What about a print on demand service for QSL cards that replaces the bureau?
And do we have enough engaged, technically adept, and interesting hams out here in this Fedi space to put together a monthly web magazine of sorts filled with the stuff that we want to read?
I know there was talk before. I'm wondering if we really need to wait for the big org to fail before we start.
Okay so this is coming from someone who almost has no qualifications here.
In theory all you need for an LoTW replacement is, well a database. If you want to keep the authenticity, you'd still need some methodology for the signing, which is simple enough (like, PKCS#7 is everywhere), and then you're just matching database entries together, something that can somewhat easily be done with the correct queries and indexing (though would not be a bad idea to try to optimize your sharding or partitioning for that data set)
Like the infrastructure at the base level is laughably easy. At the scale of which it operates it's much, much harder to get it to not keel over.
And frankly, print-on-demand sounds like either embracing prints from eQSL as "good enough" or, again, having some trusted authentication before printing, maybe piggybacking off OQRS?
@weezmgk well, I do have a few glues that are viscous enough to give it a try.
Luckily I don't have a spare power cable.. or the $300 for the antenna and coax to get it on the air, so it's not like another part would be a big deal
I'll probably get some replacement cables anyways. All four ends have conductors that have peeled off, they're getting replaced eventually
@weezmgk Kenwood TM-721A. I have no VHF/UHF capability... And that one has separate V/U sockets.
Meaning probably $30-50 on a duplexer to split it out, the end-fed vertical I was looking at is $100 before S+H, have to actually construct a pole to mount it on, and then some more LMR400 to connect it.
This isn't counting Other Miscellaneous Expenses that never exist on paper but arise spontaneously whenever a project is started.
Update: the last time I tried to turn this thing on, it powered on but no display. Buttons worked, knobs worked, no lights. Something tells me somewhere I either bent a pin too far or broke it in the cable... I'm expecting I didn't break anything. I don't know too much about 80s/early-90s display tech, but I'm very certain that most things that would be connected to those cables, are not the kind of thing to fail silently when incorrectly connected. No pop and no smoke tells me I probably just missed a connection.
New cables on order. 100mm same-side 1.0mm 12-pin pitch FFC. Pennies. Then it'll be round 2. And, now I have the cabling to DigiRig this thing as well.
Got my K1 cables for the #DigiRig today, meaning I should be able to have an audio I/F to most HTs. (And if they're RS-232 serial, I can program them too.) So I just did some low-power APRS testing... and sure enough, plug in the GT-5R and my 878 was decoding packets from it.
Only one issue: the AnyTone 878 doesn't PTT in the same way, apparently, so that's not doing anything. I guess that means this cable is Baofeng only... but you know, the GT-5R has "enough" filtering (certainly more than the UV-5R) and a portable APRS station is a portable APRS station. I think I can work with that.
Speaking of rigs, does anyone out here have any recommendations for a VHF/UHF rig that has CAT control? Doesn't need to have a built in sound card, just something that I can plug a DigiRig into with the right accessory cables for automatic frequency control. Bonus points if it can do SSB on V/UHF but not strictly a requirement.
The current one I'm working on getting set up has nothing (I think it's actually designed as a mobile rig), so to DigiRig it, the audio cable I need literally just plugs into the 8-pin mic socket, and then the external speaker jack at the back.... that's a bit too jank for my liking, long-term.
Just had to pick up the local club's weekly UHF net because there was no NCS... I did sign on to be available on a fill-in basis, so I guess it was my chance to shine!
Would have been helpful if I didn't spend a full two minutes just running around looking for my NCS notebook before giving up and just using a Notepad window (turns out someone put it in the Midwest Junk Drawer™️, no wonder I couldn't find it.
Hopefully before the next time the club's simplex net rolls around I'll have this VHF/UHF rig up and running, so I'm not limited to just 7 watts of power!
BREAKING -- NY AG wins AGAIN -- NRA is liable for corruption and misappropriating donors' money, using it on personal luxury expenses. Jury just returned its verdict in the case, in NYC.
Former NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre ALSO found liable and must pay back $4,351,231 in restitution.
Set up something like Immich or Nextcloud to offload those photos and videos, you can store your music on a Jellyfin or Subsonic server and just stream them (might need a quick VPN connection but that's stupid simple), the only "issue" there is your applications, which a little bit of judicial pruning and cache clearing might solve loads of space issues.
Sitting here for 2 hours maintaining like 5 disparate conversations all at the same time, switching between furry arywork, puns, shitposting, and then a random discussion about network protocols and security.
