Michael K Johnson

Close behind it in the "want" factor stakes is the new KeebDeck from @arturo182 at @solder.party - an open-hardware soft silicone keyboard for space-constrained projects, and it's *cheap*. Like, really, really cheap […]

I followed @AF0AJ's lead to build a simple stand-in for WaveLogGate. I wanted a simple, low-memory-use, command-line-only version that just forwards the radio settings to WaveLog. I decided to build it in Go to enable building standalone binaries for many platforms with no dependencies on the […]

Screen shot of colorized script for dual-operator CW pota, same as the PDF and ODT linked from the main post. Text is: Dual-Operator CW POTA Cheat Sheet CQ POTA DE CALL1 ES CALL2 THEIRCALL THEIRCALL DE CALL1 [TU/GREETING] UR RST STATE BK BK [GREETING] RST STATE BK BK THEIRCALL DE CALL2 [TU/GREETING] UR RST STATE BK BK [GREETING] RST STATE BK BK TU STATE 73/72 DE CALL1 ES CALL2 EE EE

I have colorized my dual-operator CW #POTA script and turned it into a cheat sheet with an example on the reverse side, centered so you can print it duplex and cut it out if you like.

* Dual-OP-CW-POTA-Cheat-Sheet.pdf if you just want to print
* […]

[Original post on social.makerforums.info]

I'm now considering designing a very different two-piece winder to reduce weight for putting on a light push-up mast but still having a nice winding form. The great thing about 3D cad is that I can iterate on design without even firing up the 3d printer!

I might want both variants, honestly.

Screen capture of FreeCAD design for a new wire antenna winder

In my #HamRadio #POTA adventure today, I got my inverted-V linked dipole caught in twigs today and it died. The silicon wire winds easily around a tight radius, which is nice for putting it on the winder, but also winds around twigs easily, and that […]

[Original post on social.makerforums.info]

Map of 5W Morse code POTA activation, including WA and PR.

Here's the map of this 5W CW activation on 15m on a DIY linked dipole. Sadly it tangled in the twigs and broke while we broke it down, so I need to make another one. The next one will have links for 6m as well as the 10m, 12m, 15m, 17m, 20m, 30m, and […]

[Original post on social.makerforums.info]

I couldn't figure out how to create a dual-operator spot in pota.app, so some of the operators we worked might have been confused. Does anyone here know how to create multi-operator spots in pota.app? I tried spotting with a separating comma, space, and all sorts of other characters, but nothing […]

Doing a dual operator CW #POTA activation QRP now from US-6888 with Brantley K4CBW — hunt us now for double credit on 15m 21.030.5 🤞

"CQ POTA DE KZ4LY ES K4CBW" and we'll both give you an RST and a park!

Tonight, I'm drilling morse code POTA in Morse Walker with simulated callers at 22–30WPM, and I think for the first time I copied a 2x3 at 30 WPM on the first hearing ("WG0KTQ"), and copied some shorter 30WPM calls on the first hearing in 2-way pileups. Not reliably though, not even reliably […]

Cool $10k bounty:
https://bounties.fulu.org/bounties/ge-refrigerator-water-filter-replacement

Meta, Meta, Meta. So Meta. This Reuters report is 🔥

"Meta is earning a fortune on a deluge of fraudulent ads, documents show"

"Meta projected 10% of its 2024 revenue would come from ads for scams and banned goods, documents seen by Reuters show. And the social media giant internally estimates […]

I finally got around to watching the latest Practical Engineering video about concrete, right after reading an article about how they are repairing runways at KRDU, one or two concrete slabs at a time overnight, with just enough curing time to support takeoffs the next afternoon. 😮 […]

@stepheneb @alter_kaker Two additional thoughts here:

For point 2: I've used lots of spreadsheets, but I've mostly changed to VarSets recently because they are easier to edit and are typed which makes it harder to create a nonsense. MangoJelly has video(s?) on how to use them. (FreeCAD 1.0 […]

I decided to try to participate just a little in this weekend's #HamRadio ARRL sweepstakes CW contest to stretch my tyro skills. In a busy contest, I decided to set up not1mm and configure my radio for sending from a contest logger to try to reduce wasting time with nervous keying failures. Took […]

Map of my 5W POTA activation. Probably mostly right, but the contact marked as AZ was actually IL.

Today's #HamRadio #POTA (Parks On The Air) adventure. Absolutely gorgeous, couldn't-be-better fall weather on a Saturday, so that it was a little surprising that we found parking space and that all the picnic tables were empty. Used my spiderbeam […]

[Original post on social.makerforums.info]

I know that sentencing kids to tooth decay is small potatoes compared to lots of the rest of what this administration is doing, but this still makes me angry.

(Yes, I know, if we removed all processed sugars from our diet, that would also address tooth decay in a substantial way, but also let's […]

There are plenty of #HamRadio CW operators who, as a politeness, greet you by name when you have a QSO, even a POTA QSO. But they also see "Michael" and send "Mike" because "Michael" takes a long time to send.

I get it, "Mike" is shorter, but... _I just don't go by "Mike"_

I _do_ go by "MKJ' — […]

Melissa's turbulence was so rough that a "hurricane hunter" flight had to abort.

NOAA aircraft flying through Melissa recorded winds of 220 mph just a few thousand feet above the ground. Meanwhile, ground-level wind speeds were measured at 160 mph.

Melissa is now Earth's strongest storm of […]

Screen capture from video about the recent Skyraider II crash, showing that the plane took out a stop sign on its way down.

In the Skyraider II crash in Oklahoma the other day, I hadn't previously seen this angle showing the stop sign. I guess they did eventually come to a complete stop!

(Everyone on the ground and in the plane was OK, thanks to a driver with a dashcam […]

[Original post on social.makerforums.info]

Map showing lines indicating 57 Morse code ham radio contacts, throughout much of the US and one in Canada. All done on 5W or less of power; some were 2–3W.

Sunrise with a ham radio wire antenna dangling from a fiberglass push-up mast at one side. The picture doesn't do the sunrise justice.

Hammock slung under an elevated beach house, tied to pilings, with a beautiful sunrise in the background. It was a great way to wake up!

We had a surprise opportunity to go to the beach this weekend, near Southport NC. I have the weird preference to sling my hammock under the house, between the clotheslines, instead of sleeping indoors. Half camping? I use a big rubbermaid box as my […]

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Federal District Court Judge George Bourquin grants a writ of habeas corpus to block the deportation of a non-US citizen accused by the government of being a “Red.” (This occurred in 1920)

I bought an inexpensive mini-PC that came with Ubuntu pre-installed. That's fine, but I have no interest in running that; I want to run Fedora. Preferably Silverblue. But every attempt I've made to install Silverblue ends up with the error `the commmand 'ostree admin --sysroot=/mnt/sysimage […]

@spacemagick No, he doesn't have that confusion and and fact has videos where he explains that in great detail.

3d-printed morse code key parts, ready to assemble

Assembled and connected morse code key with hand-hold cover

QRP Linked dipole on a 3d printed winder base, made with 26awg wire, 1.5mm shock cord, RG316 coax, and 7 turns on a 0.82" ferrite choke. This is an earlier version of the winder; the latest version has the ability to build your choice of an SO239 or BNC connector instead of integral coax, if you want.

QRP dual-tapped unun that can be used with EFHW (49:1) or EFRW (9:1) depending on which of the red terminals the antenna wire is connected to. The purple terminal is for counterpoise either way. The coax is RG316.

@hamchallenge #HC43S I've published several 3D printable designs for #HamRadio, all designed with #FreeCAD.

My favorite is my single-paddle key system which I use regularly. I own Kent and Putikeeg keys, and still use my own creation most. I even […]

[Original post on social.makerforums.info]

Lines showing conversations ("QSOs") over morse code ("CW") from Chapel Hill, NC to ten other ham radio operators; nine in the eastern US and one in Canada, on the 20 meter ham band, using only 5 watts of power. The endpoints of the lines illustrate "skip" — there were multiple stations closer to me that I just couldn't hear and they couldn't hear me. The signal had to hit the ionosphere at a sufficiently oblique angle to be reflected or refracted back down to another ham's antenna, so all the connections were between 300 and 600 miles away.

Today's SYP (Support Your Parks) #HamRadio #POTA #QRP CW adventure had limited time, so I wasn't sure I'd actually stay for 10 QSOs. But then I discovered that park US-3859 Johnston Mill State Nature Preserve had no failed activations recorded, so […]

[Original post on social.makerforums.info]

One of my hunter credits was a 5-fer! 🤯

And here I thought that my QSO last evening after UTC midnight with K1SN Max was kind of a warm-up for a big ham radio day for me. There's more in my hunter log than I expected!

I just noticed that SYP isn't for _10_ QSOs, it's for _any_ QSOs. So I got […]

New #HamRadio country for me tonight! Thanks @M0TTQ for taking my call! It was kind of noisy this side of the pond, but still better than the US west coast from my QTH right now.

Got a successful activation today for the activator side of #SupportYourParks weekend. I think I might have gotten […]

Today I Learned that Google Docs is very insistent that `a/path/to/anything/whatever.json.gz` should be rendered as "a/path/to/anything/whatever.json.gz" — turning the literal "uuid.json.gz" at the end of the path into a link to a fake TLD. I'm having to do a lot of "break link" extra clicks […]

Christopher Columbus was awful (but this other guy was not) - The Oatmeal Happy Bartolomé Day.

We have been proclaimed to celebrate #columbusday here in the USA and my mind immediately turns to the oatmeal (which is also what I ate for breakfast.)
https://theoatmeal.com/comics/columbus_day

SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems... SIMON: What? SHAPIRO: ...Or saying... SIMON: You imagine that? SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over. SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level. SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this. SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)