I do believe a picture is worth a 1000 words. Here is a GUI mock-up to demonstrate the Status Service concept. After a little discussion on this concept we have two differing opinions. One camp would like to see this as an Internet only application to reduce the development (integration) time. The other camp is mostly interested in using an application like this via APRS. I do not see why the Status Service could not support both Internet & APRS. However, I do agree that starting with an Internet only version will speed up development time and get a useful product out the door. As long as trades are not made that will cause the APRS integration to suffer I think that this is an excellent approach. What do you think? My email is listed at the bottom of the page.

The TLV320AIC3254 is a great new product from TI. At the price this would be an excellent design choice for an AF section in an AM/FM/SSB radio. I'll have to see how powerful/flexible the miniDSP is. Time to sample some parts!

Over the past few years I have had a lot of fun with the MSP430 series microcontrollers and Chipcon single-chip radio ICs. I was excited to hear that TI has decided to combine my two favorite IC choices from their product lines into a single package. If you have not seen the CC430 yet, it is definitely worth a few minutes. The package includes a MSP430F5x MCU and the CC1101.

We could use this platform on 70cm as an alternative to APRS. The CC1101 even supports a K=3 convolutional encoder and a nice data scrambler. How cool would it be to buy an APRS-like radio for forty dollars that could be the size of a quarter?

If anyone is interested in this concept, let me know.

Ubiquiti has a few products in their "Wireless ISP Solutions" category that are very interesting. The cost of their products make them ideal for use in larger wireless network deployments. I am impressed that Ubiquiti is also supporting a Linux SDK for these devices. How cool would it be to deploy a dozen Bullet radios in a small community? Could we use this to build an 802.11G wireless network for amateur radio? I'll pick up one of these radios and let you know how well they work. More to follow.

This is an interesting experiment performed by W1UJR on the coast of Maine.

I am very impressed with this elegant use of GP. This is a perfect example of when GP can be useful. Read Roger's blog for more information.

Check out the Projects page for our new Internet Remote Ham Radio Station. It allows me to have access to my station from anywhere in the world!

I first noticed the Gravia on Ecogeek in February. I immediately ruled it out as unrealizable and moved on. When I later found out that the concept was created by a fellow Virginia Tech graduate I became interested. Virginia Tech even recognized this design on their website. I now feel compelled to respond.

While the Gravia has a fun kinematic element to the design, the kinetics are completely wrong. The Gravia's claims break the law of conservation of energy.

Let's add a little math to the Gravia.

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From time to time "Numbers Stations", as they are often called, can be found on HF. Numbers Stations have a long history of HF operation over the last 50+ years. When I came across this signal in January I couldn't resist recording a sample. For more information on these dinosaurs check out the Wiki.

I have had a few emails asking about the Twitter feed. Twitter is a service that can connect a group of people via text messages. The idea is that anyone can text to the group (Roteno Labs Twitter Feed) and everyone subscribed to the feed will receive a text. Roteno Labs periodically checks Twitter for new content on our group and posts it on the main page.