Programming the FDC-450 with the new HGFA channels

These instructions aren't the best, but should give people a hand setting it up.

Turn the radio on, if you can see frequecy information your in the right mode. If you only see CH-07 (or any other number) you need to go into programming mode.

To enter or exit programming mode
Turn the radio off
Hold down the "F" key and turn the radio on.

You should now see 472.125 (actually any 6 digit number)
If it has the 2 digit channel to the right then you simply press VFO to be in full programming mode.

Now use the keypad to type in frequency then press the talk button.
To save press the F and then VFO
Select a clear channel to save then press the talk button.

The HGFA channel is;
472.125MHz

And the following CTSS are in use.
192.8Hz
82.5Hz
110.9Hz
151.4Hz

So I've setup
60 - 472.125Mhz (no CTSS)
61 - 472.125Mhz (192.8Hz)
62 - 472.125Mhz (82.5Hz)
63 - 472.125Mhz (110.9Hz)
64 - 472.125Mhz (151.4Hz)

Matt

Hacking a Binatone Careera X430

Well, I'm the proud owner of a cheap GPS.... but the software it came with didn't particularly excite me as I couldn't use it for my 4x4 trips.

The unit is actually a Windows CE device, but you are locked out from accessing it....

So after a little searching I found that if I simply copied my explorer.exe from my XP windows directory to a SD card and restarted the unit, it would come up with that by default..!  This then lets you launch other programs or edit the contents on the unit etc.   Word of warning, make sure you backup the internal ROM before you go playing with anything.

From there it was easy to simply add other navigator software and just double click to launch it.. nice huh.!

The sad thing is that the opensource stuff didn't seem to work.. DOH...

I'm going to play around with a bunch of apps like oziexplorer and see how it all goes...

Going to be awesome having a $200 GPS that does offroad as well as turn by turn onroad..!

Matt

Snowing in Canberra

What a way to start the morning, kids slept in...

I had time to get up and make pancakes and while we where having a quiet breaky it began to snow.... awwwww

Only downside is no paragliding.. lol

Matt

A day out paragliding

What an incredible day...

After reviewing the forecast yesterday I thought that it might just be a good day... so I woke up at dawn to check... and it was going to be AWESOME...!!!

Wife and kids where keen to come along so we raced out of the house and headed to Spring Hill, one of the awesome flying sites in Canberra.. (huge thanks to Phil for letting us use it)

So anyway we took off around 8am and flew for nearly about 3 hours... I practised touch and go landings on the top and nailed 12...!!!

I'm still pumped, what an incredible day. Kris took a bunch of photo's you can find in the album here.



Matt

Gym... its frigging EVIL...!!!

Ok, I had a general dislike of all exercise pretty much from the age of 10...

Typical geek, can't catch of throw etc... I'm sure the only reason I had any friends was because I always managed to come up with the coolest things like building flying foxes or tree houses, designing super fast billy carts or exploring caves and stuff in the bush. Other than that I was completely hopeless... lol

So anyway, I knew after all the weight loss that I needed to get in and rebuild a bunch of the muscle but could never bring myself to commit... Unfortunately whilst I was away the better half booked me into an assessment and 14 day trial..

So my first visit was.. well.... not that great.. I felt like a hamster watching other hamsters...

Tonight I took along my ipod with a talk by the Dali Lama and that seem to work... kept my mind of the fact that I was paying money to sweat...grrrr...

If I manage to make it through the 2 weeks I'm going to shout myself a case of beer... :-)

Matt

Facebook... WTF..???

Ok, so I got sick of the invites and finally caved and accepted and joined..

Now I'm just confused... you can't share any real information.. just pictures, chat and games....

It's like the most high tech time waster ever created...

Now of course this comes from a guy with all the social creativity of a rock.... a introverted, sad, pathetic little rock..

ARRRGGHHHHHH

I don't get it, but now I'm in and people are hitting my page and its outta control.. and I can't ignore them... FFS...

All this is taking away from time reading about the latest nano technology.. or the latest update in paragliding wing profiles... sheeessss, time t

Matt

Yeah got my intermediate paragliding licence...!

Yeah baby...

So I was on my L-plates before, allowed to fly but under the supervision of a safety officer... now that I've upgraded my license I'm GOOD TO GO...!!!

My lovely wife was also nice enough to let me splurge and upgrade my paragliding wing to something created this century.. WOOO HOOOOO

Whilst the Ozone Atom has been an awesome wing to learn on as its incredibly safe, its REALLY old and the performance sucks compared with the newer generation.

Soooo, my Gradient Golden 2 is on the way.. and I CANT WAIT...!

Matt