SDR Giveaway at AmateurRadio.com

Lots of of prizes, open to hams worldwide from AmateurRadio.com and NooElec.com ... click here to enter:

Three (3)
Complete NESDR XTR HF SDR packages including:
NESDR XTR SDR Set (E4000 chip)
Ham It Up upconverter
Upconverter Enclosure (silver)
Male MCX to male SMA pigtail (SDR cable)
Male SMA to female BNC adapter (antenna adapter)
Estimated $129.95 value

Five (5)
Complete NESDR Mini 2 HF packages including:
NESDR Mini 2 SDR set
Ham It Up upconverter
NESDR Mini 2 enclosure (silver)
Upconverter enclosure (silver)
Male MCX to male SMA pigtail (SDR cable)
Male SMA to female BNC adapter (antenna adapter)
$111.95 value 

Twelve (12)
NESDR Mini 2 SDR sets
$25.95 value

EMF Protection

I ordered two.

Not really.

But that's because I wear one of these.

Again, not really.

Via /r/amateurradio

Let It Snow

In case you are tired of all the Frozen "Let it go" songs, I present a change of pace.

Baofeng BF-F8HP:Unboxing

Here are a few obligatory unboxing pictures of the BF-F8HP (along with a few of the UV-82C in the group shots) from BaofengTech.

I've fired up CHIRP and have a few repeaters setup. So far, so good!

Reads "Baofeng"

Reads "U - V Antenna"

NoteSlate - This Year?

NoteSlate is making bold statements again via Twitter. The link takes you to the noteslate.jp site. I'm sure not what "Shiro" is.

Noteslate #SHIRO will come this year. The first one of them. Thank you for your support http://t.co/Pejs22Z6UR pic.twitter.com/zy1GahaRPl
— NoteSlate (@noteslate) December 10, 2014

I signed up for the notification. I assume "this year" means 2015. Otherwise, we would see something very soon. Also, the e-mail sign-up gives an address in the Czech Republic. Not that it matters - I just had no idea where they were.

Noteslate SHIRO ( Pre-Order 2014 )
Almost finished...
We need to confirm your email address.
To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you. 

Noteslate, Inc.
Na Kotlářce 1081/6
Prague 160 00
Czech Republic

Cisco v. Arista

Cisco's statement:

In the thirteen years I’ve been General Counsel of Cisco, I can count on one hand the number of times we’ve initiated suit against a competitor, supplier or customer. 

It’s therefore only after thoughtful and serious consideration that we are today filing two lawsuits to stop Arista’s repeated and pervasive copying of key inventions in Cisco products. These suits cover key Cisco proprietary patented features and Cisco’s copyrighted materials.

Arista's response:

"The networking industry is in the midst of a revitalization as the value shifts from boxes to cloud networking software (a shift which is causing apparent consternation at Cisco). Arista is winning the software battle in the cloud, so Cisco has chosen to do what others did to it previously and is attempting to use the legal system to cover for its lack of innovation in software 

I was the General Counsel at Cisco in the 1990’s when it was being attacked in much the same way as Arista is today. Cisco faced this same challenge from the legacy vendors in the 1990’s, and the legacy vendors also wrongly used litigation to slow down innovation. I agreed with Mr. Chambers quote then and I agree with it even more now. “Symbolically it’s huge,” Mr. Chambers said of the suit. “It shows that some companies don’t have a way to compete in this new market.” 

http://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/23/business/the-markets-market-place-cisco-systems-is-giving-up-partner-hunt.html"

Modern Prison

And we do it to ourselves...

modern prison pic.twitter.com/P5XfrQwnJr
— Banksy (@lamBanksy) December 8, 2014

The Joys of Wireless Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting wireless can be hard. Where I am working, we have to deal with loads that vary with the day and with the season. Couple those variables with everything that happens in the air and it can lead to plenty of headaches. I've ordered some pineapples to compensate.

Hytera PD368

Cool.

#Hytera PD368 in #hamr action through the #DMR Marc netowrk (#US talkgroup). http://t.co/coQphAtnjw #hamradio #digital @brickolore
— Christian Diemoz (@Chris_Diemoz) December 5, 2014

1,000 Miles

As of today, I've run 1,005.61 miles for the year. It's the first time I've run more than 1,000 in a year. Along the way, I ran marathon, half marathon, 15k, 10k, 8k, 5k, and 1 mile races. I even did half marathons on back to back days.