Chris K2CR 📻 @k2cr@mastodon.radio

Got replacement filters for my VX-7R in a couple days ago. VX-7R has been deaf for some time now. I might try to perform HT surgery tomorrow.

Active as K2CR/R (rover) in #JuneVHF #contest today. Operated from 3 spots.

① Stag Hill in Mahwah, NJ FN21vc (900 ft / 275m)

② Bear Mountain Summit in New York FN21xh (1290 ft / 393 m)

③ Bear Mountain eastern overlook in New York FN31ah (1040 ft / 316 m) -- see photo

Operating only on 2m phone (SSB and FM), I was able to get 21 QSOs in the log. I'm happy with the outing considering the low effort of a Kenwood TR-751A and a vehicle mag-mount antenna.

FCC Proposes $34k fine for amateur interfering with fire operations. PDF:

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-22-43A1.pdf

@M0YNG I have a question about federated posts:

The local representation of this toot shows 27 reposts, and 4 stars: https://mastodon.radio/web/@ancientjames@mastodon.social/108433895412975174

But the canonical representation of this toot shows 244 reposts and 348 stars: https://mastodon.social/@ancientjames/108433895008241475

Any ideas why there is a discrepancy? Thanks.

#FCC is sending out PDFs generated by an evaluation version of some reporting software for #Java called ReportMill. http://www.reportmill.com/

$5000 per seat licensing.

Super professional.

After 15 minutes of this, I was told:

"I'm sorry we are currently experiencing system problems and are unable to process your call. Please try again later. "

Thanks FCC.

#FCC helpdesk hold music has been replaced with loud white noise. Pretty sure this is a violation of the 8th amendment.

Freemasons have taken over #ARRL.

http://www.arrl.org/news/view/arrl-honored-by-masons-in-newington-connecticut

New Jersey state parks free for the summer. Summer of #pota

Thanks to @crossbar for the news.

https://www.lehighvalleylive.com/news/2022/05/nj-state-parks-are-free-memorial-day-weekend-and-during-the-whole-summer.html

Let the #Dayton #APRS chaos begin.

This makes Duplicate predictions *mostly* correct now. There is still the rare case which I call the "bogus duplicate", where the FCC batch processing doesn't seem to follow the FCC's own rules.

The bogus duplicate is so rare because it only seems to happen when the earlier application is entered on a Saturday or Sunday and the later application is entered on a Monday between midnight and 9am EST/EDT.

This doesn't seem like correct behavior, so I'm hesitant to code a prediction for it. 3/3

But I did learn that the ULS "Reference Copy" PDF has the relevant entry timestamp (thanks to Dean AE7Q).

So when considering applications that might be duplicates, I am now pulling the PDF reference copies from ULS, extracting the timestamp and caching that locally. This is potentially expensive when loading several new potential duplicates, since ULS is fairly slow. But after that it will use the locally cached data and should be quick.

2/

I just reworked the way Duplicate #vanity applications are detected on https://vanities.k2cr.com/

Previously I was relying on the #ULS application file number to determine which application was earlier. This worked in the usual case, but would often make the wrong prediction in the case of amended applications.

The #FCC doesn't export the application entry timestamp in their data dumps, which is what is needed to correctly predict which application will really be marked as duplicate.

1/

I'm setting up a URL scraper, and want to make sure my #mastodon support is correct. Right now I have it looking for domains with "mastodon.*" or "*.social" names. Is there a better way to detect a #mastodon/#fediverse #URL? Thanks.

I find this a bit odd, like this model was prototyped for crossband repeat but didn't really meet the requirements to make it productized. I probably won't use this feature on this radio, but it's interesting to see how this is done.

Very sneaky, Icom.

2/

I was reading about the diode-enabled feature options on my IC-820H. There are a series of diodes on the logic board to enable different features. But the crossband repeat isn't on one of these labeled diodes. You have to add a diode to the spot between D27 and D28.

This position isn't even labeled in the service manual.

1/