Just got back from Dayton Hamvention

So in my newest hobby of Amateur Radio I decided that I was going to go to "The" convention for Amateur Radio and that was Dayton. It was my first experience with it and the forums were pretty good and had a lot of different topics. I had a whole list of ones that I wanted to do initially but ended up just only going to two of them.

My wife and I left on Thursday and ended up tent camping. Although this year it was raining almost every day and got down to 35 degrees at night in the tent. So needless to say we were both freezing. Ended up having to buy another sleeping bag, doubling up on socks stuffed with "hot hands" to keep us warm.

Most of is it is vendors showing off their technology and selling it. However outside is the flea market. I ended up enjoying those quite a bit because you never know what you're going to see. A lot of what you see, even at some of the smaller ones, is government surplus equipment. I have to say I enjoy the flea market part a bit more because you can get some stuff you wouldn't otherwise be able to. Most everything else I can just order online and have shipped to my house.

I managed to pick up some pretty interesting gear whilst I was there. I saw a mount for my CF-19 Toughbook, except they wanted $50 for it. I should have just offered $30 for it right there because after thinking about it and going back it was gone. However, it did lead me to 3 Kontron mobile computers that were most likely in police cruisers. I got them for $10 each so if nothing else the thing will be a good project box.

The units I got were a Kontron CVX-Server Model 300-166, and so far I can't seem to find anything on them. So I'm guessing they have been discontinued. It looks like they have about a 1.8 ghz cpu processor in them and I think if I can load linux onto them then they'll work pretty well. The question is what do I want to use them for? I'm thinking ham radio something. Perhaps a deploy-able unit with a mesh node. As you can see from the picture it looks like it has some pretty good cooling methods on it. So all I need to do is sort out power to this thing and it will be up and going. At any rate, I did some more digging on these and found the data sheet on them. Which will help me immensely in figuring out what I want to do with them.

That's my adventure in Dayton and not sure if I will go next year but I can at least say I've been once. Once I figure out the state of these computers I'll make an update on what I'm using them for.

So many projects time to give a status update.

Ok so I have a bunch of radio projects that I am working on all at the same time. I have a tendency to bounce from one project to another without actually completing them.  This will most likely just be a rambling list of projects and status updates on them.

Antenna - My first project I started was to build myself a dipole antenna. All I have to do is solder the right length of cable for the frequency I want and I've got it going. I've already created a feed point connection. I'm not sure why I haven't just  got this out of the way.

Mesh Net - My second project is a Meshnet for field day. I'm specifically working on it being a portable type of setup. Tripod I have is an old art easel that I think will work perfectly. I just got some LMR400 for it,  db loss on it is going to be about 1 or 2db. However I want to make a bi-quad dish antenna, along with an omni directional.

Car Setup - I need to setup my car and wire all the cables in. I think I've got enough cable and sufficient access to some of the areas like under the seat to wire everything. I want to get some black flexible tube to hide the wires though as I most likely won't be able to run them behind the trim etc.

Backpack - I want to setup a backpack radio for my FT-897D. I just got an alice pack frame and the right kind of straps so everything works well in that regard. The metal part of the back still touches my back a bit however I suspect when I have weight on it I will not have a problem. I'm also looking at batteries to put on the pack, along with a place for a mesh node, an area to hold some logging tools (paper, pen, possibly raspberry pi/toughbook?) and also some pouches to hold on to some of my HTs.  The idea being for emergency use of course.

APRS - I use a program called Yet Another APRS Client as my primary aprs client on linux. It works really well and works well with my GPS unit. If anyone is interested please send me a message to say hello on APRS I'm on as KK4URZ-15.

Most of these I'm hoping to have finished by end of June for field day but we will see how that goes. The other thing on my plate is I'm also taking part in some of our club's events. We're currently teaching a Tech class to the local Civil Air Patrol and I'm going there for some practical experience. Tonight is our monthly club meeting and they will be doing a test session before hand so I will be going to that as I'm looking at becoming a volunteer examiner.

Picked up another set of Baofeng Radio's - Great for a new technician - Baofeng Warranty

I picked up another set of radios for my gear. I purchased my first radio back in June of last year and it is what got me started on my Amateur Radio adventure.

I purchased the UV-5R+ for about $40 on amazon. For the price and what you get it is outstanding little radio. The two new ones I got have the internally upgraded components but the same UV-5R Case. So I'm able to use the same batteries. However, they are the BF-F8

An Important note if you're going to buy these buy them directly from http://www.baofengradio.us or their Amazon store 

 There are a few reasons for this that I found out. They can not/will not honour the warranty service if there is an issue with one. I had a bad battery ship with mine when I bought it from amazon but it was not from their specific store.

Here's a basic run down on the updated version:

This Radio Has Been The First Uv-5R Radio To Get A Full Internal Upgrade. Like The Uv-82 It Has An Expanded Frequency Range And A Stronger Antenna. It Has A Vfo/Mr Button Found On The Uv-5R Series Not Found On The Uv-82 Series. The Bf-8+ Is The Successor To The Uv-5R Series. 2013 Latest Version. This radio can be programmed with or without a PC to also work on private repeater systems. It is a compact, economical HT that includes a special VHF receive band from 65 - 108 MHz which includes the regular FM broadcast band. Dual watch and dual reception is supported. You get up to 128 memories. Other features include: 25KHz/12.5KHz Switchable FM Radio (65.0MHz-108.0MHz) Large LCD Display Li-Ion Frequency Range: 65-108Mhz (FM Receive Only) 136-174Mhz And 400-520Mhz (TX/Rx)Channel Number: 128Channel Spacing: 2.5/6.25/10/12.5/20/25Khzfrequency Stability: +/-2.5Ppmantenna: High Gain Dual Band Antenna Antenna Impedance: 50 Operating Voltage: Dc 7.4Vmode Of Operation: Simple Or Semi-Duplex - See more at: http://baofengradio.us/baofeng-bff8-black.html#sthash.UyKdqcp7.dpuf - See more at: http://baofengradio.us/baofeng-bff8-black-183.html#sthash.awTdOfra.dpuf

And here's the note about the warranty:

We guarantee that your product will be 100% functional or we will issue you an immediate replacement. In addition, the product is covered by a 1 year manufacturer's warranty which will be honored by us through our office in Houston, TX. Our return policy is 30 days. All returns are subject to a 10% restocking fee and buyer pays return shipping. 

The BaofengRadio US warranty is only available to users who purchase directly from BaofengRadio US using our online checkout system. Protect yourself by purchasing only through the links on this page. - See more at: http://baofengradio.us/baofeng-bff8-black-183.html#sthash.awTdOfra.dpuf

So if you order directly from them you're getting warranty replacement, plus free shipping and no tax on items sold through their store.

Hope you found this post helpful.