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fr0styon Using AirPods as a Morse Transmitter

+1 to the above.

Implementing a mental dit/dah decoder + lookup table is the shortest path to being able to decode written CW ` _ . ___ _ ` but it will cause you problems trying to receive faster CW since you can't count, assemble, lookup fast enough to receive at more than 5-8WPM. And even then you are generally doing "keyboard copy" where you write down the letters as you hear them and then go back to actually read the message you received later.

fr0styon Using AirPods as a Morse Transmitter

I'll put in a vote for: https://lcwo.net/ (Learn CW Online)

If your goal is to be "conversational" in CW I suggest you crank up the character speed until you are not able to count individual dits/dahs anymore. This will probably be somewhere in the 25-35WPM range. The goal is "instant character recognition" where you hear the sound/shape of the entire character rather than counting elements, assembling them in your head, and doing a mental hash lookup on the result.

If you have trouble receiving or copying down the 5letter groups at this speed resist the temptation to add "farnsworth" spacing (extra gaps between letters). Instead increase the word spacing until you have enough down time in between to get everything copied.

fr0styon Creating a low-cost EV charging station with Arduino

> most insurance won't cover DIY electrical work

You have a good source for this? I see claims like this every time a discussion of this sort and they rarely come with any citations.

fr0styon Creating a low-cost EV charging station with Arduino

My understanding of the system is that the plug is physically locked in the charge socket while the car is drawing current through the cable. Thus it is impossible for there to be arcing at disconnect.

fr0styon Ask HN: Any felons successfully found IT work post-release?

> Assault charges but not physical violence? What in the world?

"The legal definition of assault is an intentional act that gives another person reasonable fear that they'll be physically harmed or offensively touched. No physical contact or injury has to actually occur, but the accused person must have intentionally acted in a way to cause that fear."

https://vindicatelaw.com/assault-vs-battery-are-they-the-sam...

fr0styon Sliding Doors: The Time GM Fumbled Its Chance to Launch the First Minivan

More recent minivans will still fit sheet goods in the back, but they have started rounding off the lift gate (and consequently the opening it fits into) for stylistic reasons and while the maximum width is still >48" along the bottom edge you only have 42" or something before the trim starts angling up.

fr0styon The Kentucky Derby is decadent and depraved (1970) [pdf]

On the subject of the Derby, this was originally published as "The Kentucky Derby: An Oral History": https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/05/20/the-kentucky-d...

Such "Oral History" articles were quite popular for a time* and the fist time I encountered this article it still had its original title. I'm sad that it was not retained since the url now gives away the punchline.

* https://www.vulture.com/article/an-oral-history-of-disney-th...

fr0styon SVB in talks to sell itself after attempts to raise capital fail

A document I saw yesterday claimed that SVB had ~$160B in uninsured deposits.

fr0styon NIO reveals aggressive plan to add 1,000 swap stations in 2023

PHEVs are certainly more complex, but a series hybrid like the BMW i3 only involves finding space for a small genset and some additional control software/electronics. I'm having trouble finding good numbers but this[0] article says the option added only ~$4k to the price.

[0] https://insideevs.com/news/317236/first-bmw-i3-electric-car-...

fr0styon EPA orders Norfolk Southern to conduct all cleanup actions related to derailment

That appears to be "road freight" not "rail freight".

fr0styon NIO reveals aggressive plan to add 1,000 swap stations in 2023

I'd love to find a good number on the daily mileage of the median passenger car in the US. The average looks to be around 30-35mi/day but the median is probably a small fraction of that. Why would you want your battery pack to be 10x oversized for your typical day?

I think a more efficient solution would be series-hybrids with small onboard generators for range extension. Minimize weight/cost of the battery pack while maintaining the ability to drive cross-country without frequent charging stops.

fr0styon EPA orders Norfolk Southern to conduct all cleanup actions related to derailment

Where did you find those EU-27 numbers? I am seeing something around ~400B ton-km.

> "Rail freight activity in Europe, measured in tonne-kilometers, grew from 339 Billion tonne-km in 2003 to 398Billion tonne-km in 2019" Page 14

https://erfarail.eu/uploads/The%20European%20Rail%20Freight%...

fr0styon EPA orders Norfolk Southern to conduct all cleanup actions related to derailment

Some light googling gives me 390B kilometer-tonnes[1] in Europe and 1.6T ton-miles[2] in the US for 2019. So that is 6x the freight movement.

The US rail network also >2x longer than Europe[3] (360,000km vs 151,000km).

[1] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php...

[2] https://www.statista.com/statistics/198443/us-class-i-freigh...

[3] https://www.floridarail.com/news/6-key-differences-between-a...

fr0styon EPA orders Norfolk Southern to conduct all cleanup actions related to derailment

https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2023/why-train-derailm...

Most derailments are in train yards. Few cause injuries, fewer cause deaths, and only a handful involve hazardous substances. I don't say that to downplay the mess in OH/PA, but just to make sure the base-rate is understood.

And if you want to compare to europe it looks like US freight rail volume is at least 6x as large. Also no idea if/how they count "fender bender" derailments in switching yards. US standard is >$12k in damage according to TFA.

fr0styon Is AM radio dead?

Amateur radio is for 2-way communication only. No "broadcasts" allowed (with some _very narrow_ exceptions).

fr0styon Self-Soldering Circuits [video]

It isn't really clear in the video, but that is a 4 layer board and there is another ground plane layer elsewhere. The heater loop doesn't connect to any components.

fr0styon NRC Certifies First U.S. Small Modular Reactor Design

This accident? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SL-1

"Stationary Low-Power Reactor Number One, also known as SL-1 or the Argonne Low Power Reactor (ALPR), was a United States Army experimental nuclear reactor in the western United States at the National Reactor Testing Station (NRTS), later the Idaho National Laboratory, west of Idaho Falls, Idaho. It experienced a steam explosion on the night of January 3, 1961, killing all three of its young military operators, and pinning one of them to the ceiling of the facility with a reactor vessel plug. The event is the only reactor accident in U.S. history that resulted in immediate fatalities.

fr0styon AIOC: Ham Radio All-in-One-Cable

+1 for HamStudy.org which is an excellent resource. They include "explainer" cards for each question which often contain links to other material which are a great jumping off point for going as deep as you care to go on any individual topic.

I used the hamstudy website almost exclusively for getting my license and was able to pass all three tests (General, Tech, Amateur Extra) in one sitting. I had to set for a physical test at a local club's monthly meeting, but now organizations like GLAARG are proctoring remote tests via zoomso you can gest more or less 'on demand' from home.

fr0styon Twenty five thousand dollars of funny money

> [follow] a convention of including unit names in identifier names.

appending units to identifiers helps, but it relies on a developer's eyeballs to spot any errors. It would be infinitely preferable if the type system would simply enforce this for you and developers not have to expend cycles reasoning about this stuff themselves.

fr0styon Koch method to learn Morse

My apologies. It appears Morse Expert is Android only, sorry. I tried to do a quick search on my way out the door earlier and was mistaken.

fr0styon Koch method to learn Morse

The "Morse Expert" App available for Android/iOS does a pretty good job of decoding CW 'in the wild'. It can adapt to different sending speeds and does a decent job with non-ideal character/element spacing.

The decoding algorithm uses some amount of Bayesian probabilities to decide what the proper decoding of the incoming signal is: http://ag1le.blogspot.com/2013/01/towards-bayesian-morse-dec...

fr0styon Home Heating Cost Comparison

What were you expecting to find?

$1068 at 85% efficiency is $907 "effective" heating dollars. $971 at 94% efficiency is $912 so that passes a basic sanity check.

The major improvement is efficiency c es from runnimg higher volume at lower temperature differentials. This allows the "cold" side of the furnace/boiler to condense the water vapor in the combustion gasses and capture its latent heat.

fr0styon DIY Tool Storage Ideas (2017)

I considered the Stanley and HF options and opted for the Stanleys. The HF lid is polyethylene, a little milky, and a little bendy while the Stanley lids are polycarbonate, clear and somewhat stiffer. Neither option will do a good job of preventing small parts from migrating between compartments so I never 'briefcase' carry.

I built a few units similar to this (https://i.pinimg.com/originals/43/f8/d6/43f8d64f96ae537698a4...) to hold all of them.

fr0styon DIY Tool Storage Ideas (2017)

little plastic bags are a bit too flimsy and difficult to handle/organize for my taste.

I settled for small "coin envelopes" labelled with pen and placed on end in a deep shelf bin.

fr0styon NodeMCU ESP32-C3 WiFi and BLE IoT boards show up for about $4

That is the bare module only, no breakout board, and is out-of-stock for at least another two months.

fr0styon Ham Radio Forms a Planet-Sized Space Weather Sensor Network

http://HamStudy.org is a free (and ad free) site that lets you study the amateur radio question pools.

The developer also built ExamTools which many groups use to administer remote license exams. You can find sessions here: http://hamstudy.org/sessions

fr0styon Wide-Band WebSDR – Shortwave Radio on the Internet

There are many more of these: http://websdr.org/

Be sure to check several. Receive capability is not the same across stations or between frequency bands on the same SDR.

fr0styon Illinois governor signs law capping insulin costs at $100 per month

> For patients with chronic conditions if the doctor determines the patient should be seen to evaluate their condition in 30 days before a new script is written

I'm reasonably cynical about lots of things, but I would be absolutely shocked if a pharmacist can give you 90days of pills when handed a 30day (no refills) prescription.

fr0styon Our home delivery habit reshaped the world

> I wish I could tell amazon to just ship everything together on a particular day instead of piecemeal.

You can: https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=17928921011

https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/28/amazon-prime-members-can-c...

fr0styon Tesla Cybertruck

> many minivans no longer meet one of the original design criteria of the first minivan: the ability to carry a 4x8 sheet of plywood.

I don't know about "most". Current Honda[0], Toyota[1], and Chrysler[2] vans are still up to the task.

[0] https://www.middletownhonda.com/honda-odyssey-cargo/

[1] https://www.toyoland.com/trucks/sienna.html

[2] https://www.boston.com/cars/news-and-reviews/2016/04/02/2017...