Path: Illogical

Trifecta complete

Sun, 18 Sep 2011 05:53:35 GMT

In the past 24 hours I've found one each of active police, ambulance, and fire frequencies. All told I'm up to twenty or so memory slots used, so only 95% to go. I do need to start organising them for easy scanning, though.

I'm pretty impressed with how easy the TH-F6A is to learn to use. There are only a few fairly advanced things that I still have to look up -- the others are becoming habit now. This is much better than my last HT (also a Kenwood -- can't remember the model) where I pretty much had to have the manual close at hand to do much at all.

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Found frequencies

Sat, 17 Sep 2011 05:11:10 GMT

It's only been a full day and so far I've found a few interesting frequencies. A couple of them I think are police. One's definitely fire department dispatch. My favourites so far are the harbour air traffic control and Vancouver maritime traffic channels. Not a bad haul so far! I do need to get my contact logger web UI started at some point, too. It'll be a couple of months before I test for my license, most likely (I'm shooting for an honours mark so I can broadcast on HF), but I'd like to have something in place for when I can broadcast and not have to migrate a bunch of data.

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Tango Hotel Foxtrot 6 Alpha

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 17:11:48 GMT

It's on its way. I ordered the Kenwood TH-F6A from the local place. It should arrive at my office later today or tomorrow, along with a copy of an up-to-date study guide for my basic license. My old study guide is "new for the year 2000 exams", so something tells me it wouldn't have been up to snuff, with all the rebanding and whatnot that's gone on. Graphs that don't look generated by a Commodore 64 will be a nice thing, too. :)

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Kenwood TH-F6A -- can you beat it for the price?

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 03:21:05 GMT

After much checking about and figuring out what's available in Canada, it seems to me that the Kenwood TH-F6A is the best bang for the buck in amateur handhelds. 0.01-1.3GHz receive, built-in 1200/9600 TNC ready (works with external unit), wireless remote, built nice and sturdy, and all that good stuff. I can pick one up locally for about CAD360 before HST. Can anyone suggest an equivalent or better model in the same price range?

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Radio musings

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 06:18:16 GMT

A decade or so ago I had a handheld amateur radio unit and was getting ready for my advanced amateur license test. This process ended when I got in the car one day, only to discover that someone had broken in and stolen the unit from the glovebox -- on the only night it had ever been left in there.

Now someone (okay, it was sophie) got me all interested in radio again, especially the scanning end of things. I was fond of scanning before, but now that scanner to PC interfaces are much more advanced, I think I could really get into it now.

My favourite unit so far is the Kenwood TH-F6A, which is a transceiver with a continuous 0.01 to ~1.3GHz receive capability (minus the mobile phone frequencies, of course). I could scan happily until I do my advanced test and get my license, then use it for VECTOR events, keeping in touch with my mom and stepfather when they're on the road, and so on.

I definitely can't afford that right now, though. Hopefully bonus time will provide just enough extra money to make it possible.

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