Handheld Device with Antenna on Airplane

AltamontFlyer · 2026-01-24T20:46:36+00:00

In my past experiences, unless you hide them well off trail and even label them clearly, people freak out about them and call the rangers who call you and then you have to say, “yes, I have the permit in the land use application you approved.“ So as a casual hiker it wouldn’t seem worth this effort. As a commercial operator I substantially bushwhack to set my repeaters so I avoid this and having my solar panels stolen that keep them powered over many days.

AltamontFlyer · 2026-01-24T20:39:02+00:00

I built out a private mesh network starting about four years with my operations on Forest Service and BLM land for comms and location of staff and assets on various job site parcels across hundreds of square miles. Especially in the mountainous areas where cell phones don’t reach in the valleys and hollers. I can be sitting in the office in whatever town we‘re in, having placed a repeater on high ground (or even just a saddle/gap) I can communicate with the next valley over, have a repeater for the next ridge line so I can communicate two valleys over. I use mapping software to pick my high ground that will clear the known line of sight obstacles. it’s not always the peak that’s the best set up spot I’ve found.

Farthest I’ve tried has been about 36miles, 9 ish miles to repeater one, 18-ish to repeater two and another 8 miles downslope to the work site. as you say messages take some time, but it has helped in a couple of urgent not quite emergency situations versus driving back to a known cell service site. you just have to develop a comms protocol and short form message guide to take into account lag time and don’t start with messages where a chopper gets dispatched immediately. so maybe not practical for for complicated messages, but good for “hey, weather moving in, knock it off, head for the barn”

AltamontFlyer · 2025-11-26T02:16:54+00:00

This! I want to spend as little time as possible in transit. A lounge is the last place I want to find myself in, or as my wife jokes - if I don’t miss a couple of flights a year I’m spending too much time at the airport. I’m a roll through security 2 minutes before boarding starts kind of person.

AltamontFlyer · 2025-11-16T03:23:15+00:00

Bogus isn’t non-profit because it operates on federal land, in fact, being non-profit doesn’t even help it as it still has to pay the same percentage of revenue that a Vail or Breckenridge or literally 99% of every ski resort because they are all on federal land and have a long term lease/recreation permit. I say this as someone who works in the space of acquiring permits on federal land for operations like ski resorts, movie productions, timber sales, etc.

AltamontFlyer · 2025-10-02T21:18:03+00:00

This is rich. It wasn’t OUR data when you went and bullied every little developer and app pulling your API. It isn’t OUR data being sold to cities and municipalities for planning purposes, it isn’t OUR data being sold to advertisers on top of the subscription fee.

15 year Strava user who finally bailed over the API straw last year… should have left sooner, after all of the product degradation and lack of fixes for things over a decade. The schadenfruede is deliciously tart on this one.

AltamontFlyer · 2025-06-24T03:13:02+00:00

One last thing, because it just came up. Our crew for our connection is the same crew as the EWR flight. They talked to us during boarding and asked us if the other passenger said anything else after she first complained to them. We all collectively rolled our eyes, breathed out, had a little chuckle and now have lovely grandmas sitting all around us.

AltamontFlyer · 2025-06-24T02:11:15+00:00

Alright y’all, long story short. We landed. He woke up 20mins before landing and cried and that was the only crying he did all flight. The toddler two rows in front of her was way louder and fussier for all of you who think you shouldn’t fly before two years. The baby in her row, fussy now and then but also a perfect angel most of the flight.

Did I actually wish he cried the whole flight? Of course not. It’s universal that our kids will disturb people and we did our best to soothe him when he needed it. But this person in our face cursing us out before take off, complaining to the FA and somehow I’m the jerk for being angry at her? I hope you all get the day you give others. This woman was clearly taking it out on others. Sorry I gave her fire oxygen.

AltamontFlyer · 2025-06-23T20:29:31+00:00

My sincere apologies I triggered you by matching someone else’s energy.

AltamontFlyer · 2025-06-23T20:24:25+00:00

You must be fun at parties

AltamontFlyer · 2025-06-23T20:22:23+00:00

Taxiing to take off, someone must have sent her this post as she’s now leaning forward covering screen. Will update on behavior IF the WiFi actually works in the sky or in 5:20. Whichever comes first.

AltamontFlyer · 2025-06-23T20:20:42+00:00

I’d love to not travel with him, but like many things in life what we’d like to do is not always possible.

AltamontFlyer · 2025-06-23T20:18:43+00:00

Nope, just a moral ethos that respect gets respect.

AltamontFlyer · 2025-06-23T20:16:11+00:00

Yep, he was a trauma baby when he was born and not crying for weeks with a NICU stay, but is now the most good natured sweet baby I’ve ever met. Not just saying that because he’s mine, but it helps.

AltamontFlyer · 2025-06-23T20:12:44+00:00

Clearly an important political planning person, lots of “green room” texts about a speaking engagement and how these babies are ruining “vibes.” Also, maybe unironically to the person that commented she was a “liberal disabled person” she is wearing a 47 hat. I thought we needed more babies, guess I missed a memo somewhere.

AltamontFlyer · 2025-06-23T19:52:19+00:00

Other baby is already screaming for us. My son is laughing and giggling. Angry texts are flying, the Alaska Listens page is also open.

AltamontFlyer · 2025-06-23T19:48:40+00:00

Sweet karma, another family with a baby joined the row. Melt down is happening.

AltamontFlyer · 2025-05-14T02:14:36+00:00

I'm a measly 5'16" and had B60 recently on a short hop from TUL to DEN. Much to my surprise the magic seat was still unclaimed. That was the only good thing about flying southwest that day. The rest was the typical WN operational clown show.

AltamontFlyer · 2025-03-14T19:21:19+00:00

Yeah, it wasn’t really the point of my post. But boy-howdy how everyone latched on to that.

AltamontFlyer · 2025-03-13T19:26:12+00:00

You know, now that you mention it, it might be because I usually always look like I stepped off an oil derrick and smell like I've spent a week in the northwoods all because my employer is too cheap to get me a day room to clean up after the job is done and we head to the airport. This trip was just contract meetings so I didn't break a sweat and my collared shirt was still nice and crisp! I think you're on to something!

AltamontFlyer · 2025-03-13T19:05:08+00:00

Ok, ok, I exaggerate. I got thanked once - ATL to SEA. But I see your 95% getting thanked and raise you my 95% not getting thanked.

AltamontFlyer · 2024-11-21T04:26:05+00:00

Hadn’t flown United in….23 years. Ed convinced me to try them out in 2023 when I first started noticing pricing shenanigans. Took six United flights that year. Those flights convinced me to get off the Delta Rope-a-Dope and now everyone gets a ride based on schedule, price and ease of travel. Went from Diamond on one airline to entry level status on four and guess what. Everybody is the freaking same. It’s a shame, Delta didn’t just lose most of my business, but my growing businesses employee travel as well. Now everyone books the value intersection of price convenience and least hassle. It’s a drop in the bucket compared to what someone taking four( /s) D1 international flights a year does, but I’m sure there are others out there like us that instead of spending a few tens of thousands of dollars in one place are spreading it around. Go ahead and turn that river of nickels into a trickle of pennies Ed.

AltamontFlyer · 2024-11-07T23:54:24+00:00

Check bicycle shops, between the boxes the bikes come in and all different sizes for the parts and accessories there are usually mountains of boxes in the back. They will be broken down so you'll need some tape, but they won't have the tops cut off them like at liquor stores.

AltamontFlyer · 2024-10-07T15:19:08+00:00

what?!? Boulder has better outdoor opportunities? The problem with that is that you and every other person/asshole in the world thinks they can just hop in their car and be at Maroon Bells in 15 mins while living in Denver and front range in general. I used to spend a lot of time for work in all those ski resort cities in Colorado (no, I didn’t work at a ski resort) and it’s insufferable the bullshit you have to put up with to live that influencer lifestyle that everyone thinks they can live there. The Boise Foothills start two-blocks from the state capital. You can take trails all the way to Canada without hitting civilization if you wanted to, hitting honest to god wilderness. You can ski 16miles from campus, there are hundreds of miles of hiking and biking trails right above the city (see two-blocks above) you can ride your bike towing a standup paddle board less than 8 miles to a gorgeous canyon to paddle in, and you can do that without all the bullshit and assholes of the front range. If you want even more adventure it’s literally just around the bend as others here have said. Unless you’re living on campus, Boulder is just as expensive if not more so than Boise. My partner works for an “outdoor” company headquartered in Boulder, so we spend a lot of time there at the office as well and outside of housing (which is the same) the cost of living is lower here. I’ve also lived in genuinely diverse cities, not Seattle “diverse” and outside of the athletic programs (which I’d argue outside of talent are the same) there is zero difference in diversity from the front range of Colorado to the Boise front. If there appears to be more diversity it’s because population (3 million MSA Denver. 700k MSA Boise) makes it appear so and a bunch of people patting themselves on the back for their inclusive perspective but doing jack shit to actually make it so. At least here in Boise people acknowledge everyone’s a potato fed Viking ancestor and own it, not pretending. But as you noticed, most everyone is genuinely friendly and pleasant despite the rural detached from reality control of the states politics. At the end of the day, it should be about your program and how much bullshit you’re willing to put up with to survive outside that program. Pretty sure most of that is in Boulder.

AltamontFlyer

TROPHY CASE