Lack of tools

Moved in to the new house mid-dec last year. My shack is somehow still in a mess. Most things is already out of the boxes. My workbench is rather still not sufficient to accommodate most of the things I need to use.

The radio is still in the box. Antenna not installed. CNC not assembled. In order to re-assemble my CNC, I need a rigid and heavy duty table to support the weight of almost 120kg or maybe more.. With a rigid and heavy table, I may be able to reduce the noise generated by the CNC and also possible to run it at a much faster speed.

In order to have this, I may have to acquire the most important tools... a welding machine. Contacted one of my friend to sells these machines and he suggested me to get a used unit since it's only for my home use... Hmmmm... perhaps a used unit capable of argon welding maybe....

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year 2010

Dear All,

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2010.
All the best and drive safely if you are traveling. Have a safe journey and happy holiday!!!! ho ho ho ho ho......

till then,

73

de 9w2dtr

P/S.. sorry for not updating my blog for sometime already.. I was busy with some personal matters and house renovation & moving... after all the hassle, I may be able to bring in some interesting update later...

Published: Thursday September 10, 2009 MYT 4:00:00 PM
Updated: Thursday September 10, 2009 MYT 4:42:39 PM

Amateur ham radio users to contact orbiting space station

KUALA LUMPUR: Fancy chatting with someone in the International Space Station orbiting the earth? You may get a chance to if you’re among the participants at this year’s HITBSecConf — an annual international network-security conference.

The special session will see the Malaysian Amateur Radio Emergency Service Society (Mares) — a non-profit, non-government organisation — attempt to establish a live communications feed with the station during the conference.

Normally, Mares members provide communications service in times of disasters or when normal communications channels are either down or congested.

The session is one of the highlights of HITBSecConf 2009, which is scheduled for Oct 5-8 at The Crowne Plaza Mutiara hotel here.

Also while the conference focuses on network security, its lock-picking workshop is popular among the participants.

This year’s workshop will be run by members from Toool — The Open Organisation of Lockpickers — and will provide attendees with the opportunity to try their hand at picking locks.

They’ll also get a chance to crack safes while some of the locks that’ll be worked on will be provided by the public.

Dhillon Andrew Kannabhiran, founder and CEO of Hack In The Box (M) Sdn Bhd which organises the HITBSecConf series, said the objective of the event is to teach people how to better protect their property — both in the real world and in cyberspace.

In the case of lockpicking, he said, “Many people are unaware of how easy it is to compromise locks and other physical security mechanisms.”

He said the lock-picking workshop would educate participants in a fun and interesting manner. “Attendees are encouraged to bring their own locks from home,” he added.

For more information on HITBSecConf 2009, go to http://tinyurl.com/mosxve.

The conference has been held in Malaysia since 2003. It is endorsed by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, the Malaysian International Chamber of Commerce and industry, the Malaysian National Computer Confederation, and the Malaysian Multimedia Development Corporation.

PIC-RF Pcb

After learning how to use the EAGLE Pcb & Schematic Capture software from 9W2BSR, this is what I manage to come our with. Although I've been using Protel / Altium before, I feel that EAGLE is much easier and friendlier compared to PROTEL /ALTIUM.

As mentioned by 9W2BSR, the board below is designed to fit in a plastic box for our PIC-RF project.

UHF RF Module

Finally, the 2 weeks wait is over. I received the UHF RF Transceiver module. We purchased 10 sets of it and will be using it for some experiment.

We have yet to decide what to experiment but this module is very interesting. It has the SPI interface and can be coupled with SPI capable micro controllers such as PICxxxxx. For now, will have to start thinking again...