EMF Things to Do

What is EMF Camp? It’s a Biannual event for hackers, makers and geeky people to get together started in 2012.

In 2016 & 2018 some of the things you could do at the event included the following (in no particular order):-
Blacksmithing, Maths, Ring Making, Karaoke, become a True Scotsman, Amateur Radio, Be on bridge if star trek ship, play 3D life sized Guitar hero, retro arcade & console games, internet controlled lighting of a rabbit, order a drink over the internet and watch a robot make it, Dungeons and dragons, cards against humanity, sumo robot competition, fire ping pong, 3D printing, Laser cutting, use a BBC micro to Tweet, be in a tent with Mains electricity, WiFi or Cabled internet, smoke machines, Laser tag, tuck shop, hackerspace passports and stamps, hackable badges, use a BBS, soldering, meet Tom Scott, drank Buckfast, Laser & pyrotechnics rave, pagers, DECT phone network, GSM Phone badge with Sim card (Hologram.io), ethical lock picking, High Altitude Ballooning (HAB), order beer with Bitcoin

Please let me know if there is anything I’ve missed and probably there are lots I’ve not seen, or forgotten.

Updates to Blog (finally)

I’m working on loads of updates to Blog. I’ve decided to keep most old content, but may tweak it, and the static pages with info about me and my radios will be updated at some time.

I’ve already done the logbook page which now shows the last QSO from my Cloudlog logbook. Also if haven’t noticed, I have a new theme.

2020 Ham Radio Challenges

 

I started 2020 with my 4 month old Yaesu FT-991A needed to be used and set myself a mini challenge. To work 1 QSO each day.

With Covid I had some time I wasn’t in work, so started around March to work all day on the Radio. Below are the monthly QSOs I’ve had, mostly FT8.

  • Jan 2020 – 33
  • Feb 2020 – 39
  • March 2020 – 346
  • April 2020 – 673
  • May 2020 – 208
  • June 2020 – 84
  • July – 551
  • August – 421
  • September – 231

I am now heading to the end of the year with the new mini challenge of 10x the amount of QSOs for the year – 3.660 QSO by 31st December.

The picture above is from my Logbook ( m.0tzo.me ) which shows I’m now at 100 Days with minimum QSO each day since 13th July 2020. This goal is to get 366 continuous days, and hopefully to the end of 2021 too.

World’o’Techno Build Notes

Note:- This is not my project, mearly my attempt at recreating it and some build notes.. Original here ( http://www.jarkman.co.uk/catalog/robots/worldotechno.htm )

Also this is a work in progress, and some steps not included, yet

  • Use at least a Raspberry Pi 2
  • Download Raspbian specifically this version as has correct Sonic Pi Version
    • https://downloads.raspberrypi.org/raspbian/images/raspbian-2015-09-28/
  • Raspberry Pi Configuration
    • Change Password
    • sudo reboot
    • ssh into pi (I use Putty on Windows)
    • sudo raspi-config
      • Option 8 / A8 Serial / Would you like a login shell to be accessible over serial? Choose No
    • sudo apt-get update
      • at this stage I don’t sudo apt-get upgrade, as need the older version of Sonic Pi
    • Following guide from ( https://github.com/jarkman/world-o-techno/blob/master/README.md ) I do the following:-
      • sudo apt-get install gpsd gpsd-clients python-gps
        • sudo gpsd /dev/ttyAMA0 -F /var/run/gpsd.sock or
        • sudo gpsd /dev/ttyUSB0 -F /var/run/gpsd.sock
      • sudo reboot
    • mkdir world-o-techno
    • cd world-o-techno
    • gem install sonic-pi-cli

There are a few other things I’ve probably done not included, but there are my notes, not a full on install guide.

Useful other links

  • https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/t/sonic-pi-for-standalone-installations/225
  • My tweet on success https://twitter.com/m0tzo/status/1244696802709962760

Continue reading World’o’Techno Build Notes

Reminiscing the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A

Tonight on a chat with partner, I was reminiscing about my Texas Instruments TI-99/4A my uncle gave me many years ago (sadly I don’t have any more).  I do recall I had  4 cartridge games and the game joysticks.

Games ( most listed here TI-99/4A Games )

  • Pac-man
  • TI Invaders
  • Video Chess
  • and Music maker (unknown proper name)

TI-99/4A at Wikipedia Link
TI-99/4A at Old Computers Link