WiPRY UPDATE

BUY THE ACCESSORY KIT...





Having done a variety of tests with the WiPry I figured out that having the ability of connecting a Directional antenna vs. the omnidirectional antenna nub it ships with could come in handy if you were trying to identify the general location from where a signal source was coming from.

I tried EPO (Electronic Parts Outlet), and they had a short (2") wire with a small connector to fit the WiPry's antenna jack and at the other end, a larger SMA connector, the wrong gender to connect antennas to, and they were out of gender-benders.

Frys was my next stop and their connector/adaptor area was a mess, with no apparent logical scheme on how it should be arranged, forcing you to look at each hook, row, column, and hopefully you could find what you wanted. At this point, I'm down $3 + tax, and gas used to get to EPO and back. I had the wire in my pocket and found several adapters which looked like I could form a stupid-looking, yet functional way to attach the antenna.

At home I realized I missed one key ingredient, making that trip a $10 + tax and gas money flop. Yeah, I know that I could have gone back and returned the adapters and connectors, but one thing I learned from being a CBer, then HAM operator over the years was that it never hurt to have something in your parts drawers that seemed useless then, but down-the-road a necessity.

So I went back to Oscium's website and looked closer at the kit and could see they had 3 connection adapters included. I ordered it, 2 days later received it, and yup, my directional beam antenna was connected and working. I also had several additions to my parts drawers, and it's always fun walking up and down the aisles at EPO to check out what's new.

CONDUCTED MEASUREMENT KIT

ALSO AVAILABLE

iPHONE 5 CONNECTOR ADAPTER

38" EXTENSION CABLE

'Nuff Said,
Woody

WHERE CAN YOU BUY A NEW AM/SSB CB IN THE HOUSTON AREA?

THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT

IF YOU WATCH TV YOU'VE HEARD THAT SAID MANY TIMES







It's surprising how often this is true. If you're in the IT or electronics field there are some great apps that will help you with your job or hobby, but the one I'm about to tell you about requires more than the app.

There is a company called OSCIUM that is making waves with it's devices that (sorry Android) work along with your iPhone or iPad. The one I bought was the WiPry-Combo which sells for $199.95, and for that amount of money you really should have use for it. I didn't want to spend the bux,so I waited, and waited, until finally on the ThinkGeek website they had a special sale (about 50% off) so it finally became affordable. We both realize I haven't even told you what this device is, or does - First, the device, which plugs into the charging jack.

WiPry Combo

The WiPry Combo is a Spectrum Analyzer and Dynamic Power Meter combo. The spectrum it analyzes is the 2.4Ghz WiFi band. You can walk into a client's business or residence and determine what sort of noise level and signals may be causing problems with their WiFi network. You can isolate it by channel to find the least affected frequency, then set their router to that channel. I recently tested this at a local veterinarian's clinic and found when certain instruments were used the noise level was almost even with their wireless network signals, which would cause spotty performance.  

 From their website:

Portable, Award-Winning

With Oscium's WiPry-Combo peak power meter and spectrum analyzer, you can pry into the power, spectral, and time characteristics of your signals using an iPhone, iPad, or iPod. WiPry-Combo is the emerging standard in portable RF test equipment for cellular communication planners, RF engineers, wireless network technicians and avid electronics hobbyists. 
Product highlights:

• Enables iPhone, iPad, iPod to make power and frequency measurements
• Fits in the palm of your hand
• Measures rise and fall time, duty cycle and peak power with the precision power meter 
• Visualizes Wi-Fi, Zigbee, Bluetooth and remote sensor networks using spectral mode
• Awarded Most Innovative & Best Customer Value
• Compatible with Lightning and 30 pin connectors (with adapter, works with iPhone 5 & iPad Mini)

 They also have several other products that work with the iPhone and iPad:

MIXED SIGNAL O-SCOPE

 

Product Specs:

• iMSO-104 Mixed Signal Oscilloscope Hardware
• 1x/10x Analog Probe
• Logic Harness (4 Digital + 1 Ground) 
• SMD Grabbers (5 pieces)
• Bandwidth 5 MHz
• Max sample rate 12 MS/s
• Screwdriver for Analog Compensation Adjustment
• Analog tip covers (2 pieces)
• Compatible with Lightning and 30 pin connectors (with adapter, works with iPhone 5 & iPad Mini)

A CHANNEL LOGIC ANALYZER

 

LogiScope transforms an iPhone, iPad or iPod into a 100MHz, 16 channel logic analyzer. Not only is it the most intuitive logic analyzer available, the triggering is so powerful you'll be able to count the hair on your bug (tap product picture on right to watch a short video). Download LogiScope in the App Store and test drive the interface or watch the tutorials below. 
Product Highlights:

• 100 MHz, 16 channel logic analyzer
• Two logic harnesses (each with 8 digital, 1 ground)
• Protocol decoding: I²C, SPI, UART, Parallel
• Works with 2.0v, 2.5v, 3.3v & 5.0v systems
• Portable: goes where you go
• Input voltage -0.5v to +7v
• Advanced triggering
• Compatible with Lightning and 30 pin connectors (with adapter, works with iPhone 5 & iPad Mini)

Their website can be found HERE.

 

'Nuff Said,

Woody
 Email

OBITUARIES

BRIEFLY SPEAKING...







Yep, this will be a brief Blog post, but there aren't any rules that say that posts have to have a certain number of words before you can publish them.

What prompted me to write this one, is about something I saw on my customized Yahoo home page. I have a variety of news items selected so I can catch up with things each morning.

One of my selections is the ARRL feed which adds new content as it occurs. This week seemed to be a particularly downer week as it looked more like the obituaries then usual. Each morning it I would find another SK (silent key) listed. Older hams seem to be dropping like flies.

As far as CBer's go, there isn't an organization like the ARRL for them, so usually you find out who died via a CB radio based chat board, or word of mouth. Nonetheless it is depressing either way. As far as the ARRL feed is concerned, whatever they post is a drop in the bucket compared to SK's that are in the ARRL publication "QST". I hope both services are recruiting enough newbies to replace those that have gone onto the other side of that long wave -

'Nuff Said,
Brian