Hytera TC-320: Mini-Review

David (K7DB) likes the Hytera TC-320:

"On 1/29/2015 you blogged about a TDXOne TD-Q7 UHF radio. 

For some time I've been using another small UHF radio that has delivered flawless performance and is put together very well. It's a Hytera TC-320. (Yep, the same Hytera that makes the DMR radios.) It's FCC Part 90 certificated. 

I purchased it from a U.S. dealer for $92 delivered, and I think it might even be available cheaper (and also quite a bit more expensive -- so shop around). Programming s/w is available from your dealer for free. A special version of software is needed to program 5 kHz deviation -- that can also be provided free by the dealer. 

The dealer actually has a bunch of these radios that he rents out... so you can imagine how much wear and tear they might get being used for short-term events where the users probably couldn't care less about taking care of the radios. In fact, the manufacturer specs claim it will survive a 1.5 meter (about 5 foot) drop, and there is a U.S. warranty and repair facility in Florida. 

These are 16 channel 2-watt radios, so they might not meet everyone's needs... but they are extremely rugged and reliable, and I'm happy with mine. Comes with 1700 mAh battery. Draws about 34 mA on squelched receive, 1000 mA on 2 W transmit, about 500 mA on 0.5 W transmit, and typically 170 to 280 mA on receive (depending on volume). 

The radio has a neat feature (although in practice a use for it won't come up so often for amateurs) where many groups, each with its own subaudible tone, can share a small number of channels. The radio will scan for traffic with the group's tone, and on transmit -- if no channel is being used with that tone -- will go to an unused channel. In essence, this is a simple trunking system. I think this feature would be useful for a commercial community repeater service with lots of groups and a few repeaters. 

Since this is a commercial radio, most dealers include programming in their quoted price. For amateurs, it's best to tell the dealer he can skip the programming, and ask him to throw in a programming cable instead."

Patching

I like this quote:

“You can’t patch people. They want to be helpful. So train them.” @swordshieldsec #knoxcybersummit
— Clarisntwrks (@ClarisNtwrks) February 5, 2015

VeroTelecom Interview

Over at reddit an interview with Mindy of VeroTelecom:

"Q: From my research on VeroTelecom it seems the majority of your business is the professional two way radio market (rugged, heavy duty radios). What made VeroTelecom decide to focus on the Amateur radio market with such a specific radio? 

A: Vero Telecom has focused on the radio market for over 10 years, no matter for professional radio market or amateur radio market. However, for this long time, we did not have a representative product for the Amateur radio market. So we spent 3 years developing the VR-6600Pro. And we hope it will be a successful beginning in to the Amateur market. 

Q: With such an Amateur specific radio (APRS, GPS, multi color, etc) is VeroTelecom planning on a significant percentage of their business to be Amateur related? 

A: In the future, Vero Telecom will more focus on Amateur radio market, say 80% or more."

More at the link.

Raspberry Pi 2 and Windows 10

There is a new Raspberry Pi... the Raspberry Pi 2:

"Let’s get the good stuff out of the way above the fold. Raspberry Pi 2 is now on sale for $35 (the same price as the existing Model B+), featuring:

• A 900MHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 CPU (~6x performance)

• 1GB LPDDR2 SDRAM (2x memory)

• Complete compatibility with Raspberry Pi 1

Because it has an ARMv7 processor, it can run the full range of ARM GNU/Linux distributions, including Snappy Ubuntu Core, as well as Microsoft Windows 10."

And the really interesting part:

"Windows 10 

For the last six months we’ve been working closely with Microsoft to bring the forthcoming Windows 10 to Raspberry Pi 2. Microsoft will have much more to share over the coming months. The Raspberry Pi 2-compatible version of Windows 10 will be available free of charge to makers.

Visit WindowsOnDevices.com today to join the Windows Developer Program for IoT and receive updates as they become available."

Green Power Supplies

Recycle!

Computer supplies converted to 12vdc 20a running great as station DC power source. pic.twitter.com/gIuwFQGxDS
— Dave Hockaday (@WB4IUY) January 22, 2015

Binary

No offense to your dots and dashes, Mr. Morse, but how much can you ever do with just a binary code? #hamradio pic.twitter.com/C9r17KBFxi
— wa1gov (@wa1gov) January 31, 2015

Via LA3ZA

Grapevine DMR Radios

Ripped from a Grapevine e-mail that was forwarded to me:

"Wow, brand new from BFDX, this is a very nice radio. Right out of the package, you can tell this is a well-made piece of equipment. Heavy-duty, durable and stylish. The large TFT color screen looks great and is easy to read. A voice prompt, which you can turn off or on, talks to you and tells you which channel you are on. All channels and zones are customizable with names and many characters that you can set to read whatever you like. This unit comes with built-in GPS, so your transmit location is viewable by others with a GPS receiver in their radios. This feature can be turned off or on. The "On" mode of the GPS has 2 settings, one for higher performance, and one for battery saver." "We're carrying the Connect Systems radios for the purposes of promoting DMR. At $199, you'll pay exactly the same price from us that you'd pay from Connect Systems. Drop by the store and take yours home today! We'll even program it for you with the DFW-area codeplug at no additional charge. Of course you can order from the website also." "TYT's MD-280 DMR HT holds just 16 channels with no display, but offers a lower cost solution for DMR. Perfect for businesses or for a young ham who just needs a few talkgroups. Comes with programming cable and free software."

Queen of Code: Grace Hopper

I've posted about Grace Hopper before, but here is a new video. I'd like to get one of those clocks that runs backwards.

QYT KT-UV980: Hans Review

Full details here, but his bottom line:

"$151 (409shop) isn’t much for a full featured dual-band mobile, but don’t expect much either. The tested QYT KT-UV980 has quite a few flaws and quirks, and factory specs prove to be a bit optimistic." 

Baofeng Squelch Fix

You may have seen it elsewhere, but CHIRP now has ability to modify the squelch levels for some Baofeng radios. I'm really excited to test this with the BF-F8HP that BaofengTech has provided.

Here is the overview from Miklor of the squelch settings:

UV5R / UV82 / F8HP series CHIRP Daily Build 20150111 or newer   Modifying settings will change the way your radio performs. Change them at your own risk. This is not compatible with UVB5/B6 or BF888S models due to differences in firmware.

The factory squelch settings on these models has long been known to have little or no impact on the actual squelch level. The smallest noise burst would easily pop open the squelch. Until now, it was one of those  little 'quirks' you just needed to tolerate.   But no longer...  Through the efforts of Jim KC9HI and the CHIRP development team, this has become a thing of the past.  A new 'Service Settings' tab has been added to CHIRP which allows you to alter the factory level settings, so a weak signal can open level 1, and only a monster signal can open level 9. At this time we are not aware of any measurements made with actual test equipment that is designed to measure actual squelch sensitivity, but on the air testing confirms that it definitely works. Compatibility There are too many Baofeng/Pofung models, variants, and firmware versions to be certain which radios are compatible and which ones aren't. Testing that has been done indicates the following:   The CHIRP Service Settings will adjust the levels on: -  UV82 series radios (82C / 82X) -  F8HP series radios -  UV5R series radios with firmware BFB291 and later. PowerOn while holding '3' button displays firmware on UV5R. The Fix The lowest factory levels were 14 > 22, and the highest were 40 > 48. Using the settings below spreads the range from 24 > 64 in increments of 5. This is a good starting point, but can fine tune these  to any value or increment desired from 1 to 64. You also have the ability to change the VHF and UHF values independently. After changing the level values, test the different levels to determine which is the best for your type use.

You can see the defaults I just pulled from the BF-F8HP.