Hunting and Scraping for Solar Panels
diy, electronics, Hobbies May 19th, 2010
Late this few weeks I’ve been hunting and finding Solar Panels which can be use to power up various items. Among the Solar Panel that I’ve found is listed below.
1. 14 volt panel – obtained from a hobby shop
2. 4.5 volt panel – scrapped from a damaged garden light
3. 2 volt panel – scrapped from some car accessories
Why would I need solar panel for?
Just to satisfy my hobby in electronics. The place where i’m staying (Alor Setar, Malaysia) always receives equal amount of sunshine, (near the equator), except for monsoon season of course. So I’m thinking that, it’s kinda shame if I let it waste.
Among of my plans would involve of hooking up one of these panels with a regular car battery and inverter to power up my backyard lamp and various electronic projects that depends on solar power. I’m looking for any good schematic to aiding me, not too complex, but good enough for a beginner.
I would appreciate any of your suggestions, btw.
Thanks!
Tags: alor setar, hobby, malaysia, photovoltaic, PV, solar, solar panels
Paypal now supports withdrawing to Malaysian banks natively!
Current Issues November 19th, 2009
Great news to those who are using paypal to conduct online transactions! Paypal now supports Malaysian banks natively! Meaning that you can directly withdraw paypal money to your bank account without jumping into many hoops anymore!
For more information, please refer to “How to link Paypal to Malaysian Bank account?” article by Webshaper.
Tags: credit card, e-commerce, malaysia, marketing, online, paypal, tips
Get Garmin Amateur Radio Repeater POI from 9W2PJU
GPS October 6th, 2009
One brave soul (9W2PJU)has made Garmin POI of ASTRA and MARTS repeater location available via Garmin by publishing the Garmin POI file on his website. Although from what I read, some people has complaint that the location information stored in the POI is inaccurate, IMHO the exact Amateur Radio Repeater location itself isn’t that important as the information that contains its frequency, tone and shift which can be use to access the repeater.

From my observation, the POI of the Garmin does not store the exact location of the repeater (probably for security reason) but the general location of the repeater is good enough for travelers to discover new repeaters and use them while traveling to unfamiliar places, keeping in touch with fellow ham operators.
Please refer to 9W2PJU website for the latest POI files.
Tags: amateur radio, astra, garmin, GPS, hamradio, malaysia, marts, poi
Video of my chickens taken from my house.
Chickens and Pets, Videos September 26th, 2009
Tags: alor setar, alor star, ayam, ayam serama, chicken, chickens, kedah, malaysia, poultry, rooster
Are you planning to take the Malaysian Radio Amateur’s Examination (RAE) this year? Good news for you as you can test your knowledge and skill using the RAE web quiz at – http://www.mycallsign.my/webquiz.php

The benefits of the the online web quiz are :
- You will be able to test your knowledge before sitting on the real exam
- You can customize the test set according to match your free time and level of comfort
- Can view result of the test in whole or within specific section, allowing you to focus more on section that need to be improved
- The question set mimics the real RAE test
- It’s free, and you can take the test as many times as you like!
Tags: exam, examination, malaysia, radio, rae
Amateur Radio: Malaysian APRS Seminar in Unimap (Perlis)
Announcement, General, Ham Radio March 2nd, 2009
A seminar on APRS will be held in Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP) on 7 March 2009. Details of the talk as follows:
Name: Art Takahashi
Academic Qualification: Satellite Microwave System Engineer
Expert Field: Satellite communication engineer & Hamradio
Experiences: Hamradio licence holder about 40 years
Holder Radio Callsigns
PA0HMW,F0DKS,VK3PAT,VK3BFM,VK6MX,VK3EO,
P29EO,VK6MX,VK4GO,VK4GO/BD,JA1OGS
Working for NEC Japan Yokohama & Australia Papua New-Guinia
Professional Bodies Membership:
Rens & Rens , Stedehouwer NERG
The Netherland , Australia Japan
Title: A.P.R.S (Automatic Position Report System)
Synopsis:
Explain what is all about APRS, how it works and what do with it.
Main reason about my second visit is to Malaysia is to help radio amateurs in this country, to understand a other side of hobby. So they start building digital electronics project for the radio amateur hobby. (APRS)
Date: 7 march 2009
Time: 10:30 am ~ 1:30 pm the length from the seminar is depends about visitors interest.
Vanue: Lecture Hall, UniMAP Kuala Perlis.
Info Direction QRV: 9M2RMK 147.9800Mhz Shift -0.600 Tone 203.5
Info Direction on :
a) Wikimapia
b) Google Maps
Those interested to learn more about APRS technology are invited to join in the seminar. It’s free of charge!
Tags: amateur radio, aprs, ham, Ham Radio, hamradio, malaysia, radio, radio amatur, satellite, seminar, unimap
RAE 2008-2 Results : Congrats to new Malaysian Ham!
Current Issues, Ham Radio February 7th, 2009
Radio Amateur Examination (RAE) results is out! Congratulations to those who have passed the examination! Heck even piju passed the test!
You can view the results here : RAE 2008-2 results from MCMC website.
Important Forms to download :
- Letter Of Reference (to be signed by two 9M license holder)
- Declaration of Secrecy
- Application for Apparatus Assignment
- Callsign Application Form
For those who didn’t pass, dont despair.. there’s plenty of time to study for the next RAE!
Tags: amateur, amateur radio, exam, ham, hamradio, malaysia, mcmc, radio, radio amateur, rae
The Main Post Office in Alor Setar need more parking spaces!
Photos and Travels, Rants February 1st, 2009
I don’t know if any of the readers have gone to the Main Post Office in Alor Setar (Malaysia), but during the last few months, I’ve noticed the parking space in the place has exceeded its designated capacity.
This prompted post office customers to double park, park in a non-designated spot or even recklessly driving into the already crowded lane in order to spot an empty parking space. Not only this would be time consuming, but it would also poses danger to the passengers as well as the passer-by. I doubt I’ll be seeing any improvement pretty soon, the Post Office was built without any consideration for future expansion, especially with the kind of traffic it attracts.
However come to think about it, the worst Post Office in this category probably should go to Kangar Main Post Office, which offer virtually no parking spot, even for motorcycle, and people has to deal with almost an hour long of vehicle queue to conduct their businesses (pay bills, send package) through its ‘convenient’ drive-thru counter. Heck, the Main Post office doesn’t even handle Pos-Laju and Pos Express on their own, due to the location restriction.
Welp, guess any new govt building now should consider the parking space factor, they should build an undegroung parking lot as well as multi-storey ones.
Tags: alor setar, kedah, malaysia, pos malaysia, post office, post service, service
Malaysian Amateur Radio RAE 2008-1 Result
Current Issues, Ham Radio, Hobbies, Technology August 26th, 2008
The Malaysian Amateur Radio Examination result is out, congratulation to those who passed the examination. You can view the result directly from MCMC (SKMM) website or download it from the local mirror.
Download :
RAE 2008-1 result (local mirror)
Tags: amateur radio, communication, malaysia, radio, rae, result
Malaysian Petrol Budget Calculator for the new Petrol Price
Current Issues, Random Facts June 6th, 2008
I guess most people are already aware about the significant petrol hike in Malaysia recently. In place of the subsidy, the govt has given RM645 annually to car owners (below 2000cc) to reduce the burden of middle-class citizen. But can it cover the cost of petrol hike?

Download the application now : countpetrol.xls
Thankfully somebody took the time to create a spreadsheet application that can calculate the effect of the new subsidy scheme on the new petrol price, and how much you can save from it (if any!).
Download the application now : countpetrol.xls





