vk6flab
@vk6flab@lemmy.radio
Anything and everything Amateur Radio and beyond. Heavily into Open Source and SDR, working on a multi band monitor and transmitter.
#geek #nerd #hamradio VK6FLAB #podcaster #australia #ITProfessional #voiceover #opentowork
- Submitted 6 days ago to amateur_radio@lemmy.radio | 0 comments
- Comment on lemmy.radio upgrading to 0.19.21 (complete) 1 week ago:
Everything appears to be running smoothly!
- Comment on Quantifying what counts as "real" ham radio 1 week ago:
This is what I wrote about this on 2018-01-07:
What is amateur radio? What’s not part of the hobby and what is?
The more you dig into this, the deeper the rabbit hole goes. I’ll start with an analogy to set the scene.
In aviation, Sir George Cayley was the first person to investigate heavier-than-air flying vehicles. He invented the aeroplane in 1799. The first full-sized glider, built in 1849 carried the first person in history to fly, the ten-year-old son of one of his servants. Since then the Wright brothers made their flight at Kitty Hawk. We saw the invention of commercial aviation, the turbo prop, the jet engine, the space-shuttle, helicopters, drones, rockets, hot-air balloons, the Hindenburg, the Goodyear blimps, hang-gliders, gyro-copters and many, many other contraptions.
Each of those are considered aviation and the person controlling the device is considered a pilot.
In amateur radio we talk on the radio.
We also create repeaters and talk on them. We link them together using what ever technology is available. We make it possible to connect to such networks using software such as Echolink, AllStar Link, IRLP and other internet based systems. We create digital networks with DMR, use WSPR to exchange information, make contacts using CODEC2, have contests using CW and Morse code.
We build software defined radios where we use computers to decode and encode radio signals, test back scatter using all manner of signal processing, use packet radio, RTTY, Hellschreiber and bounce signals off the moon and nearby meteors or an overflying aircraft.
We make auto-tuners with a Raspberry-Pi or an SWR meter with an Ardiuno. We build valve based amplifiers and program mp3 voice-keyers, GPS lock radios, map propagation using the internet and have a rag chew on the local 2m repeater.
We investigate 13cm propagation, do experiments with amateur television and we set up radio stations on top of mountains, in light houses and on remote islands.
All of this is amateur radio, and frankly I’ve only just scratched the surface.
There are heated discussions about if a linked repeater using the internet to create the link is real amateur radio or not, whether using your mobile phone as a node on the Echolink network is real amateur radio or not, if using a computer to create contacts on a digital mode such as JT65 is real radio or not.
Each of these questions highlights a misconception about our hobby.
There are no boundaries in amateur radio. We’re a bunch of inventors, mavericks, people who attempt the unthinkable, try the impossible and make progress.
There are people who are passengers on planes, and there are people who fly them. There are people using technology and there are people who invent it. We have a unique perspective as a community. We have the ability to imagine something that doesn’t yet exist. Why would you spend any energy on whether that thing is real amateur radio or not?
Amateur radio is a myriad of things, some of them related to antennas and radio spectrum, some not. This hobby is what you make of it, so go forth and invent something, try something, get on air and make some noise!
I’m Onno VK6FLAB
- [FoAR] Foundations of Amateur Radio - Bald Yak 22: Peer to Peer Radio #podcastpodcasts.itmaze.com.au ↗Submitted 1 week ago to amateur_radio@lemmy.radio | 0 comments
- Submitted 2 weeks ago to amateur_radio@lemmy.radio | 0 comments
- Comment on I need to change careers but I’m scared. If you ever did this, how did you power through and didn’t feel like a loser for wasting time? 2 weeks ago:
Ultimately only you can make the decision about what you want to do with your life.
One thing to consider is, what does failure look like? Not that I’m suggesting that you’d fail, rather, does this help you choose?
In other words, try to find things that distinguishes between the choices. Things that make them different.
You might also ask people already doing the things you’re choosing between. Perhaps you can ask them what they discovered that they liked or hated about their chosen profession.
- Comment on Washington Threatens Retaliation Over EU Plans to Restrict American Satellite Operators - https://eutoday.net 3 weeks ago:
It’s telling that in this discussion there’s no mention of the ITU, the FCC or any form of discussion about interference or other spectrum users.
- Washington Threatens Retaliation Over EU Plans to Restrict American Satellite Operators - https://eutoday.neteutoday.net ↗Submitted 3 weeks ago to amateur_radio@lemmy.radio | 1 comment
- Submitted 3 weeks ago to amateur_radio@lemmy.radio | 0 comments
- Comment on Police Departments Are Cancelling Flock Contracts. This Town Shows Why. 3 weeks ago:
Also:
- [FoAR] Foundations of Amateur Radio - What does I/Q have to do with anything .. time to poke the bear. #podcastpodcasts.itmaze.com.au ↗Submitted 3 weeks ago to amateur_radio@lemmy.radio | 0 comments
- Comment on I have to give a presentation in 15 minutes 4 weeks ago:
I know there are large organisations where the laptops are configured to also update their firmware when users are trying to get out the door at the end of the day and the outsourced ICT teams couldn’t care less.
Microsoft continues to be the best advocate for migrating to Linux.
- Submitted 4 weeks ago to amateur_radio@lemmy.radio | 0 comments
- [FoAR] Foundations of Amateur Radio - How to point an antenna without moving it? #podcastpodcasts.itmaze.com.au ↗Submitted 4 weeks ago to amateur_radio@lemmy.radio | 0 comments
- [FoAR] Foundations of Amateur Radio - Bald Yak 21: When you need to travel to Pluto and back #podcastpodcasts.itmaze.com.au ↗Submitted 5 weeks ago to amateur_radio@lemmy.radio | 0 comments
- Comment on Turning off new instance applications 1 month ago:
The same was happening on mastodon.radio.
I wonder if you can apply a fail2ban rule and block them before they hit the server again within a defined ruleset.
Essentially fail2ban matches against a log file, like a webserver log, then depending on the rules you set, creates an action like an IP firewall or something else, with the option of releasing the action after a period.
You can match on pretty much any aspect of the log, too fast, same action more than once, invalid URL, etc.
- Comment on Can you open up an unmanned store in the US and will it stay in business or close down? 1 month ago:
In many ways a vending machine is precisely that.
- [FoAR] Foundations of Amateur Radio - Getting Kitted Up with Amateur Radio #podcastpodcasts.itmaze.com.au ↗Submitted 1 month ago to amateur_radio@lemmy.radio | 0 comments
- Comment on Off-Topic Friday 1 month ago:
AI generated SPAM is beginning to leak through. It’s getting pretty personalised and harder to distinguish from real email.
What does the future of this look like?
- [FoAR] Foundations of Amateur Radio - Monitoring radio spectrum around you #podcastpodcasts.itmaze.com.au ↗Submitted 1 month ago to amateur_radio@lemmy.radio | 0 comments
- Submitted 1 month ago to amateur_radio@lemmy.radio | 1 comment
- Submitted 1 month ago to amateur_radio@lemmy.radio | 0 comments
- Starlink's Signal Leakage Is Threatening Radio Astronomy's Most Critical Frequencieswww.gadgetreview.com ↗Submitted 1 month ago to amateur_radio@lemmy.radio | 1 comment
- Submitted 1 month ago to amateur_radio@lemmy.radio | 3 comments
- Comment on [FoAR] Foundations of Amateur Radio - Global Ionospheric Maps #podcast 1 month ago:
Yes please!
- Comment on [FoAR] Foundations of Amateur Radio - Global Ionospheric Maps #podcast 1 month ago:
If you missed it, this is the video: youtu.be/CJZyh2EqvkU
- Submitted 1 month ago to amateur_radio@lemmy.radio | 3 comments
- Comment on Near Real Time Global Ionospheric Map for 2026-08 2 months ago:
Tomorrow my weekly podcast goes into how this map is created. It’s quite the journey.
- Submitted 2 months ago to amateur_radio@lemmy.radio | 2 comments
- Comment on Government look to impose mandatory age verification on UK Smartphones 2 months ago: