10 MUST HAVE GADGETS FOR YOUR RADIO SHACK© 2008 by Ed Muro K2EPM I am a gadget guy, what can I say it goes hand in hand with being a radio geek. Over the years I have come across many gadgets, so truly enhance your efforts in the radio hobby and others, well sometimes prove to be a big disappointment. Today we are going to take a look at my top-ten gadgets that every radio hobbyist should have in his arsenal of equipment. If you come across something that you feel might be useful and I haven't covered it, please share it with us; you can contact me at: k2epm@arrl.net. # 10: The Digital Multi-meter: A multimeter is an electronic measuring instrument that combines several functions in one unit, hence the term "multi." The most basic instruments include an ammeter, voltmeter, and ohmmeter. Analog multimeters are sometimes referred to as "volt-ohm-meters", abbreviated VOM, I must confess that I am old enough that my first VOM was analog. It was an inexpensive model from Radio Shack that was bought in the early 80's and has been used for all sorts of projects from checking the batteries in my scanner to checking the continuity of a run of COAX to checking the voltage in the battery in my car. While I have upgraded to a digital model, my original meter still resides at my parent's house as my dad some how acquired it. One of the more popular and well respected names in the industry is the Fluke brand. Some people even have come to refer to multimeters as Flukemeters. The Fluke line is not cheap but you do get a quality piece of test equipment. For most of us, it is probably over kill and a mid range product will suffice. # 9: The Cable Turtle: Do you ever have a situation where you have a six-foot cord on a wall wart when all you need is a one-foot cord? In the past I used to just bunch up the excess cord and then go steal (did I say steal?) a twist tie out of the breadbox in my mother's kitchen. The Cable Turtle it takes your excess cable and hides it in its own shell, which resembles the shell of a turtle. Believe it or not, the Cable Turtle is designed to handle 1000W load. This funny looking solution to organizing the back of your radio console has actually won design awards and is part of the Museum of Modern Art 's design collection! # 8: The SO-239 to BNC male coax adapter. For scannists, three dollar connector will probably be the most used COAX adapter in the shack. It will allow you to hook up an antenna with a PL-259 connector up to your scanner (or any device using a BNC connector.) Also winning honorable mention in this category is the Right-Angle BNC adapter and the BNC to SMA adapter for some of the newer scanners and ham HTs. Back in the 80's the Motorola to BNC was a big seller, but these days there aren't many antennas that come with a coax outfitted with a Motorola connector. #7: The Twin Lead, Dual band, J-pole antenna: Designed for use in the 2M and 70CM amateur radio bands this portable roll up antenna is the perfect solution for hams and scannists who need an easy to hang, easy to transport, and good performing antenna. It can be used by high-rise apartment dwellers, strung from a curtain rod in a hotel, or hung from a tree limb at a park. Because they are made out of twin-lead coax they easily roll up and can be packed in a go-bag or suitcase. The 2M-70CM dual band design not only fit the bill for the most active VHF/UHF bands that hams use but also are close enough to the VHF and UHF public safety action bands. There are commercial versions available for the lazy folk, but J-poles are easy to make and my buddy Frank-N2VRA has made dozens over the years. If you want to give it a try, Craig WB3GCK has posted directions at: http://www.qsl.net/wb3gck/jpole.htm #6: The fishing tackle box: No, we are not going on a deep sea fishing expedition nor are we going ice fishing on the Ottawa River. I happen to be one of those who enjoys taking products designed for one purpose and using or modifying them for use in the radio hobby. What a better item to use for organizing your assortment of COAX Connectors, rubber duck antennas, and assorted do-dads than a compartmentalized tackle box. My first foray in to this arena was the purchase of an inexpensive power drill box at the Home Depot. I used that for several years until I experimented further in to the tackle box area. The boxes come in various sizes and configurations and over the course of your career in the hobby you may wind up purchasing several until you find one that suits your needs. By far, they are the easiest way to keep your collection of "stuff" organized in a fashion that makes things easy to find and easy to transport and is a much better way of doing business than just throwing connectors in your junk drawer. If you take a look at the photo of the Plano 7771 you will notice the long compartments on the top of the box. This would be the perfect place to store your collection of antennas. I found I had one or two antennas that were a bit longer than the longest tray in the box, the Diamond RH-77CA comes to mind. So what I did was drill a hole in the side of my box to accommodate the longer antenna. It protrudes out of the box about 3 or 4 inches, so what! #5: The Go-Bag: The tackle box is a great storage solution for your various connectors and accessories but I don't necessarily need to bring all of that with me every time I leave the house. Hence, I use a soft go-bag. My first go bag was purchased in the fishing department at K-Mart for about 14-bucks and was designed as a soft tackle box. This proved to be a good idea because it was water proof, which is a good feature when transporting electronic equipment. Again, go-bags or gear bags come in all sizes and variations and you may wind up having more than one. I have a small go-bag that I purchased at Eddie Bauer for day trips, or trips where the radio hobby is secondary to the purpose of the trip. The bag has a shoulder strap and has room for 1 scanner, 1 small to medium sized ham HT, an extra battery pack, an ear bud, a pad/pen, my sun glasses, and my travel documents. Then I have two larger medium sized go-bags. One is my ARES Go-Bag and is equipped with everything I might need in an ARES or Red Cross shelter deployment. The other is "sort of" empty and I fill it as the need arises for various trips. It has room for three scanners or ham HT's, assorted chargers, my cell phone charger, radio owner's manuals, a screw diver and Leatherman Multi-tool, and small extension cord, extra batteries, a flashlight, and assorted speaker mics / ear buds. I'll be honest, I have been carrying a flashlight in my go-bag for years, but I wasn't really thinking "power outage" when i started carrying it ... I was thinking more like night time trips to the bathroom when sleeping in unfamiliar places and/or laying in bed listening to the scanner and needing to read a frequency directory or looking at the keys of a scanner (if it didn't have a back light.) It appears that after 9-11 and Katrina that many OEM types have started using the term go-bag for things one might need in a natural disaster which differ a little from what a radio enthusiast might need. After the above mentioned disasters our ARES group has been advising members to stock two go bags to take with them on deployments. One is the radio go-bag with everything a "communicator" might need and the other is a "personal" go bag that would contain a change of clothes, several days worth of medication, modest toiletries, an extra pair of eye glasses, a couple of bottles of water and a couple of energy bars, a contact list of friends, relatives, and other important phone numbers, and a map. New York City OEM advises that every household should pack a Go Bag. A collection of items you may need in the event of an evacuation. A Go Bag should be packed in a sturdy, easy-to-carry container such as a backpack or suitcase on wheels. A Go Bag should be easily accessible if you have to leave your home in a hurry. Make sure it is ready to go at all times of the year.
#4: The Laptop computer: The Lap Top computer serves a multitude of purposes in the radio shack which include: communication with other hobbyists via e-mail or user groups, researching various data via Internet web pages, looking up ham radio contacts via QRZ or Buckmaster for QSL data, researching radio frequencies and system data, programming ham radios, programming and or controlling scanners or general coverage receivers, and even esoteric functions like writing this article. While knowing how to program a scanner or ham radio by hand is a good thing, I just don't do it anymore. Even with the mobile radios, I will do all my research in the house and set up my data how I would like it with the programming software and then I will take the laptop out to the car and within a minute the radio is programmed. Usually hooking up the cables takes longer than actually transferring the data. I still do have a few radio hobbyist friends who have resisted entering the computer age, but to me that is like showing up at the Daytona 500 driving a Model-T Ford. #3: The ARRL's Travel Plus CD: The ARRL repeater directory is good, but the Travel Plus CD is better! Not only can you locate ham radio repeaters using this map-based software, but you can print maps and repeater lists, export data, transfer to your PDA or radio programming software, and much more. In addition to the ARRL Repeater Database, Travel Plus also includes: global IRLP nodes, TV broadcast stations, AM broadcast stations, FM broadcast stations, and NOAA weather radio stations, and the latest ARRL Net Directory data. You Can:
Using a Yaesu FT-50 as an example. I took my Garmin e-Map hooked up to my laptop and initiated the Travel Plus software. The GPS unit acquired my location and then based upon the parameters I set up Travel Plus created a list of repeaters with the ranges I set. I then was able to export this data in to the ADMS software and program it right in to the FT-50. In total it probably took 10 to 15 minutes the first time I did it, when doing things the old way by hand might have taken 2 or 3 hours or the better part of an evening. #2: The HT/Scanner Desk Stand: Nothing is worse than having your $500 scanner go flying off your desk or kitchen table when the cat goes running after some imaginary mouse. Desk stand fit many purposes such as setting them up on a desk at work or at a motel. Some people may never buy a base scanner and with the use of a desk stand one radio can suite all their monitoring needs. The desk stand is another one of those items that comes in many variations. There are many commercially markets desk stands, there are home made items, and again we have seen numerous products that were designed for other purposes being used as a scanner desk stand. My friend Dave employs the use of steel book ends as scanner stands. Take a medium sized book end, use the belt clip of the scanner to attach it to the book end and you have a scanner desk stand. I also have a friend who turned my on to plastic or Lucite literature / brochure holders. I have found that the most common sized brochure holder, costing a little over $3, will fit the Uniden BC396 to a tee! I own several commercially built products, I have built a few of my own, and as I said ... I have used the Lucite literature holder. Which ever way you go, having a few of these on hand is indispensable. At one time I was able to find these clam shell mounting brackets that were originally designed for use with mobile phones. They were being sold at hamfests for a buck and I picked up a bunch. I then bought a long piece of wood and made bases for the stands by cutting up the wood with a saw, sanding them down, and painting them. I then attached the clam shell device to the base and had myself a desk stand. One of the nice things about some of the commercially markets products is that some of them often make accommodations for COAX connections and others may even have battery charging capability. I have seen a couple of nice ones marketed out of England and on our side of the pond one of the nicer one's out there is marketed by the folks at Nifty Ham Accessories: http://www.niftyaccessories.com/. Whether you go the commercial route, make your own, or head to the office supply store there is something out there to fit every budget. #1: ...and the #1 must have gadget for the radio hobby is: The ear bud or headset. This one item may save your marriage. If your wife is like mine, try sitting in the easy chair with the scanner on while she is trying to watch Dancing With The Stars or a re-run of General Hospital and you will hear: "Can you turn that bleeping thing off!" Have you ever tried to chase DX on a shortwave receiver with someone else in the room? The sweet sounds coming out of your shortwave rig might just be annoying static to someone else. So, unless you want a slipper to come flying at your Drake SW8. Or, maybe you can't sleep at night and have a hankering to hear what's going on around town the last thing you want to do is disturb your sweety-pie at three in the morning. Aside from maintaining healthy family relations there are several other reasons to consider the use of an ear bud or headset. For example, at a NASCAR race you might enjoy listening to the various race teams communicating with their pit crews. I can guarantee the the roar of the engine will drown out what ever sound is coming out of the 2-inch speaker on your scanner. For scanning at auto races you will need a set of noise canceling headsets which are widely available through a number of firms which cater to the race fan. An air show is another venue where a noise canceling headset would come in handy. Another argument for the use of an ear bud is for anonymity while scanning. I take my scanner with me for secondary entertainment to a lot of different places, much as the music aficionado would tote around his Ipod. In some of these places being low key is just the better route to take so you don't alarm anyone in to labeling you as one of those techno stalkers. Some of the places I bring my scanner are for walks around the neighborhood or on the track, the beach, picnics, baseball games, and while riding on a bus or train. As with many of the other products we have discussed, ear buds and head phones come in various configurations and with varying price tags. For 90% of my basic "under cover" scanning be it on the outside or in the house I use a simple mono ear bud I picked up for around 3-bucks at Radio Shack. I also have a couple of pair of over the ear speakers that run between $8 and $12 each. While not as unobtrusive as an ear bud, these may be a bit more comfortable if you don't like the feel of something inside your ear. I have a set of high end Bose Quiet Comfort 2 stereo headphones that I will use in conjunction with the computer when I am listening to online scanner streams and sometimes I will use them when I am listening to the Pro-96 in the living room. A good racing scanner headset will cost you between $75 and $100. There are less expensive ones on the market but you know the old adage, you get what you pay for. If you are at a race, keep in mind you will have these things on your head for 3 or 4 hours....so get something that is comfortable and functional. So there you have it, my top-10 scanning gadgets. I hope you will add some of these to your bag of tricks and as i said before, if you come up with a nifty gadget please let us know. Until next time, happy scanning. |