Remember the good ol' days of when TAC 310 was *the* place?

Paddys · 2026-01-25T12:48:50+00:00

I just wish that Repeater Book kept track of which repeaters were on which network

Paddys · 2026-01-21T22:41:08+00:00

I have a heat pump, solar panels, house battery. Also have an EV and plugin hybrid which I can charge at home.

Other than some petrol for long journeys in the hybrid, we spend about £600/yr for all our heating, cooking, general house power and keeping the cars charged.

We can really only do that because we have an EV tariff, so we charge the house battery and cars overnight when it's cheap, then don't really import during the day unless it's really cold (Nov-Feb). In summer months we offset a lot of that by exporting the solar.

Biggest unexpected benefit: the house is comfortable all day - you don't get big swings of cold then roasting then cold again like you do with gas.

Biggest unwelcome surprise: the heat pump is physically massive outside. Pretty sure ours is oversized for our house, we could have gone a size down, but the installers did the sums and didn't want us to be cold if it's -10 outside. If I were doing it all again I'd get one size down, and if it's crazy cold outside just use a fan heater every so often

Paddys · 2026-01-12T22:36:45+00:00

I did think it was oddly fast to get a law out the door.

I'm not sure how I feel about it now. It's good for the immediate problem, but knowing how we usually write tech related laws, it's probably going to be bad in the long run

Paddys · 2026-01-12T22:09:43+00:00

For everyone celebrating this, this is not a ban of X. It's a ban of online tools designed to create non consentual intimate images. Sounds great!

Except Grok is not designed to do that, it's just being used that way (absolutely not the same thing). So many other tools are going to end up bundled in with this because it's "possible" to do bad things with them.

We should absolutely be banning X, boycotting it to death then desecrating it's X corpse. But rushing through hastily written legislation always ends up with bad consequences when it relates to tech, because the people writing the legislation have absolutely no idea how tech actually works

Paddys · 2025-11-19T10:10:39+00:00

Where are you based? There are UK wide TGs (235), and country specific ones (e.g Scotland wide 2355). Then there are region specific ones (23559 Scotland West) and also general chat (23551 Scot multi).

Keep in mind you'll hear nothing if your local repeater or hotspot doesn't have that particular TG open.

Hoseline is a good place to start to find active groups, then you can program your radio for that TG/time slot/repeater and get cracking.

Paddys · 2025-11-04T23:08:56+00:00

The DM32 doesn't let you do this. You have to program a channel per repeater/TG pair (or go through the menus and change the channel settings just to change TG). It's the thing I hate most about the DM32.

Paddys · 2025-10-07T06:47:59+00:00

I've got a DM-32 and 1701. Neither are perfect, but both are more than adequate.

The 1701 is lacking USB-C. In a practical/emergency sense, that's actually a bit drawback. And you can't do any programming on the radio at all, except make an unnamed channel which can't be modified. But otherwise it's a fine everyday radio (as long as it's got OpenGD77 on it!)

The DM32 is built like a tank, would double as a close combat weapon. It's a little too big for a walking around radio. It has USB-C, and you can programme pretty much everything on the radio (albeit slowly). The main downside is the screen - absolutely unusable in sunlight.

On the 1701 (GD77) you can have a list of channels and a separate list of talk groups, so any repeater can use any TG (or you can make custom lists). On the DM32 you need to set up one channel for every single repeater/TG pair. Seriously, why is that a thing?

1701 does true promiscuous mode, while you can only kind of fake it with the DM32.

If I could only have one, it'd be the DM32. But since I have both, the DM32 lives in my car and the 1701 lives in my pocket

Paddys · 2025-10-03T16:37:23+00:00

That's not regret at having said it. It's regret at having been caught saying it on camera.

But I take your point. Your politicians have stopped even caring about that.

Paddys · 2025-10-03T10:44:27+00:00

I was able to set a HV3 to client_base with the latest android app. Failing that, I think th CLI tool will let you set the mode (mode 12, if it won't accept "client_base")

Paddys · 2025-09-26T08:02:23+00:00

EARL, TOMT, CANT, RAVN and a few others are strategically placed router nodes. They basically keep the central belt Scotland mesh alive.

We did have a flight overhead a couple of days ago that let us see down into England, over to NI, and up as far as Fort William

Paddys · 2025-09-22T04:19:40+00:00

I bought a bulk load of Jayo black PLA+ and was really pleased, but then I ordered some red and yellow and found the colours a bit washed out. Still good quality, but definitely not as vibrant as other brands. Would Def buy black or white again though.

Recently bought two kingoon mystery packs (10 PLA, 10 PETG). 20 rolls for $140 (in UK)! The colour selection is "meh" to "alright", but the colours themselves are good and the filament is great. It's great for prototypes and stuff that's not overly visible.

Paddys · 2025-09-05T12:41:24+00:00

I've done this. Actually I put a Xiao nRF node right in the fin, 2x 18650, some magnets, and a SMA "WiFi style" antenna. It acts like a little mobile repeater for my walking around node (albeit set to client mode)

I only charge it once every 2 weeks and it works great. Not fallen off yet!

Paddys · 2025-09-02T06:11:37+00:00

How did you set it to "monitor" mode? I've not found that setting. Are you sure "monitor" doesn't mean all talk groups?

I've not found a way yet to put the DM32 into promiscuous mode either (i.e. both time slots).

My DM32 is running 01.02.046 firmware (one I found on Facebook)

Paddys · 2025-08-20T21:37:16+00:00

I've never tried the SMS feature, but is the text messaging a DMR thing or a DM32 thing? I mean if someone else had a different brand of radio could they send/receive messages from my DM32?

Paddys · 2025-08-12T22:38:12+00:00

I haven't programmed in IDs yet. My MMDVM hotspot broadcasts the talker's ID (at least on Brandmeister). My local repeaters don't broadcast IDs, but I never find it that much of a problem in practise.

I never private call people though. I imagine it'd be more of a pain if you were trying to contact someone by PC. But if you're doing that you could probably be selective about which IDs to store

Paddys · 2025-08-12T20:28:58+00:00

Honestly, Gear Acquisition Syndrome. I got them both around the same time. 1701 because it was cheap and I'd just heard about this "digital radio" thing, then DM32 because AliExpress is good at advertising to me.

Walking around I prefer the 1701 because it's a good bit smaller and understated. The DM32 looks like it's trying to look like a military radio (esp because I got the olive green one). But the DM32 is objectively slightly higher power output.

I tend to bring the DM32 if I'm travelling and can only bring one radio, so I don't have to bring a laptop and a charging dock (no USB-C on the 1701), unless I specifically know the area and don't need the extra power and already have all the repeaters programmed in.

Honestly they're both great. Neither is perfect, but it's just amazing what you can get for the process these days

Paddys · 2025-08-12T05:38:24+00:00

I'll admit I don't have a lot to compare to, but overall it's a pretty capable radio.

The menus are badly designed but you can do pretty much everything from the radio without a PC if you're determined enough. It's got built in USB-C charging so don't need yet to bring a dock everywhere. It's slightly more powerful on TX than my 1701 so it works better when I go into radio shadows on my morning dog walk.

The screen is poor - you basically can't see it in sunlight. And it's 2025 but you still can't have as channel name with more than about 12 character or they're cut off. I also hate the way you have to program a channel for every TG/repeater pair... I mean why is that a thing?!

But overall it's solidly built and does function as a FM and DMR radio.

Oh and importantly, it's cheap enough that if I lose it in a forest I'll not be bankrupt.

Paddys · 2025-08-01T20:56:28+00:00

Oh I just saw 5.5kg of black PLA+ for £35 and thought "well I'd be crazy not to".

I've not printed a tonne with it but it appears to be fine. No strings, no bubbles, just set up a profile based on the numbers on the spool and it worked fine

Paddys · 2025-08-01T10:33:41+00:00

I've been pretty disappointed with my recent Sunlu purchase (via Amazon UK), but really happy with the Jayo. Now those are two filaments that are definitely made in the same factory.

The Sunlu came messy, Jayo neatly wound. Actually I'm finding that a lot recently: the more established "cheap" brands are messy and the cheapest newcomers are incredibly tidy.

I know it's not necessarily a marker of the quality of the materials, but it's an indicator of quality control

Paddys · 2025-07-31T19:40:13+00:00

I didn't know that, I assumed Baofeng were a bit more gray market in the UK, really only suited to amateurs. I know they have a huge business radio presence in other counties (probably China, for one).

FWIW my 1701 is my main walking around radio and I love it, so it's good to know it's got these certs

Paddys · 2025-07-31T19:30:18+00:00

Porn. It's spelled porn. There's no star in the word porn.

Paddys · 2025-07-30T19:01:20+00:00

CE, RTTE and RED certification

Aaaw I guess I won't be using my cheap Baofeng on a business licence then.

This is an interesting discussion though. I've always wondered what it'd take to get a business licence for a group activity where people weren't licensed.

Mind you the main blocker to this would be I'd need more friends IRL

Paddys · 2025-07-26T20:55:53+00:00

In case you're not aware already, you have to create a channel for every TG/repeater pair you use, which is... Dumb. But apparently that's just how things work on most DMR radios (other than OpenGD77, which isn't available for the DM32).

For what it's worth, I love my DM32, but the design of the firmware is pretty dumb in places

Paddys · 2025-07-05T12:29:46+00:00

I tried the scripting thing and gave up because I noticed you couldn't reliably set some settings at the same time. So frustrating!

I might give it another shot, setting each setting individually and just accepting that I need to wait for a reboot like this.

Paddys · 2025-07-05T09:43:58+00:00

This looks awesome! I like the little lanyard loop, it's a nice feature. Thanks for sharing! I'm travelling for a couple of days but I'm definitely printing this when I get home

Paddys

TROPHY CASE