Onion Pi

http://boingboing.net/2013/06/17/onion-pi-convert-a-raspberry.html

About this nifty "Onion Pi" HOWTO just published at Adafruit, Phil Torrone says, "Limor and I cooked up this project for folks. We are donating a portion of any sales for the pack we sell that helps do this to the EFF and Tor."

Interesting Article on CB in New York City

http://www.brain-on-fire.com/ufosoverbrooklyn/cbarticle/

Northeast Survivalist: CT Preparedness Group Meetup - 6/18/2013

Northeast Survivalist: CT Preparedness Group Meetup - 6/18/2013: CT Preparedness Group Meetup Tuesday, June 18, 2013  - 7-9PM Connecticut Hackerspace 30 Echo Lake Road Watertown, CT 06795 htt...

Starting Out

Many experimenters start out with a multi-tool of some sort. The multi-tool of choice these days is the Leatherman or Gerber Multi-Plier, although I know a lot of retro old-school types who still carry Swiss Army Knives (SAK). The various "Tinker" and "Mechanic" models are very popular. I carry a Leatherman Wave, and while it's very handy riding on my belt I will grab a full-sized screwdriver or pliers when the opportunity presents itself. The SAKs and multi-tools are very conveinent for field work, but aren't the equal of even a small tool kit. Since you are just beginning right now, you should get a small to medium sized tool box or tool bag, and begin to fill it with tools as you need them for various projects. Among those tools should be one of the less expensive multi-tools or SAKs. You can find the smaller Leatherman Tools for under $30. A Victorinox Super Tinker SAK is about the same price. Get whatever you like. You should start with a decent set of regular and phillips screwdrivers, torx drivers, allen wrenches, assorted pliers (needlenose, slip-joint, and channel-lock), a pair of wire cutters (diagonal cutters), wire strippers/crimpers, a ratchet wrench set with both metric and US sockets, a claw hammer, ball-pein hammer, some assorted vise-grips (at least a 10WR and 6LR), a 25-50 watt soldering iron, and a VOM (multimeter). All of this will fit in a medium-sized toolbox.

Along with your tool kit, you will need a space to do your work.  My "workbench" is an old 4 1/2'x3' table in the corner of my den/library.  Some shelves are attached to the walls above the bench, and my toolbox is sitting on top of a small 3-shelf bookcase next to the table. Before I moved upstairs I had a folding table in the basement that served as my work area, and before I found this old table I had made a small workbench out of a piece of plywood and 2x4s. Whatever works. You want your workspace to be in out of the way spot. The best would be an outbuilding on your proverbial "back forty", a basement, or a garage, but circumstances may not permit that. In that case, any out of the way corner you can put a table a toolbox will do. You don't want to have to set up and break down your project every time you want to work on it, and you don't want muggles inadvertently messing your work up. In some instances, you won't want muggles stumbling across your work at all. Some of them can be less than understanding in regard to your tinkering and experimentation. Local hackerspaces can be useful if you are really limited in space and/or tool availability. Many I have visited were well equipped with nice electronic and machine shops, and had knowledgeable staff that were ready to help beginners. While eventually you'd like to get your own personal setup up and running, a good hackerspace can be a great help for the beginner.

You will want a computer of your own. Using your parents' machine, especially if shared with your siblings, becomes a problem when you want to experiment or have thoughts you wish to keep to yourself. Older computer hardware is available cheap from a number of sources. Load an open-source OS on it, and you are good to go. The ultimate hacking computer these days is this machine that fits in your hand called a "Raspberry Pi." Attach a USB keyboard Use an old composite monitor or a video modulator and old TV set for the display. Load up a copy of Linux, and you are ready to go. You can store your polemic on small sold state drives that you can hide anywhere. A copy of GnuPG helps keep your thoughts private in case someone stumbles across them. You don't want to wind up like Kiera Wilmot, but I digress. The 512 MB Raspberry Pi is only $40, and is money well spent. The Pi comes with Python as a programming language. It too is open source. Finally, we have an experimenter's computer in the old-school tradition of the Apples, Ataris, Commodores, and Timex/Sinclairs we had as kids. They did rocket science with less powerful machines! One of the nicer things about the Pi is that it only needs 5 volts at 700mA over Micro USB to run. With a portable LCD TV, 12V 7AH gel-cell, and a voltage regulator you can have a nice off-grid system for your remote secret laboratory that'll run all night! Add a couple solar panels, and you wouldn't even have to go home to charge your batteries!

While you're working in your secret laboratory, you'll want to keep a nominal ear on the outside world. Whether your choice of ear candy is Nights With Alice Cooper, or Coast to Coast AM, a small AM/FM radio can almost always be found on the shelf for a couple bucks at the local Goodwill. I've got this Radio Shack DX-375 "Voice Of the World" AM/SW/FM receiver that I bought on clearance 20 years ago for those boring night shifts as a security guard. With a Grundig Medium Wave loop antenna, also a clearance sale find from Rat Shack, I can pick up AM stations across the country. Late night Medium Wave listening is one of those ways to find "a certain truth" as I have mentioned in previous rants. When you find yours, you can use the GnuPG software on your Raspberry Pi to keep it private. Plying the electromagnetic aether looking for a certain truth is a pastime that many of us partake in, to the point where the pursuit of the almost fey wavelengths becomes an exclusive course of study. Should you start down along this path, consider yourself warned and welcomed!

Survivalists

When I got involved in all this fun, those of us who bothered to attach a name to what we did called ourselves survivalists, or maybe survivor-types. We were a combination of woods-runners and lo-tek tinkerers that liked to stay away from "civilization", build things out of junk, shoot guns, and do similar stuff of that nature.  Our patrons were writers like Kurt Saxon, Dean Ing, Robert Heinlein, and Mel Tappan. Some of us were worried about the Soviets. Most, if not all, of us made plans to deal with things like blizzards, hurricanes, blackouts, tornadoes, and other temporary inconveniences that happen in the course of a year in various parts of the country. Many of us saw the gradual decline of western civilization, and simply decided it was best if we lived our lives someplace as out-of-the-way as possible so as to avoid the worst of it if the balloon ever went up.

All the survivalist stuff we acquired and learned was basically ordinary stuff we enjoyed doing that we knew might be handy "just in case." Our "survival knives and guns" were just what we used in the course of hunting, target shooting, camping, and woods-runnin'. "Survival fishing" was seeing how well you could do with the least amount of fishing tackle, and we all kept a rod and some lures/flies handy to practice whenever we got a free moment. We all carried Swiss-Army knives and later Leatherman Tools and used them for anything and everything. Some of us played around with radios, or maybe small engines. Some of us liked to get our butts kicked in a dojo somewhere. A few of us got involved with a local SCA or mountain man reenactment group. All of these hobbies would have helped you out if the shit ever hit the fan, and would have left you with something useful to contribute if you survived long enough to start rebuilding.

I do believe this country is in decline. I have seen it over the past 30 years, and every year it gets worse. Eventually there's going to be one too many pieces of straw on the camel's back, and the camel is going to say "Fuck It!"

Good Stuff

http://www.njarc.org/library.html

Hamfest

Spent yesterday morning at a local hamfest. Had some electronic gear that was excess to needs, and there's no better place to off-load it than a hamfest. Lots of good stuff here, and remarkably enough I didn't come home with any new goodies. Well there's always the next one I suppose.

 Had a funny conversation with some alleged ARES-type from New York City who was looking at the hamflashed GE MPA I had on the table. Never seen an ARES operator get a blank look on their face upon hearing the words "simplex" or "NVIS".  Turned out they weren't interested because it didn't do 2-meters. On second thought, maybe I'll keep that MPA. It's a solid rig that was made in the US and not China.

One of the sellers had a nice Santec ST-142 2-meter HT with drop-in charger for $30. The Santec was one of the top-of-the-line HTs when I first licensed. Back then it cost $380. When I went to get an HT it was a choice between the Santec and an Icom IC-02AT.  I went with the Icom because a local ham had one for sale in used/new condition that he bought and didn't like. The most popular HT at the time in the local ham club was the very simple and basic Icom IC-2AT. When they came out with the '02, many hams found it "too complicated". It was one of the best HTs I ever owned, and I used it for everything from hilltopping to packet radio, but I digress. For half the price of one of those China HTs someone could have walked away with a real radio. 

What you really want though is a decent 25-50 watt base station with a decent antenna on your roof.  Plenty of those for small cash at the hamfest too, along with antennas and coax.  Another table had an older copy of the ARRL Antenna book for a couple bucks.  I have three editions with the oldest from 1974. J-pole and 1/4-wave ground plane antennas are easy to build, and will get you on the air.  Repeaters have been known to suffer damage during natural disasters. If your local ARES machine goes down, that China-made HT will be useless. A VHF base setup will at least give you some decent range on simplex, but there's something even better.

 

 

What most of us have in addition to a VHF base for local work is a HF rig hooked up to an NVIS antenna.  That'll get you reliable consistent communications out to about 300 miles or so.

Memorial Day

Please take a moment today to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the service of their country.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

John McCrae

Snow

 It's snowing heavily here, but I'll use it as an excuse to stay in the lab all weekend.

Back Home

Came in early Friday evening. Six hour drive in from Central New York. One more "industry certification" from a class that was mostly a Power Point presentation on where to point and click in the software. I did however manage to do a little photography while I was up there, and you'll see it in the next issue.

So now I'm back in the lab messing around with stuff and starting the process of putting together the next issue of Basement Techie.