← Feed

Posts

• View post

  For several days, all of the VHF repeaters in my area have been experiencing very broad-banded and powerful interference. Much more destructive than the usual stuff most of the lids are capable of (yeah, people do that). Some were suggesting military, since the Navy's Air Weapons Testing Systems are here. And yup, the main repeater manager locally has confirmed that the current Gray Flag exercise at Pt. Mugu is indeed the culprit, with VHF radars and jammers involved. #hamradio

• View post

  What if there were no rhetorical questions?

• View post

  More ideas for @ai6yr...I've thrown in John Barleycorn Must Die by Traffic, and a couple of Planxty albums. #MusicForBen

• View post

  @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org @paul_ipv6@infosec.exchange The Old Grey Whistle Test (note Bristish spelling) was a BBC series of "live" music in the 70s and 80s. Of course, "live" on TV always had a massive asterisk. Usually for this show, the band would record a studio live track, no overdubs or processing, without the vocal. Then they would mime to this while the vocalist actually performed. I've had to do this, and it's far harder than actually playing for real. The tech...

• View post

  @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org It didn't become common for recording artists to write their own material until well into the 60s. Songwriters and promoters flogged the tunes to labels who told their contracted artists what they must record. Songs lived lives independent of recording artists. The fact that we have the term "recording artist" as opposed to "artist" or "musician" says a lot. Eventually, in rock music at least, it became expected that bands write their own st...

• View post

  Need the group's advice here...@ai6yr@mastodon.radio just dropped off a USB stick for me to fill with music, starting with some Kraftwerk. The question is...what else? What does someone who was raised in a cave in Utah need to hear that the rest of the world always knew about? Some Exotica to start, Yma Sumac of course. Maybe some more Les Baxter. Flood by They Might Be Giants. At least one Gentle Giant album. Lots of 70s funk; who him what disco was before all the goodness was squeezed...

• View post

  @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org The South Seas record is awesome...part of a long-dead musical movement of the 50s and 60s called Exotica. Basically highly watered down and cliche-driven versions of non-European music, made for white folks in the US. (It coincided with the Tiki bar trend.) Usually involved scantily clad models. Eventually supplanted by what record labels called World Music; stuff watered down for white folks in the US and EU. For collectors like me of cheezy corny music, it's a gold m...

• View post

  @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org @paul_ipv6@infosec.exchange @larand@appdot.net @moira@mastodon.murkworks.net @cookiesinheaven@m.ai6yr.org I was about to ask what cave you were raised in, then I remembered it was Utah.

• View post

  @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org @cookiesinheaven@m.ai6yr.org You may not think you know who Glen Campbell is. but you've heard him a thousand times. One of the 60s most in-demand session guitarists before he started a career as a headliner. Side story about Wichita Lineman...Campbell had a huge hit with Jimmy Webb's By The Time I Get To Phoenix in 1967. He told Webb to write him another "place" song, so he started on a tune. He showed Cmpbell half of it, and Campbell said that was good en...

• View post

  Starting a new tradition, highlighting interesting old tools I own and use. No schedule, no order, just fun stuff. This is a saddler's hammer, used for leatherwork in general. Some say it's an upholsterer's hammer due to the tack puller; I've never found this exact hammer in an Osborne catalog. Similar to the #55 with the puller added. Note the grooved head for pulling stitches tight. Part 1/2 #CoolTool #AntiqueTool

• View post

  Watching yesterday's Tour de France Time Trial...they mention one rider (Ayuso) using a 64-10 gear combo. Holy crap; I'm not sure that even at my best I could have even turned it over. That's a taaalll gear. #TourDeFrance #biketooter

• View post

  So glad this World Cup nonsense is over with. I want to like soccer, and I probably would if I watched more. But come one, why are we ignoring FIFA? The people that created a peace prize to blow smoke up Trump's ass? Some of the most evil and corrupt people this side of the IOC. Get real.

• View post

  50% of the people who bought tickets over the years to see The Cure actually saw a band called The Placebo, and they enjoyed it just as much.

• View post

  I've been reterminating all of my field event coax, which gets used only occasionally and is usually treated pretty poorly. Tried screw-on compression type clamp fittings this time, and I'm loving them. I couldn't pull one out with all my might, unlike crimped and soldered connectors that pull off pretty easily. (I've watched people connect two lengths and then drag the entire thing across a field; this is an important feature for me.) Easy to install too, even on yucky gooey LM...

• View post

  Keeping my eyes open for surplus/used heavy fabric to make 7 heavy duty duffel bags. Making assembly kits for our club's military masts, to hold heavy stakes, tools, parts, instructions etc. for easier deployment.

• View post

  I just ordered a nose hair trimmer online, because, well, I need to trim my nose hairs, and a nose hair trimmer sounded like the right tool for the job. One of the images says it's the "best for lovers". I suspect someone in the factory in China that is selling them has some odd ideas about what lovers do in the West.

• View post

  My son had a Boss bluetooth speaker, finally died as the battery wouldn't charge. He stuck it in the e-waste pile. I took it apart; it just has a single 18650 cell, but shrink-wrapped with some weird plug I've never seen before. Chopped the plug, put in a battery holder for naked 18650 cells, and it's good to go-not only working, but the battery can just be changed next time from the pile of perfectly good 18650s I've chopped out of laptop batteries with one b...

• View post

  I've never thought much about this before, but I'm surprised there aren't people who terminate cables as a service. Bring them your coax, pick it up later with proper connectors installed properly. I'd pay for that. #HAMRADIO #COAX #electronicsRepair

• View post

  I know there are several non-ham folks who will see this who are in or near Ventura County...consider this a formal invitation! My club's ARRL Field Day effort is probably the best place to find out what we hams are actually doing. We'll be at 377 W. Potrero Road in Hidden Valley, sorta between Thousand Oaks and Westlake Village. The event starts Saturday at 11:00 am and goes for 24 hours. A third of our outfit is just for public information and visitors. Email for details keith@w6km...

• View post

  One thing I have really enjoyed on Mastodon is seeing really cool people I know join, and hook up with other cool people I already know from completely unrelated worlds. The internet hasn't been this much fun since the usenet heydey of the 90s.

• View post

  Hey hams, how many of us actually monitor 146.520? And how often? I always do in my car or while doing remote ops. Another way to put that is that I only do in my car or while doing remote ops. #HamRadio

• View post

  I like California. Just got notified via text that my ballot has been sent by mail, and to notify officials if it isn't received by a certain date. They also notify us of receipt of ballots, whether by mail or a ballot drop box, or at a polling place on election day. Making it easy to vote. And making it easy to verify that some asshat hasn't "purged" you from the rolls. #vote

• View post

  Question for the CW ops here... AJ6CL and I often activate SOTA summits together. With SSB, after a QSO one of us says "stand by for second operator", and then hands the mic over. Works a treat every time. When we're using CW, one of us says "stand by for 2nd op", hands over the key, the 2nd op calls the person, and never gets a reply. Ever. We're convinced people think the second op is someone trying to butt in on the SOTA activator's frequency. Suggestions?...

• View post

  I have been trying, literally for weeks, to set up a Buy Me A Coffee account for people who want to donate to the Bored Net Group's expenses. They channel everything through Stripe. Stripe insists that I have a business website with an SSL cert. I don't, nor do I want one, and I see other accounts without one. I've been in a loop for two weeks where they keep sending the same form to be filled out, they mark it complete, then send it again the next day. 1/2 #buymeacoffee #BotHell

• View post

  @briankrebs @mrswhitebelly

• View post

  For years, I held a monthly ham radio thing we called Micro Field Day, or μField Day, and informal portable radio gathering. But it became harder and harder to do since popularity grew to the point where parks wanted reservations (expensive), and everybody wanted insurance (expensiver.) So now the Bored Net Group is a club with ARRL affiliation, and as of today, liability insurance. Hoping to get μFD up and running again sooon. #hamradio #portablehamradio

• View post

  I'd like to recommend an account that I just discovered. All Corvids, all the time. https://todon.eu/@CORVUSPHERE

• View post

  Kiluaela is at it again... https://www.youtube.com/live/gXKuUyKt8mc #volcano #Hawaii

• View post

  Funny thing to notice, as I begin my much-anticipated but inexorable slide into curmudgeonly crepitude... I spent a lifetime loving the style of Chris Kraft and other NASA Mission Controllers and their colleagues. The Ronsir eyeglasses, crew cuts, white shirts and black ties. That was COOL. And today during LOS when half of Mission Control got up for a break during LOS, it's all skinny hipster suits that don't fit, brown sneakers and no socks with gray trousers, etc. Yuck! #NA...

• View post

  People asking me for Excel advice: Them: How do I do this? Me: Why are you using Excel? Them: My company makes me. Me: Get your company to help you.