Good Company

A different Bricoleur was the Twitter General Counsel. Cool.

Norris Dam Good BBQ Sauce

A friend of mine is trying to start a new business selling his own BBQ sauce. He's doing a KickStarter to raise funds to get the business going. He's a culinary school graduate and has been the head chef at a couple of restaurants. His mother passed away recently, but before she did she said she hated that she would not be around to see him follow his dream of selling his BBQ sauce. He has now quit his job and is trying to make a go of it.

The sauce is called "Norris Dam Good BBQ Sauce." The name is obviously a play on words - Norris Dam is close to Knoxville and was built in the 30's.



If you are interested, you can find his KickStarter page here. As of this writing, he is about halfway to his goal.

Zastone ZT-9908: Digital Radio

Nate found another digital radio... the Zastone ZT-9908. You can get one for $97 at Amazon or $103 on eBay.

"Zastone (a company known to release clones of the UV-5R, and more recently a clone of the BJ-9000) have updated their website recently."

They are now offering a UHF only digital radio. Users manual is here (PDF). And the specs are as follows:

Features

DPMR Digital Standard

Analog ,Digital , both ,Channel Selection

Multi Working modes optional

Aadvanced Organic Electroluminesence Display

UHF430-470MHz

199 storage channel

Single Call ,Selective Call ,Group Call function

Message Edit ,Send and Receive support 

ANI ID Function

Time display & setable

CTCSS 50/DCS 104

DTMF Function

Multi Frequency Step Setting

Repeater Offset

Priority Channel Scan

Scanning modes Selection

Channels Name Edit

Specification

General：

Frequency: 430.000MHz—470.000MHz

Channels: 199

Channel space: Digital：6.25 kHz ；Anolog：25/12.5kHz

Size: 132*63*40mm

Operating Temperature: -10-- +55 degrees

Power Voltage: 7.4V

Standby Current: About 35mA

Weight: about 300g

Transmitter:

RF power output: 7.4V   HI≈4W±1dB   LO≈1W

Emission Current: HI≤1.6A   LO≤0.80A

Maximum Frequency deviation: Wide band±5.0/Narrow band 2.5kHz

Harmonic: <-65db div="">

Adjacent channel Power: Wide band 60DB/ Narrow band 65DB

Receiver:

Sensitivity: <0 .25uv="" db="" div="" s="">

SQ sensitivity: <0 .16uv="" div="">

Intermodulation rejection: 55dB

Audio output: ≥800mW

Receiving current: ≤300mA

SQ standby: Average 35mA

Including 

Radio ZT-9908 *1

Battery 1800Mah *1

Charger *1 (AC adaptor & desktop)

Antenna *1

Back clip *1

Strap *1

Manual in English *1

Random Cool

Baofeng UV-5R:

John passes along the following:

"The (Chinese) Radio Documentation Project has just gotten its latest update by Jim KC9HI.
If you are the owner of a UV5R (or any of it's cousins) this IS the manual.
A copy is available at http://www.miklor.com/uv5r/UV5R-Manuals.html"

 It is a great resource (and in a convenient PDF file). If you have a UV-5R, you will want to snag a copy.

Job

So, a funny thing happened to me recently. They came and told me I didn't have a job anymore. I said a few goodbyes and packed my stuff up and left. I hesitated to say anything here, but I figure I should since you might think this would mean more time for blogging, but it's not really turned out that way. I seem to be blogging less. Looking for a job is a full time job. And when I take a break, blogging is not high on my list. I suspect it will ebb and flow.

I'm not ready to hit the panic button today, but I'm taking some cost cutting measures - no more lawn service, reducing my cable bill, stopped contributing to my daughter's college fund, stopped making additional payments toward my mortgage principle, etc. I didn't spend a lot on gas, but that should go down a little since I will be at the house. Also, my lunch expense should go way down since I used to eat out almost every weekday. Discretionary spending will grind to a halt. For example, the family routine of stopping at Starbucks on the way to church every Sunday has stopped. I probably won't run as many races (at $25-30 per) and when I do I'm going to register early to get the discounts.

You might also think this would be a good time to work on my Extra. I thought about that, but I've decided to look at some IT certifications. My recent background is general IT management in manufacturing. Given the change in/decline of manufacturing, I'd be open to working in other industries and for smaller companies. I think my first step will be getting the ITIL Foundation certification. If I want to be more technical, it looks like the CCENT is just one test and the CCNA is two. (I have an old, old MCSE and an even older Novell cert, but nothing from Cisco.) There is also a CompTIA Green IT cert that might be interesting.

Since my parents and my wife's parents are in Knoxville, I'm focusing here for now. I'd really hate to move away. I've been looking around and applied for a couple of positions, but no interviews yet. (I'm not to this point yet, but maybe next week.)

I should add that it has been very humbling to reach out to old friends, co-workers, and classmates and receive so many words of encouragement and offers of help.

Thanks for letting me vent a little. And to reuse a line from a comment I made on another blog... posting will be more or less frequent than usual. So, sorry in advance if I don't get back to you right away.

Online Job Application Systems

Whoever designs these new online job application systems should have to complete the process 100 times before they subject others to it.

I find them incredibly annoying. One size does not fit all. You would not ask the same interviews questions of a CEO and a clerk, yet doing so in a web form is okay. And things like giving you a small text box (about 100 characters) to "Describe your duties" seems dumb to me. Twitter gives you more characters! And don't get me started about duplicating the information in a resume in these same web forms.

KYD NC-UV90A: Now Availible

Get it while it is hot: KYD NC-UV90A. The site says minimum order quantity of two pieces. Vicky of KYD says the price is $198 USD, but that is not displayed on the Alibaba site.

Specifications

1.40/50 Watt
2.13.8V battery voltage
3.PC programmable
4.Dual band (VHF/UHF)
5.199 Channels

Dual band receiving
Double Standby
Full-duplexer cross-band

Ø VOX
Ø Keypad
Ø 107 DCS
Ø 50 CTCSS
Ø Priority Scan
Ø Channel Scan
Ø Hi/Low Power    
Ø Time-out Timer
Ø 2 TONE/5 TONE (optional)
Ø Scrambler
Ø Compander
Ø ANI Code
Ø DTMF Code  
Ø PC Programmable
Ø Busy Channel Lockout
Ø Selectable Squelch Level
Ø CO/TO/SE Scan Switchable
Ø Programmable 25kHz(Wide) 12.5kHz(Narrow) Channel Spacing

Frequency Range (MHz)
VHF 136-174Mhz
UHF 400-470Mhz 450-520Mhz
Type      Dual band, Dual standby
PLL Channel Spacing 5/6.25/10/12.5/25KHz
Battery Voltage 13.8V ±10%
Antenna Impedance 50Ω
Temperature Range -20°C~+60°C
Frequency Stability ±2.5PPM
Case Size 140X180X43mm
Weight (w/Battery) 1500g
Compatible With American Military Standard (MIL-STD-810C/D/E)

Receiver IFs 49.950Mhz & 450Khz Second IF(KHZ) 450KHZ Sensitivity(12db SINAD) 0.2uV (Wide)/0.25uV (Narrow) Squelch Selectivity 0.15uV (Wide)/0.2uV (Narrow) Adjacent Channel Selectivity ≥70dB (Wide)/≥65dB (Narrow) Intermodulation ≥70dB Spurious Rejection ≥65dB Image Rejection ≥70dB FM Ham And Noise ≤-45dB(Wide)/-40dB (Narrow) Modulation Type 16KOF3E/11KOF3E Operating Bandwidth ≤±7KHz/≤±5KHz AF Output @ 4Ohms ≥2w(8Ω,5% distorition) Audio Distortion ≤5% Transmitter RF Power Output 50W(VHF)/40W(UHF) Modulation Type F3E Maximum Deviation ≤±5.0KHz(Wide)/≤±2.5KHz (Narrow) Spurious Emission ≤65dB Below Carrier Modulation Distortion ≤5%(300-3000Hz) FM Noise ≤-45dB(W) ≤-40dB(N)

SR9009

The exercise pill.

Thanks

Thanks to the person (or persons - I can't see any information on who is ordering) for using my Amazon link. I really appreciate the support.