Showing posts with label oddball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label oddball. Show all posts
Monday, January 3, 2011
Tokyo Hy-Power HX-240 2m -> HF xverter
http://www.thp.co.jp/english/hx_240_e.html
This is backwards from what you'd normally expect. You hook a 2m all-mode rig up to this and use it to receive and transmit HF. 2.5W/10W in on 2m translates to 30-40W out on HF. The going price is roughly $200. Neat.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Kenwood RC-D710 (D710) Control head... with other radios?!
I was clued into this on the Curling Smoke blog ran by KE9V. Here
As an aside, this links to a TAPR mailing list which is talking about the control head being on sale at HRO for $150. The posting was dated 12/25/10 but today (1/2/11) I can't find it on HRO's website.
Apparently the control head for the Kenwood D710 radios can be bought seperately because you can buy the radio without the APRS functions. The TNC and APRS logic are both in the control head so just buying the right one and adding it to the radio will let you add that functionality in. The interesting part comes Here. With the right cable, you can plug the head into any radio to decode APRS packets, even an HT! (Thanks to Bob, WB4APR for detailing this)
Apparently it's even still possible to connect the Kenwood AVMAP device to show the icons on a map.
Bob writes:
I've made the mistake of believing APRS is for tracking only in the past. I think it would be far more useful if people would use it to advertise local services, such as repeaters and echolink nodes. Mr Bruninga really stresses this on his website and I really respect that.
As an aside, this links to a TAPR mailing list which is talking about the control head being on sale at HRO for $150. The posting was dated 12/25/10 but today (1/2/11) I can't find it on HRO's website.
Apparently the control head for the Kenwood D710 radios can be bought seperately because you can buy the radio without the APRS functions. The TNC and APRS logic are both in the control head so just buying the right one and adding it to the radio will let you add that functionality in. The interesting part comes Here. With the right cable, you can plug the head into any radio to decode APRS packets, even an HT! (Thanks to Bob, WB4APR for detailing this)
Apparently it's even still possible to connect the Kenwood AVMAP device to show the icons on a map.
Bob writes:
CONCLUSION: On long trips, no matter where you are, we hope you will see not only one of these recommended voice repeaters on your screen, but also the nearest IRLP or EchoLink node as well... This combined with APRS Voice Alert will guarantee that if there is someone nearby wanting to chat, we will find each other.
I've made the mistake of believing APRS is for tracking only in the past. I think it would be far more useful if people would use it to advertise local services, such as repeaters and echolink nodes. Mr Bruninga really stresses this on his website and I really respect that.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Weird kit from Kenwood...
Kenwood had some neat kit that they were experimenting with in the past. There's this thing:
The Kenwood VC-H1
Kinda looks like one of those portable TVs doesn't it? It was for portable SSTV. The camera on top was a 270k CCD that could be turned 360 degrees and detaches for connection of an external video source. The LCD screen was 1.8". This unit was capable of storing up to 10 pictures in its memory and it was compatible with 8 different SSTV modes. Even though the manual says that, it can only send in two modes; Robot 36 or "Fast FM". The latter requires a 9600 baud connection with your transceiver. The manual lists 5 Kenwood transceivers that it works with in Fast FM mode, I suspect it would work with anything that can do 9600 baud though. It is capable of subtitling your pictures with your callsign. It can also automatically transmit every 3 minutes.
Pretty neat little device for someone who wanted to do portable SSTV. Put some AA's in, plug an interface cable into your HT, and go.
Then there's the Kenwood IP-100 "Illustphone"
If you do a Google search for this you'll end up with a bunch of pages talking about an ipod interface for your car or something. Rigpix claims it "allows transmission of alphabets, number symbols and pictures which are drawn on the pressure sensitive tablet." But there's nothing about transmission mode. Does this work in SSTV or some sort of FAX mode? Is that a thermal printer of some sort on the back of it? When were they sold and does anyone still use it? I may never know.
Kenwood also made the CD-10 Call sign Display.
I talked about that in an earlier post though. I'm kinda sad this didn't catch on. Just because it's neat and it was 20-30 years ago that we had the capability to have a callsign automatically transmitted. This is the sort of thing that D-star is only now making possible again. R & L actually has one of these for sale.
All pictures courtesy of RigPix.com
Used without express permission, I'll take them down if there's an issue though.
Oops, I was unintentionally linking directly to the pictures on their website, I thought I was hosting them on here when I pasted them in. Fixed that now.
The Kenwood VC-H1
Kinda looks like one of those portable TVs doesn't it? It was for portable SSTV. The camera on top was a 270k CCD that could be turned 360 degrees and detaches for connection of an external video source. The LCD screen was 1.8". This unit was capable of storing up to 10 pictures in its memory and it was compatible with 8 different SSTV modes. Even though the manual says that, it can only send in two modes; Robot 36 or "Fast FM". The latter requires a 9600 baud connection with your transceiver. The manual lists 5 Kenwood transceivers that it works with in Fast FM mode, I suspect it would work with anything that can do 9600 baud though. It is capable of subtitling your pictures with your callsign. It can also automatically transmit every 3 minutes.
Pretty neat little device for someone who wanted to do portable SSTV. Put some AA's in, plug an interface cable into your HT, and go.
Then there's the Kenwood IP-100 "Illustphone"
If you do a Google search for this you'll end up with a bunch of pages talking about an ipod interface for your car or something. Rigpix claims it "allows transmission of alphabets, number symbols and pictures which are drawn on the pressure sensitive tablet." But there's nothing about transmission mode. Does this work in SSTV or some sort of FAX mode? Is that a thermal printer of some sort on the back of it? When were they sold and does anyone still use it? I may never know.
Kenwood also made the CD-10 Call sign Display.
I talked about that in an earlier post though. I'm kinda sad this didn't catch on. Just because it's neat and it was 20-30 years ago that we had the capability to have a callsign automatically transmitted. This is the sort of thing that D-star is only now making possible again. R & L actually has one of these for sale.
All pictures courtesy of RigPix.com
Used without express permission, I'll take them down if there's an issue though.
Oops, I was unintentionally linking directly to the pictures on their website, I thought I was hosting them on here when I pasted them in. Fixed that now.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
DCS Callsign, MDC in the 80s
Wow, You learn something every day. Apparently at one time DCS would let you transmit an ASCII ID too. Kenwood made a box called CD-10 that would plug into a regular radio to display callsigns received in this way. CD-10 Manual
Looking around I see reference to an HT made in the mid-80s that transmits the IDs. Kenwood TR2600A Very neat stuff. Apparently it sounds like MDC which is a system that is or was used in commercial radios used in police cars to transmit a station ID at the beginning of every transmission.
This is the kind of stuff that is only just recently available again and even then only if you use Dstar. It'd be pretty awesome if the DCS ID thing came back on the analog side I think.
Edit: Kenwood's TM211 had support for transmitting the IDs. Via the TM211 manual (Section 5) I see that it assigned letters and numbers to various DCS numbers.
Looking around I see reference to an HT made in the mid-80s that transmits the IDs. Kenwood TR2600A Very neat stuff. Apparently it sounds like MDC which is a system that is or was used in commercial radios used in police cars to transmit a station ID at the beginning of every transmission.
This is the kind of stuff that is only just recently available again and even then only if you use Dstar. It'd be pretty awesome if the DCS ID thing came back on the analog side I think.
Edit: Kenwood's TM211 had support for transmitting the IDs. Via the TM211 manual (Section 5) I see that it assigned letters and numbers to various DCS numbers.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)