"“I can guarantee you they were not our products,” the AP quoted Ray Novak, a senior sales manager for Icom America’s amateur radio division, as saying during an interview Wednesday at a trade show in Providence, R.I.

Novak said Icom introduced the V82 two-way radio model more than two decades ago and it has long since been discontinued. It was favored by amateur radio operators and for use in social or emergency communications, including by people tracking tornadoes or hurricanes, he said."

"Icom, a Japanese manufacturer of radio equipment, said in a statement on its website Thursday morning that it produced the IC-V82 handheld radio from 2004 to October 2014 and shipped it to overseas markets, including in the Middle East, during that period. But there had been no shipments since the model was discontinued about 10 years ago and the production of batteries to operate the unit had also been discontinued, the company said."

Oh boy... Icom handhelds blowing up in Lebanon. Curious exactly what the supply chain attack here is. Remote triggered batteries packed with explosives alongside the battery cells?

Good morning!

Megacycles. Kilocycles.

A beautiful old Collins radio receiver rests in the parking lot at a hamfest in east-central Minnesota. SUV tire for scale.

Old rigs tempt me but I managed to get out of there with only a lariat of coax, a roll of teletype paper, a Johnson Viking t-shirt, and a quarter-inch tip-ring-ring-sleeve to hook up a Morse code key.

I'd never been to a hamfest before! I enjoyed visiting and learning the protocols.

Woohoo! First post to the Fediverse *from space* via the International Space Station!!!! (Packet sent via RF to space, then retransmitted to earth from the ISS digipeater back to earth, detected by my bot and posted to the Fediverse). Message from @wd9ewk

Ah, look, it's my combination light fixture and all band RF jamming device! Completely wipes out all radio reception for hundreds of feet!

Many folks in the US (including #hamradio / amateur radio folks) pooh-pooh the idea that ham radio is useful in the world of the Internet and cell phones. I saw FIRST HAND how useful ham radio is today there. Some coverage of this on NPR from 2017. #hamradio #disasters #emergencies #hurriicanes

The folks who are most likely to have direct information on the status of local islands before/after Beryl is the Caribbean Emergency and Weather Net (CEWN).

Main Frequency is 3.815 Mhz LSB and secondary Frequency is 7.162 Mhz LSB

CEWN was directly involved in many lifesaving efforts during Hurricane Maria (I worked directly with them). This included saving the Prime Minister of the country of Dominica (relaying his location for a helicopter rescue), and dispatching rescuers to many location where people were trapped by debris, etc. #hamradio #disasters

It's a wee bit toasty out here. 94.3F inside the radio tent.