Happy Anniversary!

Hopefully it is a happy one... if not, you may be in trouble if you are getting a radio and she's getting something from PSA.

sorry fellas, I got the best one ever!

A post shared by Ham Radio (@hamradio360) on Mar 20, 2017 at 7:30am PDT

PSA: Don't Buy an Amazon Echo Dot

Don't buy an Amazon Echo Dot. It is a gateway drug. Now I want to buy Alexa-enabled outlets and switches. And maybe I need this battery pack, so I can move the Dot from room to room with me.

It'll cost me a few bucks up front and it will be great when it works. It also means, invariably at some point, I'll have to troubleshoot something that never fails like an outlet or light switch.

Knox Makers

Knox Makers are having a grand opening at their new location on April 1.

#buffyslays20

This is my kind of girl power.

#wwbd #whatwouldbuffydo #buffyslays20 pic.twitter.com/9MLY1Cwz5h

— Sarah Michelle (@SarahMGellar) March 10, 2017

Xiaomi MiJia HT

The pictures and specs got me interested.

• VHF frequency 136-174 MHz.
• UHF Frequency range 403-470MHz.
• 8 Days standby time.
• Up to 17 hours of talk time.
• Cost price around $35

Then I watched the video and realized it was a lot bigger than I thought. And then there was a question about the availability of English menus. Meh - wait and see.

*great* looking dual-band HT from Xiaomi @ $35 https://t.co/2FvyM3UtHN

— London Hackspace ARC (@m0hsl) March 8, 2017

Wireless Hacking

Not a new issue...

"His plan involved setting up a transmitter not far from the lecture (supposedly in the theater that his father, a famous stage magician, owned) that would overwhelm the signals from Cornwall. His transmitter, he claimed, was not run at full power: while it was capable of outputting 8 or 9 Amps, he turned it down to 2.5 Amps. He didn’t simply block the signal, but instead transmitted his own morse signal for a short time, claiming that he “studiously refrained from all unnecessary interference”.  

His plan worked. Towards the end of the lecture, Maskelyne’s signals were picked up by the receiver, decoded and noted by Fleming, who wrote to the Times complaining of “Scientific Hooliganism”."

Yikes

I don't even know what label to apply to this. A Knoxville homeless man wants to complete a 2,000 mile trip to California with his huskies, a folding chair, and a skateboard.

Anker PowerHouse

Anyone got one of these Anker PowerHouse? Thoughts? Alternatives?

InfiniiVision 1000 X-Series Oscilloscopes

Low cost doesn’t have to be low quality. Keysight’s new low-cost oscilloscope series w/6-in-1 instrument integration https://t.co/LJ9pvjiRm9 pic.twitter.com/GIFEg6Dwwq

— Keysight_News (@Keysight_News) March 1, 2017

Via @K0NR

Baofeng UV-5R: Teardown

All About Circuits tears down a Baofeng UV-5R:

"The radios we took apart for this week's teardown are the UV-5R and the UV-5RB, though there appear to be many products by Baoefang with a similar product designation (UV-5R, UV-5RA, UV-5RB, UV-5RC, UV-5R+, UV-5R V2, etc...). While only the UV-5RB will appear in the following article, the interior layout of the two radios is largely identical. I opened two radios because the UV-5RB that I initially tore down had multiple integrated circuits with illegible or completely absent top-side markings." 

Circuit drawings and other info at the link.

Via @K0NR