Half Marathon, Hams, and APRS

I ran the Strawberry Plains Half Marathon this week-end. The METERS group was out in force. They even had a big display showing the APRS data. Thanks to all the volunteers!

TYT MD-380 Tools in Practical Wireless

Cool!

#md380tools has found its way into March Edition of Practical Wireless. #hamradio #md380 pic.twitter.com/IcuR5z4ylE

— Simon (@M0IVQ) February 6, 2017

Could Be Worse

I'll see your face for radio and raise you a voice for blogging.

Fields of Fire and the Frontlines series

Marko Kloos is about to release the latest in his Frontlines series - Fields of Fire (Book 5). I can't get his books for free at library, so I will shell out the $5 on Amazon for it. If you've not read the others, he's got them on sale for a dollar each. Obviously, he's trying to get you hooked, so you'll spend the big bucks like me.

BuyTwoWayRadios.com: TYT MD-380 Spare Parts

Nice to have options:

We now have spare parts for the TYT MD-380 DMR radio. https://t.co/BwAFEU7Wo1 @brickolore @HamRadioDMR @amatradio #hamr #hamradio

— BuyTwoWayRadios.com (@2wayradios) January 27, 2017

Baofeng or Bangfeng?

No love for the Baofengs. The shooting starts around 2:50.


Via AR-15.com

Joke of the Year

I know it's early, but as a follow-up to yesterday's post about addressing your Amazon Echo as "Computer," I cracked up reading this fantastic comment:

Hey, now you can just say "computer" to give your @amazonecho a command. Does that mean it's Enterprise-ready? https://t.co/R43Hv8Z6bY pic.twitter.com/30S93cC24B

— Gomix (@gomixme) January 24, 2017

Computer

I've been toying with the idea of buying an Amazon Echo.

They've made the wake word configurable, so you can say "computer" and Alexa will respond.

I'm definitely going to order one now.

For those that don't get the reference (the fun starts around the 1 minute mark):

Ham Radio Operator’s Manual of Operating

The National Radio Retransmission Legion (NRRL) will release next week an updated version of it’s popular “Ham Radio Operator’s Manual of Operating.” This edition will be a departure from its usually highly technical subject matter. Instead, the NRRL says the authors decided to “get back to the basics.”

Eight steps.

TL;DR.

Pinewood Derby Telemetry

Just like a mini F1 car...

Some dads build their kids Pinewood Derby car I just embed an IOT sensor in my sons so we can get better data. https://t.co/qIbaheKGyD

— Jerry Gamblin (@JGamblin) January 11, 2017