@vk6flab@mastodon.radio

Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 3mo ago

Boosted by @welcome@friends.deko.cloud

Getting started in amateur radio is the beginning of a life-long journey.

https://github.com/vk6flab/getting-started-in-amateur-radio/blob/main/README.md

A new project to help new amateurs locate the amateur radio on-ramp.

Please submit patches and resources for your country. See Australia for a starting example.

#introduction #tutorial #hamradio #amateurradio

GitHub

getting-started-in-amateur-radio/README.md at main · vk6flab/getting-started-in-amateur-radio

Getting Started in the hobby of Amateur Radio can be a challenge if you don't know anyone in the community. This collection of documents and resources aims to help you find your way. - vk6flab/...

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 4mo ago

Whoot!

My historical #podcasts are back on the Internet Archive thanks to Kay K6KJN who is doing amazing work for the amateur radio community in building the #DLARC @dlarc@mastodon.radio

https://archive.org/details/what-use-is-an-f-call
https://archive.org/details/vk0ek-heard-isla
https://archive.org/details/ft5zm-amsterdam

mastodon.radio

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@catch56@kolektiva.social @akareilly@hachyderm.io I'd shudder to contemplate just how many nettles would be required for a sock, let alone a shirt or pants.

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@fzer0 this reminds me of picking up a lost swan when I was about 14 years old. Everyone around me was panicking. I just gently picked it up, held its wings close to its body, ignored its hissing and walked two blocks from where I found it and put it down at the waters edge and stepped back. It looked at me, shook itself, waddled to the water and swam away. I'm still not sure if I was just lucky, or if people are freaked out by swans.

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@Brad_whitecross@aus.social as a software developer of 40+ years experience, I'm wondering if you considered that chippies make chips and sparkies make sparks .. and .. hmn .. yes, you've hit the nail on the head, software developers make bugs. .. nothing to see here 😁 Nicely done!

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@Ea5iyl AFAIK, WSJT-X is licensed under the GPL and if they're distributing a modified version without source code, they'd be in breach of that license.

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 4mo ago

RE: @briankrebs@infosec.exchange

So .. an organisation holding you to ransom shows you logs of your data being destroyed and you believe them?

Even if they did actually destroy data, how do you know that they didn't make a copy first, let alone the idea that logs cannot be fabricated by an enterprising individual.

Paying seems counterproductive.

infosec.exchange

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@NH6SP@mastodon.radio What type of building do you live in? What kind of roof material? What kind of gutters? I'm asking because there's lots of options about that are invisible to the busybodies who seek to regulate your existence. Also, some localities have emergency communications exemptions that override the HOA. Then there's the ability to operate remote stations all over the globe if you have an Internet connection .. to be clear, this is using the network to control the radio, not to talk across it.

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 5mo ago

#ot

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/llms-corrupt-your-documents-when-you-delegate/

mastodon.radio

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@KJ7OMO@mastodon.radio I have a "friend" who follows me around like that on 2m. I keep a log. An enterprising local amateur is setting up a direction finding network locally, so hopefully after 15 years we'll discover who it is. My takeaway from the experience is: It's not you, it's them and anyone who says otherwise is part of the problem. Call out their behaviour, let others in your community know and consider that they're spending more energy worrying about you than you are. This too shall pass.

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 6mo ago

Replying to

As an aside, there's a fan-made tracker here: https://artemis-ii-tracker.com

artemis-ii-tracker.com

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@NuclearOatmeal@beige.party @hal_pomeranz@infosec.exchange Very interesting. Never considered, or encountered this approach, 30+ languages in, and I stopped counting at least two decades ago.

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@Ea5iyl As far as I can tell, it follows a long line of precedent of such closed technologies and mentalities. I believe that the following modes are encumbered in explicit and/or subtle ways: DMR Dstar Echolink Fusion HamDRM IRLP SSTV VARA I'd not be surprised if there are others and it might be that I'm unaware of documentation or source code that negates the closed nature of these. In other words, I think that these are encumbered but I might be wrong.

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@abraxas3d@mastodon.radio I think that it's far more widespread than tech. As a society we were making progress towards equality for a while, but for reasons I'm still not understanding, this progress was globally and actively undermined by people claiming to be religiously motivated. I suspect that started in the 1980's when Ronald Reagan was elected and just gained traction since. The reversal of Roe v. Wade was the final nail in the coffin. Europe appears to be trying, but I'm not sure if it will succeed.

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 4mo ago

#ot

Can someone please explain why when I set my Mac to "Only download" updates, none of the updates are downloaded and I have the privilege of watching my system download 10 GB of data?

#apple #ux #softearegore

mastodon.radio

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@W6KME@mastodon.radio at least it's not always September and there's no Green Card lottery 😁

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 5mo ago

Reading this gives me all warm and fuzzy feelings of safety and compliance enforcement by my local radio communications regulator, the #ACMA ... NOT.

Nothing quite like letting interference go on for months.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-06/car-locks-disabled-signal-jammed-bunbury-hospital/106647316

mastodon.radio

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@Ea5iyl it's licensed under GPL v3 Source: https://wsjt.sourceforge.io/wsjtx.html

wsjt.sourceforge.io

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@n0bml@mastodon.radio my trusty 10C is sitting close at hand, your kit is love at first sight. What's the programming like? Does it come with firmware, or do you need to do that too?

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@K6KH@mastodon.radio as I understand it, there's a few stations around the globe like that. Not sure what drives it, but perhaps it's a combination of excitement, enthusiasm and ignorance. Not sure what to suggest, but getting in contact through an alternative might be the way forward.

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 5mo ago

RE: @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

@briankrebs@infosec.exchange have you seen this?

mastodon.radio

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@jackscottau@aus.social this is where you discover that more people use Minesweeper than Visual Studio.

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@W6KME@mastodon.radio @rev_mook@lsngl.us Heads Up: PayPal has a Donate button system, which I enabled for a little while, but after I received, from memory, about $100 in donations they stopped money flowing and demanded that I prove my charity status, which I didn't have and couldn't get since I'm not. After about three weeks of back and forth they suddenly decided to turn it back on. With that experience I disabled the button and have been looking for a solution ever since. I also tried Stripe and got nowhere.

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@W6KME@mastodon.radio @rev_mook@lsngl.us My understanding is that it was the word "Donate" that triggered it, I never registered as a Charity in PayPal or anywhere else.

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@W6KME@mastodon.radio @rev_mook@lsngl.us I looked at Wise as an option, but discovered this feedback: https://www.productreview.com.au/listings/transferwise

productreview.com.au

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@km6ecc please tag political content with #cw

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@ian@mastodon.radio nevermind, clearly my ability to read text is borked .. nothing to see .. move along. Also, assuming you actually ordered it and didn't chicken out, what did it taste like?

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@M0CUV@mastodon.radio while I understand the sentiment, the globe spanning political and cultural diversity within the Debian community seems to suggest that "going rogue" would not be my biggest concern and it's one of the many reasons it continues to be my primary distribution, rather than say Ubuntu or Red Hat where I think that is a significantly higher concern and possibility.

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@Ea5iyl AFAIK Echolink connections requires access to a central server which is not available.

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 14mo ago

Replying to

@gnuradio excellent! Although I'm pretty close in Perth, I'm not sure I'll be able to attend. Will this be streamed and/or recorded?

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 12mo ago

Replying to

@cafuego

Signed. Gotta say, that website is an unmitigated shitshow.

It doesn't accept valid RFC2822 email addresses, in my case the "+" character.
Created a new email address and attempted to sign using my default browser, Android Firefox Focus, but the pre-confirnation page never showed.
I signed again, using Android Chrome, then confirmed the details, then copy/pasted the link from the email, so it didn't open my default browser.

I wonder how many signatures you lost as a result.

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 13mo ago

Replying to

@cafuego I tried to sign it, but the APH website decided that my email address was invalid. Not sure what to do now. (Yes, I'm Australian, living in Perth)

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 13mo ago

Replying to

@root@elle.systems @nixCraft@mastodon.social Yes

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 18mo ago

Replying to

@mw1cgg@mastodon.radio @M0YNG@mastodon.radio your contributions make me smile, shake my head in disbelief, nod in recognition, want to slap you, hug you and plenty of other responses. I like weird. It's like life poetry. The radio stuff is a bonus. I wouldn't want you to feel like you have to move.

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 1w ago

#ot #life

Things I was not expecting today:

Water is off, which I discovered when I went to wash my hands.

mastodon.radio

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@emilymbender@dair-community.social if the Turbo button is anything to go by, "moar number" is the metric.

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@alex@social.alexwlchan.net how do you programmatically deal with the holiday exceptions, since ultimately, bin day is the same day every week, it's the exceptions that cause grief.

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@ian@mastodon.radio it's missing banana!

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 13mo ago

Replying to

@cafuego @kgoetz thanks for the heads up. Can't say I'm surprised.

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 5mo ago

RE: @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

@briankrebs@infosec.exchange did you see this?

mastodon.radio

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@DO2SGF If wishing made it so. In 2022 Randall VK6WR and I spent months attempting to discover just exactly how HamDRM works and let's just say .. the documentation is lacking. I'm not sure if Randall published his results, but I'll check. I wrote a podcast about it, but I'm not sure if the information is still current.

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 11mo ago

Replying to

@foone@digipres.club Could be worse: https://theitcrowd.fandom.com/wiki/The_Internet

theitcrowd.fandom.com

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 13mo ago

Replying to

@davidgerard@circumstances.run There's plenty more where that came from, prompt injection via image scaling: https://blog.trailofbits.com/2025/08/21/weaponizing-image-scaling-against-production-ai-systems/

blog.trailofbits.com

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@f4guk@mastodon.radio please supply an ALT text that contains the words in your image.

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 6mo ago

Replying to

Artemis II Hams Three members of the crew heading to the Moon are licensed ham radio operators. CSA's Jeremy Hansen, KF5LKU (left), is pictured next to NASA's Christina Koch, with Victor Glover, KI5BKC, and Reid Wiseman, KF5LKT. Glover made several STEM contacts from the ISS in 2020 and 2021. Wiseman appears in the ARISS logs from 2014. No amateur radio gear is expected to fly on this year's Artemis II mission, but we'll still be following along! NASA image: 2023 Marshal Space Flight Center

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@RnDanger@infosec.exchange the reverse image search of the profile picture is "interesting".

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 18mo ago

Replying to

@mw1cgg@mastodon.radio @jamesb@fedi.duckduckpigeon.co.uk There's a joke here about not understanding (not following) and not clicking "follow", but my brain is too frazzled to come up with it .. suffice to say imagine that it's funny and slightly offensive .. just the way you like it. Go well my friend. I hope our paths continue to cross from time to time. May your curries stay legendary and your rants memorable. 73 de Onno VK6FLAB

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@kevingranade@mastodon.gamedev.place @jef@mastodon.social @jerry@infosec.exchange I suspect that if you squeeze anything hard enough, it will produce "milk".

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Onno (VK6FLAB) @vk6flab@mastodon.radio

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@jackscottau@aus.social nothing stopping you from adding your JS calls between tags, pretty sure it will work with every browser. What I want to know is, where do you put the ?

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