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bmitch2112

236 karma · joined August 28, 2017

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bmitch2112··on Ask HN: What Is Your Hobby?
Walking, hiking, audiobooks, reading, amateur radio.
bmitch2112··on Air India flight to London crashes in Ahmedabad with more than 240 onboard
If you don't read the newspapers, you are uniformed. If you do read them, you are misinformed.
bmitch2112··on The rich history of ham radio culture
Not from US so I'm not sure but I think you can access the 10 metre band with technician? If so, doing Parks on the Air or Summits on the Air could possibly be something you might like.

Even with Technician you may be able to do POTA or SOTA successfully on VHF.

bmitch2112··on Email.radio – Free Email Domain for Licensed Ham Radio Operators
Yep I love it for FT8. Fun little radio to play around with. If you want any more info my email is in my bio, feel free to email me.
bmitch2112··on Email.radio – Free Email Domain for Licensed Ham Radio Operators
For me (relatively young, definitely in the ham radio circles) I like two activities: Summits on the Air and Parks on the Air.

Summits on the Air - take your gear to a mountain summit and attempt to make at least 4 contacts.

Parks on the Air - take your gear to a state/federal/provincial/national park and attempt to make at least 10 contacts.

Check out Ham Radio Crash Course on YouTube. He has a bunch of great stuff for people interested. From there hopefully one of the areas will pique your interest and you can go down the rabbit hole from there.

bmitch2112··on Email.radio – Free Email Domain for Licensed Ham Radio Operators
I've setup quite a light mobile FT-8 setup in case you are interested.

I'm using the FT8CN Android app and a truSDX radio. USB cable from the radio into my phone powers the radio as well as sends/receives the audio.

For antenna I'm just using a hamstick on the roof.

This only puts out about half a watt but I was getting out about 2500-3000km away. You could then have an alternative power source like a battery to get around 5 watts.

bmitch2112··on Family Echo – Free online family tree maker
https://www.wikitree.com/ I believe is what you are describing. It's great. If you have any interest in building your family tree this is where I would start.
bmitch2112··on AMPKT – Amateur radio packet explorer
You can get it pre assembled. Here's a link to it on AliExpress: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003908457475.html

The AliExpress link is one of the official suppliers listed on the site: https://dl2man.de/where-to-buy-trusdx/

bmitch2112··on AMPKT – Amateur radio packet explorer
You basically just need any sort of wire to receive. FT8 is a very weak signal mode so I wouldn't be surprised if you string up some speaker wire inside and still hear signals.
bmitch2112··on AMPKT – Amateur radio packet explorer
Do you have another radio to try it with?

Another cheap option is the truSDX https://dl2man.de/

I have it working with my Android Phone using https://github.com/N0BOY/FT8CN

It makes for a super lightweight pack. I usually bring a 17foot whip antenna to a park or summit and get contacts all over the world.

bmitch2112··on AMPKT – Amateur radio packet explorer
FT8 is lots of fun. Even more fun when you go to a park or up a summit and see how far you can get out and how far you can hear.

You don't need very expensive radio equipment to transmit FT8 so if you do get your licence back it is worth looking into.

http://qrp-labs.com/qdx.html

bmitch2112··on Show HN: Super Castle Game, a JavaScript puzzle under 13 KB
This is great! Reminds me of Fire & Ice and Solomon's Key 2 on the NES.
bmitch2112··on Show HN: Preserve your families legacy for centuries
https://www.wikitree.com/ is essentially this but free and community driven.
bmitch2112··on Ask HN: Looking for new hobbies to relax, grow or make friends, any ideas?
Amateur Radio. Check out Parks on the Air and Summits on the Air. Essentially you take your radio to a park or mountain summit. Setup your gear and try to make radio contacts with others. Good communities behind both and likely some people in your area doing it.

- It is relaxing and something outside to do. - You can meet others locally who are into it as well and also meet people as you make radio contacts. - You'll need an amateur radio licence which can be a new skill to challenge you.

bmitch2112··on Ask HN: What weird technical scene are you fond/part of?
73
bmitch2112··on Ask HN: What is the best podcast you listened to in 2021?
Wayne Green (W2NSD) on Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell from 1995:

https://podcastaddict.com/episode/57657880

bmitch2112··on Show HN: Flatmap – a new tool to make vector tiles from OpenStreetMap data fast
I use onthegomap almost daily. Such a great tool. Thank you for it.
bmitch2112··on Show HN: With a 9-5 job and 2 kids I have finally finished my first MVP
I don't know anything about trading options but wanted to say with a 9-5 job and 2 kids, getting any kind of MVP out is a great accomplishment. Well done.
bmitch2112··on Ask HN: Can someone recommend a game for a programming competition?
Check out https://play.battlesnake.com/

Can quickly spin up a Snake using an AWS lambda. It can be a lot of fun.

bmitch2112··on Ask HN: What are your best purchases in 2020?
Good to hear about the Flexispot desk. How long have you had it? Looking to get a standing desk and these look decent.
bmitch2112··on Ask HN: What's are your personal automations?
Thanks so much, this looks very cool!
bmitch2112··on Ask HN: What's are your personal automations?
I made the exact same thing haha. I use it all the time now. Would love to compare notes.

How did you make the text readable from the links?

bmitch2112··on How poker and a spaceship imposter game make you better at life
What do you use to play?
bmitch2112··on Radio Garden – Explore live radio by rotating the globe
I believe K is for west of the Mississippi River and W is for the east.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_signs_in_North_America

In Canada they all start with C.

bmitch2112··on Ask HN: What's your quarantine side project?
Very cool! You did quite well in the video too, was that one take or multiple? :)
bmitch2112··on Ask HN: How to stop being a worrier?
This book might help you:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4866.How_to_Stop_Worryin...

It's by Dale Carnegie who also wrote "How to Win Friends and Influence People".

bmitch2112··on Show HN: Esgy – Easily remind yourself of links you'd like to see again
Very cool. Curious what esgy stands for or means?