WLN KD-C1

I meant to post this last week as there was a nice little discussion about the WLN KD-C1 on Facebook and Twitter last week.

Desmond (www.desmondcrisis.com / @dcrisis) shares that he likes the WLN KD-C1 over the BF-888. It's always nice to hear from someone that's had their hands on the radio - even if it is only ~$20 to try one out.

Podcasts

Arrgh... not enough hours in the day...

BuyTwoWayRadios.com: Is DMR becoming the digital radio standard?

and

Ham Radio 360: Workbench - Meters

Heathkit

Ha!

Ordered a Heathkit... pic.twitter.com/DxIbzQDoHL

— Ham Hijinks (@HamHijinks) August 15, 2016

PowerWerx Custom DC Power Cable Configurator

Use the PowerWerx wizard to Design Your Own Dual Conductor Custom DC Power Cable:

"Design your own custom cable. We build & ship it to you. Specify your connectors, length, gauge and other options. Calculate the price in real time as you design, then add it to your cart. Save and recall previous custom cables in your account or by cable ID"

New Item: Design Your Own Dual Conductor Custom DC Power Cable https://t.co/8q8Fy4tq9B pic.twitter.com/C0gtHtuJHt

— Powerwerx (@Powerwerx) August 10, 2016

Soylent Coffiest

I've been reading about the Soylent products and saw that they are coming out with a coffee version.

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.

DV4Mobile:Price Estimate and More

I'm behind on the DV4Mobile posting... here's one to catch up via the CS7000 Yahoo Group:

"Powered by a 1.8 GHz Linux computer, 3 SDR's, 2 AMBE chips and will be 20 watts.
Expected price: $900-1200 dollars"

There are the ham things you are looking for...

So Amazon sent me an e-mail saying that you, my true and faithful readers, would need the things below. I'm posting them 1) as a blatant capitalist ploy to get rich and 2) to see if the Amazon algorithms are any good at all (meaning someone actually does click a link and makes a purchase). So don't click if you want to prove that life is not predestined and that a computer doesn't know everything about you.




Oh, ham stuff and one book. Go figure.

New Hamvention Location visit by KE9V

Hamvention: The Fairgrounds - I visited the new #Hamvention home today... https://t.co/dUiX3qt2pt via @ke9v #hamradio

— Jeff Davis (@ke9v) August 4, 2016

Raspberry Pi 3 Cluster

A very professional install (and video) of a Raspberry Pi cluster...

BuyTwoWayRadios.com - Troubleshooting Guides

A wealth of information from the BuyTwoWayRadios.com team...

First, the podcast:
TWRS-105 - What To Do When Your Two Way Radio Does Not Work

And several trouble-shooting guides:

What to do if the programming cable does not detect the radio
What to do if the programming cable does not work
What to do if the radio programming software does not detect the cable or COM port
What to do if your computer does not read or detect the Buy Two Way Radios CD

What to do if the radio is damaged
What to do if CHIRP does not list your radio
XLT Painless Programming Cable installation video