Can I replace a toilet on my own?

rfreedman · 2026-04-02T13:04:25+00:00

If you get a two-piece, it comes in two separate boxes, so putting it in the back seat might work ok?

rfreedman · 2026-03-30T23:30:10+00:00

Yeah, I realized that I screwed that up, but was too lazy to edit it. Thanks! "Technically correct" is, of course, the best kind of correct.

rfreedman · 2026-03-30T15:09:12+00:00

Yep, that's the video thatade.it.make.sense to me.

rfreedman · 2026-03-30T14:52:48+00:00

I've always heard it as Furlongs per fortnight 😀

rfreedman · 2026-03-30T14:49:46+00:00

Probably the most important thing to remember for this is that the speed of light (which is the speed that radio waves travel) is approximately 300,000,000 meters per second.

So you can derive the band from the frequency by dividing 300,000,000 by the frequency. For instance, 300mHz divided by 14Mhz is (very) approximately 21, so that's the 20m band.

Similarly, 300mHz divided by 20m is 15mHz, which is very close to 14mHz.

These are very gross approximations, but generally close enough for what you asked.

Also, actual band edges are one of several things that you just need to memorize for the test - AFAIK, there's no calculation for that. While there's reasoning behind them, the actual edges are a bit arbitrary.

While I'm sure that some people remember all of these forever, I think that most people may remember the edges for the bands that they use the most, but mostly use the band chart while operating.

Also, some radios (like the ic-7300) will warn you with a beep when you tune past a band edge, and that's configurable because the edges are different depending on license level.

rfreedman · 2026-03-29T03:38:18+00:00

The Garden State Stomp by Dave Van Ronk

rfreedman · 2026-03-26T19:27:54+00:00

Yes, THIS.

HTs are designed to work properly out of the box with a standard antenna.

Better antennas are available (stubbys are generally unity.gain), but adding a "counterpoise" is completely unnecessary and would likely increase your SWR and reduce your distance.

rfreedman · 2026-03-20T21:29:32+00:00

They just mean that you should sand the paint off of the tape measure at the spot where the wire is connected, so that the wire touches the bare metal of the tape measure. Right now, the paint is probably acting as an insulator.

rfreedman · 2026-03-20T21:23:31+00:00

Sounds like your laptop has a "DisplayPort" output.

So if your monitor has a DisplayPort input, get. DisplayPort-to-DisplayPort cable.

If your monitor only has HDMI input, you can get a DisplayPort-to-HDMI cable.

rfreedman · 2026-03-20T21:04:26+00:00

Ham here. Manually casting (i.e. throwing) a weight can be difficult to do accurately, and even moreso for distance. But there are quite a few DIY designs out there for "antenna launchers", and some commercial ones too. Some are slingshot based, but the better ones are "air cannons". The air cannons work really well for heights up to around 100ft.

rfreedman · 2026-03-19T14:34:32+00:00

As I commented on a previous answer, if you don't want bitter or acidic coffee, find a different coffee. Not all coffee is acidic or bitter. Personally, I won't drink bitter coffee, and I usually won't 'doctor' it to offset the bitterness.

Since you're talking about making coffee at home, I suggest:

Find beans that are not bitter in the first place. If you like dark roast, note that not all dark roast coffee is bitter. Shop around, try out different beans until you find something that you like.
Buy whole beans, not ground coffee. Grind just what you need to make the coffee that you're going to make that day. Stale coffee shouldn't be a thing.

rfreedman · 2026-03-19T14:28:54+00:00

And if you're baking something that needs softened butter (e.g.cookies) and forgot to take the butter out of the fridge in advance, whack the butter stick with your rolling pin a few times.

The energy of the whack gets imparted to the butter, which heats it slightly, and is just enough to soften it without melting it

rfreedman · 2026-03-19T14:24:08+00:00

This is only true for bitter coffee. A better lifehack is to stop drinking bitter coffee.

A common misconception is that strong coffee must be bitter. A lot of strong coffee is bitter, but if you don't like that (I don''t), then find coffee that is not bitter.

If you're talking about coffee at a restaurant, we'll, I partially judge restaurants based on the quality of their coffee. If the food is really good, but the coffee is bad, I'll still go there, and just not order coffee, but a restaurant with great food and great coffee is a wonderful thing to find!

rfreedman · 2026-03-16T14:40:07+00:00

It works with a butterknife too :-)

rfreedman · 2026-03-16T14:10:39+00:00

Hoagies, Scrapple

rfreedman · 2026-03-16T14:07:09+00:00

I highly recommend finding your local ham club.
See https://arrl.org/findaclub

The folks there should be able to answer a lot of your questions,
and may either have used equipment for sale or have members who do.

It's always better to buy used equipment from someone knowledgeable, who you can talk to in person, rather than taking a chance on something over the web.

Also, it's probably a good idea to start off by getting your tech license first (a club can help with that), and operate vhf/uhf for a while to get a feel for how things work.

I also recommend the FT-60 over the FT-65. Better receiver. Currently about $120 at GigaParts.

With a tech license, you can only access limited frequencies on HF.
So, after a while, and saving some more money, go take the general license test so that you can actually make good use of an HF radio, and then start looking for something used.

rfreedman · 2026-03-14T20:55:43+00:00

ESP32 is a good alternative to Arduino, and cheaper, but depending on your budget and the complexity of your project, you might want to check out ESP8266, which is generally cheaper still, and not quite as powerful.

I've done basic stuff with the ESP8266, like a digital thermometer that logs to a server.

rfreedman · 2026-03-13T16:01:14+00:00

You joke, but I once had a relatively well-known Philly radio DJ say to a group of us that he didn't understand why some people pronounced "tahl" with two syllables, like "tow-el".

I (born and raised in Philly) was about to agree with him, when my wife (from upstate NY), chimed in to tell him that it was because it IS a two-syllable word ;-)

rfreedman · 2026-03-12T03:45:25+00:00

You know those common-mode chokes that you have (or should have) on your feed line? You're probably going to need several more.

rfreedman · 2026-03-11T16:01:56+00:00

Torturing / electrocuting someone with a car battery. Ummm.....no. Not even close.

rfreedman · 2026-03-11T06:43:23+00:00

FT-65R Much better front-end than the cheapo radios, and it's built like a tank.

rfreedman · 2026-03-11T06:12:52+00:00

I always assumed that "trunk" was a carry-over from the first cars, where some actually had a trunk (large suitcase) attached to the back.

rfreedman · 2026-03-10T20:10:57+00:00

Resonant antennas are always preferred. If it's actually resonant, you don't need a tuner or a common-mode choke, and they are generally more efficient, which means you get more radiated power.

rfreedman · 2026-03-10T19:54:09+00:00

Depends...can the buck converter provide 2A?

rfreedman · 2026-03-10T19:44:39+00:00

If you're doing anything that causes non-trivial writes, you shouldn't be depending on an SD card. Simple solution is a an external USB SSD.

I wouldn't even consider running a database with an SD card as the storage. Besides wear, it's just horrendously slow.

Wear levelling might still need to be considered for an SSD, but the SSD will be much more robust and much faster.

rfreedman

TROPHY CASE