Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Ragchew

Okay, I swear this isn't going to turn into an amateur radio blog, and I swear I'm still riding, albeit not as much as I wish. While en route between home and work, I'll often participate in one of the local commute-time discussions. A few regulars tune in to the frequency used by a local repeater, discuss current events and shoot the breeze. Some of these guys are a riot. It beats morning radio, for sure. I do more listening than talking. On the bike, I leave a radio in a pannier pocket and hook up a handheld speaker/microphone.



I've been doing a bit of work on the side to drum up funds for a things I want or need. One of those was decent ham radio to to use at home; something 25 watts or better. A few weeks back, I went to what was essentially an amateur radio swap meet. I scored two used dual-band mobile transceivers with accessories for considerably less than the price of a single new unit with the comparable gear. Both are capable of pumping out 50 watts. One of them is tiny -- about the size of a hard drive.





But then, the real surprise was that c'Dude himself also picked up a tiny handheld that same weekend. It's not too much different than the VX-2R I have, but it's got some more features. I've known he was a ham since I met him. While he's had a license to operate on the air for a long time, he hasn't had a radio, as far as I know, in quite a while. This should be fun!

We've talked on the air a few times, but I think our commuting schedules are far enough off that we probably won't be ragchewing from the bikes at the same time too often. This should be a pretty cool addition to darkside rides and bike camping trips, though.
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3 comments:

  1. ApertomeMay 04, 2011 10:20 PM

    That's awesome. I love the way you combine bikes and geeky stuff. I'm working on a post about warbiking, but it might be a little while before I can finish it, given that it's finals week and all.

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  2. NoahMay 04, 2011 11:17 PM

    Just wait until you see the TinyTrak 4. http://www.flickr.com/photos/kc-bike/5475199054/

    It will take NMEA output from my Garmin GPS12, encode the coordinates into a split-second long audio format -- AFSK at 1200 BPS if you care to know. Every few minutes or so, it will then, by way of a special cable, emulate the pressing of the push-to-talk button and spew this audio blip out to the airwaves where they'll be picked up by internet-connected receivers and uploaded to the Internet, updating a map in real time. It should work properly with my little VX-2R handheld, so I don't have to tie up my more powerful Yaesu VX-7R with these infrequent but fun transmissions.

    For more info, google APRS. Think of it as the inverse of warbiking, or something.

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  3. ApertomeMay 05, 2011 1:25 PM

    Sounds like a DIY version of one of those Spot trackers. Excellent!

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