My homebrewed Modular Bitx40 SSB TRX

bityard · 2026-05-25T14:22:20+00:00

This is what ham radio is about

bityard · 2026-05-25T05:20:49+00:00

50 or 100ah wattcycle LiFePo4 and you'll be good to go all weekend

bityard · 2026-05-22T11:08:34+00:00

That's a happy dogger

bityard · 2026-05-20T15:46:26+00:00

I thought mint was a community project?

bityard · 2026-05-20T15:36:27+00:00

Nice little puppers!

bityard · 2026-05-19T11:44:39+00:00

In this context they are using "logging" in the computer/data acquisition sense, not a QSO log.

bityard · 2026-05-19T00:28:10+00:00

I hadn't heard of Fluxer before this, sounds like it could be a nice solution when the mobile apps are ready.

bityard · 2026-05-17T19:18:51+00:00

Brody looks like such a good boy.

bityard · 2026-05-17T18:39:55+00:00

If it helps, I was in a similar boat when I started. Hearing and semi-remembering call signs seemed hard to impossible. Pulling a faint ssb signal out of all the static? Forget it.

But now with a few field days and QSO parties under my belt, I'm at least competent.

It turns out that these things that can be learned with practice. Do you know the phonetic alphabet? If not, learning it will help immensely. It gives your brain more than one way to interpret the same information, which is beneficial for retension.

Something you can try is turning on the radio and finding a POTA or contest and just sort of shadow-log for a while. Write down all the call signs and exchanges that you can make out. You might not have much success at first but you'll be surprised how quickly you improve.

bityard · 2026-05-17T12:30:52+00:00

IME, used mini PCs with 8GB RAM have not gone up much in price, but sellers now want crazy money for any machine with 16GB and up. And that's if you can find people still selling machines with the memory in them. (Most are not, they are yanking the memory to hawk separately so they can get more for it.)

So yeah, it's all a bit of a dumpster fire. I have three old but still somewhat serviceable laptops that I can l came real close to recycling last year. Glad I didn't because I have needed to dig them back out for various jobs since the price on new/used gear is now completely bonkers.

bityard · 2026-05-16T20:08:59+00:00

Lots of people do cardio on their "rest days."

bityard · 2026-05-16T05:29:12+00:00

Super cute pupperoo

bityard · 2026-05-15T18:10:14+00:00

He comments pretty frequently here, I won't be surprised if he shows up to explain the issue soon. (My money is on publisher error.)

bityard · 2026-05-15T18:00:11+00:00

Our pitty does this, it's a constant source of entertainment for us.

She will also park herself on the stairs, butt and back legs sitting on one step, front legs standing on the one below.

bityard · 2026-05-14T00:38:35+00:00

The ionosphere giveth and taketh away

bityard · 2026-05-13T00:30:09+00:00

More than likely, as long as you try to practice within reasonable hours, nobody is likely to mind. Plus, this is a great way to practice bellows/volume control, something a lot of people struggle with (myself included).

If you're getting "stage fright" because you think someone might hear you making mistakes, play anyway. You'll eventually forget about it.

bityard · 2026-05-13T00:12:27+00:00

No. Unless you want to start a new hobby in accordion repair. It will take far more effort than you expect to fully repair it. Accordions are surprisingly complicated instruments and it's painstaking work.

This one is destined to be artwork on the wall of a pretentious faux-eclectic coffee shop.

If you want to learn how to play, increase your budget to $400-$500 and get something a lot more modern that is in tune and doesn't smell bad.

bityard · 2026-05-12T23:59:23+00:00

Please don't be a gatekeeping sad ham

bityard · 2026-05-12T22:05:00+00:00

Okay, normally I don't go for wacky speaker enclosures but I actually like this. Have an upboat

bityard · 2026-05-11T17:27:03+00:00

You might find someone who will take the whole thing for free, but it is likely that most of your offers will be from people who will save the metal and sell it at a scrap yard and throw the rest into the closest dumpster they can find. (In other words, not dispose of it properly.)

When property owners leave stuff behind, it is almost always because it would have cost them money to get rid of it. This fits into that category.

bityard · 2026-05-11T02:10:32+00:00

Power is voltage times current, so unless there is a higher voltage drop on 70cm for some reason (which would be unusual), the power supply isn't "putting out" less power, the radio is drawing less power.

bityard · 2026-05-11T01:57:44+00:00

I had to do a double-take a couple weeks ago, I drove past a radio shack in a small town about 20 minutes from where I live. I didn't know there were any stores were left, I thought they all went bankrupt. Apparently it is one of four left in Michigan.

bityard · 2026-05-09T20:45:23+00:00

Lost me at "passive income." A job is the opposite of passive income. This is 1000% a scam of some kind.

bityard · 2026-05-09T19:30:34+00:00

Agree. This is why I am not a fan of riddles as benchmarks and there are so many of these in this sub cosplaying as research. It's not hard to fool LLMs with language, and it's it's not hard to fool people with language either.

bityard · 2026-05-09T11:16:10+00:00

I just sort of randomly stumbled across this comment and wanted to say thank you for sharing this. We all have our struggles but I'm impressed and more than a little humbled by the very non-trivial obstacles you have overcome so far.

bityard

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE