Good Morning, All
My apologies for the delay in posts, but I am struggling to find time to work on the various projects as well as produce a YouTube video once a week. Apparently, if you miss a week they will tank your traffic. I believe I am back in their good graces. "Praise the almighty YouTube overlords". Just joking...
First, I want to thank all the new and long time supporters. I honestly can not keep the channel and related projects going with out you. You are an amazing bunch and I am honored that you see value in what I am trying to accomplish for emergency communications.
EmComm Tools
EmComm Tools development has slowed a bit, but I have been making incremental progress. EmComm Tools now has support for the following:
Position sharing via radio using the Tactical Awareness Map
Offline satellite maps
Optional AES-256 encryption support for chat and position sharing
Offline VOACAP support
The last two are very raw proof-of-concepts. I'll leave the encryption conversation for another day.
Now that I am getting back into HF, I am starting a campaign called NO RANDOM CONTACTS. (Yes, there will be mugs coming soon.) My goal is to use VOACAP for HF prediction with the express goal of trying to make targeted contacts on HF. While the online VOACAP tool is amazing, it goes against the "offline-first" principal of EmComm Tools. I have mostly figured out how to integrate the Tactical Awareness Map with the Linux-based voacapl command line utility. If I am successful, you'll be able to get offline, on-the-fly HF predictions anytime you look up another call sign or drop a pin on the map. Pretty cool, right?
TTP Manpack Bags
I finally found a local Arizonian to help me take my vision for my manpack bag into the final prototype phase. These bags are purpose-built for my operating use-case and are designed to work with the ARMOLOQ TPA pack frame system for these radios: FTM-6000R, FTM-100DR, FT-817/818 and FT-8800/8900. Again, these are not for everyone. This is literally the bag that I need for myself and my preparedness group. As such, I will be doing a limited run of 50 bags as soon as the prototype is finalized.
I want to offer the financial supporters here (anyone who has donated at least $5.00) to be added to the wait list for the initial production run. These will be premium bags so they will be pricey. I will let you know once I determine the actual cost of the bag. Shoot me a note if you want to be added to the wait list.
YouTube
Last week marked an important milestone on YouTube. I am humbled and honored to have it 10,000 subscribers. I could not have done this with out you. Thank you! It seems that my mini series approach was the much needed secret sauce. It pleased the YouTube overlords.
As a small thank you, I am going to take a page from Jason, KM4ACK, and release my videos ad free 1-2 days before they are made public. I hope you enjoy my latest video: "Military-Style Radio - FTM-6000 Manpack - Part II" without ads until Saturday morning.
"Be Strong, Be Safe and Be Prepared" -- The Tech Prepper KT1RUN