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Ulefone Armor 3WT
by Ken Alker 10 Aug '20

10 Aug '20

I heard someone using below phone on the Papa system yesterday; its an Android with 440MHz radio! The Amazon link claims it can w/stand immersion in 2 meters of water for 2 hours and 1 meter of concrete for 24 hours! (I wonder how they got it out of the concrete after the concrete set up?). Also states they tested it by driving nails with the screen (doesn't say if it passed or not)! I guess you can claim anything when selling on Amazon from China. <https://smile.amazon.com/Ulefone-Armor-3WT-Waterproof-Smartphone/dp/B07X352…>

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NZ to trial world-first commercial long-range, wireless power transmission
by Bob Bascom 04 Aug '20

04 Aug '20

NZ to trial world-first commercial long-range, wireless power transmission By Loz Blain August 03, 2020 https://newatlas.com/energy/long-range-wireless-power-transmission-new-zeal… https://newatlas.com/energy/wireless-power-transmission-emrod-interview A New Zealand-based startup has developed a method of safely and wirelessly transmitting electric power across long distances without the use of copper wire, and is working on implementing it with the country's second-largest power distributor. The dream of wireless power transmission is far from new; everyone's favorite electrical genius Nikola Tesla once proved he could power light bulbs from more than two miles away with a 140-foot Tesla coil in the 1890s never mind that in doing so he burned out the dynamo at the local powerplant and plunged the entire town of Colorado Springs into blackout. Tesla's dream was to place enormous towers all over the world that could transmit power wirelessly to any point on the globe, powering homes, businesses, industries and even giant electric ships on the ocean. Investor J.P. Morgan famously killed the idea with a single question: "where can I put the meter?" It has taken 120 years, but New Zealand company Emrod appears to have finally convinced a major power distributor to have a crack at going wireless in a commercial capacity. Powerco, the second-biggest distributor in New Zealand, is investing in Emrod, whose technology appears to be able to shift large amounts of electricity much more efficiently, between any two points that can be joined with line-of-sight relays. "Were interested to see whether Emrods technology can complement the established ways we deliver power," said Powercos Network Transformation Manager Nicolas Vessiot. "We envisage using this to deliver electricity in remote places, or across areas with challenging terrain. Theres also potential to use it to keep the lights on for our customers when were doing maintenance on our existing infrastructure." Emrod currently has a working prototype of its device, but will build another for Powerco, with plans to deliver by October, then spend several months in lab testing before moving to a field trial. The prototype device will be capable of delivering "only a few kilowatts" of power, but can easily be scaled up. "We can use the exact same technology to transmit 100 times more power over much longer distances," said Emrod founder and serial entrepreneur Greg Kushnir. "Wireless systems using Emrod technology can transmit any amount of power current wired solutions transmit." The system uses a transmitting antenna, a series of relays and a receiving rectenna (a rectifying antenna capable of converting microwave energy into electricity). Each of these components appear in these images to simply look like big ol' squares on poles. Its beams use the non-ionizing Industrial, Scientific and Medical band of the radio spectrum, including frequencies commonly used in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Unlike Tesla's globally-accessible free power dream, the power here is beamed directly between specific points, with no radiation around the beam, and a "low power laser safety curtain" immediately shuts down power transmission before any object, like a bird, drone, power thief or helicopter, can touch the main beam. There will be no difficulties this time working out where to place the meter. Emrod says it works in any atmospheric conditions, including rain, fog and dust, and the distance of transmission is limited only by line of sight between each relay, giving it the potential to transmit power thousands of kilometers, at a fraction of the infrastructure costs, maintenance costs and environmental impact a wired solution imposes. Indeed, Emrod sees wireless transmission as a key enabling technology for renewable power, which is often generated far from where it's needed. This kind of system could be terrific for getting the products of offshore and remote renewable energy generation into the city grids without the need for giant storage batteries and the like. Crude render of a temporary power transmission truck Crude render of a temporary power transmission truckEmrod It'll also be handy in certain unplanned outage events; a truck can be fitted out with a rectenna, and then driven anywhere in visual range of a relay to create a temporary wireless power connection. The company has been liaising with the Radio Spectrum Management authorities in New Zealand throughout its development process, with a view to meeting every safety standard even once the technology scales right up to high power levels, a process Kushnir says has also helped Emrod develop guidelines for the companies that will be using the technology. We've contacted Emrod to ask more about efficiency, the size, shape and state of the current prototype, future plans and what indeed would happen if you stuck your hand in the middle of the beam, and will bring you more information when we can. Update: we have now spoken with Emrod founder Greg Kushnir, who had plenty to share in our interview story. https://emrod.energy/press-release-nz-start-up-launches-world-first-long-ra…

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Garmin outage / When all else fails
by Levi C. Maaia - K6LCM 26 Jul '20

26 Jul '20

After the General Club Meeting this month, I decided to reevaluate my emergency plans, particularly in preparation for an earthquake. The pandemic and related shortages early on also pointed out some weaknesses in my preparations and now seemed like a good time to addresses all of this. Garmin makes a fairly inexpensive satellite communication device called the InReach Mini that uses the Iridium constellation to connect users to text messaging around the world. This seemed like a good way to augment amateur radio, particularly for establishing reliable communications with non-hams outside of a disaster area. I purchased the device early last week and it arrived on Friday. However, I have been unable to activate it because Garmin was hit with a Ransomware attack last week. Hackers have encrypted nearly all of the GPS giant's computer systems and are demanding payment for the keys. Garmin's entire ecosystem (aviation, marine and arguably the largest and most consumer-facing smart watch system) has been affected since July 23! As a result, satellite communications in ma y sectors have been crippled. Pilots have been unable to file flight plans or update navigation databases, mariners have lost access to chart updates, and runners are losing their minds in online forums as they are not able to track their daily workouts through their smart watches. Again, new technologies may offer easy, pushbutton solutions but no communication system is more reliable and more resilient than amateur radio. Truly, ham radio works when all else fails 😉. LCM

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Fwd: LAST PUSH: Appointments still Available for Vintage Radio/HAM Radio Equipment (Sample pictures included)
by Levi C. Maaia, K6LCM 03 Jul '20

03 Jul '20

From: Teressa Johnes <trjtwo(a)gmail.com> Reply: Teressa Johnes <trjtwo(a)gmail.com> Date: July 3, 2020 at 09:48:40 To: Teressa Johnes <trjtwo(a)gmail.com> Subject: LAST PUSH: Appointments still Available for Vintage Radio/HAM Radio Equipment (Sample pictures included) Good morning, Final push, for the HAM radio Sale, that will start next Friday July 10, 2020. We still have appointments available Saturday July 11, 2020 through Thursday July 16, 2020. I have attached a flyer and some sample pictures of some of the equipment available. If you have a confirmed appointment, I will be in contact with you the day prior to your appointment to confirm and send location. Asking kindly to share with your networks. ALL EQUIPMENT MUST GO! If you are interested in coming to the sale, send me the following information: Name: Date you want to attend: 7/11, 7/12, 7/13,7/14, 7/15 or 7/16 Time you want to attend: 10:00 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 1:00 p.m. or we can make special arrangements for after 3:30 if needed. Email: For each person attending Cell phone number: Include area code for each person attending. NO HOLDS OR DELIVERY, CASH PREFERRED FOR THE HEALTH AND SAFETY OF OUR FAMILY AND ATTENDEES WE ASK YOU AND EVERYONE IN YOUR PARTY WEAR A FACE MASK. Questions, contact: Teressa/Chuck Johnes W6GNR 805-87-1691

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The 1925 Santa Barbara Earthquake: Day 1, Part 1 | Edhat
by Levi C. Maaia - K6LCM 29 Jun '20

29 Jun '20

Early ham radio activities described in this look-back. https://www.edhat.com/news/the-1925-santa-barbara-earthquake-day-1-part-1 LCM

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Ham Radio Estate Sale - Lompoc
by Levi C. Maaia, K6LCM 26 Jun '20

26 Jun '20

See attached flyer regarding radio gear from an estate sale in North County. Please contact Teresa and Chuck with any questions or for more details at: trjtwo(a)gmail.com 805-878-1691

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Re: [Sbarc-list] WeatherFlow Tempest no moving parts home weather station
by Jay Hennigan 22 Jun '20

22 Jun '20

On 6/18/20 11:40, Ken Alker wrote: >> I have a >> Peet Brothers weather station and it connects to a Raspberry Pi running >> Weewx. This allows me to view it locally as well as upload to Weather >> Underground (No, not THAT Weather Underground). > > You must clarify the parenthetical... I'm missing something (likely "Jay > humor" which is often above my brain power). The Weather Underground was a well-known (at the time) radical Vietnam War protest group in the late 1960s and early 1970s responsible for several bombings. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_Underground >> Their website is kind of limited in technical details, but at first >> glance it looks like the data you get from it is via some cloud based >> service and an app. This wouldn't work for me but if the data can be >> pulled locally without "phoning home" to some service over the web and >> imported to Weewx via some form of API it would be sweet. > > I opened a ticket last week to find out how to pull data locally and > they came back with multiple ways: > > "There are many ways to collect the raw weather data from your Tempest > system. One of the easiest is via the IFTTT applet that automatically > posts your station data to a Google spreadsheet. See more on using IFTTT > with WeatherFlow devices here: https://ifttt.com/weatherflow. You can > also leverage our API services to pull raw data from your > station: https://weatherflow.github.io/SmartWeather/api/. Another way > to download your data is to use our UDP Broadcast service which does not > require an internet > connection: https://weatherflow.github.io/SmartWeather/api/udp.html." It sounds like the UDP broadcast or API could be used to talk to Weewx. For remote applications this could be useful, for example Santa Cruz Island. Is the 120V indoor device powered directly from the line or with a wall-wart? If a wall-wart, what's its output? Unfortunately there are a lot of personal weather stations around that aren't particularly weatherproof. Anemometers fall apart, electronic packages fill up with water, etc. The commercial stuff is like an order of magnitude more expensive. It will be interesting to see how this unit holds up in a few years. I think SBARC has gone through several and wound up spending big bucks on the commercial stuff. From what I've read on their website it gets rather confused by snow. Its acoustic sensor doesn't detect snow well if at all and the snow builds up on top of the device rendering the rain sensor useless until it melts. What would be cool would be for them to incorporate a weight sensor for snow. -- Jay Hennigan - jay(a)west.net Network Engineering - CCIE #7880 503 897-8550 - WB6RDV

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Stratocat tracking
by Bill Talanian 22 Jun '20

22 Jun '20

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Stratocat btracking
by Bill Talanian 22 Jun '20

22 Jun '20

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Balloon Launch
by Bill Talanian 21 Jun '20

21 Jun '20

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