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BarcampCHS: Spread the word!

The 4th annual BarcampCHS is getting closer! Spread the word, invite your friends and family and come out to learn new things and share the things that you know!

You don’t have to be a great speaker, a professional or an expert in the field. You just need to be willing to share what you know with others or be interested in learning something new. Whether you’re just providing some tips and tricks about something you do a lot of, talking about more advanced topics or just want to present on something because it will force you to learn about it, it will be welcomed at BarcampCHS.

LEARN ALL THE THINGS!

These are the sessions I have lined up to present on

  • HamCamp: a Barcamp within a Barcamp where I hope to get other ham radio operators to share what they know with others. If this turns out well, there’s even the possibility of spinning it off into its own event!
  • How to become a ham radio operator: A bit about the ham radio licensing process, resources, how I got mine, and then what to do with it afterwards.
  • History of Computers Museum: This is less a session and more just a place for people to lay out some of their vintage hardware to show off and reminisce with fellow geeks.
  • CT Scanners: How do they work?: In which I leverage some of what I do for a living to educate others.

I can only claim to be mostly an expert in medical imaging, but I’m interested enough in ham radio to make me willing to share what little I know about it with others. I’m also looking forward to learning about things that others are willing to share.

Come on out to BarcampCHS and hang out, learn stuff and teach stuff!

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Accessorizing the radio

My radio has its first accessories: a speaker/mic (MH-74A7A) and the GPS module.

MH74A7A speaker mic

The first thing that struck me about both the speaker/mic and the GPS unit was how small they were. Quite a bit smaller than what I expected from a hand mic (something big and chunky). The MH-74A7A is the size of my palm and at first seems like it would be too small to hold or use comfortably. Turns out to be not so bad though, and the lighter weight (compared to holding the radio) will probably mean less fatigue when playing radio. I think the cord weighs more than the microphone itself. There’s a single PTT button on the side and that’s it, so using it is pretty simple.

Sound quality is pretty much the same as what I get out of the radio speaker, although perhaps not quite as loud. No complaints there. The nice thing is that I can clip it closer to my ear for easier listening, rather than walking around holding a radio up to my head. Stick the radio in the side pouch of my backpack, clip the speaker/mic to the shoulder strap and i can walk around listening to the weather radio or for any radio activity. Much easier than walking around holding the radio up to my ear or in front of me.

The GPS module is even smaller than the speaker/mic (about half the size) and plugs right into the top of the speaker/mic and secured by a screw. So far it seems to work pretty well and gives the radio GPS capabilities and makes the radio’s APRS feature useful. It’s small and light enough that it doesn’t make the speaker/mic top-heavy when it’s attached and secured into place.

Overall, the combination is nicer and much easier to use than I expected it would be at first glance. Used it a few times now to play radio and so far the most awkward part is getting tangled up in the cable. I think I’m going to enjoy using the speaker/mic with my radio.

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Back to MovableType?

MovableType 5.2 is almost out. From what I’ve seen on the MT and ProNet mailing lists, 5.2 is a pretty good release.

A while ago I moved the blog over to the OpenMelody, the OS fork of MT 4. With activity on the OpenMelody project slowing down and seemingly heading into dormancy, I’ve been giving some thought to moving back to MT. It will take some planning, but I think there shouldn’t be too many problems, except maybe for the archives. For some reason the archives always break.

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Thoughts on HamCamp

Just a few thoughts as I continue to ruminate on the idea.

The idea of the HamCamp is to start with a mini-camp within BarCampCHS. Sessions and presentations should be short (maybe 15-20 minutes) so that a few can be fit into each BarCampCHS block. They can be introductory for new hams/wannabes or cover more advanced topics

  • Good radio conduct
  • Antenna anatomy
  • Assembling a ham shack
  • Licensing/regulations
  • Radio bands
  • Digital radio modes
  • CW (Morse code)
  • Echolink/Winlink/IRLP
  • Contesting

There can be outdoor sessions and demonstrations which obviously won’t be constrained by BarCampCHS scheduling.

  • Radio demonstrations
  • Antenna building
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HamCamp

With BarCamp Charleston getting closer, the idea popped into my head about doing something similar with ham radio, a Charleston HamCamp.

Ham radio has a strong tradition of mentoring, or “Elmering” in ham-speak. Having an event like HamCamp seems like it would be a great way to foster more Elmer-like activities. It’s an idea that’s been kicking around in my head for all of a couple hours now, so not entirely fully formed yet.

It would follow the BarCamp concept, so people could come and provide talks, demonstrations, tutorials and share other ham radio related information and ideas. There will be some space to set up portable radios, something outdoor to show off things like antennas and get some radio activity going.

Maybe it can start off as a mini-camp at BarCamp Charleston…