alexgordon changed the topic of #elliottcable to: https://gist.github.com/atg/0c323cc4b80c7372d05de77ab39b5d32 slash-π―ππ-ππ-π―πππππππππ-π―ππππππ || #ELLIOTTCABLE is not about ELLIOTTCA
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<Pyrrh>
I'm pretty sure ec is no longer speaking to me because appalled xD
<Pyrrh>
<--- persona non grata
<ljharb>
Pyrrh: appalled at what
<Pyrrh>
APPARENTLY
<ec>
what
<Pyrrh>
radio waves are made of light
<ec>
no, my phone died
<ec>
:P
<Pyrrh>
lol
<Pyrrh>
Which I did not know
<ec>
I told you that it was!
<Pyrrh>
FINEFINE technological excuses prevail
<ec>
perfect timing tho
<Pyrrh>
haha yes you did I'm just giving you shit <3
<ec>
<criticize Pyrrh> <phone immediately dies>
<ec>
so I think I'm gonna pick up a ICOM IC-7100 on sale
<Pyrrh>
^^ that exact thing
<ec>
and a Comet UHV-6 antenna
<ljharb>
everything is made of light
<ljharb>
e equals mc squared, yo
<ec>
ljharb: well, they thought radio was sound waves, so, like, ;)
<ljharb>
i mean, they're all forms of EM radiation :-p
<ljharb>
well, all forms of radiation.
<ljharb>
physics is fun
<ec>
sound-pressure waves aren't radiation o_O
<ec>
ljharb what are you smoking
<Pyrrh>
I can't physics. It's my most insurmountable shortcoming
* ec
waves from a distance
<ec>
Pyrrh: I can't drawing
<ec>
personally
<Pyrrh>
ooh I see what you did there
<Pyrrh>
:3 we all have something
<ec>
everything else, time, effort, or as a last resort, money, has overcome or will overcome
<ec>
but drawing? fucking nope
<Pyrrh>
lol well at least you get it :P
<ec>
I don't even like it
<ec>
I am not art
<ec>
but like
<ec>
it pisses me off that I'm so bad
<ec>
and about once every three years I get all fed up and do my whole I WILL. CONQUER. THIS. thing
<ec>
and ... fail
<ec>
lol
<Pyrrh>
I started out as hardware engineering instead of software but I was like NOOOOOOPE as soon as I remembered I can spend literally all my time studying physics and still fuck up the basics
<ljharb>
ec: it's not a radiation of physical vibrations?
<ec>
hm, wow, I ... am not sure about the answer to that
<ljharb>
ec: it's not electromagnetic but it's still energy being transmitted in the form of compression waves
<ec>
what even is the technical definition of radiation
<ec>
just that it expands radiatively?
<ec>
or, what
<ljharb>
yeah maybe i'm playing fast and loose with the dictionary
<ec>
like yeah I'm lost tbh
<ljharb>
physics is still fun
<ec>
WELL AT LEAST WE CAN AGREE FOR SURE THAT PYRRH WAS WRONG ;)
<Pyrrh>
lmao
<ec>
ljharb, come get your ham w/ me
<Pyrrh>
that's usually the case ;)
<ec>
u 2 Pyrrh
<ec>
let's try and dx with eachother
<Pyrrh>
sure! no time like the present to learn
<ec>
pronounced βdix w/ each otherβ
<ljharb>
ham?
<Pyrrh>
how many dollars are they
<ec>
lmao cheap as fuck nowadays
<ljharb>
i like ham but that second thing doesn't sound as delicious
<Pyrrh>
oh bby yes let's dix
<ec>
Baofeng UV-5R+ is like. fifty bucks? less?
<Pyrrh>
oh that's not bad at all
<ec>
I mean you can spend Arbitrarily Much, it's definitely one of those hobbies
<ec>
one of the transceivers I very briefly looked into for my Ideal Car Setup is, like, fucking $8,999
<ec>
no antenna, no wiring, that's literally just the *box*
<Pyrrh>
but like besides dixing with irc peeps what could I use it for?
<ec>
it's an βexpands to fill the available resourcesβ hobby in terms of time, too: you can get arbitrarily obsessive about your rig's SWR and radiated efficiency and shit
<ec>
(look at me, using these terms like I have the slightest idea what they mean! yay!)
<Pyrrh>
woo go you!
* Pyrrh
throws a ticker tape parade
<ec>
well so basically the *real* point of amateur radio is that it's extremely, extremely fucking reliable and simple
<ec>
in a zombie apocalypse, you could still talk to people in fucking London; or more usefully, radiate and exchange messages in your larger-local area
<ec>
in *practice*, it's a social thing, afaict
<ec>
a lot like this IRC channel: people get on and shoot the shit about ... whatever ... with other ham ops
<Pyrrh>
or more realistically, assuming both me and the equipment survived it, the imminent earthquake/volcano implosion of the PNW
<Pyrrh>
that english was terrible
<ec>
it's also just all fun from a technical aspect: again, it's actually pretty *technically* simple; almost all of the gear that you can spend lots of money on, you can also *build*, yourself, from scratch, and watch it work
<Pyrrh>
assumbing both the equipment and I survived it
<ec>
yeah: during 9/11 in NYC, literally every communications infrastructure went to shit,
<Pyrrh>
okay building one would be super cool
<ec>
so the fire/police/emergency responders collected friends who were HAMs, and the HAMs kept all the emergency responders in touch across the city
<ec>
because it's the lowest-common-denominator, basically
<Pyrrh>
that's pretty neato
<ec>
same thing happened in Hurricane Katrina
<ec>
and there's N+1 stories about HAMs hearing, and rescuing, <random dude on shitty Wal-Mart CB radio, stuck with a broken leg somewhere in Yosemite> from halfway across the continent
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<ec>
so yeah: barrier-to-entry is basically zilch (buy $50 handheld radio or even build one, learn the terms and physics and Morse code); and it's a hobby with a weird cross-section of people (ancient crusty engineers; semi-truck drivers; TEOTWAWKI survivalists; software / Web peeps; hunters / backwoods-livers)
<Pyrrh>
that sounds like my kind of people and I've always meant to learn morse code for some reason
<ec>
(don't buy anything more expensive from Baofeng, though β they're only fun b/cuz they're surprisingly full-featured for being freakin' $25 lol; but there's much better options anywhere above $100)
<ec>
oh and maybe invest a few bucks in a better antenna; a whip (long thin metal fling thing) will do you much better than the duckbill (stubby rubber thick motherfucker) that comes with it.
<ec>
also ##hamradio
<ec>
βFurther, by definition, people interested in 2-way radios are VERY talkative,β