I am not going to pre-order a Nintendo Switch 2. I think we qualify for their email purchase invitation so I registered interest that way. They said the invites would start in May.

I went that route when the PS5 came out and it was a low stress way to avoid scalping prices. I would never pay above retail.

I heard Switch 2 demand in Japan is well above Nintendo’s forecast/supply so I’m wondering what the invite schedule will look like. Not in a hurry so it just at the “idle curiosity” level.🎮

Our kitchen faucet started to leak from the base so my wife picked out a new one in a box that claimed it was “easier to install”. I’ve installed a kitchen faucet before so decided to give it a try. What a nightmare. The hose contraption that needed to pass from the top through the countertop was too large for the existing hole. Granite is finicky so to play it safe I limited myself to a metal file and a masonry bit on a drill. It worked, after a long while, but my hands and arms are shot. 😔

Lots to be thankful for on Easter. And I’m treasuring that once again both our kids could be with us for dinner. Our daughter is over 21 now so it is especially precious.

Adafruit is doing an admirable job of sharing what they can glean from all the tariff changes. mastodon.cloud/@adafruit/11433

Over time as I've upgraded from one 3D printer to another I've ended up with quite a surplus of nozzles. I have three .6mm Nextruder nozzles and three .4mm Nextruder nozzles all in great shape and several of which are new. These will never be used and are squirrled away in a drawer and not even next to the printer (which has 5 nozzles of its own).

The surplus is mainly due to switching to a high flow printer and also the use of materials requiring hardened nozzles.

We drove out to a pine forest for a hike today. Should I be embarrassed that my first thought upon seeing these giants was “what a great ham radio antenna I could put in them”?

Busy on the bands: 106 confirmed digital mode QSO in April so far including a few new countries. Wish I had more operating time while the getting is good. Spread across 40m, 20m and 10m.

Also after being stuck below 200 POTA parks hunted for a long time I shot up to over 220 in the past couple of days.👍🏼

I pulled a 2+ year old spool of Amolen wood filament out of its vacuum storage bag and put it straight through the printer. Looks great and that light burned wood smell is TDF.

Nintendo’s Direct today announcing the Switch 2 was a big hit with our kids. Main downside for us is the battery life is apparently markedly shorter than the current Switch. That won’t deter the kids - they’ll just pack a battery.

Still learning about my PC Carbon Fiber filament. Something I didn’t expect based on my readings is that thin-ish prints, like 3-4mm, print fine without warping - that is until they cool off and warping kicks in. Taller/thicker models, so far, aren’t doing this.

Maybe needs an enclosure? IDK

The Switch 2 announcement is this morning and I told my 16 yo son I’d wait until he is home from school to watch it. Gonna be pretty hard to avoid ‘spoilers’ though. Hoping for some pleasant surprises.

FT8 from Texas to Europe was frustrating most of the day - lots of busted QSOs. Finally toward the end of the day snagged Wales and South Africa to boost my DXCC count.👍🏼

It was a good day for FT8/FT4 on several bands today. One of the best I’ve had this year. I logged 38 QSOs which included about a dozen POTA.

Being a nerd I was excited when my Prusament PC Carbon Fiber filament arrived early enough to fire off a couple of prints. I really like the look which matches parts on newer Prusa printers.

Pictured at top is the PCCF print made on a satin sheet and below it a PETG CF print from a textured sheet. The PCCF was a breeze to print and when the build plate cools it slides right off.

Also its cool this filament was made in CZ on the 21st and is in my hands 6 days later!

In the “how come nobody told me” category: YouTube let me know that Amy Lee of Evanescence performed “Bring Me to Life” with the Japanese Wagakki Band back in 2020. Love the band and the song so it was a blast to watch it. Also feelings. I just wish they’d done a better job on the audio mix.

youtu.be/hk1GtYK7BJM?si=3Wqfte

Early this year I bought 6 different Jessie filaments from printedsolid.com. Having used a lot of them up I can say with some confidence they are excellent. I really like the colors which generally have a uniqueness with nice depth and tones, they are well spooled and print wonderfully. They’re also cheaper than Hatchbox et al, made in the US (yeah, sensitive subject now but a plus to me), and the free shipping threshold is low.

A couple of websites I’ve visited for years have started forcing autoplay on rather large videos amidst news stories.. Even if I scroll away a little pop-up version follows me and keeps playing. I have yet to find a way to prevent this so I will have to stop using the sites. It is annoying and completely distracting. I guess this is progress💩

Severe storm season has arrived so I needed to refresh my memory and check the setup for cross band operation on my Icom ID-5100. This mode allows me to use a HT around the house during a storm while still have the benefit of transmitting with the higher power 5100 if needed. As always a few mental cobwebs needed to be removed but all is in working order.👍🏼

I’ve never been fond of benchy but this dancing benchy really appealed to me and broke down my resistance. Printed using Jessie’s Brad’s Orange Glitter filament.

Dancing Benchy by phildesign3d | Download free STL model | Printables.com https://www.printables.com/model/1213590-d

I wish the iPad Air keyboard announced today had a metal case like the iPad Pro’s. I really dislike the current material. The addition of function keys is useful but the metal case would have sold me on upgrading. 🤷🏼‍♂️

I’m checking out Prusa’s EasyPrint slicer on my iPad and it definitely seems usable even in its initial state. I can browse Printables.com for one of my models or a 3rd party model and there is a button in the Browser to open it in EasyPrint. It will be fun to do a test print when I get back home.

Ht/ @kr1st when I opened the MFJ power supply I found & tweaked a pot for the voltage meter so it reflected the true output voltage. Then I adjusted the actual output voltage pot bringing it back up to the specified 13.8V. I didn’t do a “soak” test so I don’t know if would stay there stably.

I noticed yesterday testing the dummy load with RTTY is when transmitting a full duty cycle signal the MFJ voltage slowly crept up. Nearly a half volt. Just don’t trust it.

Replaced my 5 year old MFJ power supply with a new Samlex. It is nice to have a power supply putting out 13.8V. The Samlex has a unique, at least to me, connector on the back for DC powe thatr is positively attached rather than just the typical push-on Anderson power pole. I like it.

Also, the QSOs are rolling in after the switch. 👏🏻

I got a 100W dummy load and the max power output I could get from the Icom 7300 was 75-80% using RTTY.

Next I checked the output of my MFJ power supply. Lo and behold the voltage out was only 13.0V with no power draw even though the knob was on the 13.8V detent. It is a fussy knob but I managed to raise it to 13.7V and test again - sure enough full power output on the 7300.

I think I’ll replace the power supply, I just don’t trust the voltage knob to stay put out of the detent.

Does anyone have a small-ish watt meter they like for the HF bands (up to 100W)? My IC-7300 seems to be down on power and I’m looking to check on it.