One of my colleagues asked me to have a look at receiver that wasn’t behaving well. It was one of the many USB receivers that are around based on the RTL 2832U and Rafael Micro R820T tuner chips. The device was very intermittent, but he wasn’t sure if it was a problem with the hardware, […]
I changed jobs about 18 months ago, and I’m already getting known as ‘that’ guy when it comes to fiddling with technology! So, a colleague turned up at work with a laptop which had been given to him by a family member who had bought a newer machine. He said it was running slowly and […]
This was my third OggCamp, and I was able to make a full weekend visit to Manchester. Most of my best learning at OggCamps tends to be around what happens outside the scheduled stuff, so it was good to have the time to mingle in the evenings and discuss things over beer. Although I already […]
I last attended OggCamp in Liverpool in 2015 and had a great time. There wasn’t one in 2016, and in 2017 it was in the wrong part of the UK for the gods of time & space to allow. I did though make it to OggCamp 2018 in Sheffield, so here’s some of the things […]
I went along to the Open Data Camp in Douglas. Here’s some of the things I learned about: Oh, and beer tastes better when someone else pays!
While at Liverpool Makefest last June, I bought myself a kit to build an RC2014 Z80-based computer. The kit was very well made, with high quality circuit boards which accepted solder very easily, along with sufficient documentation to make the whole building process smooth and enjoyable. I found the process quite educational too, as the […]
I took the boat from the Isle of Man to Liverpool for the day, to visit Makefest in Liverpool. This was a great day out, and I saw loads of good things. The highlights were: I found some nice food and real ale in a pub later in the afternoon, and the sea was flat […]
When I joined Twitter in 2009, it was a place to find interesting people sharing interesting ideas and learning from one another. You could ask questions on very technical topics, and people would take the time to reply in detailed and thoughtful ways. Over time, more and more people joined and the conversations grew. Twitter […]
I’ve been having a lot of success using my MD380 DMR transceiver together with the Isle of Man’s DMR repeater network. Sadly though, my house isn’t in coverage of the repeaters. This means I can’t use my handheld at home. The solution to this problem has come in the form of a Radio/IP gateway called […]
About once every year, I like to log in to Ofcom’s website and revalidate my amateur radio licence. I do this so that it becomes a sort of habit, and so that I’ve no risk of going beyond the statutory five year limit. This year, my login details didn’t work. It turns out that Ofcom […]