Montana Motor Stables: October 2019

Thursday, October 31, 2019

Advice For New Hams by K5CLM

So you just got your license? Congratulations and welcome to one of the greatest hobbies around! This hobby has a little bit for everybody in it and like I have said before it is more like a hobby of hobbies. If you can’t find something in the hobby that you are interested in, then you probably wouldn’t have gotten your license in the first place.

That being said, I know of a lot of people that get their license and then have no idea what to do with it. This is one of the reasons that I don’t like some of the one day classes that are given. They touch on a bunch of stuff but nothing to the point that someone will understand much more than just what they need to pass their test.

Rather than just giving y’all some of my opinions on things that can be done or what advise I would give a new ham. I decided to ask all of y’all what kind of tips, tricks, and/or advise that you would give a new ham. Below are some of the responses that I got.

Lots to do in ham radio – don’t get discouraged or give up too quickly. – Dan Price

Like I said above, I know a bunch of people that get their license and then don’t do much with after the initial newness wears off. Whether they don’t do much because of lack of interest or not knowing what to do or not being able to figure something out. This all stems back to the need of elmers!

Keep learning and honing operating skills. Listen at first but not just to what is being said but to the operating procedures being used. Be courteous and patient. Don’t be shy when you are ready to join in, join in but with courtesy. – George Pease III

Always keep learning things for the hobby. You never know when that knowledge might be helpful. Keep involved with things going on. Might be local ARES event or other events in a ham club. Also help them find a local club that will have some Elmers… – Jason Walerius

I am a firm believer that you should ALWAYS learn something new every day and that day when you don’t learn something, is the day you die. It might not be some major thing, it might just be learning a new song, or how to do something on Excel.

Listen, listen, listen! Like George said, always listen before you transmit and wen you do, do it in a courteous manner. There are some people out there that can be grouches or just down right mean, especially to new and/or inexperienced hams. Don’t be one of them, PLEASE!

Don’t rely on an HT to get your signal out very far…I made that mistake as a new ham and almost gave up not realizing I can hit repeaters half way across Kansas City with a base station…- Arnie Diaz

The question of what radio should I get first and mobile/base or a HT, is probably one of the most asked question of new hams. My answer is always the same, it depends on what you want to do with your license. If you want to work emergency communications or events, and HT would be a better option. If you are looking to talk to people while you are driving or sitting a home, then a mobile/base radio would be better.

There is really no wrong answer to this question and their are work arounds to both, although have a mobile radio as a portable station can get quite heavy. With a HT, you can hook it to an external antenna and get out further. Throw an amp on it and go even more. You just have to make sure that you have the HT powered with a power cord all the time to use it as a base or mobile station.

You could use your mobile or base station as a portable station by building a go box with it. Check out the episode I did a few years ago about Go-Packs for more information.

Also check out the last episode of the Field Radio Podcast to learn more about Getting Started With Amateur Radio in the Field.

…Oh, and join a club. Lots of smart, friendly folks in my club that love to share their passion for the hobby. – Arnie Diaz

I would recommend a new ham find a club with hams that you can mentor and buy the radio you can afford no matter what it is and pick the mic up and talk don’t be shy even if it just to say good morning – Al Grotheer II

I am a major supporter of Elmers! I’m sure that if you have read some of my previous blog posts, you know that already. A good Elmer can mean the difference between a new hams staying in the hobby or leaving it all together.

When you study to get your license, the is very limited information that is covered in the question pool or a class that you might take. I always tell my students, while yes, you are learning about ham Radio now, your real learning will come after you get your license. It is also one of the major reasons that I started this blog way back in 2014!

While joining a ham club does have its pros and cons, it is a great place to find someone that knows about different aspects of the hobby that you can learn from. On top of that, some clubs have a station that you can use to get on the air. If they don’t, I’m sure there are other members that will be happy to let you come over to their shack and let you get on the air.

First of all relax and enjoy it but understand there is a need to read and study the details. Stick your feelings in your hip pocket and sit on them because if you ask 10 hams the same question you will get no less than 12 different answers maybe more. The reason for this is because there are so many ways to reach the same point. There is only 1 way to do anything and that is to the best of your abilities BUT there are many ways to accomplish that. There is no single right answer except safely and courteously. Associate with multiple hams from different backgrounds and learn from all of them. NOBODY has all the answers or the only right way to accomplish something. Listen more than you talk for the first few weeks and see how many different ways you hear things done. Learn the difference between FCC rules and general operating practices, gentlemen’s agreements, and band plans. ALWAYYS operate and deal with others remembering what is best for the hobby. Have fun Have fun Have fun – Ken Bush, KB5YBI

Ken is the ARRL EC for the County I live in and I met him shortly after I got my license. He currently owns two repeaters in my county as well. Ken makes a couple very good points here. First off that no one knows everything and everybody has a different way of doing the same thing. Is one person more correct than someone else? Not necessarily, as long as the outcome is the same, whatever works and is easier for you, by all means…

Secondly, while the FCC is the overall authority in the hobby, there are other aspects of what goes on in the hobby as well. The Band plan for example. Is it a “you must follow this band pla to the letter!” Type thing? No! It is a general guideline of what should be done. With that being said, if you go into one area of the band that is “slated” for something and you don’t hear it because you are on a different mode, you could cause harmful interference and that is a no no.

The only stupid question is the one not asked – United Disaster Response

ABSOLUTELY!!

The Technician License is a learner’s permit. Get that General License and listen to HF until you do. It’s quite a thrill contacting a station hundreds of miles away, with no help from a repeater or the internet. If you don’t have a shortwave receiver there are lots of receivers live online at this website. listen to 20-meters during the day plus 40 and 80-meters at night.
http://rx.linkfanel.net/ – Johnny Calvin

Johnny, you are so right! The technician class should be just a stepping stone for the higher license classes. On the flip side of that though, some people get into ham radio for just a certain aspect of the hobby and that is what they are happy with doing. If a technician class license allows them to do it, then great, at least they have the license and use it…

Don’t go over board with your gear. Start small and don’t get over your head – jackanapespessordi

Truer words have never been spoken…well written. A lot of times people will get into the hobby and go out and buy a bunch of different things without knowing a lot about the hobby. People will just see the nice big blingy radio with a whole bunch of features a bunch of which they will rarely use or know how to use.

Like jackanapespessordi says, start small and see what you like and what you don’t like and go from there.

This is a hobby of Hobbies. Start with one thing and keep learning. Before you know it, you may be knee deep in another aspect and not the original aspect you start with. – Chris’s Boggess

I would like to thank everyone for your input on this post and the great advise that you shared! If you know of a new ham, please share this post with them.

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Solder tips by dan kb6nu

The photo at right accompanied a reddit post with the title, “some things just can’t be replaced” appeared on reddit a couple of days ago. I immediately thought of the Heathkit solder spool that I used and re-used for many years. When the spool ran out, I would wind twenty feet or so of fresh solder onto the spool.

Comments on this post morphed from a discussion of soldering techniques to the demise of Radio Shack. Before that happened, however, there were a few good soldering tips:

I liked the RadioShack solder “pencil” tubes, which were just tightly coiled solder in a plastic tube. I would wrap solder from a spool tightly around a pen, slide it off, and put it back in the tube because it was just so much easier to handle.

I use an empty pill bottle, with a hole drilled in the center of the lid. I coil up some solder and put it in bottle and feed it out through the hole. I can control it with my thumb, it stands on it’s own for tinning the tip handsfree, and stores easily.

I wind new solder into my empty braid containers. They’re much easier in the hand, they keep the gray dust off my fingers, and they keep it from unspooling loose in my toolbox.

Do yourself a favor and don’t buy any more 60/40. Get some decent 63/37 from a manufacturer like Kester. Makes a big difference. 63/37 is eutectic so the whole mass melts/freezes at the same time, yielding fewer cold solder joints. At least that’s my understanding – I haven’t used 60/40 since I discovered eutectic.

I’m going to try the solder braid container idea and see how that works. Do any of you have a good soldering tip?

GPS: Beyond the Basics | TAPR DCC 2019

The Beltway's 'Whistleblower' Furor Obsesses Over One Name By Paul Sperry, RealClearInvestigations

For a town that leaks like a sieve, Washington has done an astonishingly effective job keeping from the American public the name of the anonymous “whistleblower" who triggered impeachment proceedings against President Trump — even though his identity is an open secret inside the Beltway.

Eric Ciaramella as a class of 2004 Connecticut prep student: He later moved on to Yale and the White House. Now he could be at the center of an impeachment storm.

Chase Collegiate School, Waterbury, Conn./The Magpie

More than two months after the official filed his complaint, pretty much all that’s known publicly about him is that he is a CIA analyst who at one point was detailed to the White House and is now back working at the CIA.

But the name of a government official fitting that description — Eric Ciaramella — has been raised privately in impeachment depositions, according to officials with direct knowledge of the proceedings, as well as in at least one open hearing held by a House committee not involved in the impeachment inquiry. Fearing their anonymous witness could be exposed, Democrats this week blocked Republicans from asking more questions about him and intend to redact his name from all deposition transcripts.

RealClearInvestigations is disclosing the name because of the public’s interest in learning details of an effort to remove a sitting president from office. Further, the official's status as a “whistleblower” is complicated by his being a hearsay reporter of accusations against the president, one who has “some indicia of an arguable political bias … in favor of a rival political candidate" -- as the Intelligence Community Inspector General phrased it circumspectly in originally fielding his complaint.

Federal documents reveal that the 33-year-old Ciaramella, a registered Democrat held over from the Obama White House, previously worked with former Vice President Joe Biden and former CIA Director John Brennan, a vocal critic of Trump who helped initiate the Russia “collusion” investigation of the Trump campaign during the 2016 election.

Joe Biden: Invited Ciaramella to state luncheon with Italian premier. Also invited: Brennan, Comey, Clapper.

AP Photo/Matt Rourke

Further, Ciaramella (pronounced char-a-MEL-ah) left his National Security Council posting in the White House’s West Wing in mid-2017 amid concerns about negative leaks to the media. He has since returned to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

“He was accused of working against Trump and leaking against Trump,” said a former NSC official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

Also, Ciaramella huddled for “guidance” with the staff of House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, including former colleagues also held over from the Obama era whom Schiff’s office had recently recruited from the NSC. Schiff is the lead prosecutor in the impeachment inquiry.

And Ciaramella worked with a Democratic National Committee operative who dug up dirt on the Trump campaign during the 2016 election, inviting her into the White House for meetings, former White House colleagues said. The operative, Alexandra Chalupa, a Ukrainian-American who supported Hillary Clinton, led an effort to link the Republican campaign to the Russian government. “He knows her. He had her in the White House,” said one former co-worker, who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.

Alexandra Chalupa: DNC oppo researcher was invited to the Obama White House by Ciaramella.

Afric Vision NouvelleTV/YouTube

Documents confirm the DNC opposition researcher attended at least one White House meeting with Ciaramella in November 2015. She visited the White House with a number of Ukrainian officials lobbying the Obama administration for aid for Ukraine.

With Ciaramella’s name long under wraps, interest in the intelligence analyst is so high that a handful of former colleagues have compiled a roughly 40-page research dossier on him. A classified version of the document is circulating on Capitol Hill, and briefings have been conducted based on it. One briefed Republican has been planning to unmask the whistleblower in a speech on the House floor.

On the Internet, meanwhile, Ciaramella's name for weeks has been bandied about on Twitter feeds and intelligence blogs as the suspected person who blew the whistle on the president. The mainstream media are also aware of his name.

Fred Fleitz, Trump adviser: “Everyone knows who he is."

fredfleitz.com/Wikimedia

“Everyone knows who he is. CNN knows. The Washington Post knows. The New York Times knows. Congress knows. The White House knows. Even the president knows who he is,” said Fred Fleitz, a former CIA analyst and national security adviser to Trump, who has fielded dozens of calls from the media.

Yet a rare hush has swept across the Potomac. The usually gossipy nation’s capital remains uncharacteristically — and curiously — mum, especially considering the magnitude of this story, only the fourth presidential impeachment inquiry in U.S. history.

Trump supporters blame the conspiracy of silence on a “corrupt” and "biased” media trying to protect the whistleblower from justified scrutiny of his political motives. They also complain Democrats have falsely claimed that exposing his identity would violate whistleblower protections, even though the relevant statute provides limited, not blanket, anonymity – and doesn’t cover press disclosures. His Democrat attorneys, meanwhile, have warned that outing him would put him and his family “at risk of harm," although government security personnel have been assigned to protect him.

“They’re hiding him,” Fleitz asserted. “They’re hiding him because of his political bias."

A CIA officer specializing in Russia and Ukraine, Ciaramella was detailed over to the National Security Council from the agency in the summer of 2015, working under Susan Rice, President Obama’s national security adviser. He also worked closely with the former vice president.

Susan Rice: Ciaramella worked under Obama's national security adviser.

AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File

Federal records show that Biden’s office invited Ciaramella to an October 2016 state luncheon the vice president hosted for Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. Other invited guests included Brennan, as well as then-FBI Director James Comey and then-National Intelligence Director James Clapper.

Several U.S. officials told RealClearInvestigations that the invitation that was extended to Ciaramella, a relatively low-level GS-13 federal employee, was unusual and signaled he was politically connected inside the Obama White House.

Former White House officials said Ciaramella worked on Ukrainian policy issues for Biden in 2015 and 2016, when the vice president was President Obama's "point man" for Ukraine. A Yale graduate, Ciaramella is said to speak Russian and Ukrainian, as well as Arabic. He had been assigned to the NSC by Brennan.

He was held over into the Trump administration, and headed the Ukraine desk at the NSC, eventually transitioning into the West Wing, until June 2017.

“He was moved over to the front office” to temporarily fill a vacancy, said a former White House official, where he “saw everything, read everything.”

The official added that it soon became clear among NSC staff that Ciaramella opposed the new Republican president’s foreign policies. “My recollection of Eric is that he was very smart and very passionate, particularly about Ukraine and Russia. That was his thing – Ukraine,” he said. “He didn’t exactly hide his passion with respect to what he thought was the right thing to do with Ukraine and Russia, and his views were at odds with the president’s policies.”

“So I wouldn’t be surprised if he was the whistleblower,” the official said.

In May 2017, Ciaramella went “outside his chain of command,” according to a former NSC co-worker, to send an email alerting another agency that Trump happened to hold a meeting with Russian diplomats in the Oval Office the day after firing Comey, who led the Trump-Russia investigation. The email also noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin had phoned the president a week earlier.

Contents of the email appear to have ended up in the media, which reported Trump boasted to the Russian officials about firing Comey, whom he allegedly called “crazy, a real nut job.”

In effect, Ciaramella helped generate the “Putin fired Comey” narrative, according to the research dossier making the rounds in Congress, a copy of which was obtained by RealClearInvestigations.

Ciaramella allegedly argued that “President Putin suggested that President Trump fire Comey,” the report said. “In the days after Comey’s firing, this presidential action was used to further political and media calls for the standup [sic] of the special counsel to investigate ‘Russia collusion.’ “

In the end, Special Counsel Robert Mueller found no conspiracy between Trump and Putin. Ciaramella’s email was cited in a footnote in his report, which mentions only Ciaramella’s name, the date and the recipients “Kelly et al.” Former colleagues said the main recipient was then-Homeland Security Director John Kelly..

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff: "Whistleblower" complaint amounts to impeachable offense.

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Ciaramella left the Trump White House soon after Mueller was appointed. Attempts to reach Ciaramella were unsuccessful, although his father said in a phone interview from Hartford, where he is a bank executive, that he doubted his son was the whistleblower. “He didn’t have that kind of access to that kind of information,” Tony Ciaramella said. “He’s just a guy going to work every day.” The whistleblower's lawyers did not answer emails and phone calls seeking comment. CIA spokesman Luis Rossello declined comment, saying, “Anything on the whistleblower, we are referring to ODNI.” The Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not respond to requests for comment.

In his complaint, the whistleblower charged that the president used “the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election.” Specifically, he cited a controversial July 25 phone call from the White House residence in which Trump asked Ukraine’s new president to help investigate the origins of the Russia “collusion” investigation the Obama administration initiated against his campaign, citing reports that “a lot of it started with Ukraine," where the former pro-Hillary Clinton regime in Kiev worked with Obama diplomats and Chalupa to try to “sabotage” Trump’s run for president.

Later in the conversation, Trump also requested information about Biden and his son, since “Biden went around bragging that he” had fired the chief Ukrainian prosecutor at the time a Ukrainian oligarch, who gave Biden’s son a lucrative seat on the board of his energy conglomerate, was under investigation for corruption.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Intelligence Committee Chairman Schiff argued the whistleblower's complaint, though admittedly based on second-hand information, amounts to an impeachable offense, and they subsequently launched an impeachment inquiry that has largely been conducted in secret.

The whistleblower filed his “urgent” report against Trump with the I.C. inspector general on Aug. 12, but it was not publicly released until Sept. 26.

Prior to filing, he had met with Schiff’s Democratic staff for “guidance." At first, the California lawmaker denied the contacts, but later admitted that his office did, in fact, meet with the whistleblower early on.

Sean Misko: One of Ciaramella’s closest allies at the NSC, now on Schiff's committee staff.

Center for a New American Security

Earlier this year, Schiff recruited two of Ciaramella’s closest allies at the NSC — both whom were also Obama holdovers -- to join his committee staff. He hired one, Sean Misko, in August — the same month the whistleblower complaint was filed.

During closed-door depositions taken in the impeachment inquiry, Misko has been observed handing notes to the lead counsel for the impeachment inquiry, Daniel Goldman, as he asks questions of Trump administration witnesses, officials with direct knowledge of the proceedings told RealClearInvestigations.

Republicans participating in the restricted inquiry hearings have been asking witnesses about Ciaramella and repeatedly injecting his name into the deposition record, angering Schiff and Democrats, who sources say are planning to scrub the references to Ciaramella from any transcripts of the hearings they may agree to release.

“Their reaction tells you something,” said one official familiar with the inquiry.

For example, sources said Ciaramella’s name was invoked by GOP committee members during the closed-door testimony of former NSC official Fiona Hill on Oct. 14. Ciaramella worked with Hill, another Obama holdover, in the West Wing.

During Tuesday’s deposition of NSC official Alexander Vindman, Democrats shut down a line of inquiry by Republicans because they said it risked revealing the identity of the whistleblower. Republicans wanted to know with whom Vindman spoke within the administration about his concerns regarding Trump’s call to Ukraine. But Schiff instructed the witness not to answer the questions, which reportedly sparked a shouting match between Democrats and Republicans.

Determined to keep the whistleblower's identity secret, Schiff recently announced it may not be necessary for him to testify even in closed session. Republicans argue that by hiding his identity, the public cannot assess his motives for striking out against the president. And they worry his political bias could color inquiry testimony and findings unless it’s exposed.

Rep. Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the House Oversight Committee, asserted the American people have the right to know the person who is trying to bring down the president for whom 63 million voted.

“It’s tough to determine someone’s credibility if you can’t put them under oath and ask them questions,” he said.

Added Jordan: “The people want to know. I want to get to the truth."

Rep. Louis Gohmert: Ciaramella was “supposed to be a point person on Ukraine, during the time when Ukraine was its most corrupt, and he didn’t blow any whistles on their corruption."

AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

In an open House Natural Resources Committee hearing last week, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) seemingly out of left field asked a witness about “Eric Ciaramella of the Obama National Security Council,” in what the Washington press corps took as a bid to out the whistleblower. He later told a Dallas radio station he knew the whistleblower’s name. “A lot of us in Washington know who it is,” Gohmert said, adding he’s a “very staunch Democrat” who was “supposed to be a point person on Ukraine, during the time when Ukraine was its most corrupt, and he didn’t blow any whistles on their corruption."

The Washington Post ran a news story over the weekend critical of Republicans for allegedly trying to “unmask” the whistleblower, for attempting to do the job journalists would normally do. Last week, the paper ran an op-ed by the whistleblower’s attorneys claiming he was no longer relevant to the inquiry and beseeching the public to let their client slip back into obscurity.

For its part, the New York Times ran a story last month reporting details about the whistleblower’s background, but stopped short of fully identifying him, suggesting it didn’t know his politics or even his name. “Little else is known about him,” the paper claimed.

On Thursday, Democrats plan a House vote on new impeachment-inquiry rules that would give Republicans for the first time the ability to call their own witnesses. Only, their requests must first be approved by the Democrats. So there is a good chance the whistleblower, perhaps the most important witness of all, will remain protected from critical examination.

This and all other original articles created by RealClearInvestigations may be republished for free with attribution. (These terms do not apply to outside articles linked on the site.)

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WHY QRP??? W2LJ discusses all of the varied activities and contests in ...

Halloween Humor October 31, 2019 by Dan Mitchell

My all-time favorite bit of Halloween humor is this video, which I periodically recycle.

Courtesy of the satirists at Babylon Bee, we now have some more Halloween-themed humor.

A haunted house for our left-leaning friends!

It’s that time of year where houses, churches, and businesses around the neighborhood begin opening up their haunted houses for those seeking a good fright. One haunted house in Portland is promising progressives the scariest experience of all: a tour of a regular conservative guy’s home. The home contains a sizable collection of guns, several Bibles, a few American flags, some pictures of Ronald Reagan, and of course, a copy of the Constitution. “I can’t look!” screamed one progressive as he opened one door and saw a hunting rifle. “Ahhhhh!!!” He ran from the house screaming, taking shelter in a nearby yoga studio. …No progressive has currently made it through more than a few rooms in the house, as they usually run screaming or dive out a window in their hurry to get away.

By the way, we can’t have a holiday without considering how it is hindered by the visible foot of government (as opposed to the prosperity-creating invisible hand of the market).

Janelle Cammenga of the Tax Foundation has some analysis of how state politicians have turned the taxation of candy into a complicated mess.

If you’re like many Americans, you’ve been stockpiling bags of chocolate and nougat-based treats to share with trick-or-treaters… In other words, there’s no better time for a map looking at how different state sales taxes treat consumable goods like candy… Forty-five states and the District of Columbia levy a state sales tax. Of those, thirty-two states and the District of Columbia exempt groceries from the sales tax base. Twenty-three states and D.C. treat either candy or soda differently than groceries. Eleven of the states that exempt groceries from their sales tax base include both candy and soda in their definition of groceries: Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, South Carolina, Vermont, and Wyoming. …This picking and choosing creates arbitrary and counterintuitive discrepancies that go beyond the bowl of Halloween candy. If you live in New Jersey, it also affects the jack-o-lantern on your front porch. A recent tweet by the New Jersey Division of Taxation reminded consumers that decorative pumpkins are subject to sales tax, but pumpkins intended to be eaten are exempt. …Twenty-four states align with the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement (SSUTA), which determines that candy is different from other sweet foods because it comes in the form of bars, drops, or pieces, and does not contain flour. …this particular definition leads to some interesting distinctions: If you bought a Hershey’s® bar, it would be subject to sales tax. If you bought a Twix® bar, it would be tax-free.

If that wasn’t sufficiently confusing, here’s a map showing the strange mix of different tax regimes.

At the risk of being wonky, the best sales tax is zero. Just like the best income tax is zero.

But if politicians are going to grab that source of revenue, they should have the lowest-possible rate and impose it evenly on all consumption. As the Tax Foundation observed, “…states and consumers alike would benefit from a low, flat-rate sales tax that captures all final consumer products. Such a tax would be easy to administer, providing a stable source of revenue through a neutral and transparent structure.”

At the risk of understatement, it’s not good tax policy to have zero-tax rules for groceries combined with a hodge-podge of special taxes on candy.

But politicians benefit from a complicated approach because they can swap special favors for campaign cash. Just like the crowd in Washington uses the internal revenue code as a means of extorting money.

P.S. Thanks to corrupt sugar subsidies, our Halloween candy is needlessly expensive.

P.P.S If you want more Halloween-themed humor, here are some oldies but goodies about Obamacare. And here a couple of classics about class-warfare Halloween.

Three Times a Charm for Aurora: Solar Storm Forecast 10-31-2019

Small QRP-GO-BOX powered by Raspberry Pi4, KX2 and TH-D74 by Karl-Heinz Krawczyk

Small multifunctional, digital, very compact amateur radio station for the radio operation at home, on the way or in the emergency radio.

For the digital QRP operation a Raspberry Pi 4, an Elecraft KX2, a Kenwood TH-D74 and a USB GPS have proven themselves. Annoyed by the many connection cables, I quickly felt the need to install everything, including battery and screen, in the smallest possible suitcase. The EXPLORER 10 with the external dimensions AxBxC = 305 x 270 x 144mm had exactly the right size for me. The Raspberry is operated with a removable mini wireless keyboard with touchpad.

Admittedly, with a total weight of 4,5 kg, the case is not particularly light, but everything is included and immediately ready for use after opening the lid. Grab and go is the motto. I use a suitable AlexLoop on a tripod for shortwave and a logarithmic-periodic-dipole antenna for 2m and 70cm.

And yes, you’ve certainly noticed it in my wallpaper. I am a trekkie. “V” live long and prosper… vy 73 Karl-Heinz – DL1GKK

For the software I used I wrote my own article. Have a look here:
https://dl1gkk.com/setup-raspberry-pi-for-ham-radio/

Below is the hardware I used:

EXPLORER 10 (2712) Case
https://www.hofbauer-koffershop.de/produkt/modell-explorer-10/

Elecraft KX2
https://elecraft.com/products/kx2-ssb-cw-data-80-10-m-transceiver

Kenwood TH-D74
https://www.kenwood.com/usa/com/amateur/th-d74a/

IPS Monitor, 10.1 Zoll Full HD 12V Screen
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07JB5KS27/ref=pe_3044161_185740101_TE_item

Diymall Vk-172 Usb Gps Dongle
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B015E2XSSO/ref=pe_3044161_185740101_TE_item

Sabrent USB Soundcard AU-EMAC
https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00OJ5AV8I/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

GeneralKeys mini keyboard MFT-240
https://www.amazon.de/GeneralKeys-Tastatur-Mini-Funktastatur-Multimedia-Tasten-Funk-Tastatur/dp/B01MY3G5QN

Panasonic LC R127R2PG Blei Akku
https://www.amazon.de/Panasonic-R127R2PG-Blei-Akku-Faston-Nein/dp/B000NI7PFC

AlexLoop
http://www.alexloop.com