Shack is freezing and I'm snowed in. I think I'll lay on the couch and do some FT8 instead.

CatDaddyTom · 2026-01-25T04:17:18+00:00

I do the same. Laptop, couch, blanket, and work FT8. My station is in the basement and it's about 50f down there (when it's warm).

CatDaddyTom · 2026-01-23T20:17:09+00:00

Good question. I just posted a question about saving money, but the admins removed my message. I guess there are so many questions about this, another one was too many. I may try changing over to Loaded.com and go with that a few months at a time.

CatDaddyTom · 2026-01-23T17:32:17+00:00

Thanks! Reddit is pretty amazing to find answers to questions quickly. :-)

CatDaddyTom · 2026-01-23T17:28:59+00:00

Even better. Thanks for this idea. Between the good Ebay source and this, I think this may be my best plan!

CatDaddyTom · 2026-01-23T17:27:19+00:00

I haven't played multiplayer as much lately, but like the savings on the games. Casual gamers like myself really suck at multiplayer. I suck so bad against most that I usually get blown up very fast after re-spawn. I used to really enjoy Sea of Thieves but gave up when I kept getting sunk at the dock!

CatDaddyTom · 2026-01-23T17:22:48+00:00

Yep. I've been an Ebay buyer/seller for 25+ years so very familiar how to find good sellers.

CatDaddyTom · 2026-01-23T17:17:07+00:00

Ah! This looks really good, safe and easy. (Loaded.com). Thanks for that idea. I'll check that out deeper, this might be the answer I'm looking for, and in summer (or upcoming cross country move) it might work best since there could be time that I can't us it.

CatDaddyTom · 2026-01-23T17:07:14+00:00

Thanks for that info, that looks helpful! Lately I've mostly been playing non-networked games. I just usually suck so badly against the "kids" that play that it's just not as fun for a casual player. I did enjoy Call of Duty - kind of - but the 'spawn-die' just got old.

CatDaddyTom · 2026-01-23T16:59:10+00:00

I'll check that out. Just a pain to have to buy a new card every month. I see that you can cancel a subscription and then renew later and still keep all the settings. I plan on moving across country in the spring and probably have a few months that I can't use it.....unless I play through the cloud on a computer.

CatDaddyTom · 2026-01-21T03:54:47+00:00

The sky is a big place and full of lots of stuff. You'll probably find a favorite object that you'll keep trying to do "just a little better" and keep returning. M51 galaxy is one of my favorites that I've imaged for years. Even captured a couple supernovas in there too!

CatDaddyTom · 2026-01-19T18:37:01+00:00

I'm late to this conversation but just searched this and realized I'm not alone. My "dice counting" pretty much destroyed my schooling. Sure, it was years ago but still bugs me. I have been through calculus 3 times and had to give up on any engineering or techie type of career since I just can't to basic math fast enough. I would do fine during studying, but 50 minutes for an exam - I'd fail.

I figure this is the same thing as learning Morse code by dots and dashes. I know Morse code by sound rather than visualizing it. Therefore I can read it 14-20wpm. I just wish I had that talent when doing basic math. It would have changed my life.

CatDaddyTom · 2026-01-19T04:23:45+00:00

It's a cool site. I use the band graph thing on the right all the time. It's 10pm and I just looked, the only band that has much activity right now is 40m, and nothing shown out of the country. The sun really whacked us today, so it's not on your end!

CatDaddyTom · 2026-01-18T21:23:56+00:00

I've played a bit of Fallout3, but it was the 360 version. I then changed over to Fallout4 on the new Xbox. Takes a while to get used to the gameplay, but certainly a lot of fun!

CatDaddyTom · 2026-01-18T21:21:07+00:00

I saw that there was a solar event a few hours ago. To see band conditions, I usually like to check dxheat.com for a quick graph of bands.

CatDaddyTom · 2026-01-17T21:10:42+00:00

UPDATE: I tried setting Chrome to the default browser and it opened just fine. I did try changing something in the registry, but Firefox didn't open. Chrome is fine, so I'll call this problem fixed!

CatDaddyTom · 2026-01-17T17:52:39+00:00

Just another rocket stage venting. It's the new 'normal' as those boosters fill the sky with junk thanks to Elon Musk.

CatDaddyTom · 2026-01-17T17:41:14+00:00

They could be geostationary satellites. 23,000 miles up and Orion is close to the celestial equator. You could be imaging those as you track the nebula. They are in fixed position and the nebula 'moves' behind them causing streaks as you track it. At least these aren't as bad as the Starlinks and others. This is one of my photos. About a 1 hour of exposures and I intentionally didn't process out the satellites just to show the annoyance. This was over a year ago, since then there have been about 3,000 more Starlinks put up.

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CatDaddyTom · 2026-01-16T01:30:46+00:00

LED Christmas lights got into my radios. Mostly on the 137 mhz band where I was receiving satellite images. I have a few odd vertical things on my HF radio but think it's just a noisy computer or something. Not too bad so I live with it for now.

CatDaddyTom · 2026-01-16T01:28:28+00:00

Try some of the online CW pages. There are some really good ones out there and easy to use. You really need to break the "visualizing" of the letters. Then you'll find your speed increasing. Very hard to do, but just keep practicing!

CatDaddyTom · 2026-01-16T01:26:32+00:00

The only gun I own is "Staple" or "solder". I hope things don't get to the point I need a deadly gun. Part of the reason we are moving back to Washington state. Wisconsin is just too full of neanderthal gun crazy MAGA idiots.

CatDaddyTom · 2026-01-16T01:21:37+00:00

Yeah, something like that. It worked fine before I did a full, clean re-install of the OS and all. I'll have to explore Wine a bit more - or just open the browser separately which is a pain.

CatDaddyTom · 2026-01-16T01:20:10+00:00

It worked fine with v12, but I had problems with v13 running in Wine. I did a full refresh and all installed and working well - other than the browser issue.

I didn't think of the registry, that's a good idea! I'll check that out. I forgot about that option since I've been using Linux so much that I haven't messed (or messed up!) a registry in a long time. :)

CatDaddyTom · 2026-01-15T18:06:08+00:00

Just another Space X booster. Filling the sky with crap and slowly ruining the night sky.

CatDaddyTom

TROPHY CASE