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PhobosAnomaly

@ PhobosAnomaly @feddit.uk

Posts
1
Comments
290
Joined
3 yr. ago

  • I'm 40 now by Kplx

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  • Honestly, I didn't have a scooby about amateur radio until I watched a few videos by Ringway Manchester - he's a really knowledgeable amateur. He's a bit of a wanker to people in his comments who dare to offer dissenting opinions, but his videos are generally presented with a classic no-bullshit British vibe.

    The point of this is that he pushed me in the direction of the Baofeng UV-5RH, which is a handheld that operates on the VHF bands but is very versatile. The company gets grief for producing hamstrung cheap shit, but honestly being a so-called Baofeng Warrior has provided me with the inexpensive entry point into the world of Ham Radio - and it even has a function for listening to FM radio for the... lesser-legitimate audio broadcaster needs 😊

    My advice would be to get a UV-5RH (around £25), get a quarter-wave magmount antenna for the car (around (£15 for a cheap one), and check out Essex Ham's videos on Foundation-level radio guidance (free with a recommended donation).

    If you like it, brilliant - get your chequebook out and go wild. If you don't, then you've invested forty-odd quid and you can get half of that back on various internet auction sites.

    Have fun!

    edit: but yeah if you want beyond line-of-sight communication then £300 would be well under a lowball estimate 😢

  • TIL science has its own swifties

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  • Ah yes, that tracks with the very surface level overview that I picked up from it. It was only when I saw the magic "optional" tag that I was like noooope!

    Maybe I'll have a look at it in more detail when I get a free summer 😊

  • TIL science has its own swifties

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  • I studied entry level maths at uni level - a prerequisite course for most STEM degrees to cover the relatively small amount of maths common to nearly all science fields.

    Chapter 11 of 12 were Taylor polynomials and series, and it was listed as "optional".

    I looked at it once, read it aloud for my young son to fall asleep to, and never looked at it again.

  • I'm 40 now by Kplx

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  • Very little 😂

    No I got into it to learn the theory of it more than anything. I've been faffing about with a VHF setup to see if I could establish a little station that could be heard anywhere in the town I'm in. That's inexpensive to do and you can probably knock together a basic station with decent range for £100 and the time and effort needed up a ladder.

    The next step is to look further afield and build a station that operates in the 20m band, but I'm yet to be able to convince Chief Girlfriend that an end fed antenna dangling across the back garden, or a fiver metre whip mounted to the roof is a good idea. HF transceivers are exponentially more expensive, and require some support devices too.

    Otherwise, I go "hilltopping" and head up elevated positions with a quarter-wave antenna and a cheap handheld radio to listen out on what's happening. It's good for the geek in me; it's good for the mind being at such pretty viewpoints; and it's good for the body walking or running up hillsides.

    Alternatively, I'll sit in the garden while the kids play around with FlightRadar24 open on a device and a handheld radio tuned to the local airport approach frequency, and talk about what an aircraft is or may be doing while listening to the chatter.

    So yeah, I don't do a lot really. I live quite close to the coast so getting into marine frequencies is something on my list to do; and speaking to folk worldwide would be a laugh!

  • I'm 40 now by Kplx

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  • I'm in that age bracket and I've turned to spunking the little amount of disposable income on amateur radio kit and equipment.

    I wish I'd picked up a debilitating cocaine habit instead. It'd be cheaper.

  • We should all start doing this

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  • I'm not sure if this is a razor sharp witty comment, or if it's gone so far over your head that it nearly put a hole in the International Space Station.

  • Trust

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  • You can generally tell how well a push has gone by looking at your phone at 9pm on the Friday nights.

    If there's no missed calls, it's gone well.

    If there's two or three figures worth of missed calls, then it's gone really well and it's just been people wanting to congratulate you on how well it's gone.

    Either way, a Monday task.

  • Charlie Kirk’s Image Could Be Printed on New U.S. Currency

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  • I vote (illegally) for MetalJesusRocks.

  • Disappointed Christians say God is delaying the Rapture until Epstein Files are released

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  • The Star is somewhere between The Sun (a Rupert Murdoch spec tabloid rag with a "publish first, verify sources later" approach) and The Sport (contrary to its name, is less about the development and performance of elite ball games, and more about substituting the journalism with as much softcore pornography as possible).

    Admittedly, the Star is highly entertaining - like the "nottheonion" comm in print form, with an approach more like a magazine than a newspaper. It's usually a fraction cheaper than most of the major tabloids too.

  • Hegseth dissolves women’s military committee over ‘divisive feminist agenda’

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  • Ooooh that'll be a good PPE concept. Maybe make them contrasting colours. A deep red against a white background perhaps. Maybe put a Hindu peace sign in the middle to highlight their friendly intention.

  • Best day ever

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  • Yeah refereeing is hard too. Sometimes I want to yeet the controller out the window so nobody plays and solve the fairness problem that way... but then I'd have to listen to both of them bleat on about it!

    You can only do your best 😊

  • Best day ever

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  • Yeah fingers crossed!

    I think there's a point in most people's lives though where they look up to their leading figure in life - be it father; mother; caregiver; whatever - and realise that they're not perfect and they're just as prone to making daft mistakes as anyone.

    It was a sobering moment for me - I suppose it just makes you realise that they're just another person trying to make the best in life and sometimes shit just goes sideways.

    I mean, twenty years later I still feel like I've got my shit held together by thin string and willpower - adulting is hard work 😂

  • Best day ever

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  • Honestly I'd be happy if they remember it and adopt the same approach to spending time with folk - whether it be their friends, colleagues, maybe even their own bairns in due course.

  • Best day ever

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  • My eldest lad is growing up too fast - he's got lots of hobbies, one of which needs a lot of fitness so I try and get out with him once a week for a half hour run - partly to introduce him to cardio training but mainly to just get some time alone with him before he realises his dad is an arsehole.

    It's great. Admittedly, he's just "Roblox Roblox Roblox Roblox Roblox Roblox can we go to the shop Roblox Roblox" but it's time with him to talk to me about whatever he wants and it's time that I absolutely adore. I hope when (if) he chooses to have kids, he'll look back and think "hey that was some decent dad time I had outside the house".

    I'm also secretly hoping that if he's ever going through a rough time in life that he's keeping to himself and we're still out banging miles into the tarmac, then somewhere between "what's your favourite Grow Your Garden pet?" and "I just got a badge in Doors for using a crucifix on door 69 while getting chased by rush", there'll be a little breadcrumb or hint at a drama that we can talk about and ease his mental health just a tiny bit.

    Who knows. A dad can hope.

  • Yes, you can store data on a bird — enthusiast converts PNG to bird-shaped waveform, teaches young starling to recall file at up to 2MB/s

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  • yes

  • Yes, you can store data on a bird — enthusiast converts PNG to bird-shaped waveform, teaches young starling to recall file at up to 2MB/s

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  • Don't

  • Yes, you can store data on a bird — enthusiast converts PNG to bird-shaped waveform, teaches young starling to recall file at up to 2MB/s

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  • You'd have to zip six birds together to get Plutonia on it.

  • Yes, you can store data on a bird — enthusiast converts PNG to bird-shaped waveform, teaches young starling to recall file at up to 2MB/s

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  • Well, technically it has a built in backdoor...

  • Shaka, when the walls fell.

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  • It's almost as if we're weaving a whole narrative from a meme post.

    Either way, I hope they had a lovely time.