“Tea teaches letting go. Infuse your life with positivity as leaves release theirs into hot water” —ChatGPT
Monday, 10th February, 2025
This book looks interesting. And that “The pages in this volume are ordered according to the Japanese system. Please turn to the back of the book to begin reading.” I probably won’t buy it though.
I’ve got so many SOTA related scripts and tools in the works that need finishing and publishing somehow. Made me wonder about a dedicated website for them but then what’s the infrastructure for them? Streamlit is easy for the dynamic ones, and perhaps the others can be on a Quarto static site and just have a daily script compute all the info and I use Observable to show it. Would be nice to integrate them into a site though, vs. a bit scattered. I could make a flask webapp…I’ve not made one before but maybe now’s the time…although probably still need to figure out all the javascript? Or I host my own streamlit server and just make everything on that, plus then as a backup it can run on streamlit servers? Or do I did into 11ty and go all javascript…probably take me forever/I’ll never do it if that’s the way.
Maybe I’ll make a list of all the things I want to put together first, then try and finish them in whatever my current, easiest way is and go from there.
There’s a 2012 mac mini i7 on ebay that ends in ~3 hours which I’m watching. Needs RAM and a SSD, I wonder what it’ll sell for as it’s a bit janky and the auction ends at 3pm during the day. I don’t really want it but it might be cheap…sounds like a terrible way to decide to buy things. It’s 13 years old…I don’t need it. I’m meant to be selling junk to get a M4.
Sunday, 9th February, 2025
I’ve finally routed the coax into the office and today I did my first SOTA chase from the warm office. The antenna is still terrible but it worked. Not sure what I’m doing with VHF though. I’ve put up the antenna and attached some random coax I have, which is 19m long. So long but not long enough to be useful. It’s also super thick coax, so low loss but terrible turning circle. However, HF chasing will be much more useful. I mostly want VHF setup inside so I can use it and also play about with packet radio or ASL or APRS etc.
The best solution would be to run coax into the loft and then down into the office. However, that’s going to be difficult. I could just buy more and run another route…the HF one is 30m. Or I get another antenna on the chimney or somewhere else but that’s a hassle too.
Another option is getting a radio that has a remote head (like what you’d put in a car) and then run the cable to the office. Some seem to be able to work with a long cable. Probably the ultimate is then this setup with the base in the attic, and a short run of coax and then a long cable to the office. But there’s no power in the loft.
So for now…nothing…and I run outside to use it with the radio and battery.
I did go through a big journey of buying some other radio which may still be an option but I thought it would be better to use what I have… there is a nice icom radio IC-7100, that can do HF and VHF and has a remote head. So I could run both antenna back to garage then a long cable to the office. It would be a nice head on the desk too. However, the radio I have is a better performer. Anyway still waiting for the other one to sell.
Saturday, 8th February, 2025
Had a glorious day yesterday in the hills with multiple other radio operators. The weather was spectacular. We then met up for tea and sandwiches and a chat in a local cafe afterwards. Got five summits to catch up on writing about.
The lens sold yesterday as well, which is nice. I did think it’s 2/5ths of a Mac mini M4…given this lens has just been sat in a drawer it would be much more useful to have the Mac. Perhaps I can find other things to sell to pay for it all, then there’s nothing to regret or feel bad about spending.
Thursday, 6th February, 2025
I listed the mini pc I bought about a year ago (for a router which never happened) and it sold in about 6 hours. At a decent price too. Lens and radio still linger on.
I’ll have enough now to get a 1.8-525MHz power and SWR meter so I can measure the 2m stuff.
Today I snuck off early to go climb a summit and play radio with a new antenna. The weather was glorious. I was only going to be sat at my desk making a slide deck for a meeting next week, it doesn’t matter where or when I make it. So I told myself I’ll do it this evening. Well it’s now this evening, in fact it’s quite late this evening. I got distracted with packaging up the mini pc (and of course the printer wouldn’t print the label), installing Debian on the computer/server I’m gifting, writing a python script to look up which days has the most activations in Scotland - as tomorrow there are 15 summits planned (with 12 people) and is this going to be a new record? To which the answer is, yes it could be as the most was in August 2012 with 14 unique summits. Several cups of tea, the kittens escaping the kitchen, and browsing public wikis.
Oh right, I said I’d email the slides to my boss for him to review tomorrow. Okay…I’m opening PowerPoint now…
Tuesday, 4th February, 2025
Money can’t buy happiness. But it can buy you a boat.
Everyone in the house seems to be getting ill. I’m secretly, and selfishly, worried someone will be off school on Friday when we’ve organised 7 or 8 ham to go out into the hills nearby, and I’ll miss it.
Well I’ve been sucked into OSM editing. This is a delightful rabbit hole. The problem of working at home with sick kids is there doesn’t always end up being much working 🤣
I noticed my wife ordered a new hat stand. I worry it’ll still not be sturdy but I also did nothing, so it’s my own fault.
Monday, 3rd February, 2025
I found the camera classifieds, not sure how I missed it but was looking in my phone. No biters yet though.
Big decision circles on radios, but now have the IC-705 listed on a ham marketplace. Probably put it on eBay tonight to hope to get it shifted sooner. Started investigating getting coax into the office. Well thinking about it and watching YouTube videos on fishing cables. Should I just pay someone to do it…then it’ll be done…
I did start wondering how effective an antenna in the loft would be. Firstly, it would be infinitely better than my current situation of none, so maybe I should just try it. Would help with the visual impact side. I admit antenna look ugly, sometimes okay and interesting but often not.
IC705 is on ebay, sold some random RAM I had. Trying to sell enough bits to pay for a power and SWR meter, so I can finally test/fix and then sell the 2m Amp I have, and maybe one of the FM radios. I’m impatient now and want everything to sell immediately. Like the lens. It’s got me looking around for more things to sell. It’s surprising how much you can get from just a bunch of random stuff that’s sitting about. I kinda of want to get rid of everything.
5 minutes later…I’m looking at Mac Mini (2018) models. It started with 2012 models, which are cheap but oh so old now. 2018 lets you replace the ram. They’re not super cheap, maybe £250 for a decent one, but potentially could get one when the lens sells (at least there’s no net gain in junk). However, will I just find it annoying and instead get a M4. I have a N100 mini PC that I’ve booted up and letting Windows do 100s of updates. I thought about using it as a “shack” PC, to be plugged into the radio for stuff and then just VNC into it. It’s a bit noisy and slow, although perfectly fine for general desktop usage. I was going to install linux on it, but it comes with Windows 11 Pro and maybe I’m better off selling it. I do have another computer…in fact if you include rpis then maybe 3 which I could use as the shack computer. Anyway, the mac mini could also be that computer. So I could use Photos.app and Tinderbox…well install it and then never use it.
If I could stop buying things. Although I would like some headphones for cycling to work. I’ve not listened to a podcast in ages.
I do really want a big clear out. Takes time, and it’s hard to decide. I should just go to bed. Still not written up the 3 summits I did last week. That’s what I should really do in the evening.
Sunday, 2nd February, 2025
Trimmed, well severely cut, the willow igloo yesterday. Lovely physical activity which gave me motivation to do a bunch of other things. But then it was dinner time, kids bed routine and then I sat down on the computer and didn’t do anything.
Then at 10:30pm I decided to start working on my own logging software. That makes it sound grand. I use wavelog which is very capable but it annoys me having to make a new station location for each summit to capture my SOTA reference, such that I’ve not updated it in ages. I thought about putting them all into a single /P location but then I lose some information, although I gain the auto syncing with various services.
So I’m making my own processor for log files, specifically for SOTA, to create … something. A static site? In the first instance a big json (probably) file of all my activations and contacts. So far I’ve got a script that reads them and then makes a markdown table and html page with a map. That needs refactoring into processing then some page to display all the data. I’ll probably export a subset of the data to each page of my blog and have it make a nice map using observableJS in Quarto, as that’s easier to embed. Hopefully I can make a template which will automatically add that to the end of each post.
I also thought about making it a web app with flask, or maybe even Streamlit. But one step at a time.
Listed the Fuji 18mm f2 for sale. I never use this lens. Quite a few for sale though, so might take a while to sell. Hoping my “best offer” acceptance or using eBay global store will help shift it.
Been debating about the radios and chatting with another ham about it. Think I’ve concluded that I should sell both. Now just the matter of taking photos and listing them. I will put them on the radio used marketplaces so no eBay faff, but if they don’t go then I’ll resort to it. Seems the U.K. photo forums have stopped classifieds?
Saturday, 1st February, 2025
This would be nice. I do the 4 days but I also took a pay cut.
Did three hills yesterday, was a lovely day, cold but no wind and sunny. Was breaking in some new walking boots and can feel that now.
I need to tidy the garage, sort out the stuff I want to sell and get it listed. Although not sure I have sufficient packaging to post it all. Ideally I’d get rid of it all and then get the ft857d and have a simpler solution, although still can’t decide about the 705. Guess I’ll keep it for now.
Need to do a bunch of other chores too. 💤
Thursday, 30th January, 2025
I naively hoped the internet would have been fixed overnight. Obviously it wasn’t.
I wanted to setup the server for my friend but I need the internet…also it doesn’t like nvme drives, so I need to get a sata m.2, and the free ram from the hackerspace turned out to be DDR3, where this takes DDR4, so good thing I did order some. It won’t be ready for his birthday but never mind.
The afternoon came, and the first internet support escalation time was up, so I called and it was escalated again…however, 30 minutes later it was fixed. Great, although shouldn’t have taken all that effort. There were a few annoying things without internet, but it was quite refreshing. The kids complained but then 10 seconds later just went and found other things to do. Perhaps a day without internet would be nice, or do I just sound like some annoying parent. I liked it. Someone asked what I did. Don’t really remember what I did.
This Casio watch is a really nice upgrade. Includes a step tracker 🥰 some nice features and the screen seems sharper. Can link to your phone, not sure what happens with it then - other than time sync.
Tomorrow should be a three summit day, and it’s supposed to be still weather and sunny. I always think if I should be doing some other summit when it’s a nice day, although I don’t know which one. All these three are new ones for me, so that’s good. Plus during winter bonus it’s best to do as many as possible that get the bonus, so even though I could get more points tomorrow, over the whole year I’ll get more by doing 3 smaller ones tomorrow. I think there’s still snow on the higher ground anyway, and that slows you down.
I caught up with transactions in Actual Budget the other day and then read the manual. I like the regular budgeting (vs. envelope) as I’m not really budgeting but just comparing in vs out and this is perfect for that. I also like the customisable dashboard. Still not got it to where I want it but it’s pretty good. Press a button, sync transactions, categorise a few that aren’t auto done and then look at the summary. Pretty much what I want.
Next thing to investigate are all these tools on this site and I do need to tidy up my master spreadsheet of everthing.
Wednesday, 29th January, 2025
Our fibre provider had emailed in the week saying there was going to be maintenance on Wednesday morning. I didn’t really pay attention to the email but this morning there was no internet. Sure enough maintenance was last night and I bet it started at 00:15 when the router last reported being accessible.
The fibre termination box has lots of green lights on it though. So not sure why it doesn’t work. I wonder if it’s the router somehow? I have had cabling issues between the fibre box and the router but that seems to be caused by dodgy connections and no one was going anything in the night. Plus it seems quite the coincidence.
I’ve raised a ticket, although probably I should call them. The problem is I’m at work so I can’t do anything physically.
It’s one of my friend’s 40th birthday this weekend and I’ve not been able to think of something to get him. This morning I realised the perfect gift…this Dell Wyse 5070 I’ve bought! He likes computers but he doesn’t have a server. Plus it’s nice and small and low powered. It also makes me feel better about not having yet another computer in the house when I already have a perfectly functional one (in fact several that aren’t in use). So I’ll build it and then post it down to him.
Borrowed a Mac mini M1 from the hacklab but turns out it’s under activation lock (and hence why it’s just sat on a shelf). Naive me thought I could just cmd + R and reinstall macos. Maybe there are work around but nothing simple. Back it goes I guess. Perhaps I should just buy my own M4…(wait didn’t I want to have fewer computers not more? Ah, says my brain, but this would be different as it would run Tinderbox).
Speaking of hacklab. I picked up some donations last night from this guy. Absolutely loads of computer parts - 20+ 2TB hard drives, GPUs, NICs, cables, cases, just loads of random things. He was starting to clear out his house after working as a self employed server builder and sysadmin. He also had a huge (absolutely) huge LEGO collection. Everything was a massive technic build and he had shelf’s all around his lounge, there must’ve been a minimum of 100 models. He hinted at more further back.
Internet has been down all day at home. I’ve been at work so not really impacted, but it’s annoying.
Tuesday, 28th January, 2025
This old blog post is terrible for making me want to buy ewaste…
I won a Dell Wyse 5070 on ebay…submitted an offer on some RAM for it…why was I buying this again?
I won the RAM. Still why? This feels against what I’m trying to do. I want fewer computers not more! 🤪 I do like that it only uses about 3W of power. But I already have a faster, low powered computer that I’m not using…
I know. I just like buying things.
Monday, 27th January, 2025
All this faffing with summits and distance calculations has got me thinking about my computer arrangements.
The server is running proxmox, so that I can run home assistance in a VM easily. Which it is easy. Everything else is difficult. I don’t really know how Proxmox works and using the webUI isn’t always obvious. I think that I’m expecting to do everything on proxmox, when in fact it just looks after VMs and storage (sort of?) and everything else I do on the computer as normal. I don’t like this. I think I just need a regular linux server where I run what I want and that’s that. The only thing is home assitant is better when installed on bare metal or in a vm, and isn’t great when in a container. However…I don’t actually use home assitant for anything. I just collect data but do nothing with it. I don’t have any automations. Since we moved to the EV tariff, our “automations” are fixed on a schedule which I program via an app.
I do wonder if something simplier is what I need? Although HA is simple to use…I sort of what to use NodeRed to do things, as I think it would be useful to learn. Home assistant has a nice phone app though. All I do is look at historical data every so often. I dunno…don’t want to give it up but at the same time seems unnecessary.
I’ve actually considered getting rid of the server altogether, but then plex is nice, and recently the audio book server is handy. Plus I run my private tiddlywiki server from it too.
Mostly I want to build a server with large amounts of RAM (like 512+GB) for this summit computation I’ve been doing in order to avoid chunking it. Then I wanted to run it on NVME so it’s fast but the NVMEs are buried behind proxmox stuff, but I have found the 4TB SSDs I have are in the server, but just not mounted.
Now I’m looking at Dell Wyse 5070 to run proxmox and home assistant on.
Sunday, 26th January, 2025
Weekend has flown by. No time to do anything. Did catch up on my radio blog. Oh and I’ve been computing distances between summits around the world - left the server calculating 12.8 billion combinations…but since updated my formula to account for the non perfect sphere that the Earth is.
I want to make a Lego kit for a friend who’s retiring. I’ve taken an existing model and adjusted it but I only thought of this plan after I ordered all the parts and now I want to change it.
We have one plant in the kitchen and the kittens absolutely destroy it and fight in the plant pot so soil goes everywhere. 😅 I don’t even know how they manage to do it.
My friend who has been playing factorio for about 8 weeks straight has made a new map that we’re joining in with. Including buying a £30 DLC. Except I don’t really like it. He’s so far ahead he just rushes all of it and I have no idea what’s going on. I can’t be bothered to figure out what to do. So I don’t really want to play.
I was thinking about converting the server to another gaming computer. As it just needs a GPU then it would be ready. Then use the previous server as the server again. Although not sure we need another gaming computer. The laptop is fine…not the greatest but Minecraft still works on it. Maybe for the occasional time I want to play something and someone is using the main computer. But when do I ever play games…
Friday, 24th January, 2025
The wind / storm has shut all the schools, so everyone is home today. It certainly is whistling and howling outside.
Makes me think that if I did have any antenna up in the garden, I’d need to be able to take it down on occasions. Which when I was thinking about poles mounted to the side of the house, that’s not always practical.
Whilst we’re all at home today, my wife wanted to do some lesson prep that she would’ve normally done at school on a Friday, and so she was using the main computer. I was on the other computer - the laptop with monitor etc. that I quite like in the corner and with the new/old surface keyboard. Anyway, it didn’t have logseq on it to look at my work notes and so I installed it. However, as I had to visit the logseq site I got sucked into “I wonder what new features or guides they have” and now I’m into “The Power of keeping a learning log” and spaced repetition and YouTube productivity top hits. I just need to write notes in a file that I can find later. I should close all these tabs.
Also Logseq to Hugo to HTML…