All these battery nerds saying things like 4S2P, 8S12P. What are they talking about?
Continue ReadingWhat is C and Why Should I Care?
The battery building community is familiar with the C rate. But what is C, and why should you care? This article hopes to discharge some knowledge on the topic.
Continue ReadingWhy Do We Use LiFePO4?
If you’ve ever wondered what LiFePO4 is about, why is it different from LiPo, and why not just get a cheaper SLA battery, hopefully this article has given you some insight into this modern battery chemistry.
Continue ReadingBattery Building Tools
What tools and supplies does it take to build your own Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) battery for ham radio? Here I will try to list and link some tools that I find essential.
Continue ReadingWhich First Ham Radio?
Getting into amateur radio these days is much like merging onto a freeway. If you hesitate in the on-ramp you might just pull over to the shoulder and watch all the traffic speed by while you sit there indecisively. But taking the metaphor further, you need to even select your vehicle first, and that is often the hardest part. I say vehicle because while one might think “car” the choices might also be motorcycle, trike, go-kart (illegal on freeways), or bicycle (also illegal, and has an entirely different, though parallel purpose). Selecting your first ham radio is hard especially because a new person doesn’t quite know what to do with… Read More
Continue ReadingAD6DM-10 VHF Winlink RMS Gateway is on the Air
Winlink RMS Gateway AD6DM-10 is up, and serving the ham community. After collecting parts of this system for a few weeks, it is operational on 145.630 MHz in CM98hj. It is comprised of: An Alinco DR-135T VHF 2 meter transceiver set to 20 watts power An Arrow OSJ J-Pole up 21 ft at the home QTH A Masters Communications DRA-50 radio sound card interface with an Alinco-6 Mini DIN 6 adapter And a mini PC (Windows 10) and running on 12 volt power. Solar charged offgrid LiFePO4 battery power, for uninterrupted uptime (same system the shack rig uses). Software running the gateway are: UZ7HO Soundmodem, software TNC that provides PTT… Read More
Continue ReadingAmateur Radio Texting Using APRS
Experienced hams have been talking about using APRS messages for SMS texting to friends and family for a few years now. I was mildly interested but found messaging tedious on a handheld transceiver, as well as the brief privacy implications of APRS SMS registration a barrier to entry. However, when I finally bit the bullet and tried it out, especially with KI6NAZ’s revelations from using an Android tablet to compose messages (in Winlink), I realized that this is a fantastic and wholly viable option to traditional messaging when cell service is down in your immediate area. Hence, I present to you my documented findings of amateur radio texting using APRS.… Read More
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