Why arenβt electronic badges more of a thing in #hamradio?
I attended DEF CON 32 a week or so ago, and like many βhackerβ conferences, attendees got an electronic badge. This yearβs 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 βvillagesβ or special interest groups, such as the Aerospace Village created their own badges.
At DEF CON, I attended a talk by a fellow whoβs created an open-source designβboth hardware and softwareβupon 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 arenβt more popular at amateur radio events? Is it because hams are just too cheap to buy something like this? Or, maybe, itβs because hams are just not as βcreativeβ as hackers.
At any rate, Iβm thinking about coming up with some kind of electronic badge for the 2025 Dayton Hamvention. If any of you have ideas for the badgeβor would perhaps be interested in working on the badge hardware or softwareβlet me know. If we are going to do a badge, it would probably be a good idea to get started on it now.