Our club had a hamfest last weekend. 95% of the stuff was ham related. In fact, I think I was the only "vendor" who was selling a few non-ham items (an Android tablet and a PC case), which were looked at but didn't sell. It was very small swap meet with only about 10 tables total, and 2 professional vendors (Arrow Antennas and a parts bin guy).

I've found this to be the case in most of the hamfests I go to in Colorado. Mostly ham gear (running the gamut from parts and junk boxes to fairly new radios in excellent condition), but a few used commercial 2-way parts guys and some networking gear, most of which seems to go back home with the vendors.

Contrast this with some of the big hamfests I used to attend in the DC metro area, where whole buildings were dedicated to the "white box" PC components and rave LED flashlights crowd.

Not sure which I prefer. I know that when I was building PCs it was nice to see what was available, but I usually ended up buying from the local guy when I got home (who usually had as good a deal as at the hamfest). But having just ham vendors is nice too if you have a limited time to look at everything.

Really, what I'd like to see is hamfests morph into more of a convention type model, with more emphasis on presentations and training sessions, and less focus on the swap meet. But I'm guessing I'm in the minority, even though most of the sessions I've attended have been packed if it's an interesting topic.

Also available for Android phones:

http://www.wolphi.com/android-apps/droidsstv-2

I've been able to send though a 2M HT to another just by holding the phone speaker up to the HT mic. Not sure what the actual emission method would be called, since it's using an FM carrier (and definitely wouldn't be very popular over a repeater), but it works when you coordinate with the receiver.

This site: http://www.mp3car.com/ may have some information for you too. There are a lot of Chinese companies that make video displays for dashboards that take HDMI and/or VGA inputs, and hardened 12VDC PC cases that are made for automotive use.

As for modifying the factory system, your time will be better spent working on an aftermarket system. Besides, the second your VW dealer sees what you've done, you can forget about the warranty.

FRS radios aren't all that fun to listen to, at least as I've heard them. Of course I lived near a ski resort at the time. Basically, I  heard 3 things: a lot of kids who should have their mouths washed out with soap (because cussin' into a radio is fun), boring "what do you want for dinner" conversations and key-down because you are sitting on the radio background noise.

Any satellite receiver since the 1980s would be looking for the LNB output frequencies of 950-1450MHz (assuming it was used for C band). Analog satellite video was actually frequency modulated, not vestigial sideband. Digital satellite video uses several different modulation schemes, QAM, QPSK or something similar. Note that the output of the LNB is inverted.

I don't know much about Ka and Ku receivers, but they are similar in that they look at downconverted frequency bands, and almost exclusively use digital modulation. Re-reading your post, they are all direct broadcast satellite (DBS) systems, on Ku band using digital modulation. You might be able to get something out but not really worth the trouble.

looking at this page: http://www.setileague.org/articles/protectd.htm it looks like modifying an LNB would be a better use of your time. But it might be even better to look at receiving 1420.406 MHz and looking for Hydrogen just to see what you get.

A rigblaster PNP should work out of the box with a Mac Mini, but if not you may need to install a driver for the UART: http://www.silabs.com/products/mcu/Pages/USBtoUARTBridgeVCPDrivers.aspx

I use it with Ubuntu running FLDigi, which is "available" for Macs, but might need to be compiled. Note that there's a native Linux driver for the CP2102 UART chip, so it just showed up as /dev/ttyUSB0 when I plugged it in. I know that OSX lists USB serial ports a little differently.

If you just want to access the TS-2000's TNC you'll just need a USB-serial adapter and whatever software you like.

I've been watching these guys for a while now, but their hardware just isn't quite there yet:

http://www.dynavin.com/android.php

Not quite what you have in mind, but most of the in-dash systems are propitiatory and I don't know of any that output NMEA sentences. With this system you could run APRS Droid and pair up a bluetooth TNC.

I remember the same thing said about Japan. Then we shifted electronics to digital devices networked together and they couldn't keep up.

Ultimately the Chinese will be taken down by the next information revolution, 3d printing and other robotic manufacturing. Why build something in China, ship it across the Pacific, store it somewhere and then overland to the consumer when you can get something made at a local shop (or your home)? Instead of shipping finished product, ship semi-processed materials that can be easily formed, colored, shaped, etc on site at the retail location. The retail model shifts to something like a restaurant model, where production, sales and delivery all happen almost at the same time.

I lurk on this mailing list. Not high speed data per say, but some good info: http://wetnet.net/mailman/listinfo/seatcp

Keep an eye out for this radio sometime this fall/winter: http://nwdigitalradio.com/

There are a lot of reasons why Digital HS data isn't on the radar for most amateurs. One big reason is, other than voice and video, what do you do with it? Digital voice is OK, but is it all that much better than analog FM? Is there some big advantage to replacing repeater networks' analog links with digital repeaters and digital RF links? Most repeater ops are trying to get rid of RF linking, instead opting for Internet connections, due to the reliability and ease of setup. There's quite a few people who laugh at the DXers because of all the work that goes into a good HF station while they sit on the couch with an HT on the local IRLP node. While I disagree with them, I do see their point -if all they want to do is talk around the world why bother with all the other stuff (but of course that's not the point of DX now, is it).

Another issue is hardware. Not just the expense of Dstar and related tech, but other than connecting a PC or laptop to a dedicated modem there's really nothing out there. In the commercial world it took touchscreens like the iPhone and Android to get people to start using data for something other than simple texting. In the amateur world we don't even have T9 text input! I'm very excited that there's a growing community of ham app developers out there because if/when a manufacturer figures out how to strap an Android UI on an HT they'll be apps ready to go. If some such device got popular we'd see the networks get built out, much like when Kenwood put out the TM-D700 and D7 it made it easy for people to get into APRS. This led to software and other hardware to where we are now, with a mostly robust network.

Ski Country ARC hamfest. October 20, 2012 at Sopris Elementary School, Glenwood Springs CO.

http://tinyurl.com/scarc-ham-fest

8:00am - 1:00pm. VE testing starts at 11:00, Walking fox hunt at 12:00.
Talk in 146.880MHz, PL 107.2

For more info: http://www.k0rv.org

I bought a tablet at BB a few weeks ago. The price was within $10 of Amazon, and I could pick it up at the store same day. Sales tax did bump up the price (along with eating lunch out instead of at home), but it was a fairly good experience. They really need to promote this service (buy online, pickup at the store) if they want to survive. I'll bet most people don't even know it exists.

These folks need to google "inverse square law"

This is the same thinking that had people in California buying potassium iodide pills after Fukushima, or that the constellations somehow influence your personality.

Love the nixie tube clock! Did you get the gps option with it?

The marketplace isn't true chaos though. You don't buy based on flipping coins or random number generators, and sellers don't sell using those methods either. You don't know the reasons why Kenwood chooses to build and sell radios. It may have nothing to do with making money. I would think a certain number of their engineers in other departments are hams, and getting radios with the company logo might be  a source of pride to them. Not saying they don't want to make money either, but maybe they're willing to accept lower margins than with other products. And Kenwood's never been as big a player in any of their markets than say Sony or Panasonic.

And judging by the number of d7, d72, d700s, and d710s on APRS I'd say they aren't doing too bad.

Also the Rigblasters have a CW out port that is connected to the KEY input (where you would install a code key). When the PC sends a DTR or CTS (depending on software and interface) it is the same as closing the key. You change the mode of the radio to CW in order to make it work.

If you're using software that doesn't support direct keying, your PC sends out a tone similar to digi modes. You would then put your radio in USB/LSB mode (actually for the FT897, Digi mode). The downside is you can't take advantage of QSK and someone told me it doesn't sound as clean as a directly keyed transmitter (anyone want to chime in? I'd like to know).