anthonyg @lemmy.sdf.org Lecturer of Computer Science @ California State University—Long Beach, cyber-security professional, Unix user, privacy enthusiast, all-around geek
Moderator @ Social.SDF.org
anthonyg on com, irc.sdf.org, irc.tilde.zone, and irc.libera.chat
SDF member since 2009
Amateur radio operator N6SH
Google Groups ending support for Usenet
If you work with Usenet groups in Google Groups, support for these groups is ending soon. What’s changing? Starting on February 22, 2024, you can no longer use Google Groups (at groups.google.com) t
KeeperFX (DungeonKeeper) 1.0 Released
All original Dungeon Keeper code has been rewritten, establishing KeeperFX as a true open-source standalone game. Ownership of the original game is still and will always be required for copyright reasons. When installing KeeperFX 1.0, perform a fresh installation without overwriting any previous ve...
Icewind Dale 2 Enhanced Edition
It has finally arrived! Icewind Dale 2: Enhanced Edition is now available for download.
Is it terribly hard to get a license in your country?
In the U.S., at least, the experience is roughly the same. I took my exam many years ago, but I was planning on giving a Tech license (the first license level) course this Summer and did a bit of research on how to get licenses these days.
The bulk of them are done online now through our VE orgs. License classes are fairly easily available, and I’ve heard of crash courses given during hamfests and field day.
Awesome that you’re interested in ham radio!
What can I (legally) do with this thing without a license?
Listen, mostly. Baofeng radios are typically sold as “Part 97” radios (FCC lingo for “Ham use only and requiring a license”), although there are some models which are actually “Part 95” which would be GMRS/FRS radios. The GMRS/FRS radio model would require a separate license for GMRS, although that one is essentially an application + fee payment. It’s also not nearly as broad as a amateur (ham) license.
Edit: I forgot that the Baofeng radios can also transmit on frequency ranges that are technically outside of the legal ham/GMRS allowed frequencies, like business communications, police/fire, etc. Be warned that even with a ham license there will be some things you aren’t legally allowed to do with this device. It’s definately not a toy.
Any pointers for learning the basics on this particular machine?
Again, it will depend on the model, but personally I find the Baofeng/Chinese model radios a giant PITA to use. They’re cheap, sure, but aside from using the programming cable they can be much more difficult to program/use as compared to the Japanese models like Yaesu or Icom.
I should read the manual cover to cover, right?
Sure, I suppose. :)
Looks like it’s easier to program from a computer, any tips on that?
I can highly recommend CHRIP as good programming software. It’s also open-source: https://chirp.danplanet.com/
Western Electric 302 on Modern VOIP
Now here is a phone for you…
Okay, so for a long time now I’ve wanted to put together an actual telephone and connect it with the ATA I bought when SDF rolled out its’ telephony VOIP service.
Has anyone here done this with a WE 302, specifically? It’s the model I’d love to have on my desk (I’d settle for a WE 500 if I had to…) The sets can be found on eBay (maybe questionable quality) fairly inexpensively right now and I have a bit of time to do something like this.
For those who have done a project like this: is there anything to watch out for? Will this model work with existing the VOIP service? (My ATA will work with rotary phones supposedly)
Classic Star Trek Games Source Code
I've uploaded (mirrored, to be specific) two versions of the classic Star Trek game from the days of 'yore on SDF's git service.
The first is the "original" Super Star Trek (it's likely not really the original, but it's as close to it as I can find) which was found on minicomputers of the 1970's. I believe that it's been ported from BASIC to Fortran to C (which is what the version I have is). Find it here: https://git.sdf.org/anthonyg/super-startrek
Secondly, and this is the version I first encountered back in the day, is the Apple ][ version of the game called Apple Trek: https://git.sdf.org/anthonyg/appletrek
I hope the community enjoys my finds and please share your experiences with either game, new or old!
Nice setup!
I’ve been looking for an antenna similar to the one you have there (portable, easy set up/take down). Would you mind mentioning what it is?
I’d love to take my Icom-7000 on a field trip. 😀
My suspicion is that because federation takes time to propagate, posting might seem "slow" for a while until the communities become more established.
Patience is key here, and with more use it'll get better!
lemmy wont federate
hello
I set up my sdf lammy but it wont federation to my discord.
someone on readdit said that it will work but it does not.
pleaze tell the admins that my lommy is useless unless i can get everything in one place.
I’d love to build a 486-DX 66Mhz DOS gaming rig, but prices for retro equipment are through the roof right now.
This soundcard is pretty awesome, though.
Field Day 2023 - June 24-25
What are you doing for Field Day this year? Anything fun/interesting/unusual?
Computer Shopper Back Issues Now on Internet Archive
There’s no way for me to know where your awareness starts with all this, so let’s just start at the beginning. Computer Shopper was a hell of a magazine. I wrote a whole essay about it,…
I posted this yesterday on Mastodon, but it's awesome enough that I feel it bears repeating here:
This is such a neat project; not just IA and textfiles.com (which in and of themselves are amazing) but the digitization of all the old Computer Shopper magazine issues. Brings back a ton of memories.
Incredible that aNONbbs ran on a laptop! Do we have an emulation/server set up with the old BBS software? It might be neat to use it...although who knows how much activity it would get these days.
Baofeng UV-5R HTs Are Now Sub-$20 USD on Amazon
They're cheap, poor-fidelity, horrible propagation radios with handfuls of bugs (the one I bought years ago has a lot of trouble with frequency bleed).
But they're also now less than $20 USD on Amazon.
Welcome Amateur Radio (Ham) Enthusiasts
This seems like a good community to have here since we have a large amount of interest in ham radio among SDF members. Let's discuss radio!
73,
~ anthonyg (N6SH)