Thursday, February 10, 2011
Old Mobile Phone for 911
Not a bad idea... keep an old mobile phone charged to use as a back-up for 911 calls. He recommends using a timer to keep the phone from sucking juice all the time. I would suggest looking at the phone to see if shows that it is getting an SOS signal of some sort.
Home Defense Experiment
A friend sent me the link to Legion's Fate blog and an experiment for shooting through drywall. They test the conventional wisdom that a shotgun is preferable to a rifle or handgun for self defense in the home when there is a risk of an errant round passing through a wall and hitting a loved one or neighbor.
The conclusion...
The conclusion...
"For fun, we also shot a .38 Special MagTec frangible round, a .357 magnum Glaser Safety Slug, and a Black Hills 124 grain +P 9mm at the walls, and all of them went straight through the five walls and into the woods. High velocity small mass bullets hitting something hard like drywall makes them break up and slow down, and low velocity high mass bullets just keep going."
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Nifty Guide for the Wouxun KG-UVD1P
The Nifty Guide for the Wouxun KG-UVD1P is now available. I guess this means the Chinese radio is now officially a player.
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| From Brick O'Lore |
Monday, February 7, 2011
Echolink near Knoxville
From the 470 ARG Newsletter:
Also, Paul (W4PGM) will be talking about the Flex Radio on Thursday night. And, they are thinking about doing an Extra class. I'd really like to do that, but I'm not sure I have the time.
"Hopefully we will have our ECHOLINK up and running by this WEDS going through our club repeater of 443.225, thats one reason the news letter is a little early.. the link will be KJ4HPM-R on the search bar at ECHOLINK."As I mentioned earlier, I think that EchoLink is a good way to get into the hobby without a lot of expense. We are just waiting for TNJeff to get his ticket, so he can sign-up. The air waves will never be the same. I believe both my IC-7000 and the KG-UVD1P will work on 70 cm.
Also, Paul (W4PGM) will be talking about the Flex Radio on Thursday night. And, they are thinking about doing an Extra class. I'd really like to do that, but I'm not sure I have the time.
N6R - Fail
Well, I never did get N6R, but at least I was out there and learned a little about the radio. I think finding these special events may be a good way for me to get going with HF. Since I know where they will be, it takes some of the randomness out of the process.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
N6R - Playing with HF on the IC-7000
Well, I've been listening for N6R on 20M at 14.255 MHz. I can barely make out some activity. As I mentioned, they are celebrating Reagan's 100th Birthday. I can't really hear N6R from Thousand Oaks, CA. I have heard a couple of stations from Oklahoma City and somewhere in Colorado working him.
I've been playing around with a lot of the settings on my IC-7000. I'm taking my best guess with:
Noise Reduction (NR) - it does eliminate some of the noise, but it keeps me from hearing N6R at all.
Pre Amplifier (P.AMP) - the Pre Amp does help me hear him as it magnifies the weak signal. According to the manual, it improves the signal to noise ratio and is useful for weak signals.
Attenuator (ATT) - The attenuator blocks undesired signals, which doesn't help me at all.
Noise Blanker (NB) - The noise blanker did not help and given the description in the manual (eliminates pulse type noise such as from a car ignition), I'm not surprised.
IF Filter (FIL) - I tried the IF Filters, too, but none of the 3 default passbands filters seemed to help either. There are some step size adjustments, but I didn't understand them enough to play with them.
IF Filter Shape - I did try the "soft" and "sharp" filter shapes, but they didn't seem to help.
And now, some Net has started on 14.255 MHz and run off the special event station. I'm spinning the dial to see if I can find him again.
Looks like I need to check out the Reagan Library website, too.
I've been playing around with a lot of the settings on my IC-7000. I'm taking my best guess with:
Noise Reduction (NR) - it does eliminate some of the noise, but it keeps me from hearing N6R at all.
Pre Amplifier (P.AMP) - the Pre Amp does help me hear him as it magnifies the weak signal. According to the manual, it improves the signal to noise ratio and is useful for weak signals.
Attenuator (ATT) - The attenuator blocks undesired signals, which doesn't help me at all.
Noise Blanker (NB) - The noise blanker did not help and given the description in the manual (eliminates pulse type noise such as from a car ignition), I'm not surprised.
IF Filter (FIL) - I tried the IF Filters, too, but none of the 3 default passbands filters seemed to help either. There are some step size adjustments, but I didn't understand them enough to play with them.
IF Filter Shape - I did try the "soft" and "sharp" filter shapes, but they didn't seem to help.
And now, some Net has started on 14.255 MHz and run off the special event station. I'm spinning the dial to see if I can find him again.
Looks like I need to check out the Reagan Library website, too.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
For the people...
An Alabama city wants to control what its employees post on their time, on their computers, using their personal accounts.
I love the quote in the stub on Slashdot:
I love the quote in the stub on Slashdot:
"Anyone care to educate these clowns on the existence of the First Amendment?"Via Slashdot.org
Friday, February 4, 2011
Oak Ridge Mayor Signs Mayors Against Illegal Guns Letter
Tom Beehan signed the MAIG letter. On the one hand, I think we are all against illegal guns. On the other hand, these guys are idiots for thinking we are idiots. Seriously, aren't we all against bad things?
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