Just managed to score an XF-115C 500Hz filter for my FT-817 on Willhaben at a very reasonable price. Feeling a bit shellshocked, frankly.
Mike Knell
@oe1omk@mastodon.radio
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In a love-hate, on-off relationship with amateur radio since 1985. Licensed since 1989. Originally from the UK (ex-G7GPA, M0GPA), and yes people do sound confused sometimes when they hear an OE callsign attached to my accent. Fan of diversity and inclusion in radio, not to mention in life in general. In the real world: old-school generalist computer nerd.
Proposal for a great new tool for testing propagation to the United States:
An NCDXF-like network of beacons worldwide that take turns to transmit “Is this frequency in use, please?” at varying power levels on 14300kHz.
There's a really polite version of the Ukraine-Russia radio war going on at the moment - looping CW message on 7053.5kHz informing the world that Trump is a moron and Putin is a dickhead. Hard to copy - lots of QSB and it's sometimes buried under other signals.
Just had an entertaining thought: Elon Musk will never get an amateur licence, because he’d have to spend some time learning stuff in order to pass the test and would then throw a tantrum when they wouldn’t just give him one anyway because he’s speshul and rich.
When you hear that a fellow fediham has been receiving hate mail for running a special event station with an -LGBT suffix.. it's not much, but I'd rather say something than nothing.
Listening to All India Radio's world service broadcasting in Arabic to the Middle East, and they're broadcasting a Qu'ran reading programme of the sort which many domestic broadcasters in the target area transmit. The phrase "taking coals to Newcastle" springs to mind. :)
Summary of what seems to be going on: prepper-emcomm-ammotubers are offended by "FTX-1 Field" because they think "field radio" means something completely different to the context in which Yaesu use "Field", which is "DC powered, can be used when operating portable especially for eg. Field Day". See the FT-1000 Field, FT-710 Field, etc.
Well, that and there's a big market for clickbait whenever new stuff is released - especially contrarian clickbait.
I hate algorithms. Yes, all algorithms.
Me: Hi, I’m selling this fashionable HF radio!
Enquiry: Has it been modified for wideband transmit?
Me: No, it’s completely unmodified, I haven’t even taken the lid off.
Them: Oh, I wanted a widebanded one but I’m too scared to do the modification myself.
I suspect they were trying to hint that they’d buy it if I did the wideband mod, but ha ha lol no chance.
If anyone asks me why I still think radio is magic and sending messages long distances through the air is amazing, I just point them to this video. This is how the world looked when I was 7. And hey, halfway through someone has a flashback!
