I have been back in the HAM game for several months and one of the biggest reasons was to make sure I had a solid communications system in case of natural or manmade disaster. When I evaluated my needs, the most glaring need was an easy to use portable shortwave radio. I wanted to be able to get in stations around the world for news and information.
The Kaito KA1102 stuck out in my initial research and after reading the many positive reviews on the net, I knew that the KA1102 would fulfill my needs. I ordered my Kaito online and waited to get it and test it out.
My initial tests were excellent with the KA1102. It could get in all of the major international broadcasters as well as many other smaller broadcasters. It also received the HAM bands quite well.
Receiving ham radio transmissions was one of the most important needs I had for the Kaito KA1102. I was able to receive SSB, PSK31 and even RTTY transmissions with it. This is very important in any kind of emergency.
I really liked the fact that radio came with its own rechargeable batteries and the fact that it can recharge the batteries with the supplied AC adapter. There were a couple of downsides with this arrangement though. First, it can only charge the batteries when the radio is off and second, it uses three batteries. This kind of limits its usage as a general battery charger.
I’d also like to add that the Kaito KA1102 is quite small so it can basically go anywhere. I take it along with me in my backpack wherever I go. It’s very handy. Due to its small size the sound isn’t as good as I’d like it to be, but it does sound great with headphones and external speakers really sound great.
If you would like to get a Kaito KA1102, just click on the Black Kaito KA1102 link or the Silver Kaito KA1102 link. Happy World Banding!
After a long hiatus, I am back in the game, the ham game that is. I haven’t really done much operating since the early 1990′s, but I have kept my ham license up to date in case I ever decided to get back in the game.
I finally decided to get back in the game about a month ago. I have been stuck with a Tech Plus license since 1990 and I figured it was high time I upgraded my license and buy a radio or two. On April 9th, I took the General Class exam and passed with flying colors.
Next up on the agenda? It looks like they will be doing an Extra Class Exam in May so I’ll try my hand at it.
Right now, I am waiting for a couple of basic radios to arrive, a Yaesu FT-250R and a Realistic HTX-100. Yes I know 10 meters isn’t hopping, but I got the HTX-100 purely for nostalgia sake.
I have been using Windows 7 Beta and RC since January and just a few days ago, I installed Windows 7 RTM. That’s the final version. It’s definitely a step up from both Vista and XP. I think it compares favorably to any other version of Windows and is a leap forward in terms of a quality user experience.
Anyways, take a look at this video introducing Windows 7.
It sure has been awhile since I last found myself doing any kind of blogging here. Not to despair, I am back. I hope to bring over several pieces from other blog onto this blog and start making some new posts.
I am doing a little bit of tumblogging and you can check out my research tumblr at Jack Woods and you can check out my teaching tumblr blog at Code555.
If you use facebook, you can connect with me on Jack Woods Facebook and you can connect with me on my twitter at Jack Woods Twitter.
Take care and happy teching.
If you are doing any kind of video marketing for your site, then you want to take every advantage you can of your videos. You want to get your web address in front of as many eyes as possible. You also want to keep other people from stealing your videos and getting traffic from them instead of you.
One way to get traffic is to put a title screen and a credits screen on your video where you can show your webpage. This works really well and helps you hone a message, but these screens can easily be take out of a video if someone wants to make it their own. In other words, someone else can benefit from your hard work.
Fortunately, there is a better way. A great to protect every single frame of your video is to use a watermark. Watermarks can’t easily be taken out of a video. They stay there, no matter how many times they are uploaded and downloaded, no matter if someone else tries to benefit from a video or not. You can make your watermark be your web address and you can benefit from your video marketing, day after day.
There are several commercial video editing programs that can help you put a watermark in your videos. I’m sure they work well, but these commercial video editing programs cost money. I am cheap so I always prefer to use open source programs. And yes, there is an open source alternative that can help you EASILY add a watermark to your videos before you upload them, it’s called ffmpeg.
There’s a Windows version for it, but I use the version that’s in the repos for Ubuntu. Just go to the command line and type:
sudo apt-get install ffmpeg
and you are set.
Once it’s installed, all you need to do to use it is go to a terminal and type this:
ffmpeg -i ~/Desktop/rawvideo.mpg
-vhook '/usr/lib/vhook/drawtext.so
-f /usr/share/fonts/truetype/msttcorefonts/Arial.ttf
-x 5 -y 5 -t Visit TechGringo.Com' ~/Desktop/finished.avi
Important note: Those four lines are a single command and need to be entered on a single line.
That’s it. You now have a simple text watermark in the videos you upload to Youtube and other sites.