N3VEM @N3VEM@mastodon.radio

#introductions Vance, N3VEM here. Into #hamradio, #electronics, and all things #maker. Heavily involved in #POTA (parks on the air) as a volunteer dev and running the helpdesk. #bigfamily and #gardening take most of my outside of work hours that aren’t radio related. I have a day job but it’s the least interesting thing about me😀. #UnitarianUniversalist I.e. love is love and justice is for everyone.

A month ago, signing up for a training class that was scheduled to accommodate folks in the UK sounded like a good idea. Now that I’m faced with the prospect of waking up 3 hours earlier than normal tomorrow, I’m starting to question my judgement.

I have a need for a product that l assumed existed, but I can’t find. I want a low-profile, desktop keyboard stand, but one that holds 2 keyboards, in a way that you can grab and rotate so that the back one will come forward, over top of the bottom one while sliding the bottom one to the back, so that you can easily switch which keyboard is the forward one, while keeping the ‘in use’ one pretty much flat to the desktop. (Does that make any sense?)

Been dabbling around with some GitHub actions and automated deployment stuff as a learning exercise with one of the #POTA related projects. Others on the team usually handle that stuff but I wanted to learn a little of it so I poked around - it really is a red pill vs blue pill decision when you start getting into it😀

And the aftermath, a few hours later:

I might not be at hamvention, but I’m not “missing” it 😀. Made a much wiser investment instead:

So, in the category of sentences spoken as a parent that you would have never imagined yourself saying - tonight’s words that actually came from my mouth were “take the frog out of your pants and get undressed”
🤣

I’m always amazed at the number of words some people can use to say nothing at all.

During lunch today we heard a thump. One of the ropes holding my dipole broke where it rubbed on the tree branch it was tossed over, and the thump was the sound of the balun hitting the roof when the dipole fell😱. Luckily no damage, so it just gave me an excuse to get out the Big Shot and launch a new line over the tree. Hoisted it up, and we’re back in business already👍 #hamradio fun.

Working on a #POTA guide for club activations - anyone have a picture or two of a club/field day activation they’d let us use? If so send me a DM and I’ll let you know what email address to send it too. Thanks!

One of todays projects was building the wall around the “pond”. Last year I plunked down a watering trough and we put fish and plants in, with the intent of doing this. Next step is to fill the space between the tub and wall with gravel, topped with river stones. The flat stones will go around the rim, and pretty much hide the fact that it’s just a big watering trough😀

I’m so clever 😀

I was asked what hunters have to do for #POTA - I.e. do they have to upload logs etc. I answered that all the POTA data is honor system, and based on activator logs, so we don’t ask hunters to lift a finger” in that moment I had my flash of clever genius and continued “except for the one that hits the PTT or the key on your paddles”

😏

@K5KHK welcome Karl! Glad you found your way here!

I think that completes the garden tour for the evening😀. Bath time for Kiddos!

And on your way in and out of the back yard:

Cornerstones from old farmhouses in the area. The area was German settlers mostly, hence the German language stones. Essentially the say ‘built for’ and then the names. Maybe my German friends can fill in the blanks, but it’s possible the German dialect is an odd one - Pennsylvania German is an offshoot of a specific regional dialect in Germany, and from my understanding can deviate pretty far from high German.

Fish pond!
(It’s actually just a watering trough with Lillys and goldfish in it, but it meets the ‘source of water’ requirements for our ‘wildlife habitat’ certification for our yard)