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In: Cool Links|Ham Radio
10 Jan 2009I’m on a local ham radio mailing list. (Though I’m actually not sure how this came to be.) So a few neat links. The first is a yagi for 160 meters. Antenna size is inversely proportional to frequency, and 160 meters is the lowest ham radio frequency out there. The notion of a 160 meter [...]
You know those times when you decide to let yourself surf aimlessly? And an hour later, you have absolutely no idea how you got to where you did? I found the K0S Strange Antenna Contest page from 2003, where some ham radio operators started using, well, strange things as antennas. Who’d think that a ladder [...]
In: Funny|Ham Radio|Hero of the Day|Living|Rants & Raves|School
23 Apr 2008There were a couple people screaming profanities outside my window. After about ten minutes one of them shouted, “Come drink with us” at some girl, and I looked out and saw that they had beer bottles. Sufficiently irritated at this point, I called Campus Police. The dispatcher said, “I just sent someone up that way [...]
In: Business|Computers|Ham Radio|Ideas|Living|OCD|Rants & Raves
6 Apr 2008There are a few different technologies commonly used in two-way radio. One is digital voice, a la Motorola ASTRO / Project 25′s CAI (IMBE), which is a 9600bps (9.6kbps) digital stream. Another interesting technology is trunking: a city might have 12 talkgroups (think “virtual channels”), but only 4 frequencies. One frequency is designated as a [...]
So my building here is one in a “set” of three dormitories. There’s a walkway, and another building on the other side of it. (And the third is to their side.) As I came back from class, I noticed a rope running from a room on the floor above mine across to the room pretty [...]
So the Project 25 protocol, with its IMBE CAI digital voice, is being rolled out in huge numbers. Motorola’s ASTRO is the most commonly-used, although several other providers make radios that do the P25 standard, too. They’re calling it interoperability. When you and the next town over both buy $3,000 radios doing a crappy 9600bps [...]
In: Business|Computers|Ham Radio|Ideas|Insanity|Materialism|OCD|Programming|Rants & Raves
19 Feb 2008I’m a long-term radio geek, and I’ve realized that the technology interests me more than actually using it. Having worked with lots and lots of radios (I realized that I have three sitting on my desk, all of which I have used in the past 30 minutes), I’ve concluded that I’d like to start a [...]
In: Business|Cool Links|Funny|Ham Radio|Materialism|Rants & Raves
8 Dec 2007Check out this radio‘s description. It’s got excess value and pettiness! And a phrase-lock-loop. And “LCD aphellotropic lights of showing screen,facile operation in dark” has got to mean “backlit screen.” (Facile is Spanish for “easy,” no your mom jokes.) Oh, and you can’t forget the Auto-charger rabbet. And it comes with a chargeable battery. Anyone [...]
Mr. T’s post jibed with something that was in the back of my head. I can’t sleep right now, and have sent my friends enough meandering e-mails, so I’ll post here. For at least the past month, I’ve been in Linux exclusively. I have a 160 GB, 5400 RPM drive with Linux, and a 60 [...]
So as anyone who’s seen me in person will surely know, I have a lot of radios. I’ve sold a few lately, but I’ve owned a wide variety. I have the VX-2R, one of the smallest radios ever produced. It’s got an incredible frequency range, too. I have the ASTRO Saber, one of the biggest [...]