Hello everyone! Thank you for joining me for my presentation about the Ostwerk initiative here at Defcon 28 Safe Mode.
I would like to thank you all for giving me an opportunity to show you the presentation I put together.
And if you have a passing interest in amateur radio, I hope you find it interesting.
A quick heads up, most talks or presentations like this are usually an expert lecturing about a topic they are very familiar with
to an interested audience.
This is kind of the opposite, where today I'm an amateur radio enthusiast presenting more of a concept
to people who know much more than I do.
A concept that's very fluid and open to change right now depending on community input.
Alright, let's begin!
Please keep in mind that this is my first Defcon, so this is a learning experience especially for me.
If you have any questions during this presentation, feel free to ask them in the appropriate moderated channel
in the Defcon Discord server.
And at the end, I hope to have, not necessarily a Q&A, but more of like a moderated roundtable style discussion
about your thoughts about this project, its strengths, and what it needs.
And I've never been part of something like that before, so I'm interested to see how this goes.
I'm willing to take a gamble that many of you know what a lightsaber is.
For those that don't, it's basically a laser sword from a popular movie franchise.
In the stories, with rare exceptions, if you wanted a lightsaber of your own, you had to build it to your own exacting specifications.
So where the switches are, the way it fits in your hand, the weight and the balance, it's all perfectly attuned to the builder.
Well, what if Ham Radio could have their own version of the lightsaber?
Right off the bat, what I hope to accomplish with this presentation is a way to simplify and encourage the planning and construction of amateur radio kits.
If that doesn't interest you, then you are free to duck out now.
It won't hurt my feelings. I understand your time is valuable.
And we'll both be happier if you were spending your time by doing something that interests you.
So, to those of you who already have an enthusiasm for amateur radio,
you're probably not going to learn anything brand new, but I want to keep some of the principles here in mind
when you're Elmering a new ham that wants a radio of their own.
Alright, enter the Open Source Tactical Wireless Emergency Radio Kit, or TWRK, or TWRKstation.
A TWRK is a custom kit built by a radio enthusiast to operate in times of an off-grid situation.
So you can build one for relaying voice messages into or out of a disaster zone,
or you can set up a data network node, or keep track of contacts during a contest,
or you can administer a TWRKstation Parliament.
Each kit is custom-built by the owner to be dependable, not just for casual use, but especially for emergency situations as well.
And it's my hope that this presentation motivates you to create a TWRKstation of your own,
or assist someone in the creation of their own TWRKstation.
I'd now like to walk you through a sample TWRKstation.
It is a voice TWRKstation that I built that has data capabilities on board.
It can't broadcast or receive data, but you could use the computer on board for contest logging or local networking.
This TWRKstation is sealed up in a durable plastic case, and it's extremely water-resistant and dust-proof with the lids closed.
There's no external access ports, so you have to open the kit if you want to charge it or hook up the antenna.
Here it is open but undeployed.
The keyboard, the microphone, and the mouse kind of float around in there loose.
The switches and thumbscrews in there do a good job of keeping them from sliding around,
but I still would like to add some kind of cushioning in there to avoid rattle damage.
So flipping that blank panel that was in the lower part over, you'll see that there is a remote faceplate for an ID4100.
Also under that panel is the fuse box and the cables that feed into the Raspberry Pi.
And the lower left is the power controller, which switches automatically between external power and the lead-acid batteries that are on board.
And then on the right are the pass-throughs that pass through the microphone.
There's pass-throughs that go for the USB and the audio cable into the Raspberry Pi.
And there is USB ports that are not pass-throughs, they're just charging ports.
The top left of the panel has the power controls and the power display.
The switches engage the battery, the red one does, and then the black switch below selects between the main battery and the on-board backup.
There's a power display that shows the voltage and amperage used by the kit, so it's easy to estimate the remaining power at current use.
And here's the fully deployed torque station.
Just to let you guys know, the monitor on the right is being powered off of AC power that goes to a USB-C cable, so it's not being powered off the kit right now.
That would be pretty trivial to do, I just need to find a reliable USB hub that is powered enough to keep all the hardware on-board powered up.
So my prototype kit is done, for the most part, but it's actually not.
The kit has a few issues. For one thing, it's really heavy.
I want a long battery life, and sealed lead-acid batteries are cheap, but the kit can't be carried for more than a minute or two.
The radio I have is a decent radio, but I want to switch over to HF bands.
The kit has a big clunky antenna switch that I'm not going to use very often.
And I discovered some new power pole mounts I want to incorporate into the design.
So now I know what to improve. I can budget to get new batteries and a compatible charger, ditch the auxiliary battery in favor of bringing a solar panel, and upgrade the radio to an HF radio.
I'll also need to design up a new mounting panel for all of these new parts.
So that was version one of the kit, and some of the challenges that I'll need to overcome.
Now, after I go over the three pillars of the AUSTORC initiative, I'll demonstrate the operation of the upgraded TORC station at the end of the video, which may give some of you ideas for the kit you may want to build.
The AUSTORC initiative has three pillars that I think would make it successful.
One is enthusiasm for the construction of TORC stations.
A second pillar is the online platform torcbench.org, where TORC station constructors, or TORCsmiths, can compare notes.
And the third pillar is the TORCsmith Code of Conduct.
And let's get into these in detail.
First off is the kit open source.
Are there schematics or diagrams or a bill of materials available online somewhere so that I can build my own copy of the kit and put my own spin on it?
Second, the kit should be tactical.
It should be constructed to work with other TORC stations in the event of an emergency.
The kit should also have some degree of durability.
Just think about how many tears you're going to roll down your cheeks if the kit fell off a table or a tailgate.
The kit should be wireless.
Six hours of operation is a good ballpark, and more is always better, but more means either more weight or more cost, so balance your options carefully.
The kit can be used for emergencies or everyday use.
If you plan on using your kit every day, be aware of heat buildup and have proper ventilation.
Or better yet, just invest in a dedicated base station maybe.
The guideline is actually a pretty loose one, and it was added mostly because the acronym needed a vowel.
Next, the kit should have a radio in it.
Usually a mobile rig, a 12-volt kind of mobile rig, but it's encouraged to throw a cheap HT or other kind of walkie-talkie style radio into a power or utility kit just to have one on hand just in case.
The final guideline is that everything is conveniently located into one single package.
The kit has everything it needs built in by the owner, and delicate components should fold into the kit for protection during transport.
Alright, now let's get into the major types of Torque Stations you might see.
These are by no means all-encompassing, but should act as a starting point when designing a Torque Station.
First off is the Voice Torque, a very common, easy-to-make kit.
It can be made from a used radio and a sealed lead-acid battery in some kind of durable case.
It's accessible for get-on-the-air and tech licenses.
Second up is the Data Kit, and those are similar to the Voice Kits, but they have some kind of computer on board to take advantage of digital radio modes.
The computer can be a Raspberry Pi, or a laptop, or a Surface tablet, whatever.
Just some way to decode digital information and to get it out onto the air.
SATCOM kits are designed for satellite interfacing, and they're usually paired with a special antenna.
And there's CW, HF, or Weak Signal Kits, and you want to be considerate of the Weak Signal Kits because they're pretty sensitive to the EMF noise.
Those are some of the main types of kits that you're probably going to interact with or build.
And let's take a look at some of the Support Kit ideas, some of the Advanced Level Kits.
The Auxiliary Power Kits supply power to your Torque Stations.
You also need to think of a way to replenish power if there's no grid. Solar is a pretty popular option.
Next up, Antenna Kits provide masts, feed line, and the antennas necessary for broadcast and reception.
Some kits are as simple as a spool of wire, and others have complex folding mechanisms.
Troubleshooter Kits are stocked with all the tools, adapters, duct tape, zip ties, everything you need to keep everyone on the air and happy.
And remember to always thank your troubleshooter.
And if a Torque Station Parliament gets too cumbersome, someone can step up as Net Ops to take care of the administrative side of things during a crisis.
They can act as one point of contact and direct the appointment of a Power Comp Troller to oversee the power consumption in a multi-day grid down situation.
So lots of coordination options available if you'd like.
Finally, we have a few rare Torque Stations.
These are a couple Torque Stations that you won't see in the wild that often.
First off is the Llama.
Big and heavy, the Llama is for the person that overpacks for every trip.
It tries to do too much and doesn't tend to do anything very well.
The rarest type of kit is the Mi...
Alright, so those were the Torque Stations.
Let's move on to Pillar 2, or the online platform.
This is kind of the weakest Pillar for me.
I am not a web expert at all.
I have a lot of ideas based on stuff that I've seen online, but I don't really have a way to implement them.
So this is where I'm going to need the most help.
But here are some of the ideas that I've got.
The website should have a link to their own forums, hopefully.
A place people can submit photos and designs to be featured in the gallery.
A place where people new to the hobby can stop in and have any questions answered.
The website will also have a feature similar to PC Part Picker.
Where you can pick out and design your own Torque Station.
And have it tell you approximately how much power you'll need.
The website will also hopefully feature a regional map.
That assists Torquesmiths to find each other.
And maybe display power levels and capabilities of a particular registered region.
So if you want to compete against nearby towns.
As to who's got the most power standing by in the event of an emergency, that would be kind of fun.
One additional item would be a portal where student radio groups could
design an ideal Torque Station and find a place to get help with
fundraiser or grant writing or sponsorships.
A few more website ideas.
Again, I have no idea how to implement these, so this is all wishful thinking right now.
The website might have a Torcathlon information.
And I'll discuss what that is later.
The site would have not just a kit builder, but a kit panel builder.
Where people could design custom panel for their kits.
Drag and drop pre-sized holes or pre-sized cutouts.
For parts that they know they want in their kit.
In the same vein, the site could have a makerspace locator where torquesmiths could find a local makerspace
to help with tools or 3D printing or laser cutting.
Anything for constructing Torque Stations.
Maybe we could make some arrangements for partnerships or sponsorships or discounts or something.
Finally, the site could have an online marketplace where you could buy patches,
stickers, small custom trinkets that could make your kit stand out.
You won't be able to buy Torque Stations because that defeats the purpose of the whole initiative.
If you want a Torque Station, you have to build one yourself.
The third and final pillar is one that I'm sure people will gloss over.
The Torquesmith Code of Conduct.
Just a handful of principles that I hope people will live by if they want to build their own Torque Station.
A good Torquesmith is courteous.
If you build your Torque Station properly, it should attract a little attention from people
who may have a passing interest in our hobby.
So be ready to be peppered with a few questions every once in a while when you're using your Torque Station.
A good Torquesmith is competent.
A Torque Station is built to the exacting specifications of its creator,
and any shortcomings of the kit lie with the builder.
So know how to operate your kit, and know about how much power you have left at all times in an off-grid situation.
Also know how to budget your remaining power responsibly.
A good Torquesmith values their community, both online and offline.
Ideally, you would know a couple nearby Torque Station owners,
and agree on a schedule to make contact should the worst happen in a grid-down situation.
Also see what you can do in a disaster to supply comfort and relief to those negatively affected.
A Torquesmith values their own personal honor.
They would never cheat a contest,
and would never reveal the contents of the mystery box.
A Torquesmith shows their work.
There are people out there who are interested in seeing what you've made. I know I am.
What makes your kit special? How does it fit into your lifestyle?
Finally, a Torquesmith knows that there's always room for improvement,
whether it's cheaper components, or farther range, a better battery life, whatever.
A Torquesmith knows that their kit is never finished, and it's just a jumping-off point for better things.
So those were the three main pillars of the
Ost-Torque initiative, and here are some
bonus slides at the end. I'm going to go over something I came up with
called the Torqueathlon, and then we'll take a tour of a Torque Station
that I built, a Llama Class.
So what if there was a competition where teams could show off their ingenuity and hustle?
Basically a small course is set up with obstacles to climb over or struggle through
that would resemble maybe a post-disaster situation
and teams of Torque Station owners would try to race against the clock to carry their stations
any way they want through the course, and then when they get to the finish line
they use them to relay some traffic through a remote judging station at the end.
Costumes and theme teams are encouraged, and
a reminder should go out beforehand saying that public intoxication of all types is frowned upon.
Alright, so here is
my latest kit. There's a little red patch on the top
where I adhere a suction cup antenna.
There's about four latches on the kit that keeps the kit
airtight, watertight, dustproof.
I still don't have a decent
solution to keep everything from sliding around.
I've got the keyboard here, and
I've got the
microphone to uncoil.
Check for product shifting during transport. Everything looks good.
I'll get ready to mount the software radio
antenna. Just onto the lid, onto that red square of
vinyl that I put on there, because the suction cup doesn't adhere to the coarse
plastic of the kit. So I need something smooth
to stick the suction cup onto.
A little GPS antenna, a little USB GPS antenna that sticks to a metal
clip for locking the kit shut.
Antenna connector, I'll get that screwed on.
Alright, let's get ready to hook up the external power.
I've got my Shanktronics power brigand supplying all the power I need for the kit.
Turn it on, and I can see the display on the
kit turns on. Alright, let's get the Raspberry
Pi fired up. I've got the power switch there next to the passthrough
for the USB and the audio for the Raspberry Pi.
I've got the dual monitors hooked up, and oh well, I've got
this USB switch was powered on, or the
USB hub there was powered on.
So now that the computer's booted up, I'm just going to control it with the Logitech keyboard here.
I'll fire up my FL rig.
And I'm going to boot up my radio data software
package, WSJTX.
And unfortunately, the kit
is not cooperating with me.
The radio's receiving, but it's not putting audio from the radio into the Raspberry Pi.
And that's a problem I really need to troubleshoot here.
Moving along, I can fire up GQRX
which I have pre-programmed to decode
the local classical radio station.
But the cool thing about the SDR is that
I can program any channel I want to
into here, any channel that the SDR is able to decode.
Alright, now for the moment you've all been waiting for,
a closer look into the
Snaccess panel. So we remove the panel
and inside we have an array of snacks.
We have a post-snack treat,
we have some crunchy snacks,
we have some sweet snacks,
and we also have some more salty snacks.
And then all the snacks get tucked right back away into the Snaccess
compartment. And we
replace the Snaccess panel. I hope to incorporate some kind of magnets
or maybe 3D print a latching solution for it
sometime in the near future. Alright, let's power
down the kit. I'll log off the Raspberry Pi
and then flip off the power switch here.
That terminates power to the monitors and the Pi.
Turn off the radio.
And then disconnect the battery. We've been
running off battery power this whole time. Battery power
disconnected and as a safety measure I'm going to turn it from battery power to
external power. So in case the switch gets bumped
for some reason it doesn't drain the battery.
And for those of you who are interested, here is
a kind of a blocky wiring diagram for how
the kit works. I've got the two ports, a solar port for power
input and a 12 volt port for external power input.
And then the 12 solar goes into the PowerWorks
solar charge controller and then that charges the battery. And then I have the big
red battery cutoff switch and then that goes down to a selector switch
that selects between the battery and the external power. And then that feeds into the fuse
block. And then the fuse block shoots out the 12 volt leads
to all of the hardware in there that runs off of 12 volts.
Alright, you've made it to the end of the pre-recorded portion.
If you're still interested, you're welcome to visit the website twerkbench.org
to see what we have so far. And if you want to voice in the direction this project
goes, you can join the Discord community by visiting our Discord
server online. The link there is on our website at twerkbench.org
And I'm going to do a live Q&A now and hopefully
a demo if my equipment cooperates to round up my presentation time.
So please stick around and we can hopefully have a moderated discussion
where we can share ideas and where this initiative should go moving
forward. Cool, so we have Swiss Ninja here
and I'm live on video feed and I think he's ready to give us a nice demo.
Before you start though, I do have a starting question.
Is there any sort of mod or thing you've made that you've tried to make and just
messed up so bad that you just said, nope, this is going in the trash, I have to start over?
No, but leading right up to this
presentation, the audio input
that goes from my HF transceiver to the Raspberry Pi
won't detect the audio signal. Like, I know that the audio signal exists
but it's not going into the Pi. I wanted to show off
a couple data modes that would be able to be received on the Raspberry Pi
but that won't be in today's presentation.
I was curious if anyone had any quick
questions or anything that maybe I didn't cover in the video
or any suggestions, because it looks like
the chat topics are a little empty right now. Did anyone have anything to ask or add?
So, I'm curious if anyone
does anyone have any experience with working with a volunteer
software team or web development team?
Because a big part of the initiative here is the website
and the website we have right now is very basic
and I'm learning web stuff as I go along, but I wouldn't mind supercharging it
with a couple team members. Has anyone worked with a volunteer team
in the past to get something like this done?
I'm not aware of any personally. I mean, I'm curious
are you also releasing all these plans and open source stuff on something like GitHub as well?
Oh, absolutely, yes. So, I hope that other people can join
in and, like I said, copy plans, like they can take a look at
the Twerkstation I built. That's kind of what this stemmed from, was
I saw kits online and I would say that, oh, those are so awesome
but I could never have one of those and then
one day I decided to put a kit
together for my father at the behest of my mom.
She was curious how we could all get together in the event of an emergency
and I said, oh, well, ham radio, and I wanted to get an all-in-one solution
that they could use after getting their ham radio licenses
to get on the air with me in the event of a grid down situation
and so I would see the kits online
and I would say, oh, those are awesome and then I decided to just build one myself and it was
surprisingly easy and I just want to let people know that
I want to remove the barrier to entry to making kits
for themselves, like a big one is
the panel of the kit, like, I can actually start moving stuff
around here, like being able to laser cut, I have a laser cutter
in my garage and being able to laser cut a panel whenever I need a new one is
a huge blessing, but I want other people to be able to have that access
too, like to nearby maker spaces, places where they would be able
to download plans for a panel and then be able to
have them cut out, so that would
probably be a portion of the website would be being able to coordinate people
to be able to make their own
things, or this panel that the radio is inset in is 3D printed.
I've got my own 3D printer. I know a lot of people, that's a barrier to entry, they don't have
their own. I'd like to be able to connect people that
want to have their own inset panel mount things like I've made
or that they've designed their own. I want to connect them with
online resources to be able to get them printed out.
Cool, we do have a couple of questions here from the audience.
One is, what if you need more room for snacks? I'm assuming
there's going to be some sort of snack expander box or something like that.
Yeah, there's always... you can get extra kits to put extra
snacks in. You can always sacrifice extra battery power, get a smaller
radio. Right now, this design of
the 3D inset panel for my radio face is
just kind of basically a prototype. There's a lot of wasted space around the edges
you can see, so it still needs refinement. I hope to
post the plan files online so that people can
download and print them. Actually, this panel itself is on Thingiverse.
If you Google or if you use the search for JiguG90
it should pop up as one of the
3D printable items. And then I also hope
to have sticker templates. I like the industrial style of stickers
so that's my kit. Some people might have something less colorful or more
colorful, more informative, maybe more minimalist.
So I hope to have vector files online available for stickers
if you want to download them yourself.
Great, that's great to hear. Some more questions coming in here.
What type or brand of case do you use in this kit?
This is a Harbor Freight Apache
case. I hope to put a...
I've done some upgrades to the kit and I hope to have a completed bill of materials
done once my presentation... I've been prepping for the presentation here for a
while and I hope to have a completed bill of materials done. But the case
itself is an Apache Harbor Freight case.
They're very affordable. They're very similar
to Pelican cases. They come with a foam block
that you can pick apart inside for
cushioning parts. I took the foam out so that I had greater
airflow through the kit. And I guess here
as a Defcon exclusive, I usually don't show off
the inside of my kits, especially when they're under construction. But if there's
interest, I'd like to show off kind of what's inside the kit. Normally
I would have thumbscrews on the side
that I would undo, but I haven't gotten around to those yet.
I'll remove the SNAXS panel. And the wires
are still kind of a mess. I've got a
battery, a lithium iron phosphate battery that I just put in the kit last week.
I have a USB hub that comes out of a Raspberry Pi
underneath. And I need a better solution, maybe some kind of little shelf to
build in here to separate everything out so there's better airflow. And then the radio here is in the
back. I have an RTL-SDR
software radio that goes into the Raspberry Pi. And of course
I have the SNAXS off to the side and a fuse block
that the 12 volts come off of.
Cool, we've got a question about maybe using magnets
to hold down the panel on the keyboard, like the
Rayworth magnets. Is that something you've looked at? Yeah, that
would not be a bad idea at all. The keyboard has
a weird kind of curve to the back, so I would have put like a Velcro or something maybe
on there that would snap down.
But magnets would be a good idea too. I just need a way to either epoxy
or anchor the magnet to the keyboard or maybe to the box and then maybe
put a plate on the back of the keyboard. See, these are all great ideas that you could
post to the Twerkstation Discord or
the forums if we ever get them up and running.
Absolutely, absolutely. A question here in the chat about have you considered using
solar for power? And maybe there might be some interference with that.
Oh, so that was another thing that was brought up in our
Discord chat a few days ago was someone had a
question about solar controllers and noises and if anyone
had experience with expensive versus cheap ones.
I actually have a solar panel on the way. It's going to be here
tomorrow. Someone posted a bargain
online for one of them and I snatched up a nice folding one.
But yeah, so I
had a couple batteries in my version 1 of the kit so that I'd have a lot
of power. And in this version 2, you saw the one
lithium-ion phosphate battery in the back that was about
1,500 mAh
and I labeled the switch with 1,400 mAh
and then I have the switch labeled 1,400 mAh
so that I have a little cushion left over.
I'd love a 1,500 mAh battery.
Yeah, that would be great. A question here about
you mentioned no selling jerk benches, but
what about individual parts?
I would like to have in the Bill of Materials links to parts that
people use. Or when I built my computer
a few years ago, the PC part picker website
would continually scan other websites
would scour for prices and tell you who had the lower price
and if there were any sales going on. Ideally there would be some kind of functionality
that's like very, very, very far down the road, but
for parts, ideally I would just put my
Amazon links for where I got all the parts. Basically all the parts of the kit.
What kind of kicked off the kit plan design was this red kill switch that I
installed. I've always loved these growing up and
being able to buy them by a 5-pack
was incredible. I love being able to buy stuff
like that online. These power connectors
are 3D printed. Those were made by... I found them on Thingiverse.
Most of the stuff I was able to
source online, which I wouldn't have been able to do about
10 years ago. So being able to source stuff online is a great
benefit to the ham radio hobby.
Great. A question from Twitch. What are the
temps inside the case when everything is powered on and running?
It depends. I haven't
used a heavy duty cycle. I can't imagine it's very warm
with just the Raspberry Pi running.
If I was broadcasting a lot with the radio, the temps might get
pretty warm. I thought about putting active cooling in. I've got empty space up here
above the display panel. If I wanted to put a couple case fans
up here just to move air through, I could move some of the air slots around.
So this is basically the prototype version of this panel.
It's made out of MDF wood that I spray painted black. I hope to
source a plastic panel from the local plastic store.
They make a nice textured plastic, a black textured
plastic that I think will look really sharp. But it's going to be
more expensive than the MDF. I want to make sure that the layout is done before I get the
final panel cut.
Yeah, great. That sounds pretty awesome. We've got a question here
about when it comes to selecting components, what part do you
suggest that people don't skimp out on when it comes to parts and what parts do you think people
can maybe buy the cheaper version of?
That is a very good question. And that's actually part of the reason I kicked off
the Ostwerk initiative was to help answer that question for me so that I'd
be able to select parts for my kits. I know
a lot of people out there have bought parts and they know what works
and what doesn't. This is a learning experience for me, but it's kind of an expensive one.
So before I pull the trigger on an expensive solar charge
controller, which I imagine if you want
low noise like on the HF bands, you'd probably want
you probably don't want to skimp on your charging controller.
I've noticed a little bit of noise running the Pi.
I don't know if I'm going to be able to shield that, if I'd be able to build a little shielded
shelf maybe around the Pi where airflow could go
but RF noise can't. So there's
lots of ideas for improving the kit and they can always be improved, but I
don't have any suggestions right off the bat. But I would imagine
probably your charging controller, especially if you use expensive batteries
or... and that's another thing you want to consider
when picking parts is make sure your charging chemistries are compatible.
When I made the first version of this kit, I used lead acid batteries
and then they were super heavy, but I had to upgrade to...
well, I didn't have to upgrade, but I wanted to upgrade to lithium iron phosphate batteries, which are
lighter, a lot more expensive, but they also use a different
charging chemistry. I can't use the lead acid charging system that I had in the
old kit in this new kit, so I had to budget for a new charging
system for the kit that was compatible with the lithium iron phosphate batteries.
Great, yeah, there's a couple comments here
on Twitch. One person talks about, you know, if you don't want to take a charge
controller, taking a lot of space, maybe have a different
torque station that's like a power module, you know, a power type
torque station that does all that just in its own separate box.
Yeah, that was an idea, like one of the power
torque stations, like I want to have a power interface kit so people
would be able to tap into different
powers or different, like electric vehicles or
solar, wind, water, like a kit that would be able to
convert a variety of voltages down to the kit voltage.
And so, yeah, that's something for people to consider whether they want
to build it into their kit or whether they want to carry an external kit
that would house that functionality. But the kits would
hopefully be compatible not only with each other, but with other
torque stations as well.
Yeah, I've also started to see a rise in popularity of the, you know,
battery generators, quote unquote, where it's just basically a battery box with a bunch of power
distribution that you can now buy off the shelf, which is kind of nice for like,
hey, I just need power and I need lithium power and off-grid.
We've got a question... yeah, go ahead. Oh, no, I was going to say, yeah, those are great.
Yeah, I have not splurged on one yet, but
hopefully soon. A question here, could you talk a bit more about the antennas
and or connectors you use for the antennas that hook up to this kit?
Yeah, I use just the standard
UHF antenna connector.
Actually, it's probably easier if I just took off my nanoVNA here.
So this is a nanoVNA I have
kind of velcroed to the kit. It's used as an antenna analyzer
and I use this type of connector.
I'm going to embarrass myself here, PL259
or SO238, or 239, I mean.
But it's just this standard type of antenna connector and then
I have a box around here with different adapter connectors
for the antenna. But the antenna that I like to use right now
is I got from my brother a
B&W AP10A. I don't have the whip
on it right now. There's a whip that extends off the top that I can raise
and lower. And it also has a tunable loading coil that
I can adjust for the HF frequencies to get a better
reception or better broadcast on those frequencies.
But that just has the same type of screw that screws on to the
kit there, the bulkhead connector.
Very nice. You can always just say
UHF connector and you're good.
I think SO is socket and PL is plug, I think is what it is.
So I think that's all we have for questions right now
on the chat. Is there anything else you guys want to show or talk about?
No, just curious if anyone has thought of any
like if this has inspired anyone to make their own kit or if anyone has any
ideas. Actually, here's an idea. So for in-person
the Ham Radio Village, what if we
could maybe start a fundraiser to make three or four
torque stations for a get on the air station. And then at the end, give them
out to school groups. So we'd have like a fundraiser
kind of thing to make the stations. And then after they're used
for people to get on the air, they can just be donated out.
Would that be something people are interested in?
Yeah, definitely something to take the pulse on. I was just completely off the
top of my head and you could have potentially even prior to DEF CON
said, okay, well, build your best torque station and come
join the competition. Yeah, that could be part of the
torque-cath-a-lon maybe if that ever takes off.
I mean, it's not DEF CON if there's no soldering irons involved.
Maybe build one within
like an hour to the competition or something maybe.
Cool. Well, thank you for putting this presentation together and hanging
out and chatting with us. I thought this was pretty awesome.
We even got a comment in the chat. Someone says it's very inspiring. So that's great to hear.
Thank you for coming. I thank you all for joining me and thank you to the staff for
putting this on.