Author: Tommy

After selling some stuff I no longer want/need/use, I saved up enough money to purchase a new car stereo. I had been eyeballing a neat radio I saw at Walmart, it has a USB port on the stereo itself, allowing you to play MP3s directly from a thumbdrive. (Something I thought was unique to that model.)
{Apparently, they were introduced in mid 2005, but only recently went mainstream.}

The particular model I was looking at was the VRCD400SDU from the same people that made the FM modulator I got for Christmas. The FM modulator is pretty neat, but it is lacking in some areas. It resets your song back to the beginning whenever power is lost. It plays the songs in reverse alphabetical order, and you only get FM quality sound (not the full range of the music). I needed something more, and the VR3 stereo at Walmart seemed alot nicer than the modulator. The stereo with built in USB port would fast forward through MP3s, let you browse by folder and other options.

I stopped by Best Buy one afternoon to see if they had anything comprable to the novel idea of having a USB port on the stereo - and they did! They had a couple of generic stereos with USB ports that looked/sounded better than the VR3, and 2 JVC models. One thing I didn't care for on the VR3 was the display, it would only dislpay about 8 characters at a time, then the next 8, then the next. It didn't smoothly scroll the text, not to mention that it was using the alphanumeric segmented display.

After seeing the dotmatrix LCD, I realized the JVC KD-G820 was the one for me. It has a beautiful display, smooth scrolling, MP3/WMA playback, sounds 100x better, more sound control, front USB port, rotary dial, ability to connect to either XM or Sirius satellite radio or hook up an iPod interface.

I purchased the stereo, and installed it last night. (I soldered all the connections, used heatshrink to seal the connections and tiewrapped the cables into a neat bundle - very OCD, but it looks nice) It works/sounds/looks great. If you want to check one out yourself, load up your USB thumbdrive with some MP3s, head to Best Buy and pop it in, you'll be impressed.

update: As it turns out, as pleased as I was with the G820, I found that JVC makes an all-black model of the same stereo, with a couple of added features, under its Arsenal line. It's the JVC KD-AR870. I happened to find one on ebay for about $100 less than the one at Best Buy. Best Buy has a 30-day money back guarantee, so I was able to return the G820.

The guy selling the AR870 on ebay is located in Sugarland, TX. It just so happens that we were coming to Houston anyways, so he overnight shipped it across Houston at no additional fee, and I received the package today (the very next day). Since the connection and chassis are the same on both stereos, it was a snap to pop in the new stereo. I packaged the G820 up, good as new, and returned it to Best Buy for a full refund. Sweet! Now I have an awesome black stereo that blends in a bit better with my dash, and has auxilary inputs too. (bonus!)

For about the past month or so I've been eyeballing PSK31 for ham radio. It's one of the newest protocols for digital transmissions for ham radio. PSK31 allows radio operators to send text messages back and forth rather than morse code (CW) or speech (phone). It's like chatting without a network connection.

Granted, many of the regular readers on neodux aren't ham operators, but it is a very interesting aspect of radio that begins to border line on hackable projects. In the event you ever wanted to start with PSK31, here's a primer. There are plenty of freeware programs to allow you to decode PSK31. All you need is an HF receiver, a verymodest computer and an 1/8"-to-1/8" stereo cable to hook the radio up to the computer. Install one of the PSK31 programs and you'll see text streaming in from current hams conversing over a whole array of topics. It's amazing that the computer is able to pull intelligable data from amid a whole field of static. I was able to read text from a signal I could barely hear, but could only see on the "waterfall" display. Another cool aspect is the lower power requirements of PSK31. 100W is overkill to work the world! To transmit you might need a slightly more advanced setup than a single wire, but nothing you can't build cheaply or conveniently purchase from plenty of vendors online.
While at the Belton Hamfest, I saw a DB9 model for Yaesu radios, I would've bought it if it would've worked for my Icom 706mkIIg.

update: I've now ordered a USB interface directly from Saratoga Amateur Radio which should be in shortly, and I'll post more on it after I've had time to break it in.

Also for the curious, here are a couple more links about PSK31.

If you really want to know, here is the PSK31 author's primer on how it works.

Well, I'm a late bloomer I guess. About two weeks ago I finally tuned into Last.FM, one of those "if you like _____ band, check out ______" type of sites. They recommend (and stream) music from other musicians based on your preferences. Sounds familiar?

About the time I was really digging LastFM, one of my friends told me about Pandora, another site with a much simpler interface and no need to install any "player" or anything. I've since been using Pandora exclusively. I've found several new songs on Pandora that I otherwise wouldn't hear while living in the Piney Woods. A few of you I know have satellite radio, another excellent source for new music. However, Pandora and LastFM allow you to rate a song good/bad/hate it and will fine tune your selections based on musical criteria put forth by the Music Genome Project. (Besides, it's free to use these online services!)

rant: I might continue to use Pandora more if I weren't being slapped with a monthly 3Gb transfer limit by the LeTourneau IT Department. (All students will be given 3Gb of free transfer, $100/semester if you want 10Gb/mon... and the prices go up from there.)

I just got back from a weekend in Austin that started with the Belton Hamfest in Belton,TX.
I took a few items that I wanted to sell. My AT-100Pro autotuner wasn't exactly what I wanted. The interface was a bit more "clunky" that I would have liked. (I received it as part of my trade for the Icom 706mkIIg.) I also sold the Yaesu FRG-100 receiver, as well as my Yaesu FT-2800 2m mobile that I had in my car, (I bought it almost 2yrs ago at the same hamfest for $95, I sold it for $120!) and a couple of other things.

After selling I went shopping. I bought the LDG Z-100 autotuner which does the same thing as the other tuner, with one antenna and is a bit smaller; and it looks nice atop my radio. I also got the seperation kit for the 706 so I can mount the radio under my seat and have just the control head in view. On my way out I grabbed a few small 2-3W solar panels for $5. The convention center wasn't as full as I'd seen in the past, there were some neat items, but nothing remarkable. I did leave with some good gear and more money in my pocket than I came in with.

Yep, it's my birthday. The big 2-6. Odd how I didn't feel any different about my birthday this year, or the last, or the last. I think after you turn 21, they all blur together.

Birthday presents? Well, I got a new computer (a "slammin' setup" according to Jenn) and some money so far. I'm going out to eat with Jennifer and some friends, where Jenn says she has a few more gifts for me.

update: I had a pretty nice birthday. Thanks to everyone that was able to make it to the dinner party. AW won ropepull, that was pretty nice. It took 59min 55sec to win - but it's another win for the house. We went to Pietro's Italian cafe to have dinner. I got some Dale Jr. gag gifts ("yeah buddy!"), a Dave Matthews Band - Live at Central Park DVD , Google Hacks & The Zen of CSS Design books, some Tommy cologne (ha! get it? it's funny.) exchanged for Lacoste Essential cologne, my niece got me a foam growing turtle and a message bean (rock on), a portable USB hub and USB light & some clothes from Old Navy.