Amateur Radio and the Vancouver Sun Run

Earlier this year, in search of a new hobby, I took an Amateur radio course (also known as ham radio) and received my license about a month ago. Amateur radio is all about non-commercial communication over radio waves.  Most consumer walkie-talkies (like ones using the FRS) work only over several kilometers in the best of conditions.  Believe it or not, Amateurs are able to use equipment to communicate all over the world, and even into space contacting the International Space Station using radio frequencies.  This kind of communication was probably more popular decades ago when there was no Internet, or cheap long distance Continue Reading

My take on free entertainment at the Richmond Night Market

I went to check out Richmond Night Market at its new location near River Rock Casino. Something they don’t advertise on their website is that there’s a $1.50 admission fee into the venue (side note: they must be making on the order of tens of thousands of dollars a night with this system, not even including booth rental fees!). I decided it wasn’t worth it since all I wanted to do was a quick wander.  I had my radio scanner on during the walk in from Bridgeport Station after seeing some of the traffic control personnel on their FRS walkie-talkies. Continue Reading