Was just talking about frequency references last night -- the ARRL Frequency Measurement Test is this Thursday evening
Readit Newsswalberg commented on Inside an Isotemp OCXO107-10 Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator tomverbeure.github.io/202... · Posted by u/thomasjb
swalberg commented on Meteor Burst Communications ronaldelliott.com/mbc.htm... · Posted by u/TomWhitwell
It buries the lede but I eventually understood that they reflect the signal off the trail and this isn’t subject to destruction like a satellite could be
The meteors leave a tail of ionized particles that people on the ground can bounce RF off of. Ham radio operators use this, e.g. the MSK-144 mode. Pretty cool to hear/see signals and know they were bounced off the tail of a meteor!
swalberg commented on Why OpenAI's Structure Must Evolve to Advance Our Mission openai.com/index/why-our-... · Posted by u/meetpateltech
> "We are turning our non profit into a for profit because we want to make money" isn't legal.
Source? The NFL did this because they were already making a lot of money. As I understand it, the tax laws practically required the change.
The NFL passes net income back to the team owners. The taxation is generally the owner's problem.
swalberg commented on Civil war buffs drill for the 'hardest test in history' wsj.com/lifestyle/travel/... · Posted by u/erehweb
I didn't realize they licensed private tour guides. My son's scout troop went to Gettysburg and joined one of the NPS tours. The guy kept a whole lot of teenaged boys engaged and interested for what was at least 2 hours and several miles of walking. I've been on tours of other Civil War sites and that was by far the best.
swalberg commented on Show HN: Midnight Reminders via Morse Code github.com/dmd/morse... · Posted by u/dmd
Absolutely awful! I'm very glad I didn't wire it straight into the pi but put a connector in the middle so I can replace it. It works and is silent to actuate but as you say the ergonomics are bad. I have to reach for it and it rattles around on the bedside table a bit (I've thought of maybe wrapping it in a piece of felt).
Your idea sounds great - can you give me a suggestion (e.g. a M-C/Mouser/Digikey part#)?
- N2SXX
I don't know any part numbers but have a look at what the Morserino does (https://www.morserino.info/) or this reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio/comments/ag7xpi/projec...
swalberg commented on Show HN: Midnight Reminders via Morse Code github.com/dmd/morse... · Posted by u/dmd
How are the ergonomics of that key? Between the switch with the spring and having to hold that in your hand to use, I'm wondering how accurate the keying is? One suggestion might be a flat pad with a capacitive switch so you could just tap things out without even moving, but maybe the key works for you.
Either way, a fun idea!
73 de Sean N3RTW
> DX'ing and contesting
apologies, I'm ignorant when it comes to HAM but have always been interested in it: what does DX'ing and contesting mean? I'm assuming DX = talking to other HAMs, but I can't figure out what contesting would be.
Sorry... DX is short for a distance contact, so someone outside of your country. There are 340-odd "DX entities" defined, some of them incredibly rare (Bouvet Island, North Korea), and people spend their lives trying to get the ones they're missing. Other people will gather a group and raise funds to go to those places so that they get on the air.
Contesting is when there's an event, usually over a weekend with a set of rules and a point system for contacts. People get on the air and try and get the most points by making contacts. Big contests might have 10 or 20 thousand people all over the world participating and top competitors are running 2 or 3 radios simultaneously to get rates of over 400 contacts an hour. But there's also smaller contests such as QSO parties where a State tries to get people from every county on the air and people from across the country try to work them. Or silly ones like the Zombie Shuffle at the end of this month where people make up funny names and exchange them at low power, low speed Morse code just for fun. https://www.contestcalendar.com/ shows all the contests and gives you some idea of the variety.
Since some of the less popular countries tend to get active during the big contests, many DX'ers will enter contests just to find a few more.
I had to read again 3 times. Are you serious?
If there is any complication, you're risking 2 lives.
The majority of births are simple if you let them be and the midwives go to great lengths to make sure the conditions are right for a successful event. In the case of our third we hit some conditions leading up to the delivery date that disqualified us for a home birth so we seamlessly transitioned into the hospital system (where the midwife still delivered the baby)