Lede:
Under a local law, drivers are supposed to be paid even for the time they spend between trips. But Uber and Lyft found a money-saving loophole: Simply prevent them from logging into the apps, erasing some of their working time from the record.
667
joined 7 months ago
We’re at maximum of solar cycle 25; these Aurora are the direct result of Earth-directed CMEs which have happened in the past few days. This most recent one being an X-class flare.
Fabulous time for sky-gazers and amateur radio operators!
There’s still plenty of corporate greed to complain about, a la attempts to privatize the USPS, as a single example.
The issue is often framed as a burden: “the USPS costs American taxpayers x-billion/trillion dollars per year”, instead of the societal marvel that it is.
Try sending a standard letter across the US for less than $1 with FedEx or UPS.
The USPS was founded before the IRS, and even prior to the Declaration of Independence. That it’s technically older than the US, and one can still send a standard letter anywhere in the US for less than $1 is a service we need to protect.
They will unfortunately also get filtered. What I do is to direct important callers to ensure they leave a VM, or send an email or text.
Planned obsolescence hidden behind a “feature”.
In ten years, when they want to pull the plug on this game, they will cite dwindling users and “exorbitant” per-user maintenance costs.
They don’t want playable legacies. They want something they can leverage for nostalgia marketing in 20 years, and if you break out the original game, they won’t make any money. Production companies want you to buy what they are offering today, because it pays for new yachts.
I ran into the exact same thing. I ended up calling them to ask all my questions and got guided to the KX2 “shack in a box”. They called back pretty quickly and seemed pretty kind about it.
Their site definitely needs some optimizations.
If he can speed run to $1.6b, he can restart Three Mile Island.
Well… this is practically the story of how I recently ordered a KX2.
The 7300 is great when I want power and lots of options. Turns out it’s a dread to haul when I go out to try just to try and whisper.
You don’t understand. This was before the 2017Q4 call and I was two bonuses away from my second vacation yacht in Bora Bora.
If we had opened another facility, shareholder value would have been greatly diluted until it was fully online and my dream boat would have to wait until after next year’s tax season and I already had a down payment on it.
The very first video on YouTube was 19 seconds.
Then videos got so long they created shorts.
Now shorts are longer than the first YouTube video.
We’ve come full circle.
A three minute short is not a short, it is a video lol
I got it into my head that I would like to see a spherical depiction of my QSOs. Azimuthal and other representations weren't cutting it for me.
I managed to coax an LLM to output my ADIF into a KML so I could better visualize the reach of my QSOs, and I am quite stunned. 20m has almost complete global reach, as you'll see below. Admittedly, on CW it probably does. In these visualizations, the vast majority of contacts are on FT8 20m, but there are a few dozen SSB contacts as far as Indonesia. Usually I made these contacts well before sunrise.
This is a representation of my entire logbook, so any QSO not from the SW US are 10m.
Setup: IC-7300, barefoot, 15m mast, and a 20m twinlead j-pole. Having been temporarily based in a residential area, I had quite a high noise floor from various EMI sources, and could have probably done better with weak stations had my noise floor been lower.
Moving to the west:
More west, Australia prominently visible:
Antipodal view:
Looking toward the east, the west coast of Africa coming into view:
Africa; the lonely QSO east of Madagascar is Reunion Island, got this one on FT8:
You can see a sharp decline in activity about mid-screen.
About 1m 15s remaining:
45s after 1200Z:
Granted, this is the IARU Championship. But that's a lot of people on the radio.
20m at 1500Z.
Side note: for the last three days I’ve enjoyed nearly bottomless noise floors; been making SSB QSOs to Japan, Indonesia, and even Rarotonga. Then–today of all days–the AirBnB beside my house has turned on their aircon and it’s completely wiping out all but the strongest signals. My waterfall looks like college ruled notebook paper:
1830Z Update:
1900Z. This is wild.
Man, what an amazing day which will be long–if not impossible–to forget.
In the late 90s, I observed my first partial eclipse from South Florida. Then and there I decided I needed to see a total solar eclipse. Nearly 30 years later, I made good on that little personal promise. The moment I realized I would be in position to get along the path of totality, I made plans with my spouse to do so. We saved the date and planed the logistics.
I, of course, ensured my radio was packed and fully functional; charged the battery the night before. We left Del Rio, the closest place we could find reasonable accommodations, at 0400L. By 0700L we had hoisted and strung the OCF dipole and we were ready to go in DL98rv, just under the central path of the eclipse on the side of Hwy 131 in Texas just beyond the US-Mexican border.
The Tech section of 10m was silent that early, but I kept calling CQ until I started getting QSOs, pretty much went ten in a row in nearly the same number of minutes once the band came alive.
I had wanted to participate in the research project contest, but the instructions and bonuses were a little overwhelming, but I did manage to make one QSO during totality. On the one hand, I was expecting propagation attenuation, but the QSO I made was over 1,500 miles away.
I've read over and over about experiencing totality. Photos will never do it justice. Words doubly so. If you've ever been on the fence about traveling to see totality–just do it.
Lessons learned or confirmed:
- Get there at least two days before; scout potential setup locations. We scouted several locations with our radio setup in mind. We didn't want to risk trampling on private property, and the OCF antenna (being a 7-band) has nearly a 200' wingspan on its longest dimension. We needed plenty of space while also being considerate to others who would certainly want to see the eclipse as well. We must be good stewards of Amateur Radio.
- Get lodging as near as you can, as far in advance as you can, maybe no more than an hour away.
- Set up at least six hours before C1 (eclipse start).
- Make considerations for food and toilets. I was fortunate that our travel partners had a trailer with a functioning toilet. In my eagerness, I had completely overlooked the requirement for toilets.
- Don't underestimate the value of a radio day checklist.
- A 7-band OCF dipole is absolutely unwieldy for portable ops. I love the mast I've been using, but the antenna itself is a huge pain–and a huge footprint–to get up. For future ops, I plan to go with a monoband. I am planning to make KB9VBR's 10m window line j-pole to hoist on the mast instead.
- Small auxiliary/desk lights or headlamp, red is my preference, for log work before sunrise. I was struggling to get my radio configured and my log setup before the sun came up.
I am eager for your questions and feedback!
Let’s QSO!
18:05Z QSY to 28320khz
19:30Z QSY to 28315khz
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2000s Shadow 750 here. Re-jet and re-gear the rear and it’s a bike that could probably last a lifetime. After those upgrades, I was able to keep up with traffic on the 15 near LA outside of rush hour.