Off topic, but reminds me of one of my favorite photo galleries:

http://www.kramerfirm.com/pictures/thumbnails.php?album=8

If you recognize your house in any of these pictures, call your cable company and raise hell (maybe from a neighbor's house!).

After seeing video of the interior of the ISS I find it hard to believe they couldn't fashion a 70cm antenna from some spare copper wire!

Another vote for the Kenwood TM-d710. I've had the older TM-d700 for several years now, with a Garmin GPS-18 (puck type gps). The display of the TM-d700 provides basic GPS information, such as lat/lon, speed and altitude, but not navigation functions... I just use my phone for that. The d700 has a lot of beeps to tell you what's going on, which can get annoying sometimes, but it's always nice to hear the "new message" beep from a nearby ham. If you want to drill down it's easy enough to use the soft keys to get a general idea of where a station is located. Not quite as simple as looking at a map, but not as cluttered either (or distracting).

If you want to get your feet wet and have a laptop and a data interface you could also use a program called agwpe and UIview32. It's been a few years, so maybe it's been replaced by something better, but I used it for a while at home and it did work fairly well. However you'll be tying up your 857 and all the cables might get messy (not to mention it may be illegal to have a laptop open when driving even though I see police do it all the time).

The APRS network is fairly decent across Nevada, Utah and Colorado. Several people have their stations set up to send severe weather alerts, and I've been able to get packets acknowledged in areas I can't get cell service (a very long stretch of I70 in Utah, for example). 50W and a good antenna helps, but remember to turn it back down when you get to major metros.

Not exactly what you are looking for, but interesting none the less:

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9306

It displays an analog or digital clock on a 2 channel oscilloscope (in XY mode). It will also accept a 1 PPS signal and NMEA string from a GPS module.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xO-Q2BlIIPU

Of course in a basement it may not perform so well if you're using a GPS without an external antenna, but I've found the latest SiRF 3 receivers do very well indoors.

While messing around trying to hear ARRISsat1 I got the idea of using my Orion Teletrack telescope mount as an Az/El Rotator for an Arrow antenna. At first I thought I'd just use the manual controls on the keypad, but there's also an included serial cable. There are a few PC control programs available. The one I tried is Stellarium (http://stellarium.org/). Stellarium is an open source planetarium and is available for Windows, Mac and Linux (I run Ubuntu), and there are plugins for showing satellites and also for telescope control. Even if you don't want to use it for tracking satellites I highly recommend it just because it is such a great program (just using it as a screen saver is reason enough).

After determining what USB device it was assigned, I tried different models and found the Celestron Nexstar model works with my mount. After aligning to Polaris (since it was daytime I just used a compass and inclinometer to get fairly close) it was ready to go.

So I started messing around (and missing passes) and found out that this mount can easily keep up with LEOs. It isn't quite perfect yet, since you have to keep telling the mount to move (Stellarium just points the mount and then lets the mount track on it's own, which is fine for tracking stars and planets, but it isn't designed for objects like satellites). However, when I used Gpredict for radio control it was fairly easy to hear beacons on FO-29 and VO-52 on several passes fairly automatically. Another problem is there's an fair amount of computer trash getting into the radio.

Long term, I'd like to get these mounts added to Hamlib (Linux rig control library). There's an older telescope tracking system that uses a client/server model that may be adaptable, so that way I could eliminate Stellarium and just use Gpredict for everything.

Anyway, just thought I'd pass this along. I can post some pictures if anyone is interested.

xastir, although you will have to compile it:

http://www.xastir.org/wiki/HowTo:Mac_OSX

And IIRC, you will also loose any licenses you may hold.

So is ARISSat1 mounted on the ISS or is it going to be released and allowed to drift? I only ask because of the connection to suitsat-1.

Seems to me we'd get a lot more use out of something mounted to the station, but I imagine the rent is like Boardwalk with a hotel...

Assuming you are still using the same equipment (and so is your new ISP, it is unlikely they'd switch it out, but they might make a few changes), here's what I had to do with my dad's Verizon setup:

1) Change your DSL modem to "bridge mode."

2) change the Internet connection type on your Linksys router to PPPoE, and enter your username/password.

This will make your DSL modem behave like a modem instead of a router (technically a bridge, but that's another post). It will basically pass whatever comes into or out of your router without any internal processing. Your configuration now has 2 routers back to back, both NATting your connection. Any time you have incoming traffic, like Echolink, a web camera connection, or a home server, the routers aren't able to figure out what goes where. Bridge mode allows your Linksys to control the situation (and it will have a public IP address now). And if you ever plan on setting up remote station operation, you'll be 90% of the way there, you'll just need to set up a dynamic DNS account, since Verizon seems to change your IP address every few hours.

One note: dad's connection was using a Westel modem with built-in WiFi and it seemed to go back to router mode when the mood struck (power glitch, Internet glitch, etc). We ended up buying a dumbed down modem that doesn't seem to have that problem. If you find you have to re-do this every day or so, you might want to get a simpler modem, if there's one available.

Instructions here: http://onlinehelp.verizon.net/consumer/bin/.../Case21508WiredLinksys6100.pdf (connect your PC directly to the Westel modem for the 1st part of the instructions).

Hope this helps.

Eric, K0JEG

PS: technically you could do everything with the Westel modem/router (keeping it in router mode) and eliminate the Linksys router. I'm assuming you have the Linksys for Wifi, which you could keep, just connect the Westel and the Linksys together on the LAN switch side instead of the Linksys WAN port. You would no longer be using the Linksys router section, just the internal switch and wifi bridge, so you'd need to shut down the DHCP server on the Linksys. I think the Linksys is a <i>slightly</i> better router though.

Why do you need the TT4 if you have a th_d72? You should be able to use the serial output of the d72 direct into the aver. Not sure what mode the d72 should be in, either packet or aprs.

It's not likely something you are looking for, but there are a few Arduino projects out there for picking up WWVB and decoding it. Arduino devices typically run on regulated 5VDC, so it should be fairly simple to run them off a battery setup for extended periods. The LEDs will tend to drastically reduce battery life, so you should plan on using AC when it is available.

The nice thing about DIY is you can make it the way you want. The bad part is you have to do a lot of the legwork. But at least with Arduino there's a fairly good community who seems willing to help out.

Well, I'm fairly excited about this radio. I've tried carrying my FT897 around on day hikes, it's just a little too heavy. The FT817 is just not all that great of a radio, and has that terrible UI. While I don't think I'd want it on the Appalachian trail (although some use the KX1 on it), I could see myself stashing it in the bike pannier on a weekend ride, and absolutely overnight in a motel.

And if it does become a popular radio, I'm sure we'll see mods and hardened cases, especially if it is available as a kit.

I'll have to get mine back out of storage and try it. Just picked up the Kenwood TH-d72 too!

Looks like it's going to be fun summer!

Well, I use UMA with my Galaxy-S, an Android phone (BTW, where's the ham software for Android?), so I'm not familiar with Blackberry security problems over WiFi. However, if you have issues with a microwave oven taking out your AP it may have a comprised shield. I don't believe I've ever had a noticeable problem with WiFi due to a microwave oven.

Those boxes are interesting, but to me the way T-mobile does it is much better. They use a protocol called UMA on Blackberries and some Android phones that just uses 802.11A/B/G and VoIP without needing any additional hardware. The downside is that phones have to have a WiFi radio, but any newer smartphones have it, so that's really becoming a non-issue.

An added bonus: it works anywhere you have a WiFi connection, including overseas. The femtocells have a GPS and will only work in areas where the cell phone company is licensed to operate.