Baofeng F22: A Decent Little FRS Walkie-Talkie

I had to advise on a purchase of a dozen around-the-site walkie-talkies for FCEM this week, and after some discussion followed by digging around a little bit, we settled on the new-ish Baofeng F22 FRS.  One main consideration was that we need something we can hand out to just anybody who's working on site, which means it has be on a license-free band and come at an almost throw-away cost.  In other words, Family Radio Service (FRS) is the only way to go.  See picture at right, in comparison with a Midland model.  For reference, the grid squares are 1/2". 

Here are the pros, cons, and whatevers on the F22:

Pros: Easy to use.  100% channel compatibility with other FRS radios, across all 22 channels.  Sub-$10 per, sold in various multi-packs.  IP54 rating, which means it'll be OK in normal but not extreme dust & rain environments.  Removable, rechargeable Li-ion battery pack, which means no memory effects when recharging partially discharged batteries.  USB-C charging, that's pretty cool.  Four hours from dead to fully charged.  Can operate on 3 AA batteries, which fit in the same compartment as the Li-ion pack; that's a big in-a-pinch versatility feature.  Works fine on rechargeable NiMH AA batteries too, which put out slightly less voltage (but don't try to recharge them in the radios).  Keypad lock that leaves the PTT, on/off, and squelch defeat buttons operational while locking all else.  Compatible with Kenwood-style two-prong earpiece & mic plugs.  NOAA weather radio reception.  Menu system is easy to use, but have the manual at hand.  Easy to set up CTCSS/DCS squelch "privacy" feature.  Scan function is easy to use, both for channels and CTCSS/DCS tones.  Good overall physical design: right size, good keypad buttons, molded-in lanyard eye, good clip design.

Cons: Micro-print manual; download the pdf because it's much easier to read.  No NOAA weather alert (but you can still manually listen).  Volume settings start out at "loud enough inside" and run up through "WAY TOO DAMN LOUD."  The operation and menu user interface is a little clunky, so keep a manual at hand.

One More Con, added nearly two months later: The power switch is a 'soft power switch' not a mechanical disconnect, which means there's always a little bit of battery drain and so they'll go dead all on their own after a couple of months.  Not that big a deal if you're using and recharging regularly, but you can't just stick them in a drawer for six months and expect a fresh battery.  Fortunately, as mentioned earlier, the Li-ion batteries don't have memory issues and you can recharge as needed.

Whatevers: The dual-watch function is too clunky to be useful.  There is an alarm function that gives nasty audio tone, a blinking light, and (optionally) a nasty broadcast tone; just leave this menu setting in the as-shipped off position.  Finally, the radio has a dinky little LED flashlight.  Really, Baofeng, really?  But then it just wouldn't be a Baofeng without at least one useless WTF.

The bottom line is, yes, this is about the best FRS radio going these days, for all of the reasons just enumerated.

ps: Because somebody's gonna ask "how far?" – a half mile on the high power channels (1–7 & 15–22) and a quarter mile on the low powers (8–14).  Less if transmitting through piney woods, more if you happen to have convenient mountain tops (this feature currently unavailable in Florida).

One Hundred Degrees

Sure, it's summertime, it's supposed to be hot.  But come on, give me a break.  95F would be plenty.

Two More Months to Hiking Season

I keep getting these banners whenever I go to the QRPer.com site, randomly showing an FT-817oid* radio:

Nice photography, and a great site.  It is odd though that various 817s keep popping up in the randomly selected banner whenever I go there.  Downright taunting.  I really, really could use good hike about now, but it's just too hot and buggy to go have fun in the N FL woods at the moment.  FWIW, here's a picture of my FT-817nd out on the High Bluff Trail a couple of years ago:

Two more months, fall is coming.  Are we there yet?

No.  Not yet.

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*FT-817oid: Any of the variants of the Yaesu FT-817 radio: FT-817, FT-817nd, FT-818nd.  More here.

Fireball Over Cape San Blas

Just go to the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day link here and see it in full resolution.  On mouse-over the image changes from long duration open shutter to light-enhanced short duration.  The former shows the spectacular streak, while the latter shows the ion & smoke trail.

Wonders abound, even close to home.

Finally Watched 'Creature from the Black Lagoon'

And it was pretty good!  I mean, for its time.  Not half as cheesy as I'd expected.  The simple plot was enough to hold things together, and the creature suit still mostly holds up.  Can't ask for much more than that out of this kind of flick.  Here, details at Wikipedia.  Read and run up onto spoilers at your own risk.

For all the times I've been to Wakulla Springs, you'd think I'd have seen it, but no.  It was long gone from theaters and even re-runs and deep re-re-runs by the time I came along.  Picked up a DVD, which as a nice surprise has the two sequels in the series.  

Rating this one is a hopeless exercise.  Either you want to see it or you don't.

It'll Do It To You

Over at the New Orleans Times-Picayune, here's an article about their former writer Chris Rose:

Writer Chris Rose gave New Orleans a voice after Katrina.  Now he lives alone in the woods.

If the name rings a bell, it's probably because of his collected Katrina-related articles under the title 1 Dead in Attic.  (Which I haven't read, by the way.  I've got enough to process from my own neighborhood with books like Under Surge Under Siege.)  Anyway, it's worth your ten minutes' read of the article to see what staring into the abyss too long can do to a person.

Next month is the 20th anniversary of that calamity, and I may or may not have more to say on the matter as the date (the 29th) approaches.  I'm trying not to abyss-gaze too much these days.  Besides, with so much fresh disaster coming along with every new day, why dwell on the old?

How Generative AI Works

With so much gobbledygook and technobabble being thrown around regarding generative AI, it is refreshing to have someone who knows what the hell he's talking about give a brief explanation on how this stuff actually works.  Here's such a talk by William Press, who you may recognize as the lead co-author of Numerical Recipes:

https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/how-does-generative-ai-actually-work-a-quick-semitechnical-introduction-to-large-language-models/257932856#1

Fourteen pages total, though not counting the title and that-is-all slides, it drops to eleven.  What's more, the real meat is all on slides 6 & 8, though you'll want to read through the other nine.  I mean, we're talking what, a half-hour tops?  Then you'll be a freekin' genius in comparison to most of the babbleheads out there in the j-school and VC worlds going on about this stuff.

Independence Day Weekend is Over

So now can we just skip on to October and the first cold front?  Please?  Nah, it don't work that way.

Mean season ahead.  Put on your sunscreen, grab some electrolyte drink, dial to the local repeater, and clip in.

Life is Short and Time is Tight. Read the Abstracts.

Over at Books, Bikes, & Boomsticks Tam writes on the problems associated with reading a summary.  Here, it's short, go read the whole thing: Soulless Drones

<insert schmaltzy interlude music here>

OK, we're all back.  For great art, sure, I'll agree that one has to read / listen / watch the entire piece as presented.  However, if you just want to get caught up on the n movies you missed in the Avengers movie series over the past m summers so that you can go to an afternoon matinee and enjoy it with friends – without having to spend a week of catch-up in front of the tube – nah, go ahead and skip to the Wikipedia plot summaries.  You won't have missed much anyway.  Long-series TV shows that start off promising but take a dip in the second year?  Sure, skip ahead with the summaries and see if the third year picks up to determine if it's worth your time to work through the series.  That politics-tainted speculative fiction (i.e., really bad near-future sci-fi) potboiler that everyone's talking about?  Definitely.  You'll want to know a little about what Cousin Hal or Aunt Margaret are going on about at the next family gathering, but you probably don't want to take that 500 page slog.  Again, when it comes to real art don't take any shortcuts, but when it comes to lesser works, go for the bottom line and get on with life.

Taking this a step further, who doesn't cull through the titles, then skim through the half-dozen abstracts, then really read only one or two papers each month in their favorite journals?  There just isn't time enough to keep up in a field any other way.