Right, this is going to be a long, rambling text about The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and The Silmarillion.
The Lord of the Rings was a actually a long text about two hobbits going rambling, but that is not the point here.
If you don’t want to read my badly thought through notions about some overly long books (and a quite short book that was made into three over long films), then look away now.
All posts by Tony Blews
Autocab Minos Power Cable
The Minos is the version of the Autocab MDT that replaced the Omicron. It is the one that isn’t rubbish.
Normally these are powered from the Radio cable, but if you want to run them without a radio, you’ll need to work something else out.
First APRS reception
Despite the SDR IGate having a crap antenna mag-mounted to my server cabinet, I picked up a signal!
Wow, I need to read about thisLinux SDR APRS IGate setup
Ok… Firstly, there are many guides to doing this already on the internet, but most of the use a Raspberry Pi. I’m not using one, for reasons that will be made clear later.
Secondly, I couldn’t find any one of the guides that did exactly what we wanted.
Before you read all this rubbish, it is important that to use it you will need an Amateur Radio License and Callsign, and and APRS-IS Passcode. If you don’t have them, then go and get them before continuing.
So, with that in mind…
Cheap Realtek SDR
I’m going to be playing about with and SDR dongle a lot, so I think it only fair to describe it.
My first steps with SSTV on 2m
I was playing about making audio cables to connect my cheap Baofeng to my PC. To test the recieve cable, I took a walk with the other Baofeng, and an Android App called SSTV Encoder.
Simple PC to Baofeng Audio Cables
This post is not about the the PC/Baofeng cable that is used for programming the radio. If you want one of those, then try Amazon.
This is about connecting the audio streams twixt the radio and a PC.
The basic mission is to take the Soundcard in/out from a PC and connect it to the Kenwood K2 connector that the Baofengs uses.
These cables are simple, and they work, but they may cause damage to either your PC or radio if used incorrectly. Much like a can of Coke.
UPDATED WITH DIAGRAMS FOR THE MENTALISTS
Storage Tubs
Everyone needs storage boxes for their bits and bobs of electronic dohickery. You can probably buy something suitable from Amazon, but the chances are that you will have suitable items already in your house.
APRSdroid without a radio
If you are getting started with APRS, then the easiest was will be to do it on your Smartphone. This post is only about using Android phones, obviously. The clue is the “droid” part of APRSdroid.
NOTE: for this you WILL require an Amateur Radio License and Callsign. If you do not have a Callsign, then I suggest you just watch what is going on on the APRS.FI website.
Finding out who of your Facebook “Friends” like something objectionable
To be honest, we all have those Facebook “friends” that we only keep linked to because either we have to work with them, are distantly related to them. or don’t trust them and think they need to be kept an eye on.
So, how can you see how deeply reprehensible they are? Well one was is to check your Friends list for dodgy page likes. You really don’t want to go down this rabbit hole