I don’t normally print test models but after upgrading my MK4 to a MK4S a month ago I felt the urge to do so. Meet the Robo Alpaka in Prusament Galaxy Purple.

On the one hand this is a reasonable request. On the other it implies Winlink can’t add capacity when needed and if a widespread incident occurred we couldn’t rely on Winlink. More P2P. m.ai6yr.org/@ai6yr/11327442084

I upgraded my Prusa MK4 to a MK4S today which went well. I’ve therefore now joined the hotend sock club. I’ve had socks for over a year and never bothered with them but they’re recommended for the MK4S. I’ve done 3 prints jobs so far and no issues at all. Onward and upward.

I was late discovering Nihon Falcom’s Legend of Heroes: Trails series of games and have spent a couple of years ploughing through them. I just finished Reverie and will start Daybreak soon. Which means I am finally “caught up” since Daybreak is the most recent release. Daybreak II comes out next year. Feels like an accomplishment.

Seen in my doctor’s waiting room this morning. NGL I was a bit surprised…

This morning’s sunrise was on fire

BTW I love iPhone mirroring (along with iPhone notifications on my Mac) mastodon.social/@macrumors/113

Into the woods

A worthwhile day: spent time today helping my 10th grade son mock up his Rube Goldberg machine. He’s supposed to stick with modest on-hand components which does make it a bit tricky. But the challenge is fun.

After yesterday morning’s frustrations things improved. My VHF Packet setup started working again all by itself. Then this morning I figured out the reason SDR-Control stopped decoding FT8 was because, in a vain attempt to get WSJT-X to transmit audio on my M2 Mac mini, I had changed the audio to 44.1KHz. Changed it back to the normal 48KHz and SDR-Control works.

Still have no idea how to get WSJT-X/JS8Call transmitting audio though.

It’s a frustrating start to the day in . In spite of easily receiving 5 Winlink messages via Packet this morning I can no longer connect to a node. It’s not an RF issue rather something with my devices that reboots haven’t resolved.

Plus SDR-Control, which has always been rock solid, is no longer able to decode FT8/FT4. Yes the date is correct (supported by the fact WSJT-X can decode FT8).

Time to walk away for today. 😠

Kind of in shock. We drove by a small shopping area near us and, get this, they’re adding a bookstore! In 2024!

Never thought we’d see a new one in our area. And especially because this same shopping area had a bookstore until a couple of years ago and it was replaced by a hobby store.

I have a question for the POTA hunting folk among you.

I normally run a filter on FT8 that excludes call signs I’ve had a QSO with in the past. I’ve seen some operators who are very hostile if someone starts a QSO with them if they’ve ever logged them in the past.

But filtering out call signs I’ve logged means I would only ever see an operator’s first POTA activation no matter how many different parks they activate.

What is your operating approach for this?

FWIW, I find the audio quality remarkably better on the AirPods Pro 2 versus my original AirPods. First time I used them was a “wow” and I wasn’t even trying to check for a difference. mastodon.social/@macrumors/113

This is nice! 👍🏼

The First UL Certified Consumer 3D Printer on the Market - the Original Prusa MK4S! blog.prusa3d.com/the-original-

My wife and I are never satisfied with the Japanese bottled ponzu sauce we’ve bought. Always seems fairly lifeless. So today we embarked on making our own and in doing so have discovered every recipe seems to use different ratios of ingredients plus different methods. Rather confusing. So we are winging it…

We need some to use in today and tomorrow’s dinner so the pressure is on… 👨🏻‍🍳

Do you name your earbuds/AirPods? If so what scheme do you use?

[Note a poll]

Speaking of 3D printing. I used the below model to print this Nextruder case using Prusa’s Clear PETG. I’m really pleased with how translucent the case turned out.

https://www.printables.com/model/996196-ne

I got a surprising email from Printables telling me my models have been downloaded more than 1,000 times. It’s a surprise since my models are all plain/niche but I guess it is a nice thing.

I’m in the market for a HF-band magmount to use on my car. I’ll only use it while stationary. LMK if you have one you like. +1 if it has a hamstick compatible conntector.

Spent some time this morning on an overdue emergency comms task. Today’s accomplishment was aligning the primary repeaters and frequencies across my vhf/uhf radios. A bit of a chore since I have Icom, Kenwood and Baofeng radios. But it will pay off if an emergency arises.

Today I hit 100. That is I’ve now worked 100 unique reference areas of Parks on the Air thereby earning the Arizona Agave award. 👍🏼

Only 98 left to go to earn my next award 🤪

For those that hate the “well known” search engines I endorse Kagi. mastodon.social/@kagihq/113074

Wow, the dollar amount is pretty staggering. And I continue to be amazed that people fall for these well known scams.

Bitcoin ATM scams have cost Americans over $10 million per month this year engadget.com/cybersecurity/bit engadget.com/cybersecurity/bit

After too many emails back-and-forth with ARRL/LoTW support I have finally managed to fix things up and get the nearly 200 QSOs confirmed in LoTW. I felt like I’ve done battle… Relieved.