Not 18

BB guns shouldn't be counted in this number.

Falcon Heavy

I came across a good video of the Falcon Heavy launch (via Ace of Spades), so I'm posting it so I can find it again easily. (As a reminder, some number of my posts are created b/c I have CRS (Can't Remember Stuff) Syndrome.

The engineers are just showing off around the 30 min mark when the two boosters land.

Skills That Come in Handy

Brazilian Checkout pic.twitter.com/5NQkAJmzn3

— World and Science (@WorldAndScience) February 14, 2018

Via  LA3ZA

Eufy Genie $20 - Vizio and Alexa

I got an e-mail saying that the Eufy Genie was on sale for $20 for Valentine's Day.

On a related note...

I bought a Google Home Mini just to control my Vizio TV. Vizio announced an Amazon Alexa skill to do the same. Cool!

HamRadio 360 Podcast SK

I know how he feels... it's hard to blog sometimes and it doesn't require a fraction of the effort to produce a podcast. Good luck Cale on your next endeavor!

All Good Things:

"However, I began to realize just how much of me it took to produce quality content and maintain the brand. In October of 2017 I took a break from my regular show production with a promise to return in 2018. I upheld that promise but soon realized that the continued pressure to perform and create was more than I was willing to maintain anymore. 

With that understanding I have decided to discontinue, in it’s entirety, the Ham Radio 360 Podcast. I plan to maintain the HamRadio360.com Website and Podcast Feed of past shows and content as a contribution to the Amateur Radio Hobby."

Yaesu FT-818: Update

Almost 6 years since this post... maybe the FT-818 is real.

Thanks to Razvan for the heads up.

Ham Radio for the Win

Some good press...

Dummies

409Shop Dummy Loads

Pioneer Rayz Plus - 1st World Earbud Problem

One complaint about the elimination of the headphone jack on the iPhone was that you couldn't charge the phone and use wired headphones at the same time. The Pioneer Rayz Plus solves that problem. It's billed as noise cancelling, Lightning - Talk & Charge, Smart Earbuds. For a mere $129, you get all the fancy, app controlled sound tweaks along with the ability to charge your phone. I'm clearly not their target audience. I'd rather grab a set of cheap wireless Bluetooth earbuds and a battery pack.

Review here.

Home Network

I mentioned I was changing my network at home - getting my own cable modem (NETGEAR CM500-1AZNAS) and trying to decide what to do for wireless. I ended up ordering the ASUS RT-AC3200.

The specs look great and I'm optimistic that I can move it to a slightly more central location. The combination of the two changes should get me great coverage throughout the house. (And, if that's not perfect, I could look at the ASUS mesh networking - AiMesh.)

Also, I'm a fan the WRT software and like the ASUSWRT version as well. You can play around with an on-line demo of the software here.

Hopefully I can get everything moved to the new setup over the week-end. I already announced a scheduled network maintenance/outage for Sunday. Guess folks may have to read a book or something for a few minutes.