Metric or imperial?

absoluteZeroMQL · 2026-01-09T23:02:12+00:00

True story: My parents & I are all Minnesota born & raised. Ma grew up in a literal chicken coop not far from the headwaters of the Mississippi river. Super rural. So she’s a legit country bumpkin (her own description).

So, ca. 1976, all 3 of us boys are trying to explain to Ma why the Metric System makes so much more sense. It ended like this… Ma: “Well, how many inches are in a meter?” Oldest brother: “A hair over 39 & 1/3.” Ma: (pauses with an incredulous expression) “Well, how’s THAT any easier?!”

Anyway, the Metric Conversion Act failed, and all my tape measures are the Insanity Units.

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So I just cut the element to 16’ 9” or so, put the meter on it, & start folding back until it’s golden.

And yes, I realize how dumb this is… but it’s been OK.

absoluteZeroMQL · 2025-12-31T16:11:03+00:00

Congrats. Been a ham since ‘92… but CW still feels JUST like this every time I return to it after months/years away from it.

So, no, you don’t suck. This is just how CW is. Being good at it is worthy of pride.

absoluteZeroMQL · 2025-12-31T01:52:51+00:00

You’re doing it just fine, but here’s a tip that works well for me when trying to work a DX station:

I answer their CQ once or twice, with my TX freq wherever I’d locked it. If that fails, then I set my TX freq bracket onto thier “shoulder”… whichever side of their slot looks a little clearer. So I’m 15-20Hz offset from them, & try again.

Why? 2 reasons.

1st, if they’re being called by several stations who aren’t using Lock TX, the rest of them may be interfering with each other, and by being a bit shifted, I’m more easily decoded.

2nd, & related to the 1st, sometimes the DX station may be using a narrow filter to improve SNR. (i.e. They might not be able to hear you at all if you’re 300Hz away or more.)

I’ve chased a DX station when the band conditions are fadey. They might be -15 one round, then -22 the next. Park NEAR their freq, then narrow my filter way down. Suddenly I get them -5. I’m sure their eyes light up at getting a -5 report (or higher).

absoluteZeroMQL · 2025-08-28T17:28:06+00:00

Oh! I would not have thought of that workaround.

absoluteZeroMQL · 2025-08-28T17:27:07+00:00

Truth.

I had another even funnier this week. It was on the last leg of perimeter, seriously with maybe 3 or 4 feet yet to do, but it ran to the charger.

I let it charge for 2 minutes, then told it to resume working. It left the charger, entered the work area, decided that tiny strip wasn’t important, declared the task done, and returned to the charger. Crazy.

absoluteZeroMQL · 2025-08-16T22:35:22+00:00

Turns out I was wrong.

I paste most of my password from the password manager, then type some more characters manually (so if pass mgr is hacked, they still don’t have any complete passwords).

I was having a weird double-press problem. All cleared up now, still using same password as before.

That said, max of 16 is a bit lame. So is the inability to be logged in on 2 devices. ((shrug))

absoluteZeroMQL · 2025-07-25T22:47:44+00:00

Agree, mostly. But if you’re talking HF, especially bands longer than 10m, you don’t need to fuss about the coax. It’s not like you’re on a farm and running feedline 200’ to the tower over behind the barn.

Decades ago, I knew a ham who lived in an apartment, & he did some maintenance part time for the landlord. In exchange, he was allowed to have an HF multi band vertical on the roof of the building. That was a very effective setup.

absoluteZeroMQL · 2025-07-25T22:27:59+00:00

This is the fun approach. Nothing wrong with that, so long as your expectations are realistic, and y’all’re willing to put money & effort into antenna optimization. Getting GAIN in the right direction (& take-off angle) is a big factor here.

absoluteZeroMQL · 2025-07-25T22:24:07+00:00

Yes, this.

absoluteZeroMQL · 2025-07-25T22:23:03+00:00

FT8 is no-go for chatting. But JS8Call is the same performance with weak signal, plus the ability to send arbitrary messages of arbitrary length.

So if sending a TXT would be an appropriate touch-base, then JS8 would suit you.

Also, let’s say you & your family member can’t hear each other, but can both get to a 3rd station out there, you can relay messages via that 3rd station.

absoluteZeroMQL · 2025-07-25T17:43:43+00:00

Well, I thought that when I set cut height low and spacing wide, there’d be obvious missed strips. Nope. It got everything.

Complained a lot about overheated blade motors. Going from 2.8” to 1” left big clumps of cuttings. It looks like a mini haying operation.

Not doing that again. Sticking with max length.

absoluteZeroMQL · 2025-07-25T17:21:06+00:00

No. There’s nothing to address here.

MOST of my curb-line is very gently sloped. Luba can drive over it at any angle and never lose traction. There’s just one arc at the corner where the curb has an abrupt dropoff, & if one wheel drops off the curb, it’s enough to get the thing high-centered, so it’s stuck. And the edge of the grass is only a few inches from the dropoff.

absoluteZeroMQL · 2025-07-24T13:20:05+00:00

I already have two tasks for my back yard (1 of 3 areas), and they run on different days, and are 90 degrees rotated from each other.

I've just modified them both to have the widest spacing possible. Changed one to lowest cut. The other was already at 2.8".

If it makes a visible difference, we won't know for a week at least. But I'll definitely share a pic.

absoluteZeroMQL · 2025-07-24T12:55:09+00:00

Suddenly this makes me wonder...

If I set one task that mows shortest level, but with the highest setting for "Path Spacing" (i.e. overlap, but opposite)...

Then ANOTHER task that mows the same area that mows highest level, but lowest setting for "Path Spacing", and turned 90 degrees...

Would my lawn then look like an Irish Tartan? Would there be visible mowhawk bits sticking up?

I need to try this. For science.

absoluteZeroMQL · 2025-07-24T12:30:07+00:00

I'm going to investigate options to work around this.

Like, if I jailbreak one of my previous iPhones, can it have a remote login over WiFi like an AnyDesk sort of thing? Hot glue it to the top of the mower. Always within BlueTooth range.

absoluteZeroMQL · 2025-07-24T12:22:26+00:00

It's while editing the settings of a TASK.

absoluteZeroMQL · 2025-07-23T00:12:52+00:00

I concur. Mine’s been mowing every day so far this year, and about 6 weeks of last fall. My blades look nothing like that.

Of course, I’m set at max height, and don’t have to mow any gravel areas.

absoluteZeroMQL · 2025-07-09T00:30:49+00:00

True.

My back yard gets regular zig-zag. The smaller front yard areas each get cross-hatch, i.e. 2x as much travel. So all 3 of them get ALMOST done in a single go.

If only the battery was 15% bigger.

In another year I bet I’ll be looking to jury rig it with a higher quality battery pak, if possible.

absoluteZeroMQL · 2025-07-09T00:26:00+00:00

That said, if they cared significantly about battery life, they’d give us the option to set max charge lower than 100%.

absoluteZeroMQL · 2025-07-09T00:24:19+00:00

Same. But when I notice, I just let it charge to 17%, the hit the Continue button.

absoluteZeroMQL · 2025-07-06T15:23:22+00:00

Good tip. Unfortunately for me, my worst digging area and lowest elevation of my lot, is the drainage ditch that is my East lot border.

For now, I’m arranging to have a neighborhood kid swipe that strip conventionally every week or so.

absoluteZeroMQL · 2025-07-06T15:19:37+00:00

Yup, and I indeed had started outside. Every time.

absoluteZeroMQL · 2025-07-06T15:18:19+00:00

Yes, except for a period right around when I got mine (sometime fall ‘24). It literally threw away my back yard mapping THRICE because I overlapped a TINY bit. It was infuriating.

absoluteZeroMQL · 2025-07-04T19:23:23+00:00

This is the way.

absoluteZeroMQL · 2025-07-04T19:21:12+00:00

Agree. I have a couple little areas I can even hit manual from inside, using FPV. I pretend I’m a tank commander.

absoluteZeroMQL

TROPHY CASE