Listening to the International Space Station (ISS)

While away on vacation last week, I did something that I thought initially to be a lot more difficult than it really is – I tuned in the International Space Station (ISS) and received SSTV images from it! If you didn’t know, the ISS has a ham radio onboard and transmits on the 2 meter band (145.800 specifically), and depending on the situation you may even be able to talk up to it.

Continue reading “Listening to the International Space Station (ISS)”

Powershell – Getting Group Membership in Office365

As I’m trying to clean up some accounts, I found that it’s -not easy- to simply get a list of all the groups a user is a member of in powershell, at least not like the one that displays in the admin portal. In doing some hunting (admittedly, not a lot of hunting) I came across this site that has just about what I was looking for, but I will warn you that the one-liners provided are not efficient – they have to populate the members of all groups, therefore if you have a LARGE directory, these may take a very long time to run, and be data-intensive. If you’re an SMB or SME with only a couple hundred users, they should be OK.

https://absolute-sharepoint.com/2018/03/find-all-the-office-365-groups-a-user-is-a-member-of-with-powershell.html?unapproved=397014&moderation-hash=b59b197881609389d441464bd17d72bb#comment-397014

The problem was, it didn’t work! It looked good, but the variable it stored the results in was empty. After a quick review I realized the problem; the $mailbox.Alias at the end of the scripts should have been $mailbox.Name, since the alias will never match the name shown in the group membership. Once I changed that, it worked as it should:

$Office365GroupsMember = Get-UnifiedGroup | where { (Get-UnifiedGroupLinks $_.Alias -LinkType Members | foreach {$_.name}) -contains $mailbox.Name}

However…this only works for “Office365” Groups, and not all Office365 group types, that may include groups sync’ed from Active Directory/DirSync, like distribution lists and so on. I took the one-liner from that site, and modified it slightly to use “get-msolgroup” rather than get-unifiedgroup, which worked as it should.

$UserEmail= "someperson@somecompany.com"
 
$Mailbox = Get-Mailbox | Where {$_.PrimarySmtpAddress -eq $UserEmail}

Get-msolGroup | where { (Get-msolGroupmember -GroupObjectId $_.objectid | foreach {$_.displayname}) -contains $mailbox.name}

From there you can pipe the output of that command into others, like remove-msolgroupmembership (although it needs the member objectid which is odd), or store it in a variable. Keep in mind you may want to filter group types as well, as I’m not sure you can remove a user from an Office365 group that was added/created as part of a Teams teams.

Last but not least, see these commands to do simliar roles for Active Directory:
get-adprincipalgroupmembership
remove-adprincipalgroupmembership

I figured this might help someone out, and kudos to the other page for having a one-liner that worked as the basis for this!

Hamfest Weekend and Teletype acquired!

Did a ton of walking and shopping this weekend at two back-to-back hamfests. What’s a hamfest? Easiest answer is “an electronics flea market”. They’re called “hamfests” as they’re often hosted by ham radio clubs, and while a majority of the gear for sale is radio related, you’ll find other deals at them as well.

The first was the MARC Hamfest in Kimberton, PA. Got a few goodies there and met up with some regulars.

Next up on Sunday was the Sussex County Hamfest up in New Jersey. This one is a bit of a haul and I attend it both to support some friends, and plugs it’s a bigger event. I found a few goodies here as well.

The biggest item on the loot pile? A Teletype ASR-32! While it’s not the ASR-33 (I’d still LOVE to find one for a decent deal!), its nearly identical in appearance and I’m hoping I can use it for vintage computer fun as well as some ham radio RTTY (radio-teletype) action. As part of the deal I also got a HAL ST-6 “teletype unit”, which is a demodulator (receiver) for RTTY. You can find a picture of it here. This unit receives RTTY signals from a radio, and converts them to serial data thats transferred to a teletype via a “current loop” connection. In this case the HAL ST-6 has been modified with a AFSR board so the teletype can be used for sending RTTY as well. More importantly, it looks techy and has blinky lights. No pics yet, but some will be forthcoming as I mess around with it and get it going.

With weather forecast in the mid to hid 90s this week, I think imma stay in the AC and geek out some!

Arcade Monitor Repair Party – November 2010

Life has a funny way of flying by when you’re having fun. I was digging through some old stuff and found these pics of an arcade monitor repair party I hosted back in 2010. Basically invited a few peeps from KLOV to come learn how to cap and repair arcade game monitors.

One guy even brought an entire game (Donkey Kong Jr), which turned out to be a great example, as we really went through it soup to nuts and did a bunch of small things to bring a basket case completely back to life!

I wish I could do these again…maybe some day. Anyway, enjoy some pics! PS – big thanks to my buddy Todd who always seems to go along with my crazy plans 😉

Maker Media now Maker Community

Saw an article on Hackaday about Maker Media now becoming Make Community. Seems this will include potentially keeping the magazine going, as well as the Mini Maker Faires, but not the big Maker Faires anymore.

There’s some interesting comments on the article as well. I’m not sure where I stand with all of this, other than lamenting the loss of the Maker Faire (NYC) while Philly’s Mini Maker Faire will hopefully continue to grow. Online social media may be a good way to collaborate on projects, etc, but us humans still need direct interaction from time to time, and things like the Maker Faires, Meetups, and other “real time/real life” events bolster our passion for doing and help us learn how to do.

Ham Radio Field Day this Weekend (June 21-23 2019)

“Field Day” is this weekend for ham radio operators. In the radio hobby, this is a set weekend every year where ham guys set up remote operations, usually in a public place such as a park, and operate from there. The idea is so that the public can see how they operate, ask questions, and even try it out without needing to buy gear or even get a radio license.

While anyone can participate, radio clubs usually do it as a group effort, where they pick a location, set up tents/generators/antennas/etc and have multiple radios going. In addition, clubs often designate “cooks” to grill up some food while they’re busy playing radio, and eating good is just as important as getting contacts.

If you see a group, and/or are curious about amateur radio, feel free to approach them and ask questions – thats the idea of this after all! Not only can you ask questions, but most hams/clubs will have a “Get On The Air (GOTA)” station set up for visitors to try out. Also note theres no age limits as well.

Fridays are usually the start of setup, with setup usually finalized by Saturday morning. The official “contest” (who can make the most field day contacts) starts at 2pm Saturday and goes for 24 hours until 2pm Sunday. By then things are usually winding down and the stations are being packed up, so your best bet is Saturday afternoon, or earlier if you can lend a hand setting up.

If you’re interested but not sure where to find a field day setup, use this locator page to find some near you: http://www.arrl.org/field-day-locator

Last but not least, this page offers a more detailed explanation of field day and what it entails: http://www.arrl.org/field-day

Have fun and 73!

Lansdale Under-The-Stars Car Show 2019

Sorry for the crappy pic…

I had the pleasure of checking out the Lansdale “Under The Stars” car show this weekend, in Lansdale, PA. Lansdale does several gear head events every year, including the big Lansdale Bike Night that attracts thousands of motorcycles from around the area (hosted by Blue Comet Motorcycle club).

That said, I really like this car show as being a night owl, I love the idea of walking around nighttime checking out cool cars, hearing some live music and getting a bite to eat. It mimics the feel of the race nights/track nights, and honestly it’s just a great time in a great town.

You can find the web site and information about the Lansdale Under-The-Stars car show here: https://fairmountfireco.com/car-show/

I didn’t take too many pics, after a long day with my nephew I decided to just enjoy the event and check out some cool cars. I’m sure there’s tons of pics and vids out there for the world to enjoy, but maybe nex year pencil this event in if you’re a Gearhead in the Philly area.

Also to point out – if you missed this one, another nearby town Hatboro PA hosts a similar night time car show that’s coming up on July 27th. You can find info on that car show at http://www.hatborocarshow.com/.

Philly Mini Maker Faire 2019 still on despite “Make” shutdown

Maker Faire Layoffs

Got some sad news over the weekend; Make Magazine (Maker Media) has abruptly shut down all operations, which likely includes the “Maker Faire” events, at least the larger events held annually at locations across the US and the world. The New York event (which I’ve attended a number of times) was awesome and huge.

It seems the smaller “licensed” events are likely to continue, depending on each’s situation.

https://i2.wp.com/philly.makerfaire.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/246/2018/03/Philadelphia_MMF_Logo-1.png?fit=750%2C750&strip=all

It seems not all may be lost though; there seems to be efforts to keep the business afloat (as well as possibly some of the Maker Faire events), so I guess we’re in a wait-and-see pattern as far as the NY Maker Faire is concerned. That said, today I received word that the 2019 Philly Mini Maker Faire, which is hosted at the Pennovation Center, is still on and completely funded and organized separate from Maker Media, which is awesome news to hear!

I hope for the best for this organization and hope the NY (and other) Maker Faires continue.