Daily Comms Practice - No Cellphone!

[@Eric10179]

Love all the innovation and cool tech/radio stuff you’re doing, but I think the unsung hero here and in a lot of your videos is the close-knit group and local community you have; a strong personal network. Consider yourself lucky, I would love such a thing but little-to-no people in my area are even remotely interested in such a thing. Very jealous lol!

[@TheTechPrepper]

You nailed it on the head. This requires a community. Building and maintaining relationships is hard and takes time. I've been working on this for just under 5 years.

[@Eric10179]

@@TheTechPrepperyou’re an inspiration to a lot of us to follow suit and try and do the same

[@Kd4stt.]

I'm located in McMinn County, Tennessee. ?????

[@N4EJM]

Same here

[@Kd4stt.]

@N4EJM Hey John. I read your bio on QRZ. C.B. was my gateway radio hobby that led me to becoming a ham radio operator. I'm hoping to get into JS8CALL this spring. It's a bit too cold for me to be out deploying an HF antenna.

[@MichaelLeo]

The Tech Prepper: the man who never sleeps!!

[@TheTechPrepper]

Here's my secret. I nap everyday.

[@unsafe_dB_level]

Best msg passing practice I've gotten was when a friend suggested we limit politics and gossip to digital modes for a couple weeks. Our families also appreciated not having to hear us yapping.

[@TheTechPrepper]

Great move on your part to keep it focused and practical. The trick is not losing momentum, but also not having it be a chore. Keep it up!

[@genemcphee8053]

Awesome video. You always give me ideas for projects.I have a Toughbook Panasonic 2-in-1 CF-20 MK2 in the mail that I plan to use just for Amateur Radio. More to follow. 73, Gene N3XUS "PREPARE DAILY"

[@TheTechPrepper]

Morning, Gene. Enjoy the food-for-thought and enjoy your new Toughbook. Those things are tanks and perfect for dedicated amateur radio use.

[@lastcool79]

awsome work. love the videos

[@TheTechPrepper]

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the video. I am really enjoying sharing the brain dumps in a single take with no editing.

[@cidcolead1115]

They used to make a 2-meter only SuperGainer. That was excellent. Ran them on the Suburbans with 160 watts on simplex. Now I have the longer dual band on the pick-up's Back Rack and the shorter one on the trunk lip mount on the small car, that clears the garage door. I have the 6-meter for the truck but have not installed it.

[@stevesummersell_K4WXX]

Love, love what you’re putting together!

[@TheTechPrepper]

It's starting to come together and the community out here helping test is amazing. I took a quick break from the 9600 baud BBS port build to check-in on KZbin. Happy Sunday!

[@stevenpeterson8444]

i used to be able to hang with these videos. now it’s all over my head.

[@DarkShadowCustoms]

I need to get caught up on all your projects. Life happened and I stopped watching the channel for a while. I love that you are taking a targeted approach to your emergency communication.

[@TheTechPrepper]

It’s good to have you back! I’m always working on new stuff.

[@bartkula1469]

Geat stuff , please continue Mr Tech Prepper

[@TheTechPrepper]

Roger. Will do.

[@byroncudworth382]

Those mini pcs are amazing in that they just sip power. For the day job and radio fun homelab I plan to get a cluster of them and experiment with VMs and the BBS at some point. For now its just a long term plan though. Keep doing what your doing!

[@TheTechPrepper]

Great plan. The great thing about older tech is that the software uses very little CPU in comparison to modern appliances. So far, I'm enjoying the simplicity of these inexpensive machines. Good luck with your project.

[@JebBrilliant]

Love the more regular videos and hope to join the paid group soon.

[@TheTechPrepper]

I appreciate your support and am excited to see you on the coffee side in the future! I was concerned putting out regular videos with zero editing and only one take, but the community seems to like them. It's great being able to share the experiments as I am working through them. 73.

[@dvmtg4284]

I prefer these videos to more edited and scripted. Thanks for all the info, very helpful!

[@bruehlt]

Can't wait to see the results of the 9600 baud project. There are no 9600 baud stations here in FL.

[@TheTechPrepper]

The real test will be to see its pros and cons versus 1200 baud in practice. I'll compare reliability, speed and range. Stay tuned.

[@Hanesy]

Hello. Thank you. From philippines! 73!😅

[@TheTechPrepper]

You're welcome. Hello, from sunny Arizona.

[@DJCryptoStix]

Let's gooooo 73

[@tuckymilky]

raw daily videos are way preferred over monthly or weekly edited videos

[@TheTechPrepper]

I am not sure if I can do daily videos for too much longer as the projects on the day job will be ramping up starting tomorrow and I need to a bit more software development in the mornings before work. However, I like this format and will try to do these often and when there is something to share. I still plan on doing a longer video about 4 to 6 weeks. Thanks for the feedback.

[@jameskc3oxn976]

I've experimented with miniPCs running on a solar/battery system, 12v, but have had issues with the fluctuation of charge and drain voltages. The pc does not like the voltage going beyond about 10% from the 12v nominal. During charging 13.8 (sla) or 14.6 (Li) it shuts off and if power dips to 11 or so volt it shuts off. Have you had this issue? It may be the one I'm using but i assume that all of them are going to be roughly the same on the inside. I'm now looking at an embedded industrial pc for around $700 that can accept voltages from 9-24v. It also runs on an IoT version of Windows 10 Enterprise that I'm interested in testing. It's important to me that my Winlink gateway run without intervention on maintenance free battery power. I wish to set it and forget it. 73 de WE3D

[@DM-qm5sc]

The only thing i dont link about beelink is the bios. You cant get an update

[@andrewdaw6050]

Could you talk about security for smartphones/tablets/ laptops. Very interested in getting into some of these digital modes and messaging but skeptical of the security of using stuff that could potentially be hacked, tracked etc. We are already running xts5000s but want to get set up with something for longer range coms within our community (20-30 miles) with being able to message.

[@miroslavmajer5155]

I still don't understand how do you do it technically - meaning the tech app stack.

[@TheTechPrepper]

I am working on a video for next month that will explain everything.

[@miroslavmajer5155]

@@TheTechPrepper Well, I am a developer myself, I think I could do it by myself, just need the apps what you are doing. may I ask you to share it already?

[@TheTechPrepper]

@@miroslavmajer5155 Unfortunately, I do not have the time to hand off in-flight work. If you are a developer just look for LinBPQ and check out John Wiseman's documentation. I'll distribute my setup once I have it finalized for everyone. Good luck!

[@miroslavmajer5155]

@@TheTechPrepper Will try - thank you

[@TheTechPrepper]

@@miroslavmajer5155 A lot of the config is 20 to 30 year old tribal knowledge. Myself and The Modern Ham are working hard to re-document everything.

[@holdfastjoe8841]

Are you hosting the bbs on a linux laptop or raspberry pi?

[@TheTechPrepper]

Linux on a Panasonic FZ-M1 Mk1 tablet.

[@holdfastjoe8841]

@TheTechPrepper ok, just thought i heard you mention a pi at one point. Given the rest of the hardware this is running you might as well have it on a laptop

[@Swamp-Fox]

Man, I HATE that I have allowed myself to become so dependent on and addicted to my smartphone. They are evil. I really need to make the effort to work on that.

[@TheTechPrepper]

Just disable your cell data for a week and see how that goes. You can do this from both Android and iOS by flipping a toggle button. In my case, I stopped the service altogether, which is likely too much for most people.

[@czmg22]

@lastcool79 I agree. Thanks @thetechprepper !