Space News

First, all your base is belong to us:



Via Dustbury

Second, Europe borrows the plot from a movie I love to hate and lands a probe on a comet.

Lastly, Google buys an old NASA space hanger. These seems like a necessary step in the plan for Skynet.

Veterans Day

I didn't post this yesterday, because I think we should be thankful for the men and women who are willing to serve for more than one day out of the year. Lots of people posted yesterday, but this was the one that resonated the most with me.

Vitai VC-9900R

Also from the looks familiar files... VITAI VC-9900R High Performance HF/VHF/UHF Radio Transceiver:

Main Function:

• Quad-band operating frequency: 29/50/144/430MHz
• V + U/V + V/U + U dual-band operating
• AM mode for aeronautical band (108-118MHz)
• 809 Memory Channels
• Wide/Narrow Bandwidth Selective (25/12.5kHz)
• CTCSS encode/decode
• DCS encode/decode
• Cross-band repeat
• COMP function
• DTMF-ANI/5 Tone-ANI function
• 2/5 tones
• Automatic power-off
• Display brightness setting
• Hyper memory (store complete radio configuration)
• Built-in scrambler
• Compare this one with FT-8900R

Specification:

Model: VC-9900R
Type: Amateur HF/VHF/UHF Transceiver

Frequency Range
TX: 28.0-29.7/50-54/144-146/430-440MHz (Europe)
    28.0-29.7/50-54/144-148/430-450MHz (USA)
 
RX: 28.0-29.7/50-54/108-180/320-480MHz

Channel Spacing
5/10/12.5/15/20/25/50KHz steps

Working Mode
TX: FM/NFM
RX: AM/FM/NFM

Memory Channel
809

RF Output Power
Hi: 50/50/50/35W
Mid1: 20/20/20/20W
Mid2: 10/10/10/10W
Lo: 5/5/5/5W

Receiver System
double conversion super-heterodyne
1st IF
46.05 MHz (left band), 47.25MHz (right band)
2nd IF
450kHz

Sensitivity
<0 .2uv="" db="" p="" sinad="">FM: 12kHz (-6dB), 30kHz (-60dB)

Image rejection
N/A

Voltage
13.8V DC

Current drain
RX: 500mA (squelched)
TX: 8.5A (maximum)

Impedance
50Ω SO-239

Dimensions (W x H x D)
140 x 42 x 168mm
Weight
1kg

Manufactured
China, 2012 - 201x

Vero Telecom: 2014 (?) Catalog

Vero Telecom published a link to their 2014 (?) catalog (PDF). Several of the radios will look familiar I think. A sampling follows...

PortableSDR: Hackaday Prize Finalist

The PortableSDR project is one of five finalist for the Hackaday prize.

Thanks to HC for the note about this.

Happy Singles Day

In honor of Singles Day, buy a Chinese radio from Amazon.

ARRL Ham Radio License Manual - Kindle Edition

The ARRL has announced that it is making the The ARRL Ham Radio License Manual ($19.95) in the Kindle format. I used an older edition of this book for passing my tech.



Via Jeff Davis

Bike Ride

Not your average bike ride..


Apologies to whoever posted the link that got to me - I lost track of whoever did.

Cost

I just posted about the Raspberry Pi A+ and the last quote was about how much the A+ cost in terms of Starbucks coffee. I've used the same metric for thinking about buying an app on my phone. My stream of consciousness led me to the latte factor next. Which then got me thinking and I realized the Starbucks comparison does not include a key factor - time.

I'm cheap, so the following may not surprise anyone... I'm going to start thinking about the Starbucks comparison this way - using a few assumptions:

A cup of Starbucks is $4.
My average annual rate of return over the long term is 6%.
I have twenty years until I retire.

That means the Raspberry Pi A+ that is "the cost of 4 Starbucks coffees" with my calculations will cost: $52.

Efficiency

Perfection is the enemy of good. Also, there is such a thing as good enough.