I've had a Motorola RAZR v3c from Verizon for about 2.5 years now.
I understand that making something all uber-light (ober-light?) and uber-slim means that there's trade-offs, in regards to durability and reliability.
Even with that in mind, this phone really pisses me off.
I'm actually on my second phone, as the first one decided to initiate a perpetual "reboot" loop a few weeks before the 1yr warranty expired.
The current one decides to either lock-up or power itself off when jarred slightly - likely due to me having dropped it a couple of times.
I seem to remember being able to hurl my Star-Tac against the wall, and having zero issues with it...
Battery life is another bit that drives me insane.
I had to replace the battery on mine a couple months back.
My regular charging regimen is to plug it in nightly - it's a lithium-ion battery, so, no memory, no issue, right? WRONG.
After being unplugged at 6am, it'd start squawking at 4pm about being low. NEVER an issue with the NiMH or LiIon batteries in my StarTac - NEVER.
And what about that low battery alert? Who's fucking brilliant idea was that shit? The battery is going to be dead soon, so we're going to make a stupid fucking warble beep every 30 fucking seconds. If you switch us to vibrate mode, that's even worse, because we're going to make a 3-second vibrate every 30 seconds, and run your battery down even faster!
Cell phones today just piss me off. The concept behind the RAZR was great - a small, ultra-compact flip phone. Sweet.
But modern marketing bullshit has to take that one step further, and push the stupid "value-added services" on everyone. Whatever happened to the days of cheap data cables and free programming software, so I could just plug my phone in, configure the crap I want, dump a ringtone on, and go? Well, those days are gone, because someone discovered that they can make money on you moving pictures from your cellphone to your computer, and all of the other horseshit.
It'd be real nice if someone would just make a decent phone with a good camera in it, the basic applications (alarm clock, calendar, calculator), some less-than-shitty default ringtones, and that's it. No other extraneous bullshit. If we want the oh-so-fetch mobile Internet (stop trying to make it happen, assholes), we can buy a different phone that has those functions. Just give me the phone that I ask for, with a data cable to do my shit, and I'm set. I don't need games that are virtually impossible to play, I don't need the Internet, and I don't need fifteen-thousand stupid fucking apps to get ringtones from.
My "New Every Two" offer has been available for a few months now, and I haven't upgraded yet...
The Samsung SCH-a990 looked like a viable option - a buddy has one, and it's a pretty decent phone, with a 3.0 megapixel camera in it, which makes it more attractive. It's gone now, replaced with a slightly newer version, the Samsung "FlipShot" (Gods, please, smite whoever makes up stupid fucking product names - just stick with the fucking model numbers, already!), which might be an alternative...
Of course, the "new" PDA phone that Verizon is pushing, the VX6800, is looking better and better. It'll now tether with a laptop for net access (the old one, the VX6700, had to be "nudged" to be able to do so - out of the box, Verizon didn't support such access). It's only got a 2.0 megapixel camera, but it's still better the 1.3 megapixel crap. It'll take microSD cards, it's got WiFi goodness, and it's got the slide-out keyboard, so perhaps I can actually text something without getting pissed off.
It's also $300 or something, so, for a gimmicky toy that I really don't need, it's kinda pricy.
I really need to get a new phone.
CRAP!
It seems that I've got old Pentiums coming out of the woodwork, but NOBODY has an older 386 or 486, save for eBay...
I guess I'm just going to have to buy one.
Damn Motorola, and their stupid sales tactics.
So, it appears the majority of my stuff has shown up, and it's all suh-weeeet.
I love these old radios. They're powerful, they're rugged, they're tough, and they can double as a blunt weapon.
Now, all I need to do is source the programming cables and an old laptop, and I can start re-programming them and make them cooler.
If only Motorola could be as cool with their software as they are with their hardware.
Woot!
Got the first of a few eBay purchases today, a Motorola HT600 VHF handheld.
Of course, the first to arrive would be a radio with no battery or charger, but that can wait until later this week, or early next.
With any luck, the one-off radios that I've purchased are of a similar bandsplit, so I can program them to match the others, but if not, oh well - there's always a use for stuff.
I freebanded by Yaesu this weekend, and everything SEEMS to work fine. There's certain areas where it acts like it's transmitting (and supposedly, should be transmitting), but it's not. No big loss on those particular frequencies, though, it would have been cool.
The modification doesn't allow use on the CB frequencies, which, again, is not a BIG deal, but it would have been nice.
It does transmit on FRS/GMRS, so that's handy.
Now the only thing I need to do is read the manual a bit more, and learn some about the whole PL tone/CTCSS concept, and program some memory channels for some oddball repeater shifts.
Soon, this radio will rock hard.
Soon, I shall be far more RadioSexy than I was before.
Good times, good times!
Woot.
Soon, I shall be the owner of a shiny new Yaesu VX-7R.
Of course, mine is going to be black, not silver, because silver is not tacti-cool.
I've had a technician-class license for just about a year, now, and still don't own a radio.
Well, a bit of funding sorted itself out, so I went ahead and ordered it. I've been wanting one of these for a while, and never could quite decide whether or not to order the handheld first, or a mobile radio first.
Obviously, I've made up my mind.
I want the mobile setup, I really do, but that's going to require a bit more of an expenditure first - I need to get the vehicle setup for it, and I'd really rather have something NOW, and work on the rest later...
Woot woot!
So, this is nifty...
I've been trying to learn more about radio - specifically, amateur radio and stuff.
It's been my assumption/understanding that you need a variety of different antennas for different bands, including some potentially massively wide/tall antennas for the HF (shortwave, long-distance) kinda stuff.
I'm interested in some mobile stuff along the 2m and 70cm bands (VHF and what not), and figured I'd limit myself to that in the Explorer, since I could get away with a couple of not-huge whip-style antennas.
Well, I'm at Safeway today with Chad, and there's this pickup with probably a 10-12 foot tall whip with some weird PVC-pipe style base.
Conveniently, the driver was exiting the store as we were going in, so I was able to talk to him. He's running a Icom IC-706MKIIG, and he's claims to have, from his truck, with that radio and a 500W amp, to have talked worldwide.
EENTERESTING...
Things may be re-thought. I'd love to setup a base station here at the house, but it's not entirely realistic, as I don't really have the room for it, nor do I want to go to the trouble of setting something up that may have to be torn down within a year or two.
With the replacement of the center console, so that I can hold radios there, I should have plenty of room for an amp elsewhere.
It should be rather easy to rig up an antenna for HF operation that's removable, or folds down or something, so that I'm not driving around with a gigantic antenna all the time.
Good times, good times - lots of stuff to consider.
So, today has been pretty damned cool.
My first shipment of Lan-Cay M9 bayonets showed up last night, so I have pig-stickers for my AR's now, which is pretty nifty.
I got my new cell phone last night, a Motorola RAZR V3c, blang blang. It's such a nifty little thing. I love the size and the look of it, and I love that the data/charging cable is USB spec.
I stopped by Staples and picked up a cheap $10.00 USB cable with the proper interface, and have already started customizing my phone - now to just figure out how to put ringtones on it, and change a few more stupid Verizon graphics.
Then, tonight, I took my FCC test for Amateur Radio, Techinician Class - and kicked it's ass.
The test is 35 questions randomly chosen from a pool of over 300 questions. No two people in the same room will have the same test.
There's a GREAT online practice test at http://www.qrz.com/p/testing.pl that features all of the current question pools, and will randomly assign you the appropriate questions out of each individual sub-pool.
I spent maybe 10-12 hours over a couple weeks with the practice test, and last night, I scored 33 out of 35 on the real test.
A score of 26/35 is passing.
Two other guys were there last night. One aced the test, all 35 questions right (show-off!), and the other scored 30 of 35.
Now, of course, I require a radio, but that can wait for a little while.
I need to learn Morse Code, so I can get the more advanced licenses - it's only 5WPM, and while I'm kind of dreading it, if I practice, it'll be easy.
The FCC is actually considering doing away with the Morse Code requirement, but that'll be at least a year or two before anything enacted actually goes into effect.
With that done, I'm trying to find a "1x2" vanity callsign that I can get. The FCC automatically-assigned callsigns these days are "2x3".
A brief explanation:
Most call signs you'll see will be something like K7ABC - this is considered a "1x3".
All amateur callsigns in the US are assigned with an A, K, N or W prefix letter.
Following the prefix, a number, 0-9, is applied, depending on region. Oregon is in Region 7, so, A7, K7, N7 or W7.
Following that, two more letters will be applied for uniqueness. These are applied in alphabetical order - A7AA, for example. A7AA is a "1x2"
Now then. Amateur Radio has been around for a looooooong time, so, 1x2's are all used up. The FCC then went to 1x3's. Those got used up. Now, they're issuing 2x3's.
This means I'll get a callsign that will be something like WC7ABC or something similar.
At max, I want a 1x3. I'd prefer a 1x2, since the shorter callsigns are semi-rare.
Problem is, I don't get to choose what they assign, initially.
Once I receive my first callsign, I can apply for a "vanity" callsign, out of those available. I can't apply for 1x2's that begin with A, due to my license, but it appears that K, N and W are all available.
Now, following that, I need/want something that sounds tacti-cool when identifying myself, since I have to identify myself with NATO phonetics.
Now, the number 7 isn't bad (even though 9 (NINER!) sounds cooler. I'm going to try for a 7, since that's my region, but vanity applications aren't required to choose a callsign in their region.
N7MQ, for example, sounds lame - NOVEMBER SEVEN MIKE QUEBEC, OVER.
K9EV would be sweet - KILO NINER ECHO VICTOR, OVER!
Anything with E (echo), F (foxtrot), G (golf), K (kilo), L (lima), S (sierra), T (tango), V (victor) or Z (zulu) would rock.
There's a 2x1, KH7K, that's available, though, KILO HOTEL SEVEN KILO sounds a bit redundant.
If I look outside my region, some cool stuff is available, like K9HA, K9JG, and some others.
If I move up to a 1x3, some really nifty ones are around, but then I lose the cool-factor of a 1x2.
Some 1x3 examples: K7EGF, K7TEG, K7FSZ, and so on.
Oh well. We'll see what I get when it gets here. If I get something out of the box like KA7WTF or WT7OMG or something, I might keep it.
Interestingly, if I look outside region 7, I see that K8WTF is available.
I might try for that one... :)
I think I'm going to go get my Technician License, so I can muck about with some Ham Radio crap.
Anyone got any reccomendations on some starter gear (transmitter, etc.) ??