[PRC148] picked up a Motorola Micom radio from eBay. These are US State Department surplus, but apparently the 125 Watt HF units are top-of-the-line at a tenth of the sticker price. The one hangup is that they’re headless; you can’t control them without additional hardware. But the Internets are often kind to the hobbyists, and …
Building a custom interface for surplus HF radios
$3 adds sweet tunes to your project
It’s a fun time to design your own MP3 player, lovingly adding in features to a meticulously crafted user interface. But sometimes you just want a quick and cheap way to add music to a project. [Jeff Ledger] will show you how to do just that using some knock-off hardware from overseas. Instead of a …
Exposing some fake electronics with too-good-to-be-true prices
[Giorgos Lazaridis] needed an AC adaptor for his Canon PowerShot camera. He hit eBay and was excited to find this branded adaptor for just five bucks! It works and, even though it would sometimes reboot his camera if the cord was twisted around in the jack, he was satisfied that it did what it was …
SOPA opponents may go nuclear and other 2012 predictions
When Google, Amazon.com, Facebook, and eBay turn their Web sites black to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act, you’ll know they’ve become serious. It may actually happen. Plus: four other 2012 predictions.
Numitron tube tutorial
Nixies and VFDs are great displays, but when using them you’ve got to deal with some fairly high voltages, at least for the micro projects we see on Hack a Day. Luckily, there’s another ancient technology that can be driven at tiny voltages. [Kenneth] put up a great tutorial on Numitron tubes to show the Internet …
Saleae Logic Analyzer knockoff hacking
Despite what this module says on the case, it’s certainly not official Saleae Logic Analyzer hardware. [Jack Andrews] picked up this Chinese knockoff on eBay for about $18. When plugged into the computer the Saleae software picks it up as the official hardware. But [Jack] has seen other knockoffs which have a jumper to select …
GE Color Effects hacking for the nautically inclined
[Jim] wrote in to share some work he did with GE Color Effects LED lights in an effort to create a light display for his boat. He saw our coverage of the Color Effects G-35 hacking efforts by DeepDarc last year, and knew that they would be prefect for the boat. He did some careful …
Internet sales tax fight returns to Congress
eBay, a critic of new Internet tax legislation, will tell a congressional committee that big box stores aren’t hurting online. Instead, they’re rapidly gaining market share.
Google: SSL alternative ‘Convergence’ won’t be added to Chrome
Still smarting from a counterfeit secure sockets layer certificate that threatened at least 300,000 of its users in Iran, Google has no plans to fortify its Chrome browser with an experimental technology that bypasses the current system for validating …
Skype: Microsoft’s $8.5 billion identity tool
With VoIP on the side
Open…and Shut In 2005, eBay bought Skype for $2.6 billion to bring voice communications to the online auction site, claiming the combination would “revolutionise the ease with which people can communicate through the internet.” …
