The Hamvention is gigantic! The biggest hamfest in the world, it's several times bigger than any hamfest I've ever seen before. You can find almost anything electronic there.
More on this later, but there were at least three different software-defined radios on display. Some are quite complex and expensive; some are very simple and cheap. Personally, I think that there are things that software does well, and other things it does poorly. Most don't include source code, though, so I can't fix bugs if they annoy me enough, and that is a serious negative. All software has bugs, and most bugs never get fixed.
Antennas were everywhere. Antique radios and brand-new ones. The new ones have big color touchscreens and hundreds of buttons, with maybe one knob for nostalgia's sake.
Solar panels and chargers were all over too. This stuff is finally getting affordable and practical.
Next time, I've got to bring a cart, though. The place is so immense, you don't want to be carrying anything all day.
1 comment:
I enjoyed looking at all the SDR stuff too. The one that caught my attention is the upcoming Alinco DJ-S9T. The $500 S8T is a no-frills but easy to use standard HF rig with I/Q out for SDR RX. The S9T will operate as a traditional HF rig or you can put into full SDR transceiver mode and directly operate it with a computer. Cool !
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