I attended DEF CON 32 a week or so ago, and like many “hacker” conferences, attendees got an electronic badge. This year’s badge was built around the new Raspberry PI microcontroller, the RP2350. It actually works like a GameBoy, and you can add games like you would a GameBoy. Here are a couple of videos that talk about the DEF CON 32 electronic badge:
Some of the “villages” or special interest groups, such as the Aerospace Village created their own badges.
At DEF CON, I attended a talk by a fellow who’s created an open-source design—both hardware and software—upon which you can build a badge for your event. He calls his badge OpenTaxus, and you can find the documentation here.
Since these things are so popular at hacker conferences, I wonder why they aren’t more popular at amateur radio events? Is it because hams are just too cheap to buy something like this? Or, maybe, it’s because hams are just not as “creative” as hackers.
At any rate, I’m thinking about coming up with some kind of electronic badge for the 2025 Dayton Hamvention. If any of you have ideas for the badge—or would perhaps be interested in working on the badge hardware or software—let me know. If we are going to do a badge, it would probably be a good idea to get started on it now.
The annual Flight of the Bumblebees will be held on Sunday, July 28, 2024.
The event will be in a four hour daytime window, from 1700 to 2100 UTC.
This casual QRP CW event consists of 'Bumblebees' who are operating portable stations at outdoor locations, and 'Home Stations' who try to work as many of these 'Bumblebees' as possible.
This event is open to all operators. Anywhere. Being at the top of the sunspot cycle, this year's event has the potential to be very interesting.
Operators who want to go out and setup a portable station at some outdoor location, and be a highly sought after 'Bumblebee', need to obtain a "Bumblebee Number".
The window for obtaining your 2024 'Bumblebee Number' is now Open.
The VE Session at the W2QW Raritan Valley Radio Club Hamfest was a mixed bag. We ended up with 8 candidates. One gentleman was an Amateur Extra who let his license lapse. He successfully passed the Element 2 Technician exam and will get his Extra privileges reinstated.
Two other General Class Hams upgraded to Amateur Extra in advance of that question pool changing at Midnight tonight, and we gained one new Technician. Unfortunately, four candidates walked away empty handed.
A bit of a rant. I send each candidate who contacts me in advance with an e-mail that contains EVERYTHING they need to know about the exam session - date, time, location, and all they need to bring with them. I also include links to the proper places to get an FRN and where they can fill out a 605 form.
Everyone showed up at 8:30 and we started exams promptly at 9:00 AM. A little after 9:30, a candidate showed up to whom I had sent that e-mail several months ago. He had no FRN, no Form 605 and was totally unprepared. Normally, I would have tried to accomodate, but helping him get started from scratch would have been disruptive to the rest of the group. I asked him to come to our next regular session.
I just don't understand how someone can come so late and so unprepared when such pains are taken to make sure they have as smooth and problem free an experience as possible. If only he had followed instructions!!! Argh! I hate it when stuff like that happens.
After the exam session ended, I had intended to walk the flea market, but there were other chores to accomplish. I really didn't need anything, but it would have been nice to hook up with friends. Maybe at the Sussex Hamfest in about two weeks.
I will be conducting a VE Session at the W2QW Raritan Valley Radio Club Hamfest at the Piscataway High School parking lot at 9:00 AM.
But for the rest of you:
Contests:
None this weekend. Hmmmmm .... I guess everyone is still in "Recovery Mode" from Field Day.
Special Events:
06/29/2024 | 83d Annual National Speleological Society (NSS) Convention
Jun 29-Jul 6, 1700Z-2200Z, N4V, Sewanee, TN. National Speleological Society K7NSS. 7.050 7.195 14.050 14.285. QSL. Sam Rowe KG9NG, 2749 Commercial Ave, Madison, WI 53704. N4V@NSSCES.ORG
06/30/2024 | Granite Mountain Hotshots Memorial Special Event Station
Jun 30-Jul 1, 1500Z-0300Z, N7GMH, Prescott, AZ. Yavapai Amateur Radio Club. 14.319 ±QRM 7.219 ±QRM 21.319 ± QRM 18.119 ±QRM. Certificate. Mike Belanger, W1DGL, 219 W Leroux St, Apt. 202, Prescott, AZ 86303. This event is open to the public. More details, including QSL information is at http://www.qrz,com.db/n7gmhhttps://www.w7yrc.org/granite-mountain-hotshots
I have an ETS of NJ Club meeting tonight, where I will return to Dave W2OIL his HB-1B transceiver and accessories. I hope the meeting doesn't go long as I have to be up at 4:00 AM on Saturday. In addition to conducting the VE Session, I also help the RVRC by directing vendors to their parking spots. They're supposed to arrive at 6:00 AM, but many start coming as soon as 5:00 AM.
I'm hoping that after the VE Session, I can walk the Hamfest. I really don't need too much of anything, but could always use some power connectors (3.5mm and 2.5mm - NOT Powerpoles - I don't like them) and the like. But, you never know what may hit your eye. Maybe a new HT antenna or a unique project box or something like that.
I'm also hoping Sunday will be "don't do too much of anything" kind of day. The forecast for Sunday is scattered thunderstorms throughout the day, so there might not be much radio for W2LJ.
Here’s something to help alleviate your post-partum ham radio convention funk.
The YouTuber’s Hamfest features a whole bunch of the biggest YouTubers in Ham Radio with some of your favorite names in amateur radio, LIVE!
And you don’t even have to drive halfway across the country to see it – it’s all hosted on YouTube for you, for free.
The YouTuber’s HamFest starts May 23 at 8am Eastern time. It starts off with an introduction and instructions on following the action with Jason from Ham Radio 2.0, right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiylTCUA33c
He will finish his stream with Flexradio, AREDN, and Ham Radio Deluxe and pass it off to K5ATA’s YouTube channel to talk with Becky Schoenfeld W1BXY and Kris Bickell K1BIC from the ARRL. Then he’ll hand it off to me, and so on and so forth.
If you start late, or you get lost (it’s kinda like the real thing, isn’t it?) no big deal. Just catch the YTHF schedule here: http://youtubershamfest.com/
The playlist and links in the schedule will work even after the YouTuber’s HamFest is over. All presentations are recorded and will stay up indefinitely for your later viewing pleasure.
You don’t need a YouTube account (which is the same as a Google account) to view, but you will need one if you want to participate in the real-time chat to interact and ask questions with vendors and representatives from Icom, FlexRadio, Packtenna, Bioenno, ARRL, MFJ, and much, much more.
And to, of course, Like, Comment, Subscribe, and hit the bell on everyone’s YouTube channel!
I’ll be bringing you news from Youth on the Air with Neil Rapp, WB9VPG, talk about a new Youth initiative from Remote Ham Radio, and chat with Dustin N8RMA who runs the State of the Hobby ham radio survey.
See you Saturday, bright and early at the YouTuber’s HamFest!
Login
