to be well shielded.   Rear panel of my unit has "metric threaded" SO-238 RF connector, and I was able to find some PL-259's that fit just fine.  The Amphenol connectors that I have did not fit well...so...it's easy to swap out a different rf connector, or get a simple adapter with the right threads to convert it to N-connector or BNC connector etc.  

Radio has  a small built in speaker.  Volume/audio  is adequate but not super loud - probably better with external speaker or use headphones.  While the mic looks identical to a ht speaker-mic, it is not wired that way and thus is used only for TX audio.   The mic has a red LED on it when in TX mode to show transmit.  The LCD display will also show a  T or R icon when in transmit or receive.  

Initial operating observations:   Radio has a built in preamp that really helps receive.  The sensitivity is around 0.45uV which is less sensitive than my FT-857  -- i dont have other QRP rigs to compare it to, but it's not in the same class (price or performance) as a K1, Scout, 817D, etc anyway so i suppose it is really more than adequate.  There are dedicated bandpass filters that switch in and out and those seem to really help selectivity (as expected with an SDR). 

Tuning - the first thing you will want to do is spin the dial.   OK, the VFO knob feeling is clicky clicky knob, think of it like a "select" knob on the 817/857 or Alinco DX70 radio if you are familiar with those.    Or, if you have owned QRP gear, think of it like the Uniden 2510/2600 or RS HTX-100 main tuning knob.  It is not a "smooth VFO" knob.  The knob clicks.    And, like every other knob of this design , it too occasionally skips a beat or two, so you have to watch the VFO when tuning up or down band. I would have preferred a smooth vfo tuning mechanism, but can't have everything.     The VFO knob has  rotate function and a push in function. The push in function is used to "set" certain parameters, such as tuning step once the step has been selected.   

The LCD display is green backlight and fairly easy to read considering small size overall of the unit.  Frequency is the main use for the LCD display, as is TX or RX function, pre-amp on or off.   

There is no S-meter or RF(output) or SWR meter on the LCD display unit.  

Tuning resolution can be set to Mhz, 100 Khz,  10 KHZ,  1 Khz, 100 Hz,  10 Hz, and 1 Hz.   Yes -- pretty remarkable but remember this thing is all DSP driven.   1 Hz resolution is probably overkill...but anyway, it's there if you need it. It's a little 

Modes are USB/LSB/CW.  No AM or FM or FSK.     You change modes with one of the front panel push button switches.  Pushing and holding one of the switches will put you into Menu mode.  Pushing and holding other switch will turn the preamp on or off.    

You can set the BFO frequency for these modes within the setup menu (9 menus are available for various tweaking, mostly dealing with the SDR aspects of the radio.

There is no obvious POWER OUT or MIC GAIN or ALC adjustment as noted previously.. 

I am mostly a CW op and the bandwidth in CW mode is fairly wide ... maybe 1800 Hz bandwidth.  Did not have time for measuring it but it is certainly not a narrow filtered receiver as judged by my ham ear.   

On SSB it plays nicely and was listening to some of the Sichuan earthquake H&W traffic last evening.   

I like the gen coverage receive, but without AM detection, it is just so-so listening in on the shortwave bands unless you zero-beat and eliminate the heterodyning.  Good news is that the DSP is super stable so the thing doesn't drift like the old capacitance style vfo's.... had to keep one hand on the tuning dial while listening to London...Once set you can at least hear and understand the broadcast (bandwidth a little narrow for AM too)

Have not done much advanced testing - sensitivity, selectivity, audio and power out, etc... will report more when tests are completed.  

I feel it's important to represent this rig as it is.... not mislead.  Share positives and negatives... provide feedback to manufacturer for improvements, etc.  The unit I have, is serial number X0087...white glue on sticker.    Would be interesting to compare production differences with others.    

As indicated previously,  I have placed an order with the manufacturer and will keep posted on committed delivery dates to me, and then onward shipping, pricing, etc. for those who expressed interest.  

More to follow.

Joe K7JOE/BY1"

Baofeng UV-5R: Tri-band

I have not been paying much attention to the tri-band posts on the UV-5R (instead looking at the TYT TH-UV3R running 220 or the 2M/220 specific model of the UV-5R). The following post did catch my eye with its certainty that it works on all newer firmwares.

Instructions on how to make all recent UV_R5 radios run 200 band wiith 136+400mh

"I have just come back to the forum after a month or so and I am suprised to see the big response there is to my original post . Look there is no debate if it works or not------------it does.All UV-R5 radios- Firmware BFB291 and Newer-will TX-RX 220 with 2 meter and 440. I have done this to 3 radios The new 220 radio is a ADVERTISEING GIMMICKbaofeng did not advertise that all the new radios would be 220 and did not release instructions-I discovered this through trial and error 

This is exactly how to do it.

This method is for Firmware BFB291 and Newerto find your firmware --turn on radio while holding the 3 button- look at screen 

download this program BF5R_VIP_v120725_BFB291_ENG(VB6).zip

from here-----http://www.miklor.com/uv5r/UV5R-Software.html

these instrucktions assume your radios cable driver is installed correctly if they are not this program can be used to get them going.

1---unpack zip ---install and launch program.

2---press comunication menu and click com 3

3- plug in radio and press the-- Other-- menu

4--click the check box that says work band-it will switch from 136-174/ 400-520 to 136-174/ 200-260 --type in 200 to 260 in the UHF boxs.

5--- press write to radio on the 'Other' menu--your radio led will flash during download.

6-- press VFO button on radio to VFO mode and you will see on channel A__ the 400 band number has changed to 200.000you can now program 200 band simplex--- and repeters on the radio- -2 meter and 400 band programs will continue to work.

7--now that the radio has been switched to 200 bandPress the 'program' button on software --press ""read from radio"" this will switch the software so that the spread sheet will take 200 band.

8-- press the edit menu -press channel informmation you will see the 2 meter-and 400 repeters that are on the radio on the spread sheet and now it will accept 200 band programing but not 400.

9-- press program menu --press write to radio and now 2 meter -400 and 200 band programs will be working all at the same time!!!!!!

9-- remember!! first you must switch the radio 200 0r 400 with the '' Other"" menu, Then upload back to the software to program with the spread sheet.-- then write back to the radio to make allthem work.To use 200 with 400 and 2 meter the frequencys you want to use must be in a program.

10-- Follow theses instrucktions and you will have a 3 band radio instead of 2 Do this before you say it doesnt work!!!!

73 AND CLEAR SUPERFROG"

Maybe all radios are tri-band. I should pull out my UV-3R and see if I can work some DX on 20M. Crazy, crazy, crazy.