To Listen/Watch RF Spectrum...

Sometimes I like to know what is happening around me. Actually most of the time I want to know what is happening around me. Scanner radio's can be expensive and in some cases controlled and have limited coverage. Governments have a tendency to want to hide what they are up to. What can the average person get a hold of without spending a ton of cash to be able to listen and watch what is happening around them.

First off get a hold of this free application. Donate if you can afford it and like it.
SDRSharp(#)
Get this one. Plugins for SDR#: SDR# Plugins.
This one has a few plugins as well: RTL-SDR SDR# Plugins.

On to the hardware. A person can be one of these USB DVB-T  RTL2832U tuners for 10$ on e-bay. Amazon has them, I am not sure who is cheaper. Depends on the day I suppose.

The tuner I bought has the MCX connector for the antenna. I purchased an adapter that changes MCX to BNC with a short length of cable between the two connectors. The cost for the adapter was 6$ with free shipping. Next on the list was a three foot USB extension cable M/F (3$). This lets me get the tuner up a little bit away from the laptop. Finally a collapsible antenna (10$).

This little setup lets me listen 30 MHz to 1.8 GHz, AM, FM, LSB, USB. Has a waterfall to watch for transmissions. While you may not be able to understand if they are using P25, but you will know something is happening. Guesstimate distance from your location.
So for 30$ I have a wide band receiver. The software works with Linux and Windoz. Lots to explore.

** Remember these types of devices can be used by good people as well as bad.

Enjoy,

To Get Amazon Kindle for PC Working on Ubuntu 12.04...

On Ubuntu 10.04 I had the Amazon Kindle for PC working well. At the time there was a bit of trouble and had to spend some time hunting up what needed to be done to make it work. Recently I inherited a laptop from my wife and promptly dumped Winoz for Ubuntu 12.04.
The laptop is an HP Pavilion Entertainment PC. Ubuntu 12.04 works well on the the PC and graphics are nice and crisp. So far so good. I wanted to get Kindle for PC working and was having trouble. The configuration for Ubuntu 10.04 is different that what 12.04 used, however slight. I found a couple of useful links that I will place here that will help one get the job done quickly. No need for me to go into any detail as these links provide all the info needed.
I hope this helps someone out and saves them the hassle of banging their head against the wall.

Amazon Kindle for PC

 Remove or Rename a Wine file

The two links above will have you on your way to accessing the Kindle material in no time.

Enjoy,