ARRL Annual Report Stats

KE9V pulls some interesting status out of the 2015 ARRL Annual Report. The trends seem positive.

NooElec and AmateurRadio.com winners

You get an SDR. And you get an SDR! Any you get an SDR!!

NooElec and AmatuerRadio.com winners.

Plus:

"If you didn’t win and you’re interested in ordering from NooElec, they’ve generously supplied us with a discount code for our readers:

AMRADIOTENOFF – $10 off orders $100 or more.
No restrictions. Valid until 14 August 2016."

Band Plan Plug-in

Another cool thing you can do with SDR...

New Band Plan plugin added to SDR#. Graphical band view and automatic mode configuration. https://t.co/q200lJi74P pic.twitter.com/nl3jyj8XV4

— sdrsharp (@sdrsharp) August 7, 2016

WLN KD-C1: 440 Plus a 220 Mod?

I thought I had posted about the WLN KD-C1, but I can't find it anywhere. Maybe I ignored it, because it is a simple 16-channel UHF (400-470 MHz). It's cheap at $19 bucks. (And you could get one in orange and white.)

And for those that like to live dangerously, you can try VE3PZR's software mod to add 220 MHz:

"I suspect it puts out spurs in the 440 MHz band." 

"A simple test on 223.580 with a friend with a real 220 MHz radio proved that the radio transmits some power. He was able to hear me but I was not able to hear him. He was about 8KMs away."

Interesting, but TX without RX strikes me as not very useful. I'd rather have the RX only if I got to pick.

409shop-two-way-radio.com

Nate sent me a link to www.409shop-two-way-radio.com. Not sure if they are testing a new look or if this is really anything, but we all know their current page isn't the prettiest e-commerce site.

Baofeng Tech UV-50X3 and CHIRP

This is pretty cool when you think about it...

 

MILESTONE: CHIRP's First OEM Partnership

The BTECH UV-50X3 became the very first radio to be exclusively supported by CHIRP programming software. CHIRP is a volunteer based effort to cohesively program radios from all vendors on Windows, Linux and OSX. BaoFengTech.com fully supports CHIRP and the efforts that CHIRP volunteers make to provide you the easiest programming solution between your radios. Download, support, and learn more about CHIRP at:http://chirp.danplanet.com/projects/chirp/wiki/Download

Walther P22: Sentinel Captured Spring Guide Rod

I agree with Oleg - reassembly of the P22 requires a fair amount of gymnastics. Twenty bucks for this captured spring guide rod from TANDEMKROSS sounds like a bargain.

Via Oleg

Gun Emojis

Apple trades a pistol emoji for a water gun. Microsoft trades a toy gun emoji for a more realistic pistol.

So what you see will vary by platform. That doesn't sound like a good idea.

Wouxun KG-D901: DMR HT Available at BuyTwoWayRadios.com

BuyTwoWayRadios.com announces they have the Wouxun DMR KG-D901 available in limited quantities for $149.99 (free shipping). See previous coverage here.

Amazon, Sunspring, and Skynet

Apparently Amazon's algorithm doesn't know all of your deepest, darkest desires since no one bought anything yesterday.

That failure along with this movie created by an AI that was fed bunches of sci-fi scripts makes me feel like we are safe from Skynet for a while yet.