Ham Radio, GROL & Technobabble

[Peter Batah]

@-mjk- Does it prepare your coffee in the morning?

 

[-mjk-]

@Peter Batah said:

@@-mjk- Does it prepare your coffee in the morning?

Hi Peter.

No. The Xiaomi coffee maker handles that automated task.

But I have 2 very important buttons on my Stream Deck:

1. Sun
2. Rain

When I press 1, it triggers a 2 MW 50GHz transmitter with a 13 element log-periodic antenna pointed straight up so it burns a hole in the clouds and make it sunny. But, it only provides sun in about a 5 x 3 km ellipse, given the aperture of the log-periodic and the average distance to the cloud ceiling. Give or take.

When I press 2, it launches a 3m, 2 stage solid-fuel rocket with a payload of silver iodide, potassium iodide, dry ice and in the summer, liquid propane (which helps to induce freezing nucleation at summer temperatures). That makes it rain in my general locale. Much harder to do than making it sunny, and with higher costs. Taiwan is so hot that it's pretty much all dynamic seeding. Recently though, I've come to the conclusion that ordinary table salt is hydroscopic enough to use for cloud seeding and has no risk that the silver iodine poses.

Oh yeah, there is a 3rd button I almost forgot about: 3. Render. When I press this button it brings up the Render track function in Reaper after I finish doing a mix.

 

[skier]

When I press 1, it triggers a 2 MW 50GHz transmitter with a 13 element log-periodic antenna pointed straight up so it burns a hole in the clouds and make it sunny. But, it only provides sun in about a 5 x 3 km ellipse, given the aperture of the log-periodic and the average distance to the cloud ceiling. Give or take.

When I press 2, it launches a 3m, 2 stage solid-fuel rocket with a payload of silver iodide, potassium iodide, dry ice and in the summer, liquid propane (which helps to induce freezing nucleation at summer temperatures). That makes it rain in my general locale. Much harder to do than making it sunny, and with higher costs. Taiwan is so hot that it's pretty much all dynamic seeding. Recently though, I've come to the conclusion that ordinary table salt is hydroscopic enough to use for cloud seeding and has no risk that the silver iodine poses.

Oh yeah, there is a 3rd button I almost forgot about: 3. Render. When I press this button it brings up the Render track function in Reaper after I finish doing a mix.

Oh! I love this kind of scientific technical talk! You're not a closet scientist, engineer, Ham radio person, or some such, are you? Let me tell you about my neodymium laser and quantum computer; no, they're not connected, at least not yet...

 

[Peter Batah]

Alright guys. English please !!!

 

[-mjk-]

Oh! I love this kind of scientific technical talk! You're not a closet scientist, engineer, Ham radio person, or some such, are you? Let me tell you about my neodymium laser and quantum computer; no, they're not connected, at least not yet...

Broadcast engineer with GROL, US Amateur Extra Class ham op, since 1988. Manufacturing engineer, soldering school, blah, blah.

Lay it on me skier!

 

[skier]

Broadcast engineer with GROL, US Amateur Extra Class ham op, since 1988. Manufacturing engineer, soldering school, blah, blah.

Lay it on me skier!

VERY COOL! A kindred spirit! I, too, am an engineer with a GROL (w/Ship Radar Endorsement), also an Amateur Extra, though only since last May. I always hated the CW requirement or I would have gotten it decades ago. I took all three tests last year because of my involvement with drones - the control and video returns are in the Ham bands and having my ticket allows me to use higher power levels. I only needed the Tech license, but decided to just take all three tests and be done with it. These days, I design SCADA systems and products for Greenhouses.

I presume you were born in the states and then moved to Taiwan?

 

[Peter Batah]

If I am going to get Shanghaied best it be done by you guys. Wouldn't have it any other way! Oh BTW. I did putz around with a CB Radio back in the '80's. Does that qualify as my entry into this elite club you folks belong to?

 

[skier]

Does that qualify as my entry into this elite club you folks belong to?

Possibly, but at a very basic level. CBers have been known to use Ham gear to transmit at much, much higher power levels than the 5W CB limit, so we're kinda sensitive about that (all the fun without the studying/testing - doesn't seem fair )

But I will admit it's very impressive that you so quickly realized just how elite our club is (and if you believe that, I have some slightly wet land in Florida that I'd love to sell ya... real prime swamp... err very fertile land...

 

[Peter Batah]

@skier An engineer with a sense of humor. Well, what do you know. Just when I thought that I had seen it all. Gotcha!

 

[skier]

Arrrggghh!!! Busted.

 

[Peter Batah]

How's a guy supposed to get any work done around here? You know if we keep up with this "Schtick" we're going to get banned from the forum.

 

[skier]

Sorry, lost my mom two weeks ago after she fell and broke her hip, and I'm here doing work to close the estate. Our 3-way jousting has been a nice break and distraction, and I apologize if I've carried on for too long, though I've appreciated the light moments. (Please don't feel any guilt - you didn't know and you're probably just busting us further.) I needed to laugh and I really do love science, so it was good.

 

[Peter Batah]

@skier I am so sorry to hear about your mom. I would never have carried on had I known. Never easy losing a loved one. Stay strong!

 

[skier]

Peter, please, no apology necessary. My situation was unknowable to everyone here. I thought you were kidding, but on the off chance you felt we were making things uncomfortable, I thought I should apologize and explain. While we correspond across the years, most of us have never met one another and don't truly know each other, so I try to be sensitive to that and not offend in any way. But I don't want you or anyone to feel guilty; you did nothing wrong.

All that said, let the harassment continue! It's a welcome change from dealing with everything omn my end.

And if you're interested in learning anything about the conversation I'm having with MJK, please feel free to ask or comment. He shares several interests of mine and there's definitely room for anyone else who's interested.. My bigger fear is that we'll bore others and wonder if we should take it into a separate thread. But if there is any interests, it's gratifying for us to share and help.

 

[Arjan P]

Sorry to hear about your mom @skier. My condolences.

Then on about the 'New PC Build': You guys know there is a General Chat subforum? Just checkin'.. Unless the suggestion was that Peter's new PC should be transmitting anything audio instantly over the airwaves.. (that should be interesting..)

 

[skier]

Thanks Arjan.

 

[-mjk-]

VERY COOL! A kindred spirit! I, too, am an engineer with a GROL (w/Ship Radar Endorsement), also an Amateur Extra, though only since last May. I always hated the CW requirement or I would have gotten it decades ago. I took all three tests last year because of my involvement with drones - the control and video returns are in the Ham bands and having my ticket allows me to use higher power levels. I only needed the Tech license, but decided to just take all three tests and be done with it. These days, I design SCADA systems and products for Greenhouses.

I presume you were born in the states and then moved to Taiwan?

The SCADA and Greenhouses stuff sounds cool. I'd like to hear more about that kind of integration.

When I got the GROL, it was rather ironic, since by that time I was an ARRL VE and I could have given myself the test, lol. I didn't study for the radar endorsement but I took it anyway (threw away $50, lol).

I love CW. Had the pleasure of being invited to participate in an experiment at MIT with Morse code. I have 238 countries on CW with 100 watts only. I had a 3 ele yagi on my roof. It was a trapped 15m/20m with an interlaced 10m 3 ele in between, and the 10m was fed with a hairpin. This is a very old photo taken with one of the first digital cameras:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/C9STNk9k14Rkd45V6

I was invited on an Antarctic DXpedition back in the 90s but I had to decline due to a terrible back injury. I was chosen to be on the CW team.

When the no-code tech license came out a lot of the old-timers were upset by that. I had personally met Bill Potts, the lawyer that took the 22o band away from amateur radio. He said it was "easy" because the ARRL doesn't understand how to make successful arguments for keeping all that spectrum. Realistically, Morse code proficiency was the single most important factor in separating the general public from ham radio operators. Otherwise, all that spectrum could be converted to some general FRS or VHF CB (which would solve the "skipland" issues with CB).

When I got my license, there were 5 license classes. I went from Novice in February to Extra in November. It was a fun ride.

I moved to Taiwan in 2004. Feb 5th is my 17th year. I run a small YouTube channel called TaiwanLiveTV (just like that, no spaces). Later this evening (my time) in around 30 to 45 minutes from the time of this message, I'll be doing a live stream as I walk around one of the more interesting places in East Taiwan. Maybe I'll see you

 

[-mjk-]

If I am going to get Shanghaied best it be done by you guys. Wouldn't have it any other way! Oh BTW. I did putz around with a CB Radio back in the '80's. Does that qualify as my entry into this elite club you folks belong to?

Your studio qualifies you for every elite club in existence.

 

[-mjk-]

How's a guy supposed to get any work done around here? You know if we keep up with this "Schtick" we're going to get banned from the forum.

Rather hard to ban the participants of this thread, when one of the mods started the trouble, lol.

 

[-mjk-]

@skier very sorry for you loss.