Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson who notes that there currently a Squires Sanders SS-1R on eBay. He notes:
Ultra rare amateur receiver. The only thing rarer is a SS-IBS, the SW bands version.
This is certainly a “fixer upper” in that it will need a re-stringing and likely at least a recapping. The chassis is super clean, though, and the internals look great.
Mintbox Mini
Even though I do most of my blogging from a MacBook Air and use a Windows 10 PC in the shack for SDR work, I’m a huge fan of Linux.
Over the past decade, I’ve used a number of Linux distributions including Puppy Linux, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and Raspian.
The past few years, I’ve been doing most of my Linux work with a Raspberry Pi running Raspian. I probably own ten or more Raspberry Pi models; some have one dedicated task (like the Raspberry Pirate, my ADS-B feeder, or one that feeds LiveATC) while others, like the Pi4 4GB models, are serving as primary personal computers for my daughters. I’ve been trying to up my command line game so I can continue teaching it to my daughters–the Pi has been perfect for this.
While I love the Raspberry Pi, I would like a dedicated device in the shack that sports more horsepower and a better integrated sound card. I also want something compact.
In the past, I have, of course, resurrected old PCs by installing Linux and I’ve even turned my primary shack PC into a Windows/Linux dual boot system. I’m not the biggest fan of dual boot, though, because I have run into problems when I needed to do a full re-install of Windows and/or Linux–all of that partition management gets tricky for me. I’ve even found a few PCs (guessing it’s the BIOS) that reject the dual boot loading system.
I simply don’t have the desktop real estate for another revived desktop or tower PC.
I like the idea of a Mini PC dedicated to Linux but there are a dizzying array of devices on the market ranging in price from $100-$700. I don’t need a lot of horsepower, just enough to run SDR apps, potentially playback spectrum recordings, stream videos, and occasionally manipulate graphics and images. The Pi can do many of these tasks to an extent, but it’s not always terribly stable.
I’ve been tempted by this mini PC because the reviews seem positive (although I don’t always trust Amazon reviews) and the price is right at $129.
The Lenovo ThinkCentre M90n IoT
I’ve also read positive comments from folks who’ve loaded Ubuntu on a base version of the Lenovo ThinkCentre M90n IoT.
Of course, I know I can also buy Mini PCs that have Linux pre-loaded and part of the proceeds support development of the distro like the Mintbox Mini pictured at the top of this page. I do like the idea of my purchase directly supporting the distro.
I also like the Intel NUC, but once configured it can be a bit pricey for my purposes. I don’t want to exceed $300.
If you have any advice, I’m all ears! I’m especially interested in any first-hand experience with a Mini PC model running Linux. Please feel free to comment with your suggestions and links.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mario Filippi (N2HUN), who writes:
Not sure if you are familiar with this site, run by Tony, WB2JKJ, a NYC school teacher and a great guy:
https://www.hamradiomanuals.com/
I’ve dealt with him in the past with excellent satisfaction. I know that many manuals can be found free on-line, but if that isn’t the case, Tony may have it.
He’s also involved with teaching city school kids about amateur radio and welcomes donations of ham radio gear. I’ve donated items to his cause and felt good about it: http://www.wb2jkj.org/
He always follows up with a nice thank you letter from the school.
Thank you so much for sharing this recommendation, Mario!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Don, who notes that W2ENY has developed a full suite of products for the Mission RGO ONE (click here to read our review of the RGO One).
Don notes that W2ENY is producing a military handset, desk mic, headset with boom mic, and PTT cable.
Click here to check out these products at W2ENY.com.
Thanks for the tip, Don!
(Source: Terry Colgan via FB)
LADIES OF TEXAS MUSIC TRIBUTE ON WRMI TONIGHT
Cap’n Ric is pleased to announce the artists featured in the upcoming Ladies of Texas Music
Tribute:
Jeanie C. Riley
Jamie Lin Wilson
Sunny Sweeney
Lisa Loeb
Norah Jones
Lydia Mendoza
Marcia Ball
Lucinda Williams
St. Vincent
Barbara Lynn
“Sippie” Wallace
“Big Mama” Thornton
Bessie Tucker
Janis Joplin
Lacey Sturm.
Cap’n wagers you haven’t heard of many of these female artists, and also wagers that you’ll enjoy their music.
The tribute program will air several times:
March 7 – 0200 UTC 5950 kHz via WRMI
March 20 – 0900 UTC 6070 kHz and 1800 UTC 3955 kHz via Channel 292 in Germany
March 28 – 0200 UTC 6160 kHz via WBCQ.
Third Mate Susan designed a special limited edition eQSL to be sent to listeners who submit correct reception reports to [email protected].
Sometimes we radio enthusiasts discover odd things on the air.
We’re listeners and we notice things.
A few days ago our friendy, Matt Blaze, tweeted this:
Yep, for eight years a DDOT TIS (Traffic Information System) transmitter has been broadcasting the same repeating message and few have noticed.
You can read Matt’s whole Twitter chain here.
Matt has also kindly shared an audio recording of this transmitter. He notes that the reception “was weak but readable” from his home:
What’s more, Matt’s tweet was picked up by The Drive and turned into a post, thus exposing our radio geekery to the populos at large. Many thanks to the numerous SWLing Post readers who shared a link to the article.
I have to assume someone from the DDOT was paying attention too because Matt posted that as of March 3rd, it appears the transmitter has been taken off the air:
This reminded me of another transmitter stuck in time that I thought David Goren once mentioned. I checked with him and he confirmed:
Yes, there’s a transmitter somewhere on MW in NYC that has been broadcasting: “this is a functional test of the text-to-speech capability of the [VR or BR 2000] software package”. They’ve probably been on at least 10 years.
Many thanks to David for sharing the following recording:
Have you ever heard a forgotten transmitter? Please comment with details!
