The FCC Gets Technical

While we wait for the official announcement that Julius Genachowski will be the head of the FCC, I have been pondering how the FCC management seems to be mostly lawyers by training. Last night I had this strange dream: In a surprise move, President Obama announced that Fred Technofarble will head the Federal Communications Commission. … Read more

Agilent FieldFox RF Analyzer

I am a bit of a test equipment junkie….it has something to do with working in the electronic measurement business for most of my career. There are many great pieces of test equipment out there but every once in a while, one comes along that really captures the imagination. Over the weekend, I got my … Read more

January VHF Contest – 2 Meters at 9500 Feet

Activity was light during the ARRL January VHF Sweepstakes, but I had fun anyway, working more grids on 2 Meters than I expected. The January VHF contest is not a big deal for me but I try to at least get on the air. In previous years, I have operated backpack portable for the contest. … Read more

ARRL January VHF Sweepstakes This Weekend

Just a reminder that the January VHF contest is this weekend, starting at noon on Saturday Mountain time. I will be at our cabin up in the mountains (DM78av) with no real antennas up yet but I’ll have a decent Yagi set up temporarily for working 2 Meters. I’ll listen on the calling frequency 144.200 … Read more

Been Reading Stuff Again

There have been quite a few news items, blog posts and tweets flying across the net lately. Here’s what I have been reading: It looks like the FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is out and Julius Genachowski is in. I’ve only found “Julius is a good guy” articles without much detail behind them, so I guess … Read more

How Many Gigafarbles is That?

As the storage capacity and cost of computer hard drives continue to improve, it just amazes me how many bytes you can store for a reasonable cost. For example, you can purchase an external 1 terabyte drive for less than $150….which is probably a good thing, since downloading a few videos and your daily email … Read more