Almost anybody can grab a USB TV tuner card and start monitoring the airwaves. To be able to do radio transmissions legally you’ll need your amateur radio license and suitable equipment. There is wide variety of equipment you can buy and build. On new interesting new radio kit is HamShield I saw mentoned at HamShield Puts Your Arduino On The Radio article. HamShield is an Arduino shield that lets your Arduino talk to far away people and things using VHF and UHF amateur radio bands (Coverage: 136-170MHz, 200-260MHz, 400-520MHz). This shield has built-in 250 mW amplifier. The HamShield supports both voice and packet radio modes. The HamShield is powered by the Auctus 1846S radio transceiver IC (chip used on for example walkie-talkie radios). You can find HAMShield Specifications agt GitHub. The project’s sandbox already includes things like setting up mesh networks, communicating over APRS, setting up repeaters or beacons, monitoring weather stations, and a whole host of other ham radio applications.
The developers are raising money now at Kickstarter.
2 Comments
Heavy equipment for Sale says:
First of all I want to say great blog! I had a quuick question that
I’d like to ask if you don’t mind. I was interested to know how you center yourself and
clear your mind before writing. I have had a hazrd time clearing my mind in getting my ideas out.
I do take pleashre in writing but it just seems like the first 10 to 15 minutes tend to
be lost just trying to figure out how to begin. Any suggestions
or tips? Appreciate it!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Usually you just have to accept that those “10 to 15 minutes tend to be lost just trying” are not actually lost.
They are the needed time to get your brain to the right mode.
This applies to the writing, this applies to coding etc…
This is just how it is. Just sometimes you are accidentally in the right mood in the beginning and can start doing things pretty immediately (for example you had just got a good idea that you just had thought about that 10-15 minutes or more before you go to the writing place…)