Video from Boston Marathon attack

Video from buzzfeed.com

The "U tree S" is spared, USDA rebranding.

The Department of Agriculture, as of Thursday, has decided to not eliminate the long enduring USFS "pine tree" badge as part of agency rebranding. Under the USDA's new "Visual Standards Guide" all agencies would phase out their individual logo for the new USDA logo.

You can read more Here and Here.

Your old BK's are Garbage!

Yeah, I know I haven't been posting for a while, and this news isn't exactly breaking, but Relm has finally ended support for al E series radios.

Several years ago the NIFC struck all EPH's from their approved list of radios after discovering compatibility issues with some straggling agencies that still had some in their cache. About a decade ago the USFS started phasing out the EMH and EPH radios in favor of the P25 ready G and D series radios, but up until a few months ago Relm/BK still supported these radios. Well, they finally pulled the plug on factory servicing all EPH, EMH and some early GPH radios. I guess when you can replace the radios for under $100 online their is no point in sending it in for factory service.  I bought my last EPH 5102X last year for $50 on ebay and it was in like new condition. The good thing for people like me, who still repair, rebuild and use EPH, and LPH series BK portables, the antennas, batteries, PTT buttons, knobs, and many of the other parts are interchangeable with the DPH radios so these frequently worn out parts are still abundant.

Happy Narrow Band Eve!

Just a few hours 'till we fall off the fiscal cliff and hit the narrow band deadline. Monrovia PD finally switched over last Friday, and now I am waiting for the mutual aid fiasco to begin.

The states "White" frequencies switched over to the nationally standardized V-Fire nomenclature a few years ago. White 2 became VFire 22, White 3 became VFire 23, and starting January 1st, the last holdout, White 1 will narrow band and become VFire 21. I have a feeling LA County fire will still refer to their VHF radios as their "White" radio even there will no longer be any "White" channels.

I have heard many local police agencies still use the "CLEMARS" nomenclature when post narrowbanding the label should now be CA LAW1. So I wonder, have they not narrowbanded their CLEMARS freqs, or did they keep the old CLEMARS label on their narrow band channels? Either way I'm guessing there is going to be some confusion and over deviation in 2013.

Have a great one and don't forget your spare battery!

APCO making new standards!

 

The APCO Standard for Public Safety Communications Common Incident Types for Data Exchange is out, it's a list of terms to help 911 call centers, dispatch centers, first responders, etc. pass incident info between each other more efficiently.

Read the document at apcointl.org

On scene of Endeavour crossing the 405

This weekend the big news story in LA has been the Space Shuttle Endeavour's treck from LAX to it's final destination at the California Science Center in Exposition Park. As I drove home from work on Friday I heard that Endeavour would be parked on Manchester Blvd. for the next few hours while they prepared to switch to a lighter transport system to cross the 405 freeway. I had no firm plans for the evening, and I missed the fly-over last month, so I decided to swing by and take a look.

Toyota, a sponsor of the California Science Center, is participating in the transport by pulling Endeavour on a "light weight" dolly over the 405, using a single Toyota Tundra. Of course Toyota is also paying to turn this feat into a promotional video to help promote their "Made in the USA" Tundra, and demonstrate it's capacity to pull a 150 ton package.

I worked my way through the crowd standing on La Cienega and got a few shots of the orbiter in front of the iconic Randy's Donuts. I happened to be filming as the Tundra and Endeavour started rolling across the Manchester Bridge.

Toyota's Endeavour site

California Science Center | Mission 26: The Big Endeavour

Raspberry Pi and radio.

I have been playing around with this small Raspberry Pi "box" for a few weeks now, and it's a lot of fun. It's not so much a "get business done" machine, but a simple $35 Linux computer that can fit almost anywhere, and run simple tasks using little power.

The Raspberry Pi was introduced in February in the UK, but has taken the hacker/maker/gadget/nerd world by storm. Right now my R-Pi is running xbmc, but I want to get another one set up to run OP25, but there are literally thousands of things you can do with a Raspberry Pi.

"Raspberry Pi and Ham Radio"

raspberrypi.org