I enjoy ham radio media.  There are many times when work, family, or home obligations have me away from my equipment, but my brain and ears are still free.  For me, ham radio podcasts are THE thing that I use to pass this time, whether that's during dishes, lawn mowing, flights, or boring meetings (wait - scratch that last one, my boss might read this.)  I do enjoy a couple of YouTube channels when I can sneak them in  (OH8STN and Ham Radio 2.0 to name a couple) but video is unfortunately more of a commitment than I usually have time for.

     With that in mind, there are a a whole bunch of podcasts that I listen to, and at one time I had considered doing some "reviews" of them, but in reality, giving reviews of stuff just isn't my bag.  For ham radio media, I think reviews are somewhat misplaced anyway, because there is a critical feature of podcasts that I think is awesome:

     Since we can play podcasts whenever we want, we don't need this weird "competition" thing going on.  If the shows were only available live, you might be forced to choose one over the other, but since you can listen whenever you want, I don't feel the need to worry about who is "better" than the next person.  I can just kick back, enjoy, and learn something from whomever I am listen too!

     I think that this is most evident in the fact that many of these folks will do appearances on each other's shows, recommend specific episodes that each other have done if it relates to the topic at hand, etc.  For me, ham radio is about community, and most of these folks have that nailed down, right into the content the provide!

     Having said all that, and in the spirit of non-review, I just want to share the podcasts that I listen to, and encourage you to check them out.  I am providing links to websites for those that have one, but to listen to the actual podcasts, just search for them by name in your favorite podcast player (Here's a couple articles on podcast players for reference:  iOS apps here, and Android apps here.)

    So, to all of you who do all the work making these shows, THANK YOU!  I appreciate all of you and the content you provide!  In no particular order, here's whats in my podcast player:

ICQ Podcast
Ham Radio 360
100 Watts and A Wire
Ham Radio 360 Workbench
Everything Ham Radio
Field Radio Podcast
​QSO today
Ham Talk Live
ARRL The Doctor is In
Amateur Radio Newsline
DitDit.fm
SolderSmoke
Linux in the Ham Shack
The Phasing Line Podcast
Foundations of Amateur Radio
​ARRL Audio News

     As a final thought - yes, even though this is a lot of shows - I regularly find myself opening up my podcast player and realizing that I've listened to everything that is new, and wishing there were more!

     I love ham radio, and a big reason is because of the random connections you can make!  I recently ended up having a great chat with KA5FDX via PSK31.  For non-hams who may be reading this, KA5FDX is actually a person named James.  PSK31 is a mode where you hook your computer or mobile device to your ham radio, and it allows you to do what looks very similar to instant messaging, but without the internet, cell network, or wires between the people talking.

     Of all the random things that two people can end up chatting about, James and I ended up discussing the most obvious one - relativity!

Specifically, we ended up talking about the speed of light, and how far into space you would need to travel to be able to look back at earth through a high-powered telescope and witness specific historical events as the light from the planet eventually reaches the far corners of the galaxy.

     I'm no physicist, so this isn't going to be a lesson in that, but it did make me consider something that should...

     Let me take a step back, and slowly ease you into this, so that I don't blow your mind all at once :-)

     Take a moment to consider an every-day conversation.  You and I sit in a room and talk to each other.  Since sound travels 343 meters/second (there are a lot of variables to that, but we'll stick with it for simplicity), when we talk it takes .002 seconds for the sound to get back and forth between us (sitting a meter apart.)  That's so fast it's pretty much instant.  What if we were on opposite sides of the country?  That's 4,313,042 meters, so if we could shout loud enough it would take 3 1/2 hours for the message to travel that far!  That's actually rather slow when you think about it, considering that we have built planes that are capable of covering that same distance in just over 30 minutes (The X-15 traveling at Mach 6.7)

     What if I want to shout at someone in Australia?  At 16,767,755 meters, that is pretty much as far from me as someone can be, and still be on land.  In this case, if I could shout loud enough, it would take my voice nearly 14 hours to make the trip!

     Now, this is where the part comes in that many of us take for granted, but should BLOW YOUR MIND!

     I have, in my possession, a device that takes my slow-moving voice, translates it into a form of energy that travels at nearly the speed of light, and can re-translate the same coming back at me in the other direction, allowing me to have instant communication over that same distance, through nothing but the empty space between me and the person in Australia! 
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     "Wow!" you say, "this device must be huge!"
     
     To which I respond, "Nope, it sits on the corner of my desk."  
    
     "Well, it must consume some crazy amount of power to propel things at the speed of light."

     "Not at all.  In fact, it probably uses less power than some of the lamps you have in your house."

     "Certainly then, this device you talk about must be pretty expensive, and complex!"

     "Not all all!  You can build one yourself for about $60!"

That my friends, is the pure magic of ham radio.  Mind Blown.


P.S.  
​I did a bunch of my sound-distance math with this fun calculator.  Also, don't forget to check out part 10 of my on-going build project to give your input.  Finally, make sure you subscribe so that you can get updates right in your e-mail!
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While I was out of town on a business trip, the yellow DHL envelope showed up at my house!  I was checking in on the tracking info, and the day it arrived I was in Boca Raton for work.  I wanted to check to make sure that it actually made it to my house, and not one of my neighbors, so I checked in with my YL:

With the main piece of equipment in hand, I can start figuring out how to put things together (maybe the DHL guy wants to help!)  If you need to know what things I'm talking about, feel free to start all the way back at part 1 or stick around for the quick version of "here's what you missed."

For the quick refresher, here's whats up; I ended up with a neat box.  The readers of my blog decided that I should build a portable HF station around the Bitx40, and also squeeze in a Raspberry Pi computer just for good measure.  

So now it's time to start trying to figure out how to stick this stuff in the box!  Rather than just do this in a void, I'll be working a little bit at a time, and getting input as I go!  The rest of this post will be a combination of my thoughts and a survey form, so as you read along, you can click to share your thoughts and vote - just remember to hit submit at the end!  If you only answer some of the questions (or none) that's fine too - just enjoy reading about my thought process!

Stay tuned for results, and the next steps in the project!

Thanks to all those that have been playing along so far!  It has been fun seeing where this project goes, and it should continue to be interesting as we keep moving forward!

     It dawned on me that it has been quite a while since I've done any digital modes work from home.  I think the last time I did, I was still using my GutterTenna as my primary home antenna.  That simply had to change!

     Tonight I dug my SignaLink out of the pile, brought it up to my temporary shack in the master bedroom closet, hooked every thing up, set the levels, and made a contact.  Awesome!

     This might seem like a small victory, but usually by the time I can get on the radio at night, there is a sleeping baby on the other side of the wall.  This eliminates any mode that makes noise after about 23:00 UTC.  I've been slowly working on my CW, but even that is challenging at night.  The side tones and static are enough to stir him, but if I wear headphones so I don't disturb him, I also can't hear him if he needs me.

    Time for a new slogan - "Digital Modes: letting babies sleep and parents play radio all night long!"

First, I'd like to thank everyone that has given their input so far on this project!  For anyone who is just now joining the party, you can go back to part 1 if you want the full scoop on what has been going on here, OR you can just continue reading, because I'm doing 2 things in this post - sharing the results of the vote from the post just prior to this one, and then summarizing where we've been, and where we're going next.  As a reminder, this project will always be Crowd-Sourced, but never Crowd-Funded.  I don't want your money, just your ideas!

Last time, all of you helped me choose which small form factor computer I should use for this project.  The vote was between the Raspberry Pi, the BeagleBone, the Kangaroo+, or an Android Tablet.  I asked everyone voting to pick their first and second choice, and I awarded 2 points for each 1st choice, and 1 point for each second choice.  The winner ran away with the vote, and with the popularity of a certain fruit flavored computer (they wouldn't call it that if it tasted any different right?) I guess I shouldn't be surprised:

Those of you who have been reading along are probably asking whats next, and those who just got here are asking, what happened before this?  I think that the best way to answer both of these questions is to recap what we've done so far, so here's the Readers Digest version of things up to this point:

One of the pieces of equipment that my work revolves around is built into a small black box.  We had one that was being scrapped, so after the guts were removed, I was left with a nifty little box, complete with a LiFePO4 battery and charger.  

I decided to get input from everyone who reads or comes across my blog on what would make a good project.  The basic guidelines where that the project needed to be radio related, it needed to all fit in the box, and it needed to use the battery that was already there as it's power source.  

The first step we took was to collect ideas for what to build.  After collecting those ideas, it was put to a vote, and the decision was made to build an HF/QRP Go-Kit.  With the decision made for the type of project, it was time to start nailing down some of the details.

The first details we decided on were what type of radio should be used (SDR or Non-SDR), and whether it should be a kit radio, scratch built, or something off the shelf.  Those decisions bubbled up a couple of interesting things but ultimately led us to choosing the Bitx40 as the radio to use in this project.  Along the way we also came to the conclusion that if a small computer would fit in the box, we should build one in.  Since the Bitx40 is sufficiently small, there was plenty of room, so I put the computer question up to a vote, which got us to where we are today.

The hardware is picked, and most of it is now in hand.  At this point my plan is to lay out everything in the box to see how it all starts to fit together.  I'll share some pictures of how things fit and how they might be arranged in the box. At that point I'll look for input and ideas on the layout before I start making holes and mounting things.  

Hope to hear from you when that time comes!