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joined 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 minutes ago

Because not all humans strive for honor.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 58 minutes ago) (1 children)

Would that really help though? Gold is super soft so I think it would need to get frequently coated/plated again


and we already have pretty good and resistant marine paint.

Titanium is very corrosion resistant, not to mention plastics/fiberglass/carbon fiber, as I understand.

But yeah, cheap gold would be be great, just seems to me that the market would more be in e.g. electronics, where both corrosion resistance and electrical conductivity are required (something gold is fairly unique at).

[–] [email protected] 30 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

People praise the female reproductive system as miraculous because it can make a baby in only 9 months. Like that's neat and all, but my reproductive system can make a baby in approximately 13 seconds, so I don't see what all the fuss is about.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

Yep, you're right


I was just responding to parent's comment about fiber being best because nothing is faster than light :)

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

When copy says, "the X of the future will have Y," it's often laughable how wrong they get it


but in this case, remarkably true.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Can you explain the Ethernet requirement more? Was that just that the computer didn't have WiFi, or was it set up such that only the wired interface worked with their VPN, or...?

Can you explain your travel router situation? Did you use the travel router to access WiFi and provide an Ethernet port for the computer (I think this is called "WISP mode")? Or was this an 4G/5G router?

In any event, at least on Android you can connect to WiFi and tether to a computer over USB. It's very useful for setting up a computer without WiFi drivers, as Linux will almost always recognize the shared Internet (so, it's functionally a USB wifi dongle with very good driver support).

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

That's...not really a cogent argument.

Satellites connect to ground using radio/microwave (or even laser), all of which are electromagnetic radiation and travel at the speed of light (in vacuum).

Light in a fiber travels much more slowly than in vacuum


light in fiber travels at around 67% the speed of light in vacuum (depends on the fiber). In contrast, signals through cat7 twisted pair (Ethernet) can be north of 75%, and coaxial cable can be north of 80% (even higher for air dielectric). Note that these are all carrying electromagnetic waves, they're just a) not in free space and b) generally not optical frequency, so we don't call them light, but they are still governed by the same equations and limitations.

If you want to get signals from point A to point B fastest (lowest latency), you don't use fiber, you probably use microwaves: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/11/private-microwave-networks-financial-hft/

Finally, the reason fiber is so good is complicated, but has to do with the fact that "physics bandwidth" tends to care about fractional bandwidth ("delta frequency divided by frequency"), whereas "information bandwidth" cares about absolute bandwidth ("delta frequency"), all else being equal (looking at you, SNR). Fiber uses optical frequencies, which can be hundreds of THz


so a tiny fractional bandwidth is a huge absolute bandwidth.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

80% of the USA lives within urban areas (source). Urban "fiberization" is absolutely within reach.

Agree that running fiber out to very remote areas is tricky, but even then it's probably not prohibitive for all but the most remote locations.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Yes, but you're not alone (my partner tends this way).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

Don't forget Pinarello! Gorgeous and, last I checked, very well regarded. Just make sure your wallet is prepared


you can definitely drop $15k on a well-spec'd Pinarello Dogma.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago

The CW folks would presumably be sending QTH instead


I wonder if this graph captures that/if it would make an appreciable difference?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

I just wish they made toddler clothes in my size.

 

People often complain about San Francisco's public transit


and to be sure, it's not perfect by any means (multiple separate agencies doesn't help). But the historic streetcars are pretty neat!

They're painted with the livery of various historic streetcars from all over the country (and a few international, I think). Best of all, they run alongside the modern fleet


same route, same fare.

 

Noticed a few days ago that Sutro Tower's red blinking lights are now white. Just asked them on their website form, but wondered if anyone else knows the story with this.

Personally, I miss the red ones!

6
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

Howdy!

I got my Technician in early 2000s, and last year finally upgraded to Extra. Looking to set up a very basic shack.

I'm looking for an HF setup, with most of my use probably using digital modes, but would like the ability to use voice.

Current transceiver is on loan from girlfriend's dad, a Ten-Tec Scout 555


50W HF unit with separate modules for each band. One limitation of this is that the modules set the mode, so it's LSB on 40m, making e.g. FT8 not possible (without some hacking of code or perhaps hacking the module).

Antenna is end-fed with an off-the-shelf 49:1. Currently only have 20m half-wave, but have just enough room for a 40m half-wave in the attic, which is the ultimate goal.

For digital modes, it looks like there are sort of 3 classes of radio:

  • "full digital" where the radio has e.g. a USB port and handles audio, transmit, and frequency set.
  • Some computer-control with RS232, but uses computer audio+adapter to transmit.
  • No digital, use adapter to transmit. This is what the current setup uses (and it works great!)

I'm leaning towards a conventional transceiver, e.g., something from ICOM, Kenwood, Yaesu, (or others) rather than an SDR unit. I'd like the ability to go up to 50-100W if possible.

I don't have a hard-and-fast budget; would like to keep it <$1000 if possible; mostly just looking at used transceivers. Something like a Kenwood TS-590 looks pretty amazing and very "plug-and-play" (but pushing up against price). Something like a Yaesu FT-920 looks pretty feature-rich too; and even something more affordable like an ICOM 706 or even a 725 is probably more radio than I need. Or just grab a new 7300 and call it a day!

Anyway...clearly, I don't know exactly what I want, but figured I'd ask folks with more experience if they have any wisdom. Thanks!

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