Was going to post about how I'm super doplic today, and I looked it up to make sure I was spelling it correctly, because I've only ever said it, which is when I realized it's one of our "dutchified" words that is twisted from Pennsylvania German, which was a twist from an actual German word.

So anyway, without looking it up, do you know what doplic means?

HOPE_16 (2025): Top Ten: Democratic Open Source SDR and Amateur Radio Applications That Matter Today

https://youtu.be/dv_EO9sX8LA

#sdr #foss #hope_16

Just heard from JA1WLQ over Wires-X, longest QSO of any kind for me so far. It is over the internet, but hearing the station come out of one of the local C4FM repeaters I had to call back.

Kiluaea is going bonkers right now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk0tfYDxrUA

#volcano

A visit to #NJ2BB and @orion3311 yesterday and I got to see some old-timey #RTTY with heavy iron and terminal units. Good times! #amateurradio

IRC client active now on my packet node - connects to the #FARPN channel on our little IRC net by default. Drop by and say hi.

I just added a handful of more blogs that was shared with me via #Bluesky to

https://blogs.radio/

If you would like to have your amateur/ham radio blog added, please let me know

#RSS #ATOM #blog #blogs #AmateurRadio #HamRadio #hamr #radio #feeds

Managed five or so hunter contacts before the 45 degrees and wind sent me home. That's likely the last outing for me this year, but I'm looking forward to spring.

Not enough time for a pota activation, not too many more nice days, so I'm going to go play radio outside.

Long but successful weekend at @BSidesDE with @HamRadioVillage - here's to successful #shenanigans and #hamradio evangelism.

And now for the punchline...
I checked in to our weekly net and even on 20W, I received zero reports of weak signal or bad audio.
So I am stumped, and the antenna is staying put for the winter.

I think the 2-feet-ish offset of the old antenna made all the difference. The azimuth to the repeater in question now runs directly through the chimney and metal chimney cap.

Narwhal Amateur Radio Society No-Host Round Robin in 1 Hour! (02:00utc) Allstar node 61672 https://nars.narwhal.be/
#HamRadio

Well one would think that raising an omnidirectional antenna up higher would automatically make it perform better. And that is true generally, but...
If you are too close to a metal chimney cap and that cap is almost exactly in line with a repeater you were previously able to hit easily... you might, *might* have problems.

𝟱𝗞𝟬𝗨𝗔, 𝗦𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝗻𝗱𝗿é𝘀 𝗜𝘀𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱 https://buff.ly/bXKfIzV #hamradio #dx #hamr

Burn After Reading: One-Time Pad Encryption Using Dice
One day, you may find yourself in the position of not trusting any of your apps or electronic devices, but still needing to send an encrypted message to someone. There are three (3) things you need to accomplish this:

Pen/cil

Paper (graph paper helps)

A random number generator (in this case, 10-sided dice
https://anarchistrrl.noblogs.org/post/2025/10/28/burn-after-reading-one-time-pad-encryption-using-dice/
#onetimepad #encryption

Words matter. When the NY Times says Trump is "float[ing] the possibility of finding a way to circumvent the 22nd Amendment," they are saying it's just a small matter. No biggie.

In fact, he is threatening to FLOUT, VIOLATE, or DEFY the 22nd Amendment. It's an emergency.

There's something wrong if you can go from nonprofit "saving the world from AI" to "reaming the world with AI for profit" 😡 #AI