Another week of amateur radio has expired. Expired Ham, get it? 🙂
Welcome to another issue of Expired Ham, a weekly newsletter where I discuss the ways I participated in the amateur radio hobby this week.
A slow week here in regard to amateur radio. Weather last weekend prevented me from getting any further along with the FT-891 mobile installation. I did do some experimentation with audio routing in the car. As it turns out, you can connect the stereo output from the FT-891’s control head to your car’s AUX input jack and route the radio’s audio through your car’s sound system. I can’t say this is the cleanest audio option, but it sure beats finding a way to mount the huge MLS-100 external speaker or using another external speaker option connected to the control head.
I’m searching for a suitable “helping hands” soldering station that is flexible enough to work for nearly any soldering project I plan on working on. In particular, I’m looking for something that can easily and securely hold a small circuit board on the scale of, say an Arduino Nano. It would also need to be useful in other soldering jobs such as holding two wires end to end so they can be soldered together. Most options I’ve come across use those flexible “arms” with alligator clips on the ends, but my experience shows that these do not provide a sturdy platform for what soldering jobs I’ve done so far. Luckily, most of the soldering station tools that can be found online are relatively cheap, so I don’t feel too bad about trying different designs. However, if you have recommendations in this area, please do share them.
That’s all I’ve go to say for this week.
73,
Matthew, K2MAS
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