qjkxbmwvz

joined 1 year ago
[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 4 points 3 hours ago

Sounds like you've only ever used desktops and/or laptops...

[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 4 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

For all the problems in the tech industry, having a large chunk of your compensation be in the form of RSUs does address this meme's complaint. Company does well = you get paid more.

[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 3 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

Here's January of this year. San Francisco, so pretty moderate weather


typically don't run heat during the day, and low 60s at night (if at all) during the winter. Large temperature gradient throughout house, typically.

South facing windows gives kitchen and living room a greenhouse effect, particularly in the winter, hence the large daily temperature swings:

We're expecting a baby. Do people travel with a baby? Is it safe? Is it insane? I think we're just gonna have to stay put for 3 years or so.

If your baby isn't super fussy, the transportation difficulty (in our experience) is more in the logistics getting to/from airport, and dealing with other ground transportation. We just flew 5+hrs (coast to coast, US) with a 2mo and a ~3yo, and it was a piece of cake (typing that, I've jinxed the return flight...).

We haven't done international travel with our kids yet, but we will eventually. When I was 2 my family went to Europe


some countries were meh with respect to kids, but Italy (from my folks' retelling) was fantastic, as there is (or was) a big cultural love for young kids.

YMMV of course, but it's absolutely doable! Kids


even starting as babies


have personalities, and you'll get a sense of what's appropriate with yours. Good luck!

[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 2 points 2 days ago

Good point


it is "incrementally free," although I guess if you count tire wear and tear that's not even true.

[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 14 points 2 days ago

You're just gatekeeping.

ThinkPad with a generator? Nothing wrong with that


maybe add LoRa, get a ham license and add some packet radio or digital modes and you have a neat disaster setup.

MacBook that you don't want to scuff? Well, I'm not that precious with my gear, but you do you. Many Mac laptops last a very long time, and the performance of modern Apple silicon is really, really impressive


and you have UNIX out of the box. Plenty for a tech enthusiast to like.

[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 17 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Eating this spicy Klingon-Thai curry is an honorable battle; but the battle the next morning...that is a battle without honor.

[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 17 points 2 days ago

A lot of non-graphical utilities


basically the *NIX coreutils, plus stuff like rsync, ssh, compression/archival tools (tar, gzip, bzip2, etc.), grep, and the like. Git also comes to mind.

I think part of this is that the UNIX philosophy is "developer friendly"


tell a good dev they need to make a compression utility that follows this protocol, and they will make a compression utility that follows the protocol.

[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 25 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Your local city college may or may not offer free classes (in San Francisco, you just need to show proof that you live in the city with some legal status).

Some public transportation is free for certain groups (youth and folks experiencing homelessness can get free passes here).

"First X of the month" at the zoo/a museum/whatever


lots of venues have free events.

A jog, bike ride, hike


lots of great stuff outside!

[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

You ever been to a city that's not San Francisco?

Of course; my point was never that it's a ubiquitous practice in the US, only that it definitely exists in places.

One that's newer?

Sure (Seattle is newer, for instance), but that's obviously not what you mean.

I think we're talking about different types of cities


new, rural, small incorporated cities are certainly very different than "capital C" Cities. I'm guessing this is the real distinction that we're talking about..

[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 5 points 4 days ago

I believe some TIC agreements are structured as HOAs, which is perfectly reasonable


but I'm pretty sure that's not what you're referring to here.

 

People often complain about San Francisco's public transit


and to be sure, it's not perfect by any means (multiple separate agencies doesn't help). But the historic streetcars are pretty neat!

They're painted with the livery of various historic streetcars from all over the country (and a few international, I think). Best of all, they run alongside the modern fleet


same route, same fare.

5
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website to c/amateur_radio@lemmy.radio
 

Howdy!

I got my Technician in early 2000s, and last year finally upgraded to Extra. Looking to set up a very basic shack.

I'm looking for an HF setup, with most of my use probably using digital modes, but would like the ability to use voice.

Current transceiver is on loan from girlfriend's dad, a Ten-Tec Scout 555


50W HF unit with separate modules for each band. One limitation of this is that the modules set the mode, so it's LSB on 40m, making e.g. FT8 not possible (without some hacking of code or perhaps hacking the module).

Antenna is end-fed with an off-the-shelf 49:1. Currently only have 20m half-wave, but have just enough room for a 40m half-wave in the attic, which is the ultimate goal.

For digital modes, it looks like there are sort of 3 classes of radio:

  • "full digital" where the radio has e.g. a USB port and handles audio, transmit, and frequency set.
  • Some computer-control with RS232, but uses computer audio+adapter to transmit.
  • No digital, use adapter to transmit. This is what the current setup uses (and it works great!)

I'm leaning towards a conventional transceiver, e.g., something from ICOM, Kenwood, Yaesu, (or others) rather than an SDR unit. I'd like the ability to go up to 50-100W if possible.

I don't have a hard-and-fast budget; would like to keep it <$1000 if possible; mostly just looking at used transceivers. Something like a Kenwood TS-590 looks pretty amazing and very "plug-and-play" (but pushing up against price). Something like a Yaesu FT-920 looks pretty feature-rich too; and even something more affordable like an ICOM 706 or even a 725 is probably more radio than I need. Or just grab a new 7300 and call it a day!

Anyway...clearly, I don't know exactly what I want, but figured I'd ask folks with more experience if they have any wisdom. Thanks!

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