W6KME

For several days, all of the VHF repeaters in my area have been experiencing very broad-banded and powerful interference. Much more destructive than the usual stuff most of the lids are capable of (yeah, people do that). Some were suggesting military, since the Navy's Air Weapons Testing Systems are here. And yup, the main repeater manager locally has confirmed that the current Gray Flag exercise at Pt. Mugu is indeed the culprit, with VHF radars and jammers involved. #hamradio

@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org @darwinwoodka@mastodon.social Just had 3 seconds from flash to thunder...pretty close. Too late to detach my coax; I'm not standing next to my radios for a little while.

@silver_buttercat@kolektiva.social @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org @darwinwoodka@mastodon.social Things like lightning arrestors or detaching coax is honestly close to meaningless...if lightning strikes your antenna, your stuff is going to cook. That arc crossed thousand of feet; it won't be bothered by a 1/8" gap in the arrestor. Thankfully, in my little corner of the world, strikes are incredibly rare. Very rocky and low conductivity. My biggest fear is actually acoustic.

Starting a new tradition, highlighting interesting old tools I own and use. No schedule, no order, just fun stuff. This is a saddler's hammer, used for leatherwork in general. Some say it's an upholsterer's hammer due to the tack puller; I've never found this exact hammer in an Osborne catalog. Similar to the #55 with the puller added. Note the grooved head for pulling stitches tight. Part 1/2 #CoolTool #AntiqueTool

@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org Oh surely you know more than that... Wi nøt trei a høliday in Sweden this yër? See the løveli lakes The wøndërful telephøne system And mäni interesting furry animals Including the majestic møøse

@flyingsaceur@ioc.exchange @silver_buttercat@kolektiva.social @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org @darwinwoodka@mastodon.social If I were the word "ground" I'd sue ham radio for gross misuse. (And hope I get all of their money before "balun" finds a lawyer of their own...)

@flyingsaceur@ioc.exchange @silver_buttercat@kolektiva.social @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org @darwinwoodka@mastodon.social The subject gets agonized over in most of my Technician classes. We say, over and over, don't read your ham radio book for wiring advice. Call an electrician. We do the 12v stuff, a pro should do the 120v stuff (if you don't have the experience), local laws always rule. To paraphrase STP, don't stand on mountaintops in raging thunderstorms wearing copper armor and yelling "all gods are bastards!"

@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org Keep in mind, an LP is good for 50-100 plays. It deteriorates with every play. And people who bought these sort of pop albums were not the most picky about their equipment or disc handling, and didn't hear or mind when records wore out. So often, when you find records from sources like this, they can be pretty knackered. Of course, most people selling their grandparent's records have this idea that they're all priceless. Um, if it sold millions and is well played, it's not worth much.

@silver_buttercat@kolektiva.social @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org @darwinwoodka@mastodon.social Especially if you live where lightning is fond of hitting your stuff, it's worth looking at insurance for the radios. Disclosure-I'm an ARRL Section Manager, but I don't have their equipment coverage., and it appears to me to be decent. I do have it for my club.

@catch56@kolektiva.social @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org WAY back when I was doing record stores. classical sorting was a nightmare. Artist (orchestra, soloist, several per album often), composer, title of the music, label, recording series...all of these were things that mattered. We often had one album stocked in several places, and even then, the best way to find things was the staff's memory.

@paul_ipv6@infosec.exchange @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org @tsherrygeo@m.ai6yr.org I like my Moka pot. I like espresso too. And drip. And traditional American Diner coffee from a multi-gallon percolator. Coffee is another one of those things where people invest bizarre amounts of energy telling others they're doing it wrong.

@paul_ipv6@infosec.exchange @autolycos@beige.party @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org @iris@neuromatch.social @douglasvb@m.ai6yr.org Traditional wood instrument making involves a lot of shape-to-fit though, so even though you may only measure to the 64th your final fit could be down to thousandths or less. I remember learning that in boatbuilding, nothing is ever measured past 1/8", but again, *final* fit is often spectacularly close. I made several sets of bagpipes and a clarinet without anything fancier than a pair of calipers and a ruler.

@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io I believe this is correct; Spidermans. Although I like Spiders-man the most.

@paul@oldfriends.live @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org I think I'd rather have coyotes for neighbors than raccoons. Raccoons would be trying to invade every nearby house, and are a leading rabies vector species. The coyotes will make some noise after sundown, but for the most part really do leave people alone.

@larand@appdot.net @paul_ipv6@infosec.exchange @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org @moira@mastodon.murkworks.net @cookiesinheaven@m.ai6yr.org Weeeellll, only 12 that get written on paper in common notation. There are hundreds of notes in the Real World, and most musicians have a unique-to-them set. To say nothing of non-modern-classically-derived scales* and modes. *Modern written music is HEAVILY driven by the piano, too, forcing all other instrument notation to be limited by what a piano can do.

@dangillmor@mastodon.social Backpacks are a perfect example...one company bought up all the good brands and turned them into crap. I couldn't replace my Jandd frame pack if I had to. At least we still have Patagonia.

@tsherrygeo@m.ai6yr.org And even seasoning does not need to be the staggeringly ritualized thing it has become. Scrape off the rust. Cook something with some oil, or something greasy. Done. That's it. It works.

@paul_ipv6@infosec.exchange @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org @larand@appdot.net @moira@mastodon.murkworks.net @cookiesinheaven@m.ai6yr.org Oh definitely, there were two tiers in folk music, the purists (who really CARED) and the pop artists. In A Mighty Wind, they captured the conflict magnificently.

@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org @cookiesinheaven@m.ai6yr.org You may not think you know who Glen Campbell is. but you've heard him a thousand times. One of the 60s most in-demand session guitarists before he started a career as a headliner. Side story about Wichita Lineman...Campbell had a huge hit with Jimmy Webb's By The Time I Get To Phoenix in 1967. He told Webb to write him another "place" song, so he started on a tune. He showed Cmpbell half of it, and Campbell said that was good enough; don't bother finishing it.

@paul_ipv6@infosec.exchange @autolycos@beige.party @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org @iris@neuromatch.social @douglasvb@m.ai6yr.org Our local Maker Space had just aquired a milling machine and lathe, but before I could find a way to swing the membership they lost their space. Major bummer. I hope they're back on their feet at some point (hello @w6en, local ham and one of the drivers of the space)

@autolycos@beige.party @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org @iris@neuromatch.social @douglasvb@m.ai6yr.org Okay, that price is amazing for a machines that's running well enough to be useful. But... They don't say for WHAT. maybe they're just using it with a wire brush to clean rust off of old horseshoes. A working mill would normally fetch a few thou, so I assume this one is in dire need of a fair amount of restoration and overlooked maintenance. Could be very expensive.

What if there were no rhetorical questions?

Need the group's advice here...@ai6yr@mastodon.radio just dropped off a USB stick for me to fill with music, starting with some Kraftwerk. The question is...what else? What does someone who was raised in a cave in Utah need to hear that the rest of the world always knew about? Some Exotica to start, Yma Sumac of course. Maybe some more Les Baxter. Flood by They Might Be Giants. At least one Gentle Giant album. Lots of 70s funk; who him what disco was before all the goodness was squeezed out. Gimme ideas.

@KD3BTG@mastodon.radio Everyone should start HF with a dipole. Period. Doesn't need to be fancy, doesn't need to be commercially made (nothing wrong with that either), doesn't even need a balun at the feed point; can add that later. Just needs to be simple. Multi-band antennas (other than plain dipoles that do double duty, like 40m/15m) have their own learning curves and sets of challenges. Do that stuff once you know how to operate your radio and use all of its features. That's what I tell students.

@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org @paul_ipv6@infosec.exchange The Old Grey Whistle Test (note Bristish spelling) was a BBC series of "live" music in the 70s and 80s. Of course, "live" on TV always had a massive asterisk. Usually for this show, the band would record a studio live track, no overdubs or processing, without the vocal. Then they would mime to this while the vocalist actually performed. I've had to do this, and it's far harder than actually playing for real. The tech needed to truly play live on TV costs money though.

@nickzoic@aus.social @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org Here's proof that it's not part of the design. Same model and year.

@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org The Exotica craze started in 1951 with an album by Les Baxter, The Ritual of the Savage. Mid-century cultural gold, but the entire movement has not stood the test of time well (and rightly so obviously). Over the next 20 years, Baxter would release album after album of watered-down music from around the globe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Her1FR9svRo&list=PLdl1y1w4PGIoaIzADQILkoTPRA62Ugp3_ Not all Exotica is as condescending, and some was genuinely presented. This is what people listened to in those Eames chairs.

@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org The South Seas record is awesome...part of a long-dead musical movement of the 50s and 60s called Exotica. Basically highly watered down and cliche-driven versions of non-European music, made for white folks in the US. (It coincided with the Tiki bar trend.) Usually involved scantily clad models. Eventually supplanted by what record labels called World Music; stuff watered down for white folks in the US and EU. For collectors like me of cheezy corny music, it's a gold mine.

@timoj@mastodon.online @mycotropic@beige.party @paul_ipv6@infosec.exchange @Dougfir@m.ai6yr.org @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org @larand@appdot.net @moira@mastodon.murkworks.net @cookiesinheaven@m.ai6yr.org I grew up knowing exactly one thing about Boston. And yep, that was it.

@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org @Affekt@hachyderm.io @tsherrygeo@m.ai6yr.org @LabSpokane@mas.to I've only known a few people who bought Raptors, and they were all exactly the sort of people who would buy Raptors. Lots of expensive add-ons and extras, everything you could imagine. Except any dirt on them anywhere. None at all. Probably just as well. Go off-pavement even once and you will never get that vehicle truly clean again, btw.

@mattblaze@federate.social @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org I don't know the sort of people who can afford them, for one. And I never use rideshares or ride with drivers I don't know. Never have. And even then, I will be willing to ask, and make my feelings known. I'll get out of the car if they don't want to do without the feature. Not joking about this; I don't ride with drivers I don't trust, even if it offends.

@tsherrygeo@m.ai6yr.org They're fine I'm sure. But then, I wash my iron pots with soap when necessary. And I was doing it for decades by the time the hipsters turned cast iron into a farce.

More ideas for @ai6yr...I've thrown in John Barleycorn Must Die by Traffic, and a couple of Planxty albums. #MusicForBen

@paul_ipv6@infosec.exchange @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org A lot of traditions come from the Brill Building and Tin Pan Alley, the neighborhood with all the music publishers. All building then had porters or doormen, often one for each company renting space, to escort their guests in. Usually old men held the job, and were called the Old Grays. The saying was that if you heard the old grays whistling one of your tunes, it was destined to be a hit. Some of you may remember a certain TV show... Could all be apocryphal of course.

@sergio_101@social.sixdegreesofohio.com I'vebeen using Lemmy for several years, and it does everything Reddit did, without the Reddit culture. Which is good; Reddit become too large and to monolithic.

@nickzoic@aus.social @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org Absolutely no question that frame's been gronched. That bent tube is the seat stay, the plate it's welded to is called the dropout, but there is a weld in there, and welds don't hold up to bending. That needs a frame builder to repair and possibly retemper. Steel bikes weren't made of straight tubing; it was often swaged or drawn so that wall thickness was higher in high stress areas, thinner in lower stress areas. Too much mystery for a home repair I feel. Gorgeous bike.

@Dougfir@m.ai6yr.org @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org @paul_ipv6@infosec.exchange @larand@appdot.net @moira@mastodon.murkworks.net @cookiesinheaven@m.ai6yr.org This was on my mind when the Los Angeles Rapid Transit District, or RTD, changed its name to MTA. Staggering level of clulessness. Poor ol' Charlie.

@mattblaze@federate.social @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org My response would be to never have gotten into a car with self-driving features. It's worked perfectly so far, and no doubt will continue to do so.

@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org back on the ground at KCMA. Loss of oil pressure, but they are taxiing so still have some power. Cool old Cessna 170 tail dragger.

@larand@appdot.net @paul_ipv6@infosec.exchange @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org @tsherrygeo@m.ai6yr.org I've gone through a huge amount of Folger's instant coffee. I just think of instant coffee as a different beverage with its own flavor. It's not what I keep at home, but if the choice is instant coffee or no coffee, instant it is.

@paul_ipv6@infosec.exchange And a taste of Italian prog, Maybe Goblin's Suspiria... Oh, I threw in Camel's Snow Goose also.

@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org It didn't become common for recording artists to write their own material until well into the 60s. Songwriters and promoters flogged the tunes to labels who told their contracted artists what they must record. Songs lived lives independent of recording artists. The fact that we have the term "recording artist" as opposed to "artist" or "musician" says a lot. Eventually, in rock music at least, it became expected that bands write their own stuff.

@Son_of_a_George@thecanadian.social @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org I think it was "Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life." (credit Sir Terry Pratchett) I was deeply involved in music studies in High School, so was not allowed to take other electives. But the machine shop was always open to me, every day. The sewing room was not. 100% off limits. Never mind that I was an accomplished sewist. This was in the 70s, so late Cretaceous.

@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org @cookiesinheaven@m.ai6yr.org SOme tunes he played on...You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin,, Viva Las Vegas, Strangers In The Night, I'm a Believer, Good Vibrations...he was part of The Wrecking Crew, that played on basically everybody's hit records in the 60s.

@paul_ipv6@infosec.exchange Yes! The tools I own the most of are hammers and planes, because there are so many variations fit for very specific tasks. One can do master-quality work with generic tools, but the price is time. Specialized tools allow quality and speed to coexist. So finding an odd tool is a window into what needed to be done well, repeatedly, and with at least some efficiency.

@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org They're in their usual parking spot now, right by the VCFD dispatch building if you want to get a look at it some day. Old round-tail Cessna, when they were still beautiful.

So glad this World Cup nonsense is over with. I want to like soccer, and I probably would if I watched more. But come one, why are we ignoring FIFA? The people that created a peace prize to blow smoke up Trump's ass? Some of the most evil and corrupt people this side of the IOC. Get real.

@paul_ipv6@infosec.exchange a kilowatt... They're tooling along, eating and chatting at speeds I have never hit in a sprint. I know they're different from regular humans, but dayum.

Watching yesterday's Tour de France Time Trial...they mention one rider (Ayuso) using a 64-10 gear combo. Holy crap; I'm not sure that even at my best I could have even turned it over. That's a taaalll gear. #TourDeFrance #biketooter

@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org @paul_ipv6@infosec.exchange @larand@appdot.net @moira@mastodon.murkworks.net @cookiesinheaven@m.ai6yr.org I was about to ask what cave you were raised in, then I remembered it was Utah.