2021: HVDN Notebook Year In Review

 

2021 for many was another tough one, but there were some bright spots through the HVDN lens worth sharing as we get ready to enter a hopefully more positive 2022.

2021 Most Popular HVDN Notebook Articles

Our top most read articles in 2021 is an interesting mix of both old and new.   

Leading the list is the "Firmware Update: TYT MD-UV380/390 Update 17.05" article first published on August 20th 2018. 

A good guess as to why this continues to be so popular is that the TYT website continues to not be stable when it comes time to download firmware or that resellers that do host similar files, offer little help on a radio that is still sold four years later.

Another article from 2018 that saw a resurgence of interest is the June 12, 2018 "A Tale of Two Time Slots" which is probably worth an update. 

More people learn about the benefits of DMR and the ability to maximize use of its spectrum benefits compared to other digital voice modes, so this is good to see as finally being popular!

Also from 2018 is the Joe Apuzzo N1JTA "MMDVM Firmware, why update? How to update!". 

While some of the information is dated, the major benefit of this article is the still accurate list of  commands used to update your MMDVM firmware in one nice and easy copy and paste format.

Back in October 2019, the "Review: Lanch HG-UV98 APRS 2m/70cm HT" authored by Steve Bossert K2GOG has continued to grow and drive sales for a product which the manufacturer has since closed its website. 

The products main reseller continues to offer excellent support and sales along with a growing user community who appreciate what this radio offers to those interested in low cost APRS.

Articles from last year proved popular for another year and it seems like the December 7th 2020 "Teardown: Alinco DJ-MD5XTG (2nd Generation DMR)  led the pack but was tightly related to another 2019 Alinco article called "Frequency Expansion: Alinco DJ-MD5TGP" also in the top ten list for 2021.

This leaves us with four 2021 released articles which were very popular and it seems that Kenwood needed some positive vibes since they continue to shrink its amateur radio portfolio.  

The super popular Kenwood TH-D74 which suffered a supply chain driven manufacturing stop oddly coincided with a major hack on this radio as detailed by the "MEOW MEOW: Goodspeed's CAT Tool" article from August 1st.  

With used radios now selling for more than they did new, Kenwood has even stopped letting anyone download the v1.11 firmware directly from its website, but will kindly give you access if requested along with a stern warning. 

It sure seems that "someone" got a little too close for comfort with this radio while poking around, but hopefully Kenwood comes out with something even more amazing in 2022 to fill the gap.

Another article which made a nice but quick splash was the modification of the "Hacking in USB CAT control to the Kenwood TS-50" which got highlighted by Hackaday soon after its release on January 11th 2021.

If you ever wondered why Hackaday is so great at driving awareness, here is how the traffic looked for just this one article 

Closing things up about the Top 10 HVDN Notebook articles in 2021 enjoyed by our readers was the "Perfect Icom IC-705 case?" from back in April which will have an update to coincide with Winter Field Day 2022.

Lastly, the "Analyzing Frozen Air Traffic in the Hudson Valley" article from February which saw an interesting double dip of interest, thanks to our good friends over at the RTL-SDR.com blog

Happy Holidays from HVDN and here is looking forward to 2022!