Essex Ham Amazon Kit

Our collection of products that you might find handy – as used by the Essex Ham team.

Due to some changes at Amazon, our old kit page isn’t working, so this is a temporary list:

Note from Pete M0PSX – I have personally tried and own all of these items. I’m happy to bring them along to an Essex Ham field event if you’d like a demo

RTL SDR Dongle The Realtek RTL2832U Radio Tuner USB Stick

USB dongle that’s very powerful for the price and can use used as an SDR, aircraft tracker, APRS iGate, DAB receiver and Freeview TV tuner.

Go to Amazon
Raspberry Pi 3 Powerful mini-computer. Now comes with wi-fi and 4 USB ports, so ideal as a movie player, cheap web browser, and much more, as well as an SDR, aircraft tracker and APRS iGate when used with the RTL SDR dongle Go to Amazon
Repeater Timeout Kit Simple project kit to get audio and visual alerts before you hit the repeater timeout. More Go to HAMtronics
Timeout timer Very handy for making sure you don’t hit DA’s 2-minute timeout” Go to Amazon
Baofeng UV-5R Not the world’s greatest radio, but hugely popular, and a great handy for getting started Go to Amazon
Calculator for the “Full” exam This was one of the best recommendations I was given – Allows you to type in the formula as you see them on paper – much easier to get to grips with, and allowable at GCSE and for RSGB/Ofcom exams Go to Amazon
TYT 380 DMR Great DMR handheld for use with local DMR plus analogue 70cm repeaters Go to eBay or Go to Amazon
Lightning detector Worries about your antenna getting a bolt? Get an alert when there’s lightning in your area Go to eBay
HDMI to VGA Little adapter to get a Raspberry Pi working with a monitor with an old VGA socket Go to Amazon
Weather Station We use one of these to provide a local forecast and live data via APRS. I use the Watson W-8681-SOLAR Watson W-8681-SOLAR at Amazon, or see Weather stations at Amazon
RavPower Power Bank A must. I’ve got the 13,000mAh 2-port USB version which will charge two devices (such as phones) and will power a Raspberry Pi on battery. Runs up to 2.4A Go to Amazon
Amazon Alexa Yes – I’m in love with Alexa. See what she can do for your shack here: Amazon Alexa video Go to Amazon

Note that we make a (very) small commission (usually via Amazon) if we contribute to a sale. Ordering through us helps us to cover our running costs, and costs you nothing extra. Thanks for your support!