Jot Script Evernote Edition Now Shipping

I'm still looking at the Jot Script Evernote Edition. Since I am not gainfully employed, I probably won't get this, if at all, until Christmas.

There is some more information available now and a video that helps me form some opinions. One, it looks a little thick. Second, they recommend turning the Multitasking Gestures off. This isn't a show stopper for me, but I know some people really like them for navigating about the screens.

On the positive side, it looks like you can rest your hand on the iPad, just as you would a regular pad of paper:

"Why can’t I write with the Jot Script stylus and my finger simultaneously?
When the Jot Script stylus is properly connected, Penultimate gives priority to the stylus and ignores anything else that touches the screen. This makes it easier for people who like to rest their hands on the screen while writing."

And you customize Penultimate to match your writing style (hand position).

Wool

What I'm reading now: Wool. It is a different take on a dystopian future. I'm enjoying the series, but I really need to find something lighter and more upbeat or it'll end up being like the apocalyptic summer of 2010 where I read One Second After, Alas, Babylon, and On the Beach.

Wouxun SPS30 III Switching Power Supply

For those of you who want to have 100% Wouxun shack, you can get a step closer. The Wouxun SPS30 III Switching Power Supply is $75 from BuyTwoWayRadios.com

Specs:
- Input voltage: 110V/220V AC
- Output voltage: 13.8V DC - adjustable between 9.0 and 15.0 V
- Output voltage regulation: less than 2%
- Protection: short-circuit - Automatic current limiting within 30A
- Output current: 30A(max) 20A(continuous)
- Ripple: less than 80mVp-p at rated load
- Fuse: 220V:5A, 110V:8A
- Meter: single volt/current meter - backlit

Wouxun KG-UV950P: The Results

First, many thanks to BuyTwoWayRadios.com for loaning the KG-UV950P to me. They let me have it with no strings attached - they simply wanted someone to spin the dial on this radio and see what happens. To me, this means they want to be more than just a business that sells radios. Cheers to them!

Secondly, thanks to my father-in-law and to a new ham friend, Frank. Both generously helped me with the testing - lending their equipment and knowledge. I was just talking with Frank on a repeater about the 950 and he suggested bringing it over to his shack, so we could put it on his service monitor. I had never met Frank before, but I was happy to take him up on his offer.

If you haven't already read the review by Hans, start here and come back. He's got a very thorough post and I won't duplicate his pictures or much of his content.

And now the results...

Subjective
On the subjective side, I can simply say I like the radio. I got on the air more in the last several days than I had in a while. I got good reports on my TX audio. As is common with many of the Chinese radios and, as Hans report, the RX volume seems very loud with course increments. I'm not sure why this is so difficult to correct from a systemic perspective. Unlike Hans, I did not have a problem with distortion as I increased the volume. In general, I think the controls were easy to use and the speaker mic felt good in my hand.

Misc Notes
Hans found that 6/10 meters can only be accessed from VFO A and I can confirm that as well. I also discovered in playing around that certain menu options (48 FM Radio, 49 AUT AM, and 50 AM-SW) are only available from VFO A. There is a note about those menu options being on VFO A only in the manual, but I only saw it after I figured out the options were missing on VFO B. In general, I would say the manual was okay - far from the worst I've seen. Even without the manual, I managed to figure out several things intuitively - like exiting the FM radio. Someone asked about scanning speeds, which I found acceptable. You can see the channel scanning and frequency scanning videos and judge for yourself.

Testing
During the testing, we looked at output power, sensitivity, and any problems with spurious transmissions on the harmonics. I can echo the statement by Hans that there were no issues on the harmonics. From a sensitivity perspective, the radio performed very well - no issues to report here either. On to the power measurements now. I know Hans and others were curious to see what I found.

--- 28 MHz Low ---
Hans: 3.7
Brick: 4.7

--- 28 MHz High ---
Hans: 9
Brick: 10

--- 52 MHz Low ---
Hans: 2.8
Brick: 4.4

--- 52 MHz Hi ---
Hans: 32.2
Brick: 47

--- 145 MHz Low ---
Hans: 4.2
Brick: 4.0

--- 145 MHz Med (Low) ---
Hans: 9.5
Brick: 9.7

--- 145 MHz Hi ---
Hans: 42.7
Brick: 40

--- 435 MHz Low ---
Hans: 3.5
Brick: 4.2

--- 435 MHz Hi ---
Hans: 35.3
Brick: 35

As you can see our results are fairly close with a notable exception on 6M at high power. Like Hans, I didn't see much output even on the high power setting for 10M. That might be a showstopper from some - especially those enjoying the conditions on 10 right now.

Conclusion
Wouxun has come out of the gate with a solid quad band offering with the KG-UV950R. If we were only comparing it to the way the initial 920 was introduced, this would be a slam dunk for anyone. It appears that Wouxun did a much better job with this radio.

I didn't have the distortion problem, but Hans' concerns about the channel spacing (lacks 8.33 KHz spacing) and the power issues we both saw may keep some folks away. But given the low price and overall performance, this may be a great option for a lot of people. In fact, Frank, who helped me with the testing said that he was putting the 950 on his short-list, so he could get a quad band in his car.

Thanks again to BuyTwoWayRadios.com, my F-I-L, and Frank!

Foreign Enemies And Traitors - Free Kindle Edition

As a reminder to those interested in The Enemies Trilogy that I posted about the other day, the third book - Foreign Enemies And Traitors, is free starting today until Thursday.

Churchillian Drift

Churchillian Drift:

"the process whereby the actual originator of a quotation is often elbowed to one side and replaced by someone more famous. So to Churchill or Napoleon would be ascribed what, actually, a lesser-known political figure had said. The process occurs in all fields."

Via NPR.org

HF-One: HF-One MKII Internals

Source:

"Brief description: amplifier and low-pass at the bottom, the motherboard on top. seat with two 2.54 fasten .32 PIN of FFC cable connected to the front face. That's it. machine is only three PCB, can try to patch the patch. deduction locking screws and other low-tech work and some require soldering are:

1 \ Power cord
2 \ Amplifier tube
3 \ forward and reverse power detection coil
4 \ likely six relays have manual welding on
5 \ and antenna pedestal cable
6 \ multifunction port (9-pin serial port power strip)
7 \ 3.5MM stereo jack

good Like no.

motherboard does not seem to require manual soldering. wear only need to manually connect the front face of the 32PIN cable."

HF-One: HF-One MKII Control and SDR

Looks like control will be via USB or serial based on this question:

"Tablet PC, mobile phone via Bluetooth control it?"

And answer:

"No, the app via wifi control pc, pc control the machine with usb or com"

And when asked about SDR, the reply was:

"There i and q signal output, then the pc sound card or iphone adapter with hdsdr, powersdr, isdr etc. software"

HF-One: HF-One MKII Microphone

A note on the functionality of the HF-One MKII microphone:

"Hand m not dtmf, nor can type frequency, is used to control the recording sheet"

HF-One: HF-One MKII Details

I found a thread about the HF-One MKII at HelloCQ.net and will have several posts about this radio based on what I found there. Translations courtesy of Google Chrome/Translate. This first one is a long description of the radio and some of its features:

"Low-power portable HF SSB transceiver kit assembly and adjustment (on) Overview: 5100 HF SSB transceiver small power car, HAM is the latest of a high-performance HF transceiver kit, which prototype for foreign TRX2A mature suite. The machine uses a single-sideband phase-shifting technology, eliminating the high cost and cumbersome to adjust SSB crystal filter. Machine extensive use of SMD components, with lines mature, cost-effective, powerful features, it is worth a try amateur radio enthusiasts. 

Here to tell us about this transceiver kit assembly and adjustment. One, the whole constitutes the whole total of three PCB, respectively, display control panel, motherboard and RF transceiver amplifier board. High integration, small components is a feature of the machine, so when assembled, covered with a clean plate as far as possible, and keep the surroundings clean, so if the components are not accidentally fall, it tends to recover . The display control panel to adjust the frequency encoding rotary switch, volume control potentiometer, control the automatic wire-speed potentiometer. In addition, there are six multi-touch buttons and microphone jack, then, clear displays. 

Powerful machine microcomputer control chip and direct digital frequency synthesizer chip is also located on the block on the PCB, board a trimming resistor for trimming direct digital frequency synthesizer output phase. Board also built a total length of 240 seconds of the ten segments sound recording circuitry. Using a 32-core FFC flexible flat cable to the transceiver board. An eight-core RJ45 socket for connecting the multifunction control microphone in hand. Transceiver integrated on the motherboard of the machine's most important transceiver channel line. And connect the Display control panel and RF amplifier board. Phase shift circuit transceiver and audio filter circuit is located on the upper section and intermediate. Audio amplifier is located on the bottom right of the board. The block on the PCB, there are three adjustable potentiometer, respectively, for adjusting the maximum power CW, SSB maximum power adjustment, and automatic gain control AGC threshold adjustments. RF amplifier board in the host's bottom with integrated transmitter power amplifier, low-pass filters transmit receive pre-selected frequency transceiver circuit and switching circuit. 

In addition to the antenna socket connection, the panel also has a 3.5mm external jack for an external speaker cabinet; a 9-pin multi-function interface, providing the microprocessor serial communication port, auto-key interface and transceiver control signal input and output other connections. The block on the PCB has four trimmer, trimming two individually and two push tube amplifier tube quiescent current. A maximum current of 3.5A SMD fuse is also located in the top right corner of the plate, two red and black power cord provides power machine connection. In addition, the board has two patch 2.54 for connection to send and receive the motherboard. 

Second, the whole welding assembly kit provides is the big kit form, and most of the IC RC have patch welding complete, the user need only a small amount of welding line discrete devices, enthusiasts spend a little time, use the tip of a 35W head electric iron, with the commonly used tweezers, screwdrivers, etc. Basically, you can easily completed independently, so a low level of difficulty assembling welding. Get the PCB, the first detailed examination of the naked eye whether the legacy board solder points, points, etc. heap tin, preferably with a magnifying glass and then check in detail the various IC devices and socket pin has even welding, Weld and so on. 

1) Display control panel welding assembly
① first eight-core RJ45 socket weld, fasten the 32 pin FFC cable and the display assembly fixed, posted a good key Mylar film, as shown.
② fitted rotary encoders and two potentiometers, PCB fixed to the front surface of the plastic shell, fine-tuning knob handle position, making sure hole in the middle of the front shell, you can weld on the rotary encoders and potentiometers. Weld horn two wiring.
③ tear screen protective film, posted a good mirror. Description: The factory, microprocessor control chip firmware has been brushed latest version, the user need not consider firmware update issues. Should you need to downgrade the firmware update microprocessor or due to re-burn solid, you can contact the service units to solve.  

2) RF power amplifier board welding assembly
① Press the attached information about a good six low-pass magnetic coil and the coil pin to scrape paint, boring is good tin.
② welding two standing wave power detection coil and the intermediate threaded weld is good. Low-pass welding six magnetic coils. Welding 6 relays.
③ weld 3.5MM socket, 9-pin multi-socket
④ ready two amplifier tube, curved good pin and painted a good cooling gel, three-terminal regulator 7805 also painted a good cooling gel, these three TO-220 packaged devices with screws in cast aluminum shell, as shown.
⑤ fitted RF amplifier board PCB, pay attention to the good two amplifier tube pins, use four 1-centimeter-long bolts and three M3 screws good RF amplifier board PCB, soldered two amplifier tube pin. Openings from the PCB using a Phillips screwdriver checking two amplifier tube is tightened.
⑥ welding power cord terminals. Description: This board four trim resistor adjustment need not adjust the motherboard transceiver installed, so you can start with the following RF amplifier board of adjustment, then the motherboard assembly. 

3) transceiver board assembly. The plates welded components without user put on the PCB two 2.54-row seat aligned RF power amplifier board pin, pressed a little harder motherboard, make-row seat buckle in place. Use four screws fixed transceiver motherboard.  

4) the whole assembly
① first waterproof tape fixed to the aluminum shell, pull out the three-terminal regulator cable into the Display control panel. The display control panel FFC cable through the other end connected to the aluminum shell openings transceiver socket on the motherboard, and secure.
② Shell snaps onto the front cast aluminum chassis. Fitted with metal casing and lock, installed car bracket, connect the power cord to extend the client. At this point, the host welding assembly is completed.  

5) multi-microphone in hand soldering assembly kit requires welding assembly hand microphone device is not much. Follow these steps, you can easily accomplish.

1 iron lock to the hook on the back cover, then microphone, pay attention with a good two weight stack.
(2) if the microphone attached to the keys on the front cover, press the Li-ping. A spring assembled PTT, PTT button, PTT rubber bridge, the second function key rubber.
3 welding on the electret microphone, two touch buttons, 8-pin row seat, clock crystal.
4 aligned position, glue on the PCB Mylar film, try to press the normal feel comfortable.
5 In the words of the PCB board fixed microphone on the front cover and tighten four screws. And press each button, the test feel.
6 Use pointed tweezers or pin auxiliary, then the 8 pin microphone cable according to the functions corresponding to adjust line sequence. The word microphone cord into the 8-pin socket on the PCB, good pressure fixed rubber block.
7 Microphone for wear after the shell and tighten three screws.
8. Microphone connected to the hand grip panel microphone jack. 

At this point, the whole welding assembly is completed. At this point, the whole welding assembly is completed."