Ham Radio, GROL & Technobabble

I want to thank you all for your condolences – it’s a hard time even though she was 90 and everyone’s time comes eventually. It was not my plan to say anything here, I was just concerned I might have taken too many liberties with Peter’s thread, so I thought I should explain how this just happened, but I'm excited to learn that MJK and I share some of my favorite deep areas of interest.

When I’m an Op, I have no problem with a temporary hijacking if it’s interesting or funny, especially from you guys who are always here helping me or others. But I do understand the other side in that it can be more difficult to find part of a thread later – sticking to the Op’s initial topic tends to act as a form of indexing to finding info.

That said, I’m not quite finished with the hi-jack, but close;

@-mjk- Just watched part of your Tuesday stream – is Arjan the only one of the four of us not in his 60s? SHEESH! That means we have intense wisdom…right?

I’d love to continue our technical discussion, especially if you’re ok to discuss antennas and linear amps. Most of my work has been in VHF to microwaves and I’m now having fun in HF, but I’m a newbie here. We can take it into another thread, though I'd like to keep public in case Peter, Arjan, or anyone else is interested in following or participating. This forum is a fun and educational place and I’d hate to exclude interested parties. And we can also Echolink some time if you use it; or even Zoom someday.
 
Your studio qualifies you for every elite club in existence.
Thanks so much for the kind words. RE: TaiwanLiveTV - I may actually have come across one of your live YT walk abouts a short while back. What a coincidence. Nice to finally put a face to the text. Also nice to see that I am not the only with white hair around here. :rolleyes:

It would be interesting to tune in when you are about to go live as you mentioned in your earlier post (I know that there is a time difference) I saw it too late.

A little shout out to the DM boys perhaps.
 
  • Like
Reactions: skier
Rather hard to ban the participants of this thread, when one of the mods started the trouble, lol.

Great! So now we know who to blame when the S%#* hits the fan.
 
@skier I was just concerned I might have taken too many liberties with Peter’s thread,

NEVER! Don't give it another thought!
 
  • Like
Reactions: skier and -mjk-
  • Like
Reactions: skier and -mjk-
OHHH! What a beautiful case! Please keep us apprised of the build and post photos. It's going to be a beautiful unit when done. Are you going to spring for some internal LED lighting so that tempered glass side isn't for nothing?
 
@skier Good morning J. Let me tell you, it's been a while. Took me a while to figure out how to install the M2 500G SSD card. The MOBO manual is not that great IMHO. This is nothing like I remember doing decades ago.

RE: The Lights. I bellieve that the "CoolerMaster MasterLiquid ML240L RGB V2" is equipped with lighting. Well, at least the fans should be. I am really not too concerned with the light show given the fact that sadly, the case will be placed somewhere behind the Argosy desk. If I chose option #1 below. Out of sight Boo Hoo Hoo!

My two options (more like ideas) were to:

1) Place the new Dell monitor atop the desk between the speakers.

2) Dedicate another workstation / small desk where I would place the PC and Dell monitor. Off to the left or right of my seated position. Then, there's cabling to consider. I would be a short distance away from the back of the DM. On second thought, it would only really be the FW cable to consider. Am I right?
 
  • Like
Reactions: skier
By the way, received my case via Purolator this morning. The last piece of the puzzle except for the new Dell monitor and DAW software. Let the GAMES / BUILD begin. This should be fun!

Phanteks Eclipse P400A ATX Mid-Tower (PH-EC400ATG_BK01), Mesh Front Panel, Tempered Glass, Fan Controller, Black

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07TYR1P1G/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

You should put this back in the original thread! Want me to do it for you?
 
I want to thank you all for your condolences – it’s a hard time even though she was 90 and everyone’s time comes eventually. It was not my plan to say anything here, I was just concerned I might have taken too many liberties with Peter’s thread, so I thought I should explain how this just happened, but I'm excited to learn that MJK and I share some of my favorite deep areas of interest.

When I’m an Op, I have no problem with a temporary hijacking if it’s interesting or funny, especially from you guys who are always here helping me or others. But I do understand the other side in that it can be more difficult to find part of a thread later – sticking to the Op’s initial topic tends to act as a form of indexing to finding info.

That said, I’m not quite finished with the hi-jack, but close;

@-mjk- Just watched part of your Tuesday stream – is Arjan the only one of the four of us not in his 60s? SHEESH! That means we have intense wisdom…right?

I’d love to continue our technical discussion, especially if you’re ok to discuss antennas and linear amps. Most of my work has been in VHF to microwaves and I’m now having fun in HF, but I’m a newbie here. We can take it into another thread, though I'd like to keep public in case Peter, Arjan, or anyone else is interested in following or participating. This forum is a fun and educational place and I’d hate to exclude interested parties. And we can also Echolink some time if you use it; or even Zoom someday.

Sure, go for it! This General Chat area is perfect for that kind of discussion. I'm sure I could learn a lot from you because I'm not so hot with VHF and above. Most of my work has been with directional AM.

@Arjan P is young, but don't let that fool you. He has the wisdom of Solomon.
 
@Peter Batah said:
RE: TaiwanLiveTV - I may actually have come across one of your live YT walk abouts a short while back. What a coincidence.

I just hope I didn't embarrass myself too much during that broadcast!

I have a Face For Radio but I know it.
 
You should put this back in the original thread! Want me to do it for you?
Oh! Sorry @-mjk- I thought that I WAS in the original thread. My bad!
 
  • Like
Reactions: -mjk-
@-mjk- And, I have a face that only a Mother can love.
 
  • Like
Reactions: -mjk-
Oh! Sorry @-mjk- I thought that I WAS in the original thread. My bad!

You would not be the only one who got mixed up in the forums!

Shall I move them for you?

I also have the option of copying them and keeping them here as well.
 
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 :)

I've thought of becoming a VE (Volunteer Examiner, though maybe it should be "Veteran Examiner" with all the gray/white hair around), just need to find the time. I'm currently preparing for the commercial drone license exam since some of my clients now want me to provide transmission line inspections since learning of my drone experience - one thing leads to the next - it's always been that way in my life.

I can understand old-timers not liking the elimination of the CW requirement, especially for the higher licenses. Conversely, you have people like me and friends who have the technical background, wanted to become Hams since college and yet felt that CW should be an option rather than a requirement. After all, you do get access to additional band space for CW, and you can use it anywhere in any band, so it's not as if the requirement doesn't come with a reward for the effort. But to require it for a technical license level never seemed fair. I'm old enough to remember that before the Tech license, you couldn't get any Ham license without CW. Finally, it's hard enough attracting people to become a Ham these days because of the technical requirements that it's good CW isn't yet another obstruction. We've got a lot of valuable bandwidth I don't want to see us lose and the only way to keep it is to build the ranks further. It's not all that different from making music: many want to participate, but the gear isn't cheap and it's extremely difficult to make money at it these days. Even then, younger generations don't appear to appreciate live music as much as before unless it's from big time acts. The only way to break in now appears to be to start by building a channel on line to get enough followers. I played professionally for years, but I never would have gotten into it if I had to build a channel first - that doesn't interest me whereas I still compose, play and record my music, and even sit in with a band now and then, but it's getting rarer as the music keeps changing; my biggest musical passion is the blues, not hip hop or such.

You went quickly through the licenses, and that included the Advanced. I got my Tech and General last May and at the test session learned that the Extra would get revised in 5 weeks with new questions. There was another test session in 3 weeks, so I got my Extra 3 weeks later with some additional study in between the tests. My knowledge of Smith charts and such had faded since college. Of course, it's certainly easier for people like us already in the field with much of the theory already under our belt. I learned a few things studying, but most was a refresher for those areas I had learned years before but hadn't used. Refreshing is far easier than initial learning. If the code requirement were still there, I would have stopped at the Tech license because it's all I needed for using higher power on my drones and I would have never gotten on the air. But because CW wasn't required, I did go higher, am now on the air, was on a tips program last evening on Echolink, and am considering becoming a VE, etc. It drew me into this world whereas CW would have forever kept me out.

I'll be occasionally catching your channel - thanks for its name! And Wow! The Antarctic DXpedition sounds so cool! Too bad you couldn't go.

Ok, as for your comment of interest: SCADA stands for "Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition" systems. It's what are used by electric, water, and gas utilities to monitor and control their operations. Most of my clients are electric utilities and we use such systems to monitor substation and generator operations, such as transmission and feeder volts, amps, watts, volt-amps, power factor, etc. The system is also used for operating breakers, adjusting set points for generator output levels, whether they're also used to put out VARs to compensate for a bad power factor, etc. The systems also monitor diesel generator engine parameters such as oil and water temps and pressures, RPM, emission control system parameters, etc. I get hired to design such systems, which today is more of a system build from purchasable components, doing software programming, and lots of network switch, router, and firewall configuration because everything is IP these days. I only need to design actual circuits for those applications for which a device cannot be purchased or for interfacing otherwise non-compatible equipment with a system.

As for my greenhouse work, I've been creating SCADA systems for small growers and a few large ones - these are circuits I design and program using micro-controllers, regulators, gates, PLCs and such. There are SCADA systems now for large greenhouse complexes, but they're too expensive for small growers - my devices fill that niche. But I'm finding lots of other applications for this kind of system so I don't plan to ever retire. I love electrical and electronic engineering as well as the software and networking components and one of my favorite activities is creating new algorithms to measure hitherto difficult to measure parameters and characteristics of the growth environment. So I'm essentially being payed to play and I don't think that excitement will go away anytime soon.

Do you ever get on the air or use Echolink?
 
Last edited:
@skier
Then, there's cabling to consider. I would be a short distance away from the back of the DM. On second thought, it would only really be the FW cable to consider. Am I right?

No, you also might want to consider the cabling to the monitor. I also use the computer's sound card output when I want to play music while working on equipment/wiring and want to keep most of the system de-energized. So there may be other cables depending on how you use your computer. I'm not afraid to connect anything to anything else. And yes, sometimes that causes me a real problem, but I've never been able to help/stop myself.
 
  • Like
Reactions: -mjk-
@skier it's going to take me awhile to reply to the novel you wrote above, lol.

The Morse requirement was from the ITU, not the USA and it was for all nations. Once the ITU dropped it, the USA followed suit. Interesting to note that the top class ham license in Taiwan has a 100 WPM Morse code requirement. That's double my CW speed. I'll never meet that.

I have Echolink on my studio PC and also my mobile. de NV1L.
 
MAN!!! Novice was 5WPM, General and Advanced were 13, and Extra was 20. Can any human actually do 100WPM?
 
Arjan P is young, but don't let that fool you. He has the wisdom of Solomon.
Thanks for the compliment, @-mjk- , but though I may not be in my sixties, there still is a difference between knowledge and wisdom...
 

New threads

Members online

No members online now.