The Starlink Mini is one neat device. How could it not be? Little bigger than a pack of printer paper, but lighter, with a built-in wireless router, IP67 rating and (drumroll please) - it'll run off of any DC voltage between 12 & 48. Plus the little thing delivers. I routinely get between 100 & 200 mbps when set up under open sky. Of course, much less when in a wooded area with only a limited view of the sky, but still usable (between 50 & 100 mbps). Plus Starlink has gotten aggressive with their plan pricing. Right now I pay a monthly $10 'reserve' fee that gets me 10 GB of data, and I can buy additional gigabytes at $2.00/gig as I need it. Or I can upgrade to a more expensive plan - $50/month and 50 GB of data, with add-on data billed at $1.00/gig. Full-time users can go with the $165/month unlimited plan, and that can be paused when not needed. All things considered, it's a bargain if you find yourself in places without internet or cell coverage.
When the Mini hit the market, discussions about power options started almost immediately. The standard Mini package includes a wall-wart that converts 120v AC line voltage to 30 volts DC, but right away folks noticed that the minimum 12 volt power requirement was well within the ranges of some small & lightweight battery power supplies. These include small power packs designed to charge phones, tablets and laptops. YouTube hosts a number of videos of Mini owners using these power packs to run a Mini for a few hours or more.
I've given some of these power packs a try, and my experience is that they don't work well. The Mini will power up, connect to the satellite constellation, sync with the Starlink system, then disconnect, reconnect, disconnect... it's never a stable or usable connection. After a few days of testing I concluded that the problem is likely that these small battery packs are not providing enough power for the Starlink antenna to negotiate and maintain a stable connection with the satellite constellation. The receiver will draw up to 35 watts on initial power-up and while connecting to the Starlink network. These power packs may be able to provide over 13 volts at full charge, but 35 watts is a hefty load to put on one of these devices for any length of time, and my suspicion is that the voltage drops close enough to the 12 volt minimum that the receiver can't maintain a stable connection. This isn't a knock on these power banks. They are actually pretty good little devices, and mine are now relegated to recharging our phones and tablets while on the road.
So, I went looking for a different portable solution. I want to be able to power the Mini for short periods of time at things like field activations, family gatherings at parks, or when taking short breaks while traveling. All I'm after is a few hours of run time. At the recommendation of one Australian YouTuber, I decided to test a device that sits on top of the very common Ryobi 18 volt tool batteries that are found in every Home Depot. These batteries are available in a variety of amp-hour ratings, from 1.5 up to 12. I've tested the 4 amp hour batteries, because that's the largest capacity I have (I own a lot of Ryobi cordless tools). What's great about the Ryobi batteries is their 18 volt capacity. This means they will stay well above the minimum 12 volt requirement, even as the battery runs low.
But how to get that 18 volts out of the battery and to the Mini? The answer is a 'hat' that sits on top of the battery and allows you to power the Mini. Manufactured by a company called SYMIK, it snaps onto any Ryobi 18 volt battery and provides two USB C ports, one USB A port and an LED light. Depending on the connection, the SYMIK hat can either charge the battery or provide up to 100 watts of power through one of the USB C ports. Plenty of wattage to meet the Mini's power needs for short periods of time. Unlike other power hats (including Ryobi's own version), this neat gizmo provides an OLED display that shows what's going on with the battery - state of charge, output voltage and amps, and more. While not a particularly rugged or weatherproof device, it is well made and reasonably priced. It came on the market in 2023, and seems to have been designed for the hobby drone market, as a portable charging station.
The SYMIK battery 'hat' set up and powering my Starlink Mini
The Starlink is waterproof, the connecting cable is waterproof, but the SYMIK and battery aren't. I need to find a smaller waterproof box to put the batteries and the SYMIK into
How fast? I was getting over 200 mbps within 15 minutes of setting the system up. Admittedly, this is on the fast end of what Mini users will see, even under a fully open sky
My initial testing shows that one 4 amp hour Ryobi battery will power the Mini for about 2 - 2.5 hours. This is for casual use - some internet surfing, some video watching, occasional small file 'pushes' up to the satellite constellation - emails, documents, pictures, etc. The connection stays reliable all the way to the end, and the SYMIK hat will shut down when available power drops to just below 10 amps. Heavier usage for things like video streaming will reduce battery run-time, likely by at least half.
Of course, you need an appropriate USB cable to connect the Mini to the SYMIK power supply. They are readily available from several online vendors, and from Starlink directly. It's just a USB C connector on one end, and the standard waterproof Starlink canon plug on the other end.
This brings us to the last consideration. Water resistance. The Mini is waterproof - it's IP67 rated. The power connection at the Mini is considered waterproof, too. Everything else in this power chain isn't. Not even remotely. The Ryobi battery and the SYMIK power hat need basic environmental protection. Right now I'm thinking about an inexpensive plastic water resistant ammo can that can hold two batteries, the SYMK power hat, and cables, Route the power cable thru a makeshift water resistant port on the ammo can. If ya'll have any thoughts or ideas on this, I'd love to have them!
I'll be posting more about this topic, and other Starlink topics, as I do more testing and actual field use, so stay tuned!
Someone recently posted on, of all sites, the Groups.io Elecraft KX site, that the Elecraft KX3 - released in 2013 - is too old and out-dated to be relevant.
Old and out-dated my ass.
Let's look at the current Sherwood Engineering receiver test data. There are about 157 radio evaluations on Sherwood's site. The KX3 currently sits in 9th place*. Since it's release the radio has always ranked in the top 10, and at one time was, I believe, ranked third or fourth, right behind the Elecraft K3 (both have the same receiver circuitry).
That puts the KX3, as of April 2025, in the top 6% of all radios rated. Impressive. But then you look at the KX3's competition. In this rating, it beats:
Elecraft's own new and shiny K4 and K4D
Every Flex radio tested
Every Apache radio tested
Every Drake receiver (highly vaunted in their day, and no slouches today)
The Icom 7610, 7300 and the 705
The TenTec Omni V (still highly sought after for it's excellent receiver performance)
In fact, at least five of the eight radios that sit above it on the Sherwood list were designed and built AFTER the KX3 was released in 2013.
(*I know some of you are going to say, 'I call BS, because numerically it sits 11th on the list' - well yes, but there are three very slight re-works of the Elecraft K3 that sit just above it, and I consider those to be one model.)
A lot of hams poo-poo the Sherwood ratings, saying they don't relate to anything in the real world, they are just comparisons of some meaningless values. I would agree that the Sherwood ratings don't measure the overall radio experience, but Sherwood is the only objective receiver evaluation service we have in ham radio. You gotta' rate on something, and Ron Sherwood's evaluations are honest and accurate, and provide a good performance ranking. Is there a lot of real world difference between the 1st and 10th radios on the list? Probably not. But there sure will be a lot of performance difference between the 1st and the 20th, and the gap in performance quickly widens the further down the list you go.
So no, the KX3 isn't irrelevant. Yes, it's a bit quirky and it can be difficult for ham radio operators to place it in terms of format and power output. Is it a full featured rig? Yes. Is it a QRP rig? Yup. Is it portable? Definitely. Does it provide excellent performance on all modes? Certainly. Can it serve as a main station rig? Without a doubt.
So, it's 12 year old world-class performing, portable QRP rig that can serve as your main shack radio. And it still beats damned near every radio Sherwood Engineering ever tested.
It's not a perfect radio, and I'll address some of it's shortcomings (none of them fatal) in a later post, but I just wanted to get this out there for people to consider. If you want a radio with a world-class receiver that you can take to the field in a small bag, the KX3 is an excellent, and very relevant, option.
And when was the last time Yaesu or Icom encouraged you to do this to one of their radios?
Elecraft provides written instructions on how to open up and tinker with the insides of all of their radios
I like to write stuff down. Pen (or pencil) & paper. The way it's been done since the Egyptians started the fad over 3,000 years ago. I simply don't buy into recording casual notes on electronic media. I sit in meetings and watch people poking and swiping on their tablets or phones, yet not really paying attention to the topics under discussion. The technology gets in the way.
My wife and kids tell me that, having ridden this rock around the Sun for over 68 years, I'm something of a luddite, set in my ways, too old to change, blah, blah, blah. For the record, these are the same wife and kids who come to me for tech support when they forget how to turn on their tablets or can't get the printer to work. Anyone who's read this blog knows I'm not against technology. Far from it. But, having ridden this rock for so long, I'm able to identify situations where old school technology is a better fit than new school technology.
Taking notes in the field, particularly when operating radios in the field, is one of those situations.
Background. I 'grew up' in the Army, where, as a leader, you wrote everything down. My niche job in the Army - surveying & mapping - took writing things down to extremes. Surveyors, both civilian and military, are obsessive about field notes. Field notes form the legal description of the survey. Whether we're talking about accurately locating a road centerline that will run through a subdivision, or the location of a missile launch site, there's a huge price to be paid if the data isn't accurate. Surveyors write everything down, in a specific format, with clarity, precision and accuracy (and without erasures). Hand written field notes done by experienced surveyors can be important historical documents, and many states retain libraries of survey notebooks as the foundational legal records of property boundaries and ownership. I internalized the surveyor's mindset, and still follow it today.
I'm not implying that scribbling down POTA contacts while you are working a pile-up is the same as a surveyor making careful field notes. What I am saying is that, in my experience, the foundational technology - pen or pencil, and paper - is often a better logging tool than a computer-based logging system. In fact, I know a lot of experienced field operators who record the contacts first on paper, then go back later and fill out the digital log.
This post won't cover how to log on paper - everyone has their own way of doing it. But I will discuss some of the tools. Many will say, "Hey, it's just paper and pen or pencil, what's the big deal?" Well OK, but I'm a paper, pencil and pen geek, so obviously we're going to dive down the rabbit hole. Let's go!
First, the paper part. I have yet to use a regular office supply store notebook that didn't become a semi-soggy mess while operating outdoors. Here in the southeast, where the summer humidity can reach 90% on a dry day, a regular notebook can quickly become unusable, particularly if you are using a ball-point pen, or a pencil with hard lead. The moisture in the paper results in a slick surface that doesn't provide enough traction to let the ink or lead flow properly. There are some really good solutions to this problem. The first is a regular surveyor's notebook. Most surveyor's notebooks are bound, or stitched, but you can also get them spiral bound. They use paper with a high 'rag' content (there's a lot of cotton linen in the paper content) and the pages are given a water resistant coating. This makes them ideal for use in high humidity conditions. While more expensive than a regular school-grade notebook, they really are not that much more expensive, especially if you buy in bulk (remember, you are not buying milk or bread - these notebooks won't go bad just sitting around for a few months, or years, waiting to be used). Surveyor's notebooks come in several different layouts, based on the type of survey activity they record. I recommend what's called a 'level book'. This has all pages laid out in columns and rows. If you get a survey 'field book', it will likely come with facing pages showing separate layouts - the left hand page is lined for notes, and the right hand page is set up in a grid pattern for field sketches. This layout can work for ham radio logging, it's just not as convenient.
Three very common notebooks under consideration. The Elan E64 spiral bound, the Rite-in-the-Rain field book, and the Elan E64 bound level book. Elan Publishing is a major manufacturer of field books, and many are sold under private brand labels. It's safe to say that if you spot a surveyor making notes in a field notebook, the book was made by Elan, regardless of the name on the cover. All of them use water resistant paper, but Rite-in-the-Rain takes it a step further by applying an additional waterproof coating. Any of these will do just fine in a field environment, and all are readily available from Amazon
Personally I like the spiral bound books for field logging. They lay flat, and if I need to tear out a page to hand over to another operator (who may not have brought something to write on) it's a lot easier and neater to do than trying to tear a page from a bound notebook. You can also get loose-leaf pages for use in 3-ring binders, but I don't like those because trying to 'reach' across the binder rings while writing is a pain.
Notebook page layouts. The Rite-in-the-Rain notebook is at the top, the Elan 64 spiral bound at the bottom, and the Elan hard bound on the right. The Elan 64 spiral bound is a great option, except for the layout (notes on the left, gridded for field drawings on the right). The Elan hard bound on the right is great, but it's hard to tear pages out of. For this reason I tend to go with the Rite-in-the-Rain notebook
One brand of notebooks I particularly like (although they are more expensive) are the ones made by the Rite-in-the-Rain company out of Tacoma, Washington. The paper they use is more water resistant than anything I've tested, and although the coating and texture can cause issues with some pen inks and pencil leads, if you test beforehand you'll find plenty of pens and pencils that work. We'll discuss more on this in a bit. I don't worry too much if these notebooks get wet, they seem to dry out just fine.
Now on to the writing implements, starting with pens. A good pen needs to be comfortable in the grip, have good, smooth ink flow, but not too much ink flow that it leads to smearing. I'm a southpaw, and this ink smearing thing is a serious issue. In over 50 years of work, I've used an enormous range of pens, from the cheapo Skillcraft ball point pens the Army bought by the truckload (and were actually not too bad), to some elegant A.T. Cross models, to cheap but very nicely performing gel pens, to Fisher Space Pens with their pressurized ink cartridges. Let's look at a few of my favorites.
Want a very good yet inexpensive pen that can be bought at Wal-Mart? Try out the Pilot G-2 gel pen. It doesn't look like a whole lot, but the designers did their homework. The ink flows very smoothly and evenly and the ergonomics are great - the pen feels good in the hand. I always carry a few in my field kit.
Next up is the Pentel RSVP medium point. While it doesn't feel as good in the hand as the Pilot (it has a narrower and shorter grip), the ink flow is outstanding - noticeably smoother than the Pilot. In fact the ink flows well both under very light pressure, and the 'press hard, you're signing three copies' pressure level. It's really remarkable how good the ink flow is on a relatively inexpensive pen.
Fisher Space Pen/Rite-in-the-Rain. I've written about Fisher & Rite-in-the-Rain on this blog before. Fisher makes the pens that are sold under the Rite-in-the-Rain name, and they feature Fisher's well known pressurized 'space pen' ink cartridges. These pens are renowned for writing under just about any condition, even under water, and the hype is mostly true. They put ink on paper under conditions that have other pens failing to write altogether. The best example are those awful printed receipts you'll get in restaurants, the ones so slick that no pen will leave a mark, and you go looking for a Sharpie. The Fischer ink cartridge can usually tackle that. I own a number of the Rite-in-the-Rain pens (I like the bright orange barreled models - easy to find). They are comfortable to grip, and the ink flows well. Recently though, I bought a Fisher Space Pen branded Zero Gravity model. The barrel is made out of rubber coated brass, and it comes with a medium tip cartridge. The ink flow is excellent. It's easily the most comfortable pen I've held for some time, and it's my new favorite for general purpose writing.
In terms of feel on the paper, the Pentel R.S.V.P. is the clear winner, with the Fisher Gravity coming in second. The Pilot G2 is also very nice, but as we'll see has one major flaw
Here we are with the same pens, but writing on an Rite-in-the-Rain field notebook with water resistant paper. The Pentel R.S.V.P was the smooth writing winner, with the Fisher Gravity a close second. The Pilot G2 had a bit of a 'gritty' feel to it as I wrote. Two of the pens, the Fisher Gravity and the Pilot G2, exhibited ink smearing. The G2 was obviously the worst. I tested by writing the line, then swiping my finger lightly over the text. This issue effectively disqualifies the Pilot G2
Same pens & pencil, but writing on an Elan 64 field notebook with water resistant paper. I didn't do the smear test here, but I'd expect the same results as above. The Pentel R.S.V.P was still the winner, the Fisher a close second, and the Rite-in-the-Rain a respectable (in terms of performance) third
But, which pen do I take to the field? Except for the Pilot G2, any of these pens would do fine, but I'm going to stick with my Rite-in-the-Rain / Fisher orange bodied model. They are lightweight, rugged, easy to keep track of and the pressurized ink cartridge ensures ink will flow under the conditions I'm most likely to encounter on a field activation. The Fisher Gravity is a very nice pen, but it's an expensive instrument, and my pens have a habit of walking off. For field use, it's Rite-in-the-Rain.
So now we're down to pen vs. pencil. Is there a reason to choose one over the other? Not really, it's all a matter of personal preference. I used to stick strictly to pencils for field notes - again it's a surveyor thing. But over the past few years I've come to prefer the pen, mainly for the visual contrast on the notebook page. I still take pencils to the field, and my decades-long favorite are the classic Pentel P200-series mechanical pencils - the P205 for the 0.5mm lead diameter model, and the P207 for the 0.7mm model. These pencils are very well made, rugged (I have yet to break one), feel good in the hand, and are widely available. Pentel's pencil lead is some of the best available - it doesn't break easily and is smooth on the paper. My current preference is for the 0.7mm diameter lead - it writes really well on water resistant paper.
One last topic. Logging. Like many hams, I've chased awards, high field day scores and other contact-related things in ham radio. And like many hams I've played around with a variety of electronic logging systems - N1MM, Ham Radio Deluxe, Log4OM, etc. I never felt any of them worked all that well for me. I spent more time fussing with the software interface than actually logging contacts. I understand the utility of a computer-based logging system, and for serious contesters and serious 'runners & gunners', they are absolutely necessary. But I enjoy a more leisurely pace on the radio, spinning the dial, grabbing an interesting CQ call, maybe working a few special event stations or helping POTA operators fill their logs. My preferred logging method is good old paper and pencil, using the classic ARRL logbooks. It's slow, it's old-school, but it works great for my operating style. Plus, once a contact is in the paper log, it's there forever. I love flipping back through my logs, seeing what stations and countries I've contacted in the past, what equipment I used, what bands I was on. I've lost an unknown number of contacts to digital logging applications. I can't blame the logging apps, I just did a lousy job of saving out the contacts and archiving them. It's a discipline thing. For this reason, when logging, it's paper and pencil.
For fun, I'm not the only one who dorks out on pens and pencils. There's the always delightful, on point, and over-caffeinated Adam Savage - my brother from another mother...
Over the past year or more I've fretted about the inevitability of my home county, Fayette County, GA, enabling encryption on it's new P25 system. The system remains unencrypted, and you can follow it using a P25 Phase II scanner like the Uniden/Bearcat SDS100 or 200. But, at some point soon the county will flip the switch and our ability to monitor the county system will end. Very likely some time this year.
I'm a big scanner fan. I've been doing it for almost half a century. There was always something to listen to. Not just police & fire, but public works, rail, aviation, utilities, cab services, businesses, and more. In fact, in the days of crystal controlled scanners there was often more to listen to than the scanner technology could support. I remember standing in the newsroom of the Toledo Blade newspaper in the 70s (I worked there while in college), listening to at least two 5-channel scanners squawking away. Someone on the floor was always tagged to keep an ear on the radio traffic, usually one of the lower ranking reporters or interns. Mid-70's scanner technology was such that, if the news guys needed to monitor just one more frequency, they'd have to run down to Radio Shack and buy another scanner and a handful of crystals.
Today that paradigm is flipped. Current scanning technology has out-stripped the number and types of radio services available to monitor.
The current Uniden top-tier scanners are a good example. Their ability to track P25 Phase II simulcast systems is amazing. I own a Uniden SDS100 that is dedicated to following my county's P25 traffic. The SDS100 is expensive, the build quality is merely OK, and the user interface is a confusing mess. But for P25 Phase II scanning, the SDS100 and its big brother, the SDS200, are about the only game in town.
But what to scan? As more and more public service agencies flip the switch and enable encryption on their P25 systems, there's less and less for these expensive, high technology scanners to monitor. At some point both the consumers and the manufacturers will start asking, 'Is it worth the cost?'
Around Christmas I bought what I call 'the best $500 HT you can buy for $700', the new Kenwood TH-D75. One of the features many owners have noted is the radio's scanning speed. It's fast. Many claim it's almost as fast as some dedicated analog scanners. That means, for me, it's plenty fast enough. With Kenwood's programming software it's also easy to set up scanning banks, and the radio is far easier to use. Of course it only scans analog signals, and DSTAR, but it does have good scanning performance. I figured I'd turn it into a hybrid ham radio/scanner. I hopped over to RadioReference.com and see what frequencies are available for Georgia. Surely there must be some government and utility agencies still using analog systems, right? Boy, was I disappointed! For Georgia's state and local governments, and large utilities, the pickings are slim. The state is shutting down most of its analog narrow-band communications systems, and many local agencies are following their lead. A few analog frequencies and repeaters are being held in reserve just to ensure coverage in case of other system failures, but for the most part there's no analog FM activity anywhere.
Here's a short video of the D75 scanning simultaneously on both A & B receivers. The top receiver is scanning the standard FMRS/GMRS frequencies, and the bottom receiver is scanning some of the few remaining Georgia state government unencrypted frequencies
As mentioned, the State of Georgia is abandoning both analog (narrow FM) and P25 systems. Many, probably most, agencies are migrating over to either the internet-based SouthernLinc LTE or GTA LTE systems. No scanning opportunities there. There are still some listed VHF interoperability frequencies, but those seem to be unused. The Georgia State Patrol and the Georgia Dept. of Natural Resources have switched almost entirely to LTE. I expect the other state government agencies to follow. It just makes sense from a budget, coverage and interoperability perspective. The legacy VHF FM systems are quickly going dark.
Many state-level public service agencies in Georgia have gone over to LTE-based services, many using Harris-based hardware. These HTs come in at something like $7,000/each (based on my sources). Ouch
Aviation is still wide open, on analog VHF AM frequencies, and with Hartsfield Airport just up the road and regional ATC centers in nearby Peachtree City and Hampton, GA, there's a lot to listen to. There are also VHF FM frequencies that cover air evacuation (LifeFlight and others) services across the state, although I've heard very little activity on any of those.
Utilities are a mixed bag. We tend to think that Georgia Power rules the state, and they have converted almost wholly over to the SouthernLinc system (SouthernLinc is owned by Georgia Power's parent company, Southern Company). But Georgia Power doesn't rule everywhere - some parts of Georgia are still served by small electrical co-ops that run their own communications systems. Many of them are DMR and NXDN, a few are on P25, and a big chunk are still using VHF FM. I think there's a lot of scanning opportunity there, but most of these systems are well away from Fayette County, and hard to catch.
Rail also seems to be a mixed bag. Locally, CSX and Norfolk Southern are still using VHF FM, so there's lots of opportunity there. It's not just the road frequencies, but the Atlanta yard frequencies are easy to catch. But I read threads on pages like RadioReference.com that discuss rail operators migrating to closed systems.
GMRS, MURS and FRS are wide open, and monitoring those frequencies locally can be important. It's not just spying on the McDonald's drive-thru chatter, but a lot of organizations will use these radios to coordinate activities. I'd bet there's some cheap GMRS/FRS handhelds riding around in the cabs of government vehicles - think road clearing crews, plows, etc. They'll be used by shelter staff, relief coordinators, private contractors coordinating supply delivery and other non-government support personnel. Keeping tabs on this activity can provide a window into the wider relief activity.
CB? Sure, why not. It gets a good bit of use as a general chat tool, which can be both informative and entertaining.
Maritime? Well, the nearest saltwater coastline is several hundred miles away. There are several large lakes near Atlanta that we regularly camp at. While I suspect most boaters on those lakes (Lanier, Allatoona, West Point, Hartwell) use smartphones and FRS for communications, there may be some maritime frequencies used by local police on maritime patrol.
Overall, however, the trend for government agencies and large private organizations like the railroads is away from open repeaters to P25 and internet-based LTE services. This means, increasingly, there will be less to scan for. When Fayette County enables encryption on the P25 system it will reduce the use case for complex scanners like the SDS100. The Uniden scanners can, of course, scan a variety of modes other than P25 (oddly, though, not DMR without an additional and pricey software key), so those who own one of these units will still be able to use it. But if you are thinking of getting into local scanning, there is little sense in investing in a P25 capable unit unless you know for sure the agencies you want to scan do not, and are not planning to, enable encryption.
All this is sad. Over the course of the few months I worked on this post, two events occurred. First was an outbreak of bad weather in mid-February, with a line of strong storms that pushed through the southeast. The south metro Atlanta area was hard hit with strong winds, flash flooding and even an EF0 tornado. I was woken up at 0430 by my weather radar, and spent the next six hours glued to my scanner, monitoring our county P25 system. The information was invaluable - reports on issues like downed trees, power outages, damaged cars, requests for assistance. Since our local radio club, and our repeaters, are dedicated to supporting the National Weather Service regional forecast office in Peachtree City, GA, there was no repeater coverage for events inside our county (an issue that has since been corrected with the re-establishment of our 146.685 repeater). I ended up posting situational updates to our club via our Groups.io email reflector. A few of the issues I picked up on the scanner - trees down, and localized flooding - got posted over to the NWSChat site
Recently, my wife and I spent several days camping on Lake West Point in Georgia, and I brought along the Kenwood TH-D75 programmed with a wide variety of maritime, GMRS, MURS, and state and federal VHF frequencies. I didn't pick up a single transmission on any of these services. It was winter, and there were few campers at the park, so that may have cut down on FRS and GMRS use I've heard in the past when families are using the radios to keep in touch. Still, dead silence on all the other bands I scanned.
Where's all this heading? I fear that the days of the general purpose scanner are slowly but inevitably drawing to a close. Most enthusiasts buy a scanner to listen to their local public service traffic - that's where the action is. If those services are switching over to encrypted or LTE-based services, the justification for developing new scanning technologies goes away. Just in the last few months we've seen one major scanner manufacturer, Whistler, leave the market. Uniden, has to see this as a shrinking market and is likely having internal discussions about market viability.
I'll wrap this up by saying that federal, state and local emergency services are encrypting their services not because they must, but because they can. I understand the compelling reason for encrypting many law enforcement frequencies - it's a safety and security issue. But there's no compelling reason for encrypting frequencies dedicated for things like fire, ambulance, public works and other service channels. If we are to preserve our ability to monitor these frequencies, we need to let our elected representatives know, and we need to flip the current paradigm, which today goes like this, "We (the government) have the ability to encrypt, and we're going to do it unless you give us a good reason not to (and we get to decide if it's a good enough reason, or not)." Instead the paradigm needs to be, "The frequencies will remain open unless you (the government) can provide a compelling argument why they should be encrypted."
Anyone who's poked around in old electronic devices for any length of time knows that switches & dials are some of the first components to go bad. They don't go all-the-way bad instantly, like a blown resistor. Over time they get gritty, temperamental, intermittent, and just refuse to work right. They slowly fade away, and then one day... nothing. While most electronic components (resistors, capacitors, transistors, diodes, etc.) just sit there and pass electrons, switches and dials are the mechanical man-machine interfaces that undergo the most 'fiddling'. It only makes sense that, with all that poking, twisting and prodding, they tend to be the first things to go wonky. (Touch screens are a fairly recent development that are coming on fast when it comes to component failure rates, but plain old switches and dials have over 100 more years of failure to lay claim to.)
I've done some recent work on older Elecraft and Yaesu rigs with front panel switches that were getting sticky or non-responsive. While a quick spritz of contact cleaner helped with some of the misbehaving parts, others required more intensive surgery. In the case of the Elecraft, it required a complete disassembly of the radio, peeling the 'snap dome' contact pads off of the main board, cleaning 12 years of corrosion off of the board contacts, and installing new snap domes and rubber buttons. Kudos to Elecraft for still making these parts available, at a very reasonable price.
Some may think that once switches or dials go bad on any old electronic device, it's time for that sad trip to the landfill. But not one of my favorite YouTubers, CuriousMarc! Marc's wonderful and entertaining channel follows him and his very talented team of nerds as they bring back to life all sorts of vintage electronic or electro-mechanical gear. Marc's first love is old HP test equipment and early computers, followed closely by anything associated with spaceflight. But Marc also has a place in his heart for vintage DEC and Sun computers, classic IBM 'heavy iron' mainframes, mechanical teletypes, calculators, old TVs, and more. Basically, if it's got either blinking lights or it makes a lot of mechanical chatter (like a teletype), it catches Marc's attention. It also helps that Marc's videos are some of the best produced on YouTube. Everything from presenting the background story and research, to camera angles and lighting, on-screen comments by team members, editing, and final production is first rate. There's a lot of subtle humor woven into the narration, but it's often humor you need to be a geek to appreciate. And it's all very family friendly.
Recently Marc posted a series of videos about bringing a old HP 3438A digital volt meter back to life. There's nothing really remarkable about this meter, other than someone gave it to Marc and he was determined to get it working again. That and the fact that it's HP, and Marc can't let any piece of vintage HP test gear on his bench without opening it up and trying to make it work right. Right off the bat, Marc deduced that the problem was mostly in the switches. These were a common switch design used by HP in the 70s & 80's, and they had a high failure rate due to some unusual wear patterns. New switches are unobtainable, and Marc didn't have a donor piece of test gear, so he had to repair or alter what was in front of him. This led to a very interesting discussion about switches, and some of the ways you can alter what you have to bring a piece of vintage gear back to life.
Many hams tend to think that, just because a radio or other piece of electronic gear doesn't have hundreds of moving parts, like a car, it just naturally lasts longer. Not so. There are conscious design and engineering decisions made that limit the lifespan of many of the devices we depend on. The best example is smartphones. The manufacturers know that, within 6 - 8 years of a device's release, it will be obsoleted by factors outside the manufacturers control - things like changes to carrier services (Edge to 3G to 4G to 5G), changes to wi-fi or Bluetooth standards, etc. So Apple, Samsung, Google and others design and build their devices using components that they know won't survive much past a decade of use. Planned obsolescence, on many levels. This is one of the reasons I've groused a bit on this blog about the electronics repairability issue.
And this is why I love CuriousMarc's channel. He proves that, if a piece of equipment was designed well, and used quality components, it can be maintained and remain useful far beyond the manufacturers original design lifespan.
I got complacent and sloppy yesterday, and I'm still recovering.
My local ARES group, Fayette County ARES, along with the local ham radio club, KK4GQ.org, routinely supports races, triathlons and other charity or public service events in the county. Yesterday was the annual Southern Conservation Trust Run The Ridge 5k & 10k race. I've helped with this race for years, even served as the communications coordinator a time or two. But yesterday I was just a checkpoint monitor - stuck out by myself on a trail intersection to make sure runners keep heading in the right direction.
For a few days before the race the weather reports called for cold temps and a chance of rain, but I didn't pay attention. Since I've worked this race before, and since my house is only about a mile from this race (as the crow flies) I got cocky and complacent. I packed either the wrong stuff, or the bare minimum of the right stuff.
I hit the race location around 0700. It was cold, misty and drizzling. I told my wife it reminded me of central Germany in the late fall. Not super cold, but always damp and drizzly enough to make the cold a bit more miserable. And for that, I was not properly prepared. My coat was not waterproof, my boots were not waterproof, my trousers were not heavy enough, I didn't have any rain gear, no plastic bags to put important items like the trail race map into. I didn't even bring a folding chair and had to borrow one. Didn't much matter, because I had no way to shield it from the rain when I wasn't sitting in it. A poncho would have been useful. Also, no hot beverages. I've got a closet shelf full of thermos bottles, but didn't think to fill just one of them with coffee. About the only thing I did right was bring along a waterproof HT (an Icom ID-52, which was better prepared for the weather than I was).
Like I said, I got cocky and complacent. Because of that I ended up standing in one spot for almost three hours, cold, wet and while not quite miserable, certainly uncomfortable.
Cold, wet, lonely and borderline miserable
Lessons learned. Next time pay more attention to the weather and the mission, and be the Boy Scout (Be Prepared).
Thinsulate or Gore-Tex boots. I normally wear Merrell Moab hikers. I got cheap on my last purchase and opted for the non-waterproof version. I won't make that mistake again.
Rain gear. Just a simple set of inexpensive and lightweight Frogg-Toggs (jacket & over pants) would have worked great
Gloves, even just a thin pair of mechanic's gloves, would have worked great
Wide brim hat or cap to keep the water dripping from the trees off my head and neck
Flashlight. With the overcast weather and early race start, I ended up using my phone to illuminate the trail map and the deep recesses of my backpack
Collapsible chair that can be carried slung over the shoulder
Waterproof bags. Just gallon-sized zip-lock bags will suffice
Poncho or lightweight tarp to cover all the gear
Small thermos with coffee
Compass. Compass? Yes. I needed to orient the trail map to my location to make sure I was sending runners in the right direction. I used the compass app on my phone, but I hate relying on electronic devices in situations like this, and my phone is not weatherproof. A simple orienteering compass would have fit the bill nicely
This race was a painful and embarrassing reminder that I need to pay more attention to prepping for even the simplest events. What's even worse is that, except for the waterproof boots, I have all this stuff sitting stacked in my man cave. If I had given it half a thought I could have grabbed it all on the way out the door. But noooo, I'm too smart and experienced for that.
I guess it's good to know I still have room for improvement 😣
Lab599, the Russian company behind the development of the TX-500 HF rig, has been teasing out a new 'manpack' version of the radio for almost a year now. Lab599 has a habit of surprising the ham radio community. The TX-500 was in 'rumored development' for several years, and many (including me) thought it was just vaporware. Then one day, there it was! And not only was it a real radio, but it turns out they had secretly partnered with Chameleon Antenna here in the states on some antenna concepts for the radio, and they managed to sign up Ham Radio Outlet as the exclusive US-based retailer. The TX-500 had a bit of a rough start - a number of manufacturing and distribution issues, some poorly thought-out launches of accessories like an attachable battery pack, COVID, and then the Russian invasion of the Ukraine. Remarkably, Lab599 weathered all of this. They repudiated Putin's moves in Ukraine, moved manufacturing to the United Arab Emirates, struggled with some chip issues, continued to push out firmware updates, overcame some service issues here in the US, and all the while kept up an honest dialog with their customer base. Along the way the TX-500 became a minor hit both here in the US and in Europe. Performance is good, it's rugged, and its designers stripped out all the frilly bells and whistles that festoon competitors in the same market space, like the Icom IC-705 - a move that got the approval of a huge swath of folks in ham radio.
Over a year ago Lab599 hinted that they were working on a manpack version of the TX-500, called the TX-500MP. The computer generated images showed a radio that resembled a very large HT, with a small screen and no VFO knob - no knobs of any kind. When I saw the digital mock-up it struck me that Lab599 wasn't designing this strictly for the ham radio market. They are going after commercial, government and military contracts with this radio.
A few weeks ago Lab599 announced that not only is the TX-500MP a real product, but it's in production and will be released for sale in late January 2025. Then a video of the radio being tested by Russia-based YouTuber RadioChief appeared, along with some Facebook videos. My Russian language skills are a bit rusty (i.e., they don't exist), but it's easy to follow the videos. In addition, YouTube (Google) will do a fairly good job of providing English language captions. Unfortunately since the video is hosted on YouTube's Russian servers I can't post it here, but you can open the link (above) directly in your browser and watch.
There's a lot to like in the YouTube and Facebook videos, and here's what I'm able to glean:
The radio has a built-in tuner. In fact, in the videos I've seen, Lab599 is making a lot of noise about how the built-in tuner performs better than the Elecraft T1 tuner. The T1 tuner has been a popular accessory for the original TX-500 owners. If I was Lab599 I'd be careful here. The T1 tuner is legendary in ham radio for being able to tune just about anything. It's not all about tuning speed. On a radio like this it's about impedance matching capability. If the TX-500MP tuner is faster, but can't match as wide a range as the T1, then Lab599 is setting themselves up for criticism
Screen capture from a Facebook video
Battery pack. The radio includes a detachable battery pack. The battery pack for the original TX-500 is one area where Lab599 stumbled badly. They came up with a very good design, and some made it to market in the US, then the supply quickly dried up. I suspect Lab599 just couldn't get sustained volume production going on this item. But with the TX-500MP, it looks like the battery pack is an integral component to the radio
No conventional VFO. Good! This radio is designed to be a channelized unit - load up your pre-determined frequencies and assign them to channels. By eliminating rotating dials, either for the VFO, audio, or other functions, you make it easier to fully weatherproof the radio.
Almost exactly a year ago Julian, OH8STN, discussed the radio on YouTube, relying on some information he'd apparently received directly from Lab599. Julian discussed, and showed pictures of, what he called a 'break-out box' being made for the TX-500MP. The design and concept looked great, but I have not seen any discussion of it in the recent postings and videos.
From Julian's YouTube channel
By now it's obvious I'm intrigued by this radio. This is the radio I've been waiting for Icom, Yaesu or Kenwood to make. I won't be an early adopter - I'll let others test it and wring it out - but if the radio lives up to its promise then there'll eventually be one in my backpack.
I'm looking forward to this radio getting into the hands of an experienced English speaking reviewer (not a fanboy or an 'unboxer') and giving it a good, honest shakedown. Until then, I'm saving my pennies!
