Geochron 4K Is it Worth it ??

[BC_Scan]

As its a pretty penny the 4k version, alone without subscriptions bundle is it worth it ?
while those premium services look great I hate paying annualy or monthly for anything that is seemingly frivolous to some , while some of the information is available free elsewhere.Earthquakes, Air Quality etc
Looking for opinions /observations
I also appreciate its US conceived etc , not elsewhere...

 

[iMONITOR]

Personally I think it's a rich man's toy. I guess if someone "needs" it, then it's worth it. If someone buys it for a pretty conversation piece I would say, no it's not worth it. As you say, some if not all this information is available elsewhere for free or at a much less price.

I admit I always wanted one, and yes I can afford it, but I won't buy it.

 

[n3vj]

I always wanted one, but I ended up settling for HamClock - HamClock I have it running on a Raspberry Pi, Ubuntu Linux, and a Mac. I purchased a number of Pis for various things when they were cheap. It works great on a Pi 3b. HamClock has the option to set it up for multiple resolutions.

 

[vagrant]

Perhaps take a look at Simon's World Map. It is now at version 1.38. The web page provides info on configuring various things on it. It supports 4k. - Introduction — G4ELI

 

[N9JIG]

I agree with iMonitor, it is pretty and desirable but at $400 plus the display it is expensive. I have drooled over it for years but even I can't justify that to myself much less the wife. The next time I drag her out to HRO (where they have one set up) maybe that will convince her.

That said, I am using a Raspberry Pi 3 that I bought several years ago for about $30 and a spare 27" monitor I had to run HamClock. I don't know if there is anything other than aesthetics that would get me to buy a GeoChron.

 

[Hit_Factor]

Had an early model (possibly the original). It was buggy and updates usually caused new problems. It really didn't have strong ham features. I sold it and went to HamClock on a Pi.

Fairly often you can find these listed on QRZ in the swapmeet.

 

[N4DJC]

One of my former employers had one (I think it was a mechanical version) in our conference room to impress clients (DoD, NASA, Boeing, etc). It was impressive at the time…mid 90’s.

 

[N9JIG]

There was the original mechanical units, they were works of art and a status symbol. They showed up in every TV show and movie involving spies, the White House Situation Room and the like.

They will still maintain and update them and they often go for thousands of dollars. They pop up on eBay from time to time.

 

[AK9R]

An elementary school in my town has one of the mechanical Geochrons in their front lobby. I think it was donated to the school.

 

[GlobalNorth]

I've had one for a while now and I like it. I gave up the subscriptions and simply use it as a clock. I expected to use it more as a TV monitor, but I have grown far more indifferent to what is on TV than what time it is.

I find it more useful than the Davis weather station in my backward that monitors the local weather.

 

[N9JIG]

The wife let me buy a 7100 today and when we went to HRO to get it she was smitten by the GeoChron so we ended up with one of these as well.

Got it up and running pretty quickly and will probably get the ham radio layer one of these days after the credit card unmelts. Sure looks pretty!

 

[N9JIG]

So it has been a few days with the GeoChron running in my office. Here is my mini review:

Setup was pretty easy, just follow the prompts. I set up a free account and the device provides a one-time PIN code to match the hardware with the account. It took a few minutes to download the map files and system updates. While I have a 2GB fiber internet connection to my home my WiFi is only running at about 500MB so it took a good 10 minutes or so. There is an Ethernet port on the GeoChron device but it would have taken longer to go out to the garage and get cable for it than it was worth.

The next day I activated the Ham Radio Premium Bundle 5-day free trial. It shows all kinds of neat info, most of which I cannot use as my HF activity is all but nonexistent but it is fun to watch the MUF and various paths. It does show an annoying "You have 4 days remaining on the Ham Radio Bundle" message on screen during the trial. The wife said to buy the darn thing to get rid of the nagging so I did.

I like to see the satellite paths and airline plots. The wife, who knows nothing about radio, has been fascinated by the MUF plotting and the colors they use.

While I remain of the opinion that this is basically eye candy, I think it was worth the $500 (with tax) we spent and the $70 for the Ham Radio bundle. As we get older we spend a lot more time at home and these little touches make it that much more fun. We are still playing with the various layers, of which there are many, one of these days we will pick the set that suits us both.

 

[N9JIG]

And now the 90-day review:

I still think it is pretty much eye candy for people with too much money to spend. Yeah, that's me I admit but it still holds true. As far as I am concerned HamClock is just as useful but one has to admit the beauty of the GeoChron.

To tell the truth I rarely turn on the TV it is connected to, usually it is when I am actively working HF, have a visitor I want to impress or want to show off my shack in a photo like this:



The processor unit runs a bit hot, they advise to let it hang off the short HDMI extension they provide and not adhere it to the back of the TV. I laid mine so that it rests on the metal wall mount, this makes the GeoChron's heatsink is in direct contact with the large chunk of metal, that should help dissipate the heat pretty well. I worry about damage to the HDMI connector on my TV.

With how cheap big 4K TV's are these days (They had a 55-inch one at Sam's Club for $299 today, I almost bought 3!) one could get this running for about $800 all-in.

I probably would not recommend this but don't really regret the purchase. The wife likes it even better and will often turn it on herself just to see it.

 

[vagrant]

The wife likes it even better and will often turn it on herself just to see it.

Does she? Does she really like it? Does she only turn it on when you are around?

Anyways, I have one of those exact looking USB thumb PC's. I purchased it some years back for $99 with Windows 7 on it. It definitely gets hot. It cooked the WiFi chip. I never relied on it due to the heat. I guess one could use it with a small fan constantly blowing on it. It really could use a large heatsink and have a fan blowing on it. I thought about taking it apart, but it's really sealed up.

 

[N9JIG]

I host a half-dozen of those little USB-stick style SDR's for a friend. They get really hot, and with 6 of them all in a single USB hub it multiplies. I put in a Noctua computer fan to keep them cool and it works like a charm.

 

[vagrant]

I use the USB dongle extender cables with the thumb SDR's that run 24/7. It definitely reduced the heat on my Raspberry Pi's.

I need to find that tiny HDMI PC, plug it in again and just use the ethernet connection. I wonder how long until it pops.