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[#] Sun Apr 18 2021 10:56:13 UTC from darknetuser

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2021-04-17 13:59 from IGnatius T Foobar
So is ham radio still a hobby worth getting into nowadays? Or has it

degraded into trash like everything else?



What I hear is it i still worth it. Bonus points because BBS can be made available over packet radio.

[#] Sun Apr 18 2021 12:08:37 UTC from ParanoidDelusions

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I notice a definite attitude change in almost everything lately. It is like Redditors are taking over the world. 

We went to a bar last night, and there were a bunch of bearded, gauged, inked guys standing around wearing lumber jack flannels and skinny jeans BSing - and they were all talking about Reddit. 

And they were all late 30s, early 40s... and I realized... I think of Millennials as kids in their late teens and early 20s. They're not. They *behave* like kids, especially online. But they're actually grown ass adult men. 

 

Sat Apr 17 2021 14:49:28 EDT from Nurb432

I think it depends on the area.

Problem is all the old timers are dying off. I have noticed a definite attitude change in that world. 

Sat Apr 17 2021 13:59:44 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar
So is ham radio still a hobby worth getting into nowadays? Or has it degraded into trash like everything else?

 



 



[#] Sun Apr 18 2021 13:14:09 UTC from Nurb432

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And that is the scariest part.. 

The women too of course.

 

Even if we dont totally collapse due to DC , they will take things down with them anyway. They are no match for the evils around the world.

Sun Apr 18 2021 08:08:37 EDT from ParanoidDelusions



And they were all late 30s, early 40s... and I realized... I think of Millennials as kids in their late teens and early 20s. They're not. They *behave* like kids, especially online. But they're actually grown ass adult men. 


 



[#] Sun Apr 18 2021 17:01:46 UTC from ParanoidDelusions

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Oh shit... listening to Millennials and Gen Z complaining about relationships - on places like Reddit, or just the handful of people/friends I have in these age groups in real life... 

The women are *worse*. It is remarkable how awkward these generations are when dealing with the opposite sex. 




Sun Apr 18 2021 09:14:09 EDT from Nurb432

And that is the scariest part.. 

The women too of course.

 

Even if we dont totally collapse due to DC , they will take things down with them anyway. They are no match for the evils around the world.

Sun Apr 18 2021 08:08:37 EDT from ParanoidDelusions



And they were all late 30s, early 40s... and I realized... I think of Millennials as kids in their late teens and early 20s. They're not. They *behave* like kids, especially online. But they're actually grown ass adult men. 


 



 



[#] Fri Apr 23 2021 00:37:53 UTC from ASCII Express

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So is ham radio still a hobby worth getting into nowadays? Or has it

degraded into trash like everything else?

I got back into it in 2019 and feel so glad that I did. It provides a refreshing alternative to social media, much like a BBS. The license requirement means that you will find more people with good critical thinking skills. You will always find factions and debates in any group, but hams try to remain civil over all. The hobby has reciprocity built into it. I say go for it! You can get your tech license remotely and finally real companies have started making affordable HT (walkie-talkie) radios. By real companies I mean Kenwoord, Icom, and Yaesu, as opposed to cheap Chinese knockoffs which the FCC made illegal.

[#] Fri Apr 23 2021 00:39:12 UTC from ASCII Express

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What I hear is it i still worth it. Bonus points because BBS can be
made available over packet radio.

Discussing ham radio on a Citadel also made me think of this use case.

[#] Fri Apr 23 2021 04:13:13 UTC from ASCII Express

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I don't know what "upgrades" they performed, but I don't like it.

Interesting. I just did a little reading about WWVB. It broadcasts on 60 kHz and uses two different formats to encode the time: digital pulse modulation and digital phase modulation. I wonder which your clock uses. What kind of antenna does it have? It never hurts to upgrade the antenna to give it a boost. Good luck.
https://www.nist.gov/pml/time-and-frequency-division/time-distribution/radio-s tation-wwvb

[#] Sun Apr 25 2021 03:09:03 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

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Oh, I know plenty about my clock because I designed and built it myself :)

This one receives the older style signal (pulse modulation) using a ferrite core antenna, and a receiver module that delivers the received pulses as a single on/off output. That feeds into an Arduino Nano, where I wrote a program [ https://code.citadel.org/?p=the_perfect_clock.git ] to decode the time signal into something usable, and displays the time on an LED readout using I2C.

It was a fun little project. I added some bonus features, including a photocell to make the display dim in a dark room and bright in a bright room, so it doesn't blast the room with light during sleeping hours, but it's bright enough to not get washed out in sunlight. And there is no RTC on the board; it keeps time purely in software, and calibrates itself by counting the number of software interrupts between WWVB cycles.

I don't know if I'd build it this way again. The signal isn't great here in the northeast and it really only locks onto the signal at night. The other option is GPS, but the GPS time signal doesn't tell you whether daylight savings time is in effect. WWVB does. So you have to either change the hour twice a year, or program the rules into it, and change it when the rules change.

[#] Mon Apr 26 2021 21:08:09 UTC from darknetuser

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2021-04-18 13:01 from ParanoidDelusions
Oh shit... listening to Millennials and Gen Z complaining about
relationships - on places like Reddit, or just the handful of
people/friends I have in these age groups in real life... 

The women are *worse*. It is remarkable how awkward these generations

are when dealing with the opposite sex. 


Wait until you see the generations that _follow_.

Also, millennials are sourcing their dating advice from the Internet nowadays so every Jack and Joe is using the same set of cheesy dating tactics.

[#] Mon Apr 26 2021 23:03:54 UTC from Nurb432

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Well you dont *have* to.

I tend to forget how to reset the fancy radio in the jeep with its 500 menus ( all i wanted is something that plays my music, i can turn up and down and that is it. i sort of miss the old one i took out ) and after DST comes / goes its off for a good couple of months until i get tired of it and start poking buttons .  The minute is right and i 'know' its not x-o-clock

 

Sat Apr 24 2021 11:09:03 PM EDT from IGnatius T Foobar
. So you have to either change the hour twice a year, 

 



[#] Tue Apr 27 2021 03:46:39 UTC from ParanoidDelusions

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Move to Arizona. But not if you vote blue. 

 

Mon Apr 26 2021 19:03:54 EDT from Nurb432

Well you dont *have* to.

I tend to forget how to reset the fancy radio in the jeep with its 500 menus ( all i wanted is something that plays my music, i can turn up and down and that is it. i sort of miss the old one i took out ) and after DST comes / goes its off for a good couple of months until i get tired of it and start poking buttons .  The minute is right and i 'know' its not x-o-clock

 

Sat Apr 24 2021 11:09:03 PM EDT from IGnatius T Foobar
. So you have to either change the hour twice a year, 

 



 



[#] Tue Apr 27 2021 18:59:07 UTC from Nurb432

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We used to be one of the few states that had a brain on this.  But a governor we got not too long ago actually RAN on it. wtf.   "so we can be in sync with the country" umm  you are still out of sync with someone dumbass..   And why they chose NYC time instead of Chicago time, ill never know. But he won and they did. Idiots.

He also closed all our state mental hospitals to save money.  Countless people died, that no one even knows about.  They cant survive in 1/2 way houses or on the street. They needed care.

And he rented out our toll roads for like the next 50 years.. wtf.

Did some other things that were ok, but some big ones like those, i disagreed with.

 

I could never move to Arizona anyway. My head would explode if i ever went outside.

 

 

Mon Apr 26 2021 11:46:39 PM EDT from ParanoidDelusions

Move to Arizona. But not if you vote blue. 

 

 


[#] Wed Apr 28 2021 04:58:04 UTC from ParanoidDelusions

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As a Californian native, I literally considered Arizona a step above moving to Hell at one point. Then I lived in Ohio for about 7 years - and I just wanted to be somewhere in the West. 

But it turns out, I like it *better* than California. I think the whole image of trailer parks with guys wearing wife-beaters, bermuda shorts, and white buckle shoes was something carefully crafted by the Arizonians to try and keep people from moving here, discovering how awesome it was, and ruining it. 

But eventually Southern California found Scottsdale, and turned it into the new and improved Palms Springs - actually *easier* to get to in their G4s and G5s than navigating LA airspace... and quicker than a drive from Laguna Nigel to Palm Springs in their Bentley. 

And, things are just getting worse. The homeless are already starting to follow, and you saw the last election. 

Tuscon has been a shithole forever - it is basically the furthest Northern city of Mexico - and Flagstaff and Sedona are just wealthy enclaves for entitled white rich folks. 

This is the future of Phoenix. 


Tue Apr 27 2021 14:59:07 EDT from Nurb432

We used to be one of the few states that had a brain on this.  But a governor we got not too long ago actually RAN on it. wtf.   "so we can be in sync with the country" umm  you are still out of sync with someone dumbass..   And why they chose NYC time instead of Chicago time, ill never know. But he won and they did. Idiots.

He also closed all our state mental hospitals to save money.  Countless people died, that no one even knows about.  They cant survive in 1/2 way houses or on the street. They needed care.

And he rented out our toll roads for like the next 50 years.. wtf.

Did some other things that were ok, but some big ones like those, i disagreed with.

 

I could never move to Arizona anyway. My head would explode if i ever went outside.

 

 

Mon Apr 26 2021 11:46:39 PM EDT from ParanoidDelusions

Move to Arizona. But not if you vote blue. 

 

 


 



[#] Wed Apr 28 2021 18:29:19 UTC from Nurb432

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I wasn't dissing the people or way of life ( as i have zero clue ),  it woudl be the heat i cant tolerate. 

Summers here are really hard on me, i cant imagine it out west where its really hot



[#] Thu Apr 29 2021 01:37:18 UTC from ParanoidDelusions

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So... I grew up in Northern California, where it hits at least 102 every summer. 

I almost had heat stroke once, playing baseball, in summer - in BAKERSFIELD, on a 108 degree day. 


Then I moved to Ohio, and I was digging a trench, and the guy I was working with stopped me, "Dude, you're about to have a heat stroke..." 

"No I'm not... it is like 88 degrees..." 

"Yeah, in Ohio. It is different than Sacramento. You can have a heat stroke at 88 degrees, here..." 

And once I stopped working, I realized, "I'm having a heat stroke..." 

So... here... it can hit 118... but if you're in the shade - it is WAY better than 88 degrees in Ohio... The sun is merciless - and you can burn your hand on a West facing door handle - we actually wrap oven-mitt things around handles here... 

But... it also isn't as terrible as it sounds, especially in the shade. 

 

Wed Apr 28 2021 14:29:19 EDT from Nurb432

I wasn't dissing the people or way of life ( as i have zero clue ),  it woudl be the heat i cant tolerate. 

Summers here are really hard on me, i cant imagine it out west where its really hot



 



[#] Thu Apr 29 2021 12:30:35 UTC from Nurb432

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I was helping tear out a basement one summer in college for extra cash. Sledgehammer breaking up the floor and carrying it out in buckets. bent over the entire time, plan was to lower the floor about 3"  ( other people were tearing out walls and stuff upstairs.  new guy got the 'harder' work )

A bit over 100 too, outside. No idea how bad it was inside.   I wasn't feeling good around lunch. Sat outside on the step for what little breeze there was, realized i couldn't read the signs on the trucks as they passed. "im done, gotta go".  Never went back.

Wed Apr 28 2021 09:37:18 PM EDT from ParanoidDelusions

I almost had heat stroke once, playing baseball, in summer - in BAKERSFIELD, on a 108 degree day. 

Then I moved to Ohio, and I was digging a trench, and the guy I was working with stopped me, "Dude, you're about to have a heat stroke..." 

 

 



[#] Thu Apr 29 2021 18:45:07 UTC from ParanoidDelusions

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Yeah - I mean, think of the roofers out here - and they work well into the summer. 

Although - probably a lot of them end up in the ER with heat stroke, too. :) 

 

Thu Apr 29 2021 08:30:35 EDT from Nurb432

I was helping tear out a basement one summer in college for extra cash. Sledgehammer breaking up the floor and carrying it out in buckets. bent over the entire time, plan was to lower the floor about 3"  ( other people were tearing out walls and stuff upstairs.  new guy got the 'harder' work )

A bit over 100 too, outside. No idea how bad it was inside.   I wasn't feeling good around lunch. Sat outside on the step for what little breeze there was, realized i couldn't read the signs on the trucks as they passed. "im done, gotta go".  Never went back.

Wed Apr 28 2021 09:37:18 PM EDT from ParanoidDelusions

I almost had heat stroke once, playing baseball, in summer - in BAKERSFIELD, on a 108 degree day. 

Then I moved to Ohio, and I was digging a trench, and the guy I was working with stopped me, "Dude, you're about to have a heat stroke..." 

 

 



 



[#] Wed May 05 2021 04:08:31 UTC from ASCII Express

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Oh, cool clock!

[#] Wed May 05 2021 04:12:52 UTC from ASCII Express

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The Sunshine Protection Act H.R. 69 seeks to establish a permanent daylight savings time. I hope it passes. It throws a wrinkle into so many things, and I prefer the later light.
It makes the evening gray line happen an hour later, bringing it back to radio.

[#] Wed May 05 2021 10:37:40 UTC from Nurb432

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I prefer darkness.

But i also HATE switching around 2x year.   Its stupid. Its not 1900 its 2021. We dont need to do this.

Wed May 05 2021 12:12:52 AM EDT from ASCII Express
The Sunshine Protection Act H.R. 69 seeks to establish a permanent daylight savings time. I hope it passes. It throws a wrinkle into so many things, and I prefer the later light.
It makes the evening gray line happen an hour later, bringing it back to radio.

 



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