There are some things computers are just not good at, and collating memories is one of them—thus I am a huge proponent of scrapbooking. I’ve been scrapbooking since 2014, and since then I haven’t touched any of the tools, binders, or boxes of keepsakes I’ve been intending to go through.
Backdoor deregulation. It’s been their plan all along.
Orwell:
In no public or private utterance was it ever admitted that the three powers had at any time been grouped along different lines. Actually, as Winston well knew, it was only four years since Oceania had been at war with Eastasia and in alliance with Eurasia. But that was merely a piece of furtive knowledge which he happened to possess because his memory was not satisfactorily under control. Officially the change of partners had never happened. Oceania was at war with Eurasia: therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia. The enemy of the moment always represented absolute evil, and it followed that any past or future agreement with him was impossible.
I stay awake all day to punish myself for not sleeping at night.
From the article:
A message appeared at the top of multiple NIH websites last week that says: “This repository is under review for potential modification in compliance with Administration directives.”
Orwell:
Winston’s job was to rectify the original figures by making them agree with the later ones. …] The original figures were as arbitrary as the rectified ones, and in any case, the Party had control of all records, and they themselves created reality. The past, he reflected, had not merely been altered, it had been actually destroyed.
Onno, you’re spot-on, we are troubleshooters.
When I was fiddling with my first self-built antenna last year, the first problem I had to contend with was design selection, then materials, and all the discrete steps through erecting the antenna—which itself posed some issues when at first the mast was too short, and then again when a taller mast attenuated the signal (carbon fiber) if the antenna got too close to the mast.
The troubleshooting process was always rewarded with the end goal of two-way comms.
I regret that you you are right. Nothing’s been the same since Harambe.
Idiocracy is a documentary!
The subtext there might be that Dr Strange felt so hopeless about the situation that he didn’t conceive to look into the possibility, out of an infinite number of them.
I spent a couple of winters in Fairbanks Alaska, and was quite surprised with just how hot it gets up there in the summer, even as far north as the Arctic Circle.
I had been looking for remote testing since about 2018 because personal circumstances had me moving about quite a bit. Possibly there were some options back then, but I had not been able to find it; Covid certainly made that widely available. As soon as I had discovered it, I booked my appointment and studied/memorized.
Covid was a tough time for many, and a tragedy for others. I am thankful for folks, like you, who worked during that difficult global time, to ensure access to food went basically uninterrupted.
It’s a great algorithm called spaced repetition. I use the method so much I discovered Anki (and its parent site Anki Web) to do a ton of university studies. There’s a small learning curve, but once you get it, you can make all sorts of flash cards with fine grain detail for spaced repetition.
As for the FAA, once you are past PPL, Sheppard Air is pretty much the golden standard, only there is no space repetition in their system.
Are you eligible for a US license? HamStudy.org and study for the Technician’s license. Memorize the answers. Then when you are passing practice exams with a solid 80% or better, schedule your remote exam through the HamStudy website, take it, then get on the air.
I did my Tech from a beachside resort in the Philippines during the peak of the pandemic.
You can do it!
That’s quite a nice typeface. I find myself torn between serif vs sans; when reading a book it’s so ingrained to expect serif (I switched from Bookerly) that my eyes stuttered a bit when I started Atkinson’s.
As long as I can get the OTF or TTF files, I’ll try em all. You have any more?
They’re letting the terrorism button cool off a bit, considering its basically not been let up since September 2001.
I just added this to my eReader. I’ve been reading a lot lately and while I haven’t had any difficulty, I’m eager to see if it enhances comprehension.
Good post OP.
ISO: Morse Code trainer
Hi friends!
I am in search of a small Morse Code trainer/electronic keyer small enough to fit in my pocket, and has the following features:
- Speed selectable
- Works with an iambic key, and is Type B selectable
- Has a key jack for an external keyer
- Polarity selection, I key southpaw.
- Headphone jack
Bonus:
- Can adjust tone pitch down to 440Hz
Google turns up a few things here and there, I’d just like to see if any of y’all have any immediate recommendations.
Thank you!
E: autocarrot
Global QSO Visualization
I got it into my head that I would like to see a spherical depiction of my QSOs. Azimuthal and other representations weren't cutting it for me.
I managed to coax an LLM to output my ADIF into a KML so I could better visualize the reach of my QSOs, and I am quite stunned. 20m has almost complete global reach, as you'll see below. Admittedly, on CW it probably does. In these visualizations, the vast majority of contacts are on FT8 20m, but there are a few dozen SSB contacts as far as Indonesia. Usually I made these contacts well before sunrise.
This is a representation of my entire logbook, so any QSO not from the SW US are 10m.
Setup: IC-7300, barefoot, 15m mast, and a 20m twinlead j-pole. Having been temporarily based in a residential area, I had quite a high noise floor from various EMI sources, and could have probably done better with weak stations had my noi
15 seconds after the end of IARU Championship
You can see a sharp decline in activity about mid-screen.
About 1m 15s remaining:
45s after 1200Z:
aMATEur RaDio Is dEAD
Granted, this is the IARU Championship. But that's a lot of people on the radio.
ARRL Field Day has begun!
20m at 1500Z.
Side note: for the last three days I’ve enjoyed nearly bottomless noise floors; been making SSB QSOs to Japan, Indonesia, and even Rarotonga. Then–today of all days–the AirBnB beside my house has turned on their aircon and it’s completely wiping out all but the strongest signals. My waterfall looks like college ruled notebook paper:
1830Z Update:
1900Z. This is wild.
Mast ideas and recommendations
I currently use a 35' (10m) fiberglass telescoping mast, and I love it. It's great when I hoist my 10m window line j-pole (thank you KB9VBR!) and now that I'm messing around on 20m, it's just too short. My SWR is a bit higher than it ought to be on account of ground reflection since I can't get the base of the radiating element more than about 1m (3') off the ground.
The antenna I use (currently, at least) is fairly lightweight, so I'm not worried about mast flexion since the wight will largely be just outside mast center.
I am not to deterred by cost, and I am trying to avoid metallic antennas for fear it will mess with my radiation patterns and SWR in a new way. I am greatly interested in telescoping options.
Are you familiar with fiberglass or carbon fiber masts which get the top to a definite 15m (~50')?
Nearly all of my operations are /P, so it really has to be fairly convenient. I recognize that these requirements may be a little mutually exclusive.
ARRL Service Disruption Update (29 May)
Updated 5/29/2024
This update includes information about the status of several services as we continue to respond to a serious incident involving access to our network and systems.
The ARRL Volunteer Examiner Coordinator (ARRL VEC) has resumed the processing of Amateur Radio License applications with the FCC. A more comprehensive update on the status of ARRL VEC services is available here.
There has been no interruption to visitor operating at W1AW, the Hiram Percy Maxim Memorial Station. The station resumed voice bulletins on Thursday, May 23. All other scheduled transmissions, including Morse code practice, and code and digital bulletins, will resume on Thursday, May 30. Please refer to the regular operating schedule at www.arrl.org/w1aw-operating-schedule.
After last week's distribution of the ARRL Letter, our e-newsletter service has resumed. Current editions of ARRL Club News and The ARES®
Log dilemma; seeking your input
I have a small dilemma regarding logging a QSO, and I'm wondering if you can guide me through it. I made a contact the other day while doing POTA, but I did not capture the entire callsign. The error was only revealed after I saw their re-spot on the POTA site; if it weren't for that small glimpse, I would never know, and we'd never confirm in QRZ.
The Eagle Scout in me suggests that I should not change my logs based on the 3rd party information, but my QSO sent me a QRZ confirmation request.
On the other hand, borrowing from aviation, I am keen to "use all available resources", recognizing that so long as we have the tech and tools, we should use them, even if that may fly in the face of radio purity.
What say ye?
Radio Day, and a Total Solar Eclipse
Man, what an amazing day which will be long–if not impossible–to forget.
In the late 90s, I observed my first partial eclipse from South Florida. Then and there I decided I needed to see a total solar eclipse. Nearly 30 years later, I made good on that little personal promise. The moment I realized I would be in position to get along the path of totality, I made plans with my spouse to do so. We saved the date and planed the logistics.
I, of course, ensured my radio was packed and fully functional; charged the battery the night before. We left Del Rio, the closest place we could find reasonable accommodations, at 0400L. By 0700L we had hoisted and strung the OCF dipole and we were ready to go in DL98rv, just under the central path of the eclipse on the side of Hwy 131 in Texas ju
On the air in the path of the solar eclipse: 28320hz from DL98rv
Let’s QSO!
18:05Z QSY to 28320khz
19:30Z QSY to 28315khz
What's going on with our instance?
I admire @[email protected] for configuring and maintaining the instance, one can only imagine how much work goes into it—thank you mate for giving us an instance catered to our interests.
Has anyone else had any issues getting engagement or replies to their posts elsewhere on the fediverse when posting from this instance’s account?
Checking federation issue; can you see this post?
Our instance upgraded to 0.19 and it seems there are some users experiencing issues with comments and posts being seen. Are you able to see this post?
How did the geomagnetic storm this past weekend affect your contacts?
I was atop Stone Mountain in Georgia this past weekend hoping for a glorious POTA activation, dragged my spouse and kids who braved the early (for them) cold and wind and setup the 7300 only to make a single park-to-park contact… from inside the park.
How did you guys do during the weekend?
@lemmy.radio Instance Admin - Please update the instance
Certainly many of us use Voyager to access this instance, please update so we can continue to access our community.
Brief poll: What kind of confirmation rates do you have in QRZ?
Title. Methodology: Confirmed / total QSOs
I’m at 22% and curious to see what others are encountering.
Successful radio day!
Brought the 7300 out and erected the 7-band OCF; it was huge! Literally. It spanned nearly 200’ in its longest dimension. While I could probably have done better if I were able to have gotten the feed point to 30’, I managed to make 24 contacts and participated in a 10-10 net via relay that I had chanced on while zipping around 10m.
It was a beautiful day down in EL96, I setup the radio bench under the tree for shade and kept a close eye on the antenna in case someone wandered around it.
Running barefoot, I managed QSOs with Namibia (7000+ miles), Chile, Spain, Costa Rica, and New Foundland. Amazing people all around.
Got my mom spun up and handling the radio (we got licensed at the same time a couple years ago) and the contacts nearly poured in for her.
An all around amazing day.
E: Updated the photo; the klansman look was terrible. Do not recommend.
First time on the air
Was out in EL96 today at a park 65 feet up for my very very first Tech CQs on 10m. This past December I picked up an IC-7300 and finally got some time to go out. I put my kit together, wired the radio directly to the car battery and went whole hog. In one hour I logged eight contacts.
While I have a 7-band OCF antenna I received as part of the starter kit, I don't yet have all I need to get it standing for portable ops, so I managed to turn up what seems like a quarter wave mag mount CB whip I found in the garage. I tuned it up with the built in tuner, ran barefoot at 100W and managed to QSO as far as 1700mi.
I can't tell if it was propagation or local equipment configuration, but nearly all of my contacts were to the northeastern seaboard region, including one in Rochester, NY.
The most distant contact was in DM79 Colorado, though he indicated he was picking me up out of the noise floor.
Everyone I met on the radio was very charismatic, and I really REALLY enjoyed my first outin