6/2/2019 ~ Reader Alert!
Several years ago there was a clever TV advert where this guy is sitting in front of a computer screen and with a bewildered look on his face and says I reached the end of the Internet.
I think I may be reaching the end of the blog as it was originally started. Thanks for riding along with me; but I can see my future course of electronic endeavors is out of step with those who were previous faithful followers. I will be posting stuff about SDR RADIG's but the analog stuff will be minimal or almost never mentioned. So be advised.
I intend to start first with some basic actions like getting a RPi (or ASUS Tinker Board) loaded with some software.
I intend to start first with some basic actions like getting a RPi (or ASUS Tinker Board) loaded with some software.
That said I will most likely be starting a new political blog where --well you can guess what that focus will be.
Pete, N6QW
6/1/2019 ~ Things heard on the airwaves.
Latest Video
Depending on the band you can hear some pretty interesting conversations ranging from bashing Nancy Pelosi to some technical discussions about things like Raspberry Pi's.
Yesterday while listening on the Duo-Bander to a 75M QSO where most conversations I should add on this band tend to be the Pelosi Bashing, after all this is California. However, this one was about the Raspberry Pi and how one ham was booting his Pi from a USB Thumb Drive. Now that peaked my interest level. He went on to say he had Windows 10 loaded on the drive. The results were that he did get some things loaded but in typical Linux terms it was a bash. He did say that he did get Linux to load from a USB drive. Now that is interesting.
I waited until they had pretty much concluded and then gave one of the stations a call. His first response to me was: You are low in frequency by 55 Hz. To which I responded that I was using an analog radio that was over 54 years old. He then said OH. I asked how it sounded --the distortion problem from some bad electrolytic capacitors has been fixed --good news for me.
Then I said take a look at the ASUS Tinker Board which has more clout than the Pi. For being so knowledgeable about the Pi was unaware of the ASUS offering. I then said I have my SDR RADIG running both on a Pi and the Tinker Board. Later I sent him an email with a link to the youtube SDR video that I recently posted using the Tinker Board.
Another interesting conversation was three days ago when several hams commented on their receiving the latest catalog from DX Engineering -- I got one too. My first impression was that the DX Engineering catalog bore a somewhat more than coincidental look and feel of QST with all of the flashy product photos of the newest radios.
But what was interesting was that print media is still a viable way to reach the customer base. Did every US ham get a DX Engineering catalog? Should also mention in the last month I have received three letters from ARRL explaining why I should join and become a life member. Hey guys I am 77 years old and a life membership is not in the cards for me...
Back to the DX Engineering catalog! One new radio never seen before by me is from a company called Micom (page 7) and for a mere $4K you can buy what I think is a non-SDR radio. It looks like a commercial radio that you can program (a $400 accessory) to work on the ham bands. Wow who would buy that radio? Well P T Barnum understood how to market such products.
Other conversations involved antennas which I think tends to be an after thought by many hams. I sure can tell the difference since my droopy dipole got put up higher. One station that I regularly talk with asked if I got a bigger amp? No, just got a proper antenna.
That said I would estimate that a smaller percentage of "tech talk" takes place on the bands than did in the early days of our hobby. There is no rocket science about that … as in the early days all was home built and now little is home built so there has to be other subjects for discussion that frequently delve into the current political situation in the US. Strap in -- the 2020 political fray is heating up.
BTW just today ASUS has announced a new line of even more powerful Tinker Boards in collaboration with companies like Google. The aim is for AI but not cloud computing with the focus of being all internal to the computer. One variant is just slightly bigger than a Pi.
Double BTW -- just saw a new video from Ten Tec --the new owner, a ham with an 8 call, showed off the new Omni 7 Plus and he made a startling statement. This is the last radio ever to have a Collins Mechanical filter. It is an up conversion to 70 MHz and the 2nd conversion is to 455 kHz. He went on to say there is nothing like the flat response of the Collins filter! I believe that and agree with him.
Seems like Collins has closed the door on Mechanical Filter production and Ten Tec owns all of the remaining stock. For those who hate SDR -you have a choice with the Ten Tec Omni 7 Plus.
Something else interesting the radio's front panel is all metal and the large Color TFT display is totally shielded from the rest of the radio. He explained that he is a receiver nut and that a quiet receiver was very important to him. Seems like TT spent a year working on the front panel design --there might have been about a dozen prototypes before the design was frozen and the one shown at Xenia was the 1st off of the line.
Lots to be heard on the ham bands --you just have to listen.
73's
Pete N6QW