Thanks to everyone who came out today! We had another great turnout. I hope everyone learned something and had a chance to participate in the practice portion. I learned from several knowledgable people, so I appreciate everyone who also jumped in to help.
There were several questions that came up about various topics:
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The company that makes the good tourniquets I showed is North American Rescue: https://www.narescue.com/
(You can also find this brand in many gun stores in town, or online, or on places like Amazon) -
The questionable tourniquets we were using to practice with are from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tourniquets-Tourniquet-Hemorrhage-Single-Handed-Hemostatic/dp/B0834BGFP9/
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The solar oven I was playing with at the end is sold out now, but it is here: https://www.hainessolarcookers.com/purchase/
They had free shipping and I think it was $85 or $90 for the 'kit' with the pot when I bought it two weeks ago. Looks like demand is high...
- The VHF / UHF antenna I had is the DBJ-1 made by Ed Fong: https://edsantennas.weebly.com/
You buy it off ebay, and make sure to specify that you want it made for the Ham bands with UHF-type connectors in the comment to the seller: https://www.ebay.com/itm/DBJ-1-Dual-Band-VHF-UHF-2-meter-70cm-ham-base-antenna-/113516146770
5 feet of this pipe from Lowe's completes the antenna: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Charlotte-Pipe-3-4-in-dia-x-10-ft-L-200-PSI-SDR-21-PVC-Pipe/3133103
Then you also need a cable and SMA adapter if you want to use it with your UV-5R: https://www.gigaparts.com/jetstream-jt4110j3.html
And another SMA part like this one: https://www.gigaparts.com/sma-female-to-female-adapter.html
And probably a UHF cable: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07WG7G1YG/
You may not need all those parts, or might want slightly different ones, depending on what you're trying to do. For a different handheld radio you may need a different adapter.
[I'm reposting this to the top because we have a number of people who still need to get their ham license!]
For anyone near Tucson who hasn't already gotten your Ham license or is interested in upgrading what you already have, here is some info based on my experience of getting my Technician and General licenses recently:
- Free testing is available monthly in Tucson. Next event is March 8th @ 7PM . https://k7rst.org/testing.html
-- There is no preregistering. You just show up, but I highly recommend being there a half hour early to get in line. I was there 15 minutes early and waited a little more than an hour before it was my turn to take the test, and then there's more waiting in between exams if you take more than one.
- There is also an online testing option available now. It generally costs ~$15 and you need fairly decent internet, a computer with a webcam, and a phone with a camera. (Thanks to @freebirdie for sending me the info on this).
-- Look here to find a session that's open: ...
I've been meaning to document this for quite awhile but things kept getting in the way. I've been writing this slowly over the past several weeks now, and am finally ready to post it!
I've created a simple automated planter for low-effort food gardening that seems to work pretty well for a a decent number of different plants. This was originally inspired by Larry Hall's "Rain Gutter Grow System", and then I fused it with the general concept of bottom-watered reservoir planters, which you can find everywhere.
Larry Hall's video should show up at the end of this post:
One implementation of a standard, non-automatic, bottom-watered reservoir planter:
https://www.amazon.com/GroBucket-Watering-sub-irrigated-Container-portable/dp/B079CT29RZ/
My goals were to keep costs relatively low, minimize water usage, and minimize the weekly time I need to put in to maintain the garden. I don't mind spending a bit more time to get something set up if that means I don't have to remember to do another ...
I've recently upgraded my VHF transceiver capability, and it has made a huge difference. We ask everyone to have a radio of some sort, and the cheapest Ham radio that works is the Baofeng UV-5R. I don't want to ask people to spend a ton of money, but from my own experience I do think upgrading is worth the extra expense. The receive electronics on the UV-5R are low-quality so they don't seem to work well with external antennas. A lot (or all) of the advantage you'd get from putting an external antenna up on your roof is lost when you plug it into the UV-5R.
The tranceiver I bought is the Yaesu FT-2980R:
https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-015771
Unfortunately they just raised the price by $20, but it's still only $150 (or closer to $170 with shipping and tax). Note that it's a VHF only radio and is very simple compared to the more expensive models, but it is a beast of a machine that can dump 80W of power if needed.
This radio works well with every external antenna I've tried, and it's well suited to ...
