Comments for N0MQL Shack of Knobs and Buttons

Comment on And Playing The Part Of Helen by Kelvin Olson

Kelvin Olson — Sat, 05 Aug 2023 20:02:28 +0000

In reply to KI5SMN.

Yeah – simple as a toot, but any length.

Plus, with a plug-in, it auto-toots a blurb, and optionally, one featured pic.

Gets me past the 0.488k post-length problem.

Comment on And Playing The Part Of Helen by KI5SMN

KI5SMN — Sat, 05 Aug 2023 14:08:11 +0000

since when is this whole blog a thing?

Looks Great!

I love the minimalist aesthetic

Comment on Steep Learning Curve by Kelvin Olson

Kelvin Olson — Wed, 31 May 2023 11:31:25 +0000

For what it’s worth, I tend to catch myself before uttering the illogical phrase, and instead say “long learning curve” with drawn out emphasis on “long”. Everybody understands what I mean, and I haven’t said anything incorrect.

Comment on Conflicting Factors Influencing My Brain Stem by kelvindean

kelvindean — Fri, 04 Nov 2022 11:40:00 +0000

An update… when I posted the above, I had used this setup for ONE night, and was quite pleased with it. On night TWO, it was horrible for one reason: The Soothing and Sleeping Sounds Station got a TON of tracks added to it in an extremely lazy way. Piano loops that repeat the same 2 (or 4) bars dozens of times. One in particular was extremely amateur – one particular chord was uncomfortably late off the beat, like you can imagine the pianist scanning the keyboard making sure each finger was on the correct keys before striking the chord. Clumsy and awkward, then repeats and repeats and repeats. Awful.

So then I switched off the VBAN stream, and instead fired up Live365 on the bed-side phone, figuring I’d pick something else, and suffer through unawareness mode for one night. Search term “Sleep”. Found ONE other option: “Sleep Zone”. Started playing that. It was good. Nature sound with a little piano and other soft instrumentation (not amateurish). That track finished playing, then A LOUD ADVERTISEMENT FOR KOHL’S. Yeah, fuck that. Shut it down, pull out the ‘buds, deal with the snoring, not sleep very well.

Gonna build something with Syrinscape, I think. I don’t want to constantly stream, and I can’t trust the Live365 curators.

Comment on WiRES-X YSF AMERICA-LINK Peeves by kelvindean

kelvindean — Fri, 16 Apr 2021 15:39:50 +0000

Just heard a dude in PA describe his setup into America-Link, to another guy talking to him from Texas. On the next go-around, dude says, with an impressed tone of voice, “Yeah, you’re hitting me S9 plus on this Yaesu HT!”

This is amusinoying for two reasons.

1st: When the mode you’re using is routed through the Internet, your radio is not receiving the other station’s transmission at all. What you’re receiving is the hotspot, or repeater that you’re using as your access to/from the WiRES-X system. You might as well tell us how awesome your YouTube reception is – “Even works when it’s raining heavily out, which our DirectTV doesn’t.”

2nd: The other guy isn’t necessarily transmitting ANY RF AT ALL. It’s just as likely that his equipment connects directly to the internet and the transmitter is never even on. So, while reporting to someone that they’re choppy (dropped packets), or modulation is too high or low (adjust mic position or gain), the RF-signal-strength part of a signal report is completely irrelevant and meaningless.

Just – laughably misunderstanding what’s going on. LOL

Comment on WiRES-X YSF AMERICA-LINK Peeves by kelvindean

kelvindean — Tue, 13 Apr 2021 17:30:51 +0000

I realize that the nature of America-Link is such that you might be somewhat always unsure if a given transmission will be your last, and the regs say to ID every 10 min, and your last TX. This winds up sometimes being a 20-minute rag-chew between 2 guys who each say both callsigns at both the beginning and end of each TX. That is, obviously, excessive.

But I guy I heard this morning, I wish I could’ve silently ejected from the system.

Guy 1 is talking to Guy 2. Both using both callsigns AT LEAST once during each TX. Then Guy 1 is informed that Guy 2 and Mrs. Guy 1 went to the same High School. So now Mrs. Guy 1 and Guy 2 are going to reminisce, and Guy 1 has no goddamned clue what it is to be a Control Operator.

“This is K1GUY (fictitious call) for W2GUY (also fictitious) controlling for a 3rd party transmission.” Without un-keying, his wife comes on and remembers something of her High School days, and asks Guy 2 a question. Without un-keying, Guy 1 ends that transmission with, “This is K1GUY for W2GUY, back to you.”

He did this 7 or 8 times.

O… M… G!

Look, dude, here’s how you Control Operate that shit. Hand the mic to your wife, and let her talk to Guy 2 like they’re on FRS walkie talkies. Don’t interrupt with your given-by-God-himself callsign unless 10 minutes goes by, otherwise STFU. You literally doubled how long your America-Link conversation was by cramming in unnecessary overhead, all the while fussing about not wanting to tie up America-Link for too long.

Or – here’s another idea – keep your email addresses current on QRZ.com. One of you email the other guy and exchange phone numbers. Then let Mrs Guy 1 talk to Guy 2.

Comment on Moved The Tune-A-Tenna by kelvindean

kelvindean — Mon, 29 Mar 2021 16:26:00 +0000

In reply to kelvindean.

Same story, on 12m, -28.7db is what got me 10w.
15m, -27.6db.
17m, -26.8db.

Comment on Moved The Tune-A-Tenna by kelvindean

kelvindean — Mon, 29 Mar 2021 16:15:23 +0000

Here’s what I’m thinking:

1. Set the radio power to 100w (max).
2. Tune WSJT-X and adjust the power slider until the radio shows it’s outputting 10 watts (a rough approximation at best). Note the slider position (e.g. it showed me -27.9db when I did this on 10-meters just now).
3. Dial the radio power down to 5w (min).

Theoretically, then, I’m as close to 500mw as I can be without expensive test equipment.

Does that seem reasonable?

Comment on Going Old School With An Inverted Vee Dipole by kelvindean

kelvindean — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 17:57:56 +0000

Currently on-the-fence about using a pulley system just for the Tune-A-Tenna (bringing the feed unit down to ground level, along with its cables), or if I’d be better off figuring a way to extend the mast all the way to near-ground-level, and tilt the ENTIRE thing. Hmm.

Comment on Twitmo For 20 Hours by kelvindean

kelvindean — Fri, 08 Jan 2021 00:34:51 +0000

I’ve been Twitmo’d twice since then. The most recent one it won’t even show me what the offending tweet is, and instruct me to remove it.

Suffice to say, #IQ45 does not effectively de-escalate by repeating the lies about a stolen election.