Author: alan

Product Reviews

Review and Teardown of Radio Shack AM/FM Portable Radio

OverviewThe Radio Shack “Digital AM/FM Pocket Radio” looks great on paper and I really want to like it. It’s everything I would have wanted in a radio 30 years ago: lightweight, digital tuning, stereo headset jack, speaker, great battery life, memory presets and an alarm function (To see all the features, check out the user’s manual) Even with all these features, the unit’s few weaknesses … Continue reading Review and Teardown of Radio Shack AM/FM Portable Radio

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Home Automation

Remote Access Without Port Forwarding

Generally when you have a device in your home that you want to access over the internet from the outside, you need to set up what is known as “port forwarding” on your router. This tells your router to send outside traffic to a particular device which is “listening” on that port. In some cases, this can be a potential security risk because hackers are … Continue reading Remote Access Without Port Forwarding

alan
Home Automation

Utility Measurement with Home Assistant

I’ve been interested in adding utility measurement features to my Home Assistant installation for over a year. After a number of tries, I finally have most of the functionality I set out to implement. My impetus for adding detailed utility measurement goes back to a quote by entrepreneur (and founder of GoDaddy) Bob Parsons, “Anything that is measured and watched, improves.” Now that I have … Continue reading Utility Measurement with Home Assistant

alan
Radio Tower
Product Reviews, Software Defined Radio

LimeSDR Mini Initial Thoughts and Setup Guide

I’ve been using the $22 RTL-SDR dongle for the last few years to learn about software defined radio (SDR.) I decided it was time to graduate to the next level of SDR functionality, which for me includes the ability to transmit, a wider bandwidth and a higher frequency range. There is a huge gap between the RTL-SDR and the next most sophisticated SDR in both … Continue reading LimeSDR Mini Initial Thoughts and Setup Guide

alan
Local History, Main Line PA History

Suburban Square Restaurant History At 105 Coulter

This spot on the square at 105 Coulter Avenue has been home to a number of (mostly) long-running restaurants over the last 30 years. It’s not completely clear when this location was constructed and what the original use was for the domed octagonal space that juts out from the front. In the mid-1980s it was Eden Restaurant, a trendy cafeteria-style concept launched by Steven Poses, … Continue reading Suburban Square Restaurant History At 105 Coulter

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Local History, Main Line PA History

Ardmore Macy’s Closing And Renovation

The Ardmore Macy’s closed its doors for good on Sunday, March 20th 2016 after almost 86 years of continuous operation. The Suburban Square Macy’s was opened in May 1930 as Strawbridge and Clothier, one of the first suburban branch department stores in the country. In 1996 the store was purchased by May Department stores, and took on the Macy’s name in 2006. What little merchandise … Continue reading Ardmore Macy’s Closing And Renovation

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High Tech, IOT

Update: RisingHF Gateway RHF0M301 with Loriot Community Network

It’s been about a year since I posted an unofficial manual for getting the Seeed Studio 915 MHz RisingHF Raspberry Pi gateway up and running with Loriot. In that time, I had hoped that there would be more resources available for enthusiasts to find information about setting up gateways, nodes and sensors. However, it looks like complete and reliable information is still hard to come … Continue reading Update: RisingHF Gateway RHF0M301 with Loriot Community Network

alan