Veterans Day 2012

Harbor Freight 800 watt generator

I recently purchased a Harbor Freight 800 watt generator. I did have a coupon and only spent $89.99 for the unit. I was very skeptical about what I was reading on the reviews about this little generator. I would not have taken a chance at regular price but what the heck it was less than $100.00. When I opened the box, I did not know what to expect, and I was surprised! It had very minimal assembly required and looked like a very nice little generator. Looks are not everything, I wanted to see if it worked as good as it looked. I had figured it would smoke and be very loud. It was not! It smoked a little on the first start up, but was gone very quickly. It was not very loud at all! If you use a long extension cord the generator should be no problem sound wise. I have not run it long enough yet to know if the 110v is clean and stable, but I am planning on using it to charge batteries and not run anything other than a battery charger with it.

www.harborfreight.com/800-rated-watts-portable-generator

Hurricane Sandy

Our hearts and prayers go out to all who have felt hurricane Sandy.

http://publicdomainclip-art.blogspot.com/

Happy Birthday Windows XP!

Windows XP was released worldwide for retail sale on October 25, 2001. XP is now 11 years old! It has been the biggest version yet, and does not want to fade into history. Will the new windows 8 be all that or will it be what pushes the pc world into other operating systems? Only time will tell. I know I have been using XP and plan on keeping my system running past the 18 months it has left. I have also been using Linux and OSX systems also. I do not use any Windows as my main computer OS at this time.

3cx Software PBX for HSMM Update!

I have been playing with this VOIP setup for a while now, It works great! You need to be careful when you setup the remote extensions, why would I know that! Well I had some trouble when I started the installation over again to write a tutorial, I missed a step that really through me for a loop, and it was not anything to do with port forwarding, I set it up on two other routers. The problem I ran into was a password did not match for the remote extension, this will not happen again! There is some good information on the HSMM-Mesh web site on VOIP. I am planning on finishing a tutorial in the near future.

www.3cx.com

www.hsmm-mesh.org

DC or AC to run the Ham Station?

I have built a new Ham Station and have a 12v DC battery backup system. I have posted details of this system in the past. The big question now is do I run it on 12v and let the charger keep the batteries charged or run it from 110vac using transformers to get 12v? I have seen pros and cons both ways. The batteries are on the other side of the wall next to the operating position so the leads would be short. I have also been looking at some DC lighting. I am looking for ideas.

HSMM-Mesh and the New Ham Shack

I have been busy these last several months on building a new ham shack. I had to do this because the wife was getting tired of all the projects going on in my home office. Now the office can have it's own room back. I have moved into the new shack! It is a work in progress, I still have to put some shelves up and other items to make it complete. I now have a dedicated operating desk and a second desk for operating or working on projects. I also have a battery backup for the shack, I will be able to be on the air when the mains go out.  I will post some pictures on a later blog. This does bring me to a problem of moving my BPQ node to the shack, the internet wireless connection is to far from the shack to use for a reliable connection. So what is a Ham to do? HSMM-Mesh! I played with this last night after upgrading 2 routers to 0.4.3, and let me tell you, it was easy to get the internet gateway up and running. Now I can work on moving my BPQ gateway to the new shack. This could also give me callsign look-up also. I do not need much else for internet in the shack so it will work great for me!

hsmm-mesh.org

Rascal interface for the collection

I went to a Hamfest just this last weekend and picked up some interesting items. I found a Rascal interface among all the treasures. I am always on the look out for packet and sound card interfaces to add to my collection or to help promote the digital world. The unit was in great shape, but still used for a lot less money. It is a nice small design that is well built. It came with the right connectors for my FT-767GX so I will be able to use it without any problems. I will test this very soon, I am in the process of finishing a new shack. Updates later.


Rascal Interface

cubieboard a neat little computer

Here is an interesting new sub $100 ARM board. I may have to order one to play with! It has many good features, the one I like is that it can run the full Ubuntu desktop.

From their Web site:

The features of the cubieboard:

    1G ARM cortex-A8 processor, NEON, VFPv3, 256KB L2 cache
    Mali400, OpenGL ES GPU
    512M/1GB DDR3
    HDMI 1080p Output
    100M Ethernet
    4GB Nand Flash
    2 USB Host, 1 MMC slot, 1 SATA, 1 ir
    96 extend pin including i2c, spi, lvds, sensors, ..
    Running Android, Ubuntu and other Linux distributions

There is a nice simple case for the board. Look here  http://cubieboard.org/2012/09/10/a-simple-case/

http://cubieboard.org/

Henderson Emergency Services Appreciation Day

We had a great turn out for the Henderson Emergency Services Appreciation Day. We had the basic VHF Winlink station and the Email server up and running. We also had a TS-50 running into a Buddy pole antenna. I had some problems with the sun washing out the server laptop's screen, so I will have to work that one out. We may need to add some side walls to shade it more. We talked to many older hams and many young people that were very interested in the computer side of Ham radio. We may get some more youth involved in the future! Here are some pictures: