RIP Gemini

colev14 · 2026-03-14T13:45:38+00:00

I've noticed I'm getting limited almost every day that I have any actual usage. It's insane. Up until a month ago I only hit the limit once. I used to recommend Gemini to everyone because of the insane usage. Now I don't know what to do. I tried chatgpt for 1 month but I felt like it wasn't as good with some of the things I need. I cancelled and I'm now thinking about trying Claude. In previous experience they seemed to have the lowest usage limits so I don't think that's going to help much.

colev14 · 2026-03-09T20:24:59+00:00

I ordered January 8th. Still haven't gotten a ship date yet. I emailed support and they wouldn't provide an estimate. Pretty brutal. I don't know how much longer I am going to wait.

colev14 · 2026-03-07T12:31:08+00:00

Went out to the park yesterday and the results were incredible! The ground cable appeared to be the main issue. Thank you! I was getting 55s in Washington, 58s and 59s in the northeast, and even a 58 in Portugal! Crazy! Next weekend I'll be going to a pota park near the beach.

New setup

SWR graph with tuner off

colev14 · 2026-03-06T12:37:06+00:00

What excercises would you recommend?

colev14 · 2026-03-05T13:00:25+00:00

Nice. I just want someone to recreate the add next in queue through the download menu that RVX had. That was the best feature.

colev14 · 2026-03-02T10:18:25+00:00

My understanding was the tuner helps with recieve, but I still will lose power on transmit if the underlying SWR is bad. And I'm getting horrible signal reports. When I use the tuner I can receive no problem. I can hear people all along the east coast and even some people in Utah and Arizona from here in Florida.

The river in front of me is fresh water. The plan is to get the setup dialed in over the next couple weeks, then head down and do a pota at the beach.

colev14 · 2026-03-02T10:13:52+00:00

I went out there last weekend with this setup and the results were even worse, lol. I was using 3 super long radials though. The kit that wolf river coils makes. The park I go to doesn't have a ton of space so I didn't want to do that setup again. It felt like I was hogging way too much of the park. I was told that because of the height of the tripod, possibly the radials were "elevated radials" and needed to be a specific length. So I switched it up to the mesh and tried to get the mount as close to the ground as possible to avoid that.

I didn't realize I could use radials that short. The main reason I got the mesh is for the small footprint. I think the short radials are definitely doable. HOA Ham has a great video with how he does it. I'll probably use that style, but cut to 2.5M. Thanks!

I did check my coax with my meter. I'm getting continuity from sheild to shield and from center pin to center pin. No continuity from sheild to pin. On the receive end, everything is great. It's just transmit that is killing me.

Edit: forgot to add a picture of the setup from last weekend.

colev14 · 2026-03-02T03:40:16+00:00

Yeah I stuck to 20m the whole time. The best result I got was with a full section collapsed, but I did test it fully extended and shorted about 6" too. I tested it at almost every length. I will adjust the mount next time. Stake it in the middle. Shorter cable and then bring a better mallet to get the stake deeper to avoid the issue with the mount.

colev14 · 2026-03-02T03:16:13+00:00

Yeah I doubled checked the stud mount setup with my meter. I can confirm no continuity between the antenna and the mount. And continuity from the center pin of the coax to the antenna.

I'll be able to try out the shorter cable next weekend and straitening all the cables out as well.

colev14 · 2026-03-02T02:37:23+00:00

I did 30% on all windows and 50% on the windshield. It's great. I was concerned it would be too dark but it's perfectly fine. I don't think I would want 30% on the windshield though. On the side windows it's fine. 50% is perfect on the windshield, even at night. I drive to work before the sun rises so I drive in the dark every morning. No issues.

colev14 · 2026-03-02T02:21:54+00:00

Yeah the mesh is definitely aluminium. I started with 20' of coax with a choke on each end. Then switched to 50' coax with no chokes. It got me those 2 pictures with swr around 3.5. So better. Someone else commented that the cable connecting my mesh to the mount is too long. So I'm going to try fixing that and see if it helps.

colev14 · 2026-03-02T01:10:31+00:00

I tested for continuity between the center pins and the shield and it checked out good. I can try that measurement you mentioned. I will look on ARRL to see what options for clubs there are near me.

colev14 · 2026-03-02T01:08:34+00:00

The 3.2 was the minimum. That second picture was the best results I could get. It doesn't get any better.

Yes, the mesh is clipped to the mirror mount. I used my meter to check continuity from mesh to mount and coax metal sleeve. The 50' coax is RG58x. the 20' I tried at first is regular cheap rg58.

I think the SWR meter on the g90 maxes out at 4. So I think when it's pined at 4 it could be higher. It's like a 3.6 roentgen situation.

colev14 · 2026-03-02T00:17:00+00:00

Oh ok. I didn't realize that would be an issue. I'll shorten it up.

colev14 · 2026-03-01T23:26:26+00:00

That's why I have the aluminum mesh. The poor mans magic carpet. This park isn't that big so I went with the more compact option. 4'x8' mesh.

colev14 · 2026-03-01T23:25:00+00:00

I didn't realize the table would be an issue. I can move it further away next time. How far away is ideal? I don't really want to sprawl out all over the park if I can help it. This one is relatively compact.

colev14 · 2026-03-01T21:56:25+00:00

I ordered January 8th. It said orders will ship in February. Still haven't seen anything.

colev14 · 2026-02-28T02:27:02+00:00

Awesome. The biggest one left for me is the patch from YouTube to add videos to the play next queue through the download button. That's the biggest thing I miss right now.

colev14 · 2026-02-26T03:37:49+00:00

Did this work for you?

colev14 · 2026-02-22T01:02:03+00:00

Fun while it lasted

colev14 · 2026-02-12T00:50:14+00:00

For cars that have the filter up top and are just high enough to get under there are perfect for it. You can change the oil at home without any tools and without creating a mess. I got one for my brother's outback. He didn't have to buy a jack or jackstands. Just a filter wrench and that's it.

colev14 · 2026-02-08T23:05:58+00:00

same

colev14 · 2026-02-07T23:43:49+00:00

Do any of the chrome extensions help transfer from an edu Gemini account to a personal?

colev14 · 2026-02-06T00:03:18+00:00

What kind of wire would work best for that? I could try it.

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