W3AXL – Page 2

May 13, 2016 Antennas / Reviews

The Comet RS-720 NMO Mount – A Review

DISCLAIMER: I’m not paid for any reviews I write. Hell, I wish I was; it’d bring in more money for fun radio stuff. Be assured my reviews are 100% my own stream of consciousness. There has never been a more controversial topic in ham radio than that of mobile antenna installations. Half of the world thinks that everything can be solved with a good hole saw through the roof. The other half is reasonable and understands that sometimes that isn’t an option. Let me preface this by saying that yes, in most situations a drilled and sealed NMO mount properly

Read On

November 19, 2015 Uncategorized

The Motorola Railroad Spectra – part two

So here we are again. Same radio, different day. In our last adventure, we discovered that my newly acquired Motorola Spectra Railroad Model was stuck in a boot loop with the FAIL 01/90 error code, the general hardware fault code. Unfortunately, it was not going to be as simple as program and go with this radio.

Read On

November 7, 2015 Motorola / Radios

The Motorola Railroad Spectra – part one

As well as being a ham radio operator, I also am a huge rail buff. As such, I had long wanted to add a railroad radio to my collection. Unfortunately, the only ones to be found for sale were either old radios from the 80’s with limited feature sets, or newer Astro radios from the big M that were way more than I was willing to pay for a radio. Fortunately I was able to stumble on a for-parts Motorola Spectra on ebay for a very, very decent price with shipping. The radio was advertised as untested, but pulled from

Read On

October 2, 2015 Radios

Tytera MD-380 Initial Impressions

DMR is the hot new digital mode that everybody seems to want a piece of, even though it’s been around for several years. The real reason everyone’s been jumping aboard is the rise of inexpensive DMR portables, specifically ones like Tytera’s MD-380. For $170 US you get a fully functional UHF digital radio that can do both conventional analog 70cm as well as DMR communication. Previously radios like the XPR line from the big M were going for upwards of $500 used, so this is a welcome price drop. It’s not unlike how Baofeng revolutionized entry-level radios a few years

Read On

September 15, 2015 Updates

Welcome to the site!

Hey everyone. My name’s Patrick, and this is my blog. Alright, now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get down to business. This is going to be where I post all of my amateur radio ramblings, reviews, repair logs, build logs, and general bullshit that I feel like posting on any given day. Now this isn’t going to be a dumping ground, but it is by no means going to be a professional website about the technicalities of operating amateur radios. Speaking of which, let’s talk about that a little bit more. I’m currently licensed as a

Read On