Saturday, 3rd May, 2025

The garage/radio shack area really needs a good sorting out and tidying. It’s so inefficiently packed that I bet I could store all the stuff in half the space. I really want to free up some more desk top space to actually build stuff there. Or have one area for a project in progress and another area clear for quick things. Like I’m soldering this NinoTNC for packet radio, and that’s been on my desk in the office for months making a huge mess. Also tempting fate for items to get lost. Be nice to have a space for that to sit whilst I chip away at it and then work on other stuff. Perhaps even soldering one side and other work the other side. I’d also like a pillar drill but not sure there’s space for that. There is one at the hackerspace but that’s a 25 minute drive and not always in the mood to drive for nearly an hour to drill a hole.

If I am going to get into tumbling, I’ll need space for all that stuff too and it would be nice to have space ready for the containers etc. I think a few stacking boxes for the shelves will help with that.

Possibly even tidy away the film developer stock I have 👀.

Perhaps I’ll ask ChatGPT a good sorting method for amateur radio detritus and see what it suggests…adapters, components, wire, built stuff, portable, cables…so many cables…

Then I can clear up the office, which I want to get more shelves for to put books or lego or whatever up high.

Took the new/old radio out yesterday with the notion of doing lots of 2m but I’m not sure I had it setup correctly and I had to use my handheld…which made bringing the radio and battery etc annoying. Usually it’s just is it wide or narrow FM and I’m sure I checked that several times. But when you’re on a summit, sometimes you don’t think clearly. I should probably plug it in at home and listen in to the lunchtime net to make sure it does work. Or maybe enlist the kids to transmit (quietly) from the garden.

So many things to do. 📋

This afternoon and evening I sorted out the garage and radio shack. Well most of it, the workbench and drawers at least. The shelves haven’t been touched but they’re fine for just now. So I now have two spaces on the work top, one is where the soldering will sit, as I talked about this morning, and the other is just a general work area. The radios are in a drawer, antenna too, all sorted out. I threw away a few things but not much, mostly it was just packing it away more efficiently to use the space better. It would be handy to have a computer in here. I started thinking about setting something up, or wondering about having a laptop and then plugging into a monitor - that would probably be a good option. However, I do have the server in here right now. I could just connect a monitor to it. I’d probably want to reinstall and not run proxmox, although probably I could run a VM and then connect the monitor to it or something. It could be my Linux workstation for doing stuff, and then when I’m elsewhere I can just remote into it, either VNC at home or SSH when away and everything would be there. I’d probably want to move all the services elsewhere, perhaps on to the wyse box I bought. Notionally that was for the radio but I feel like I’ll never use it for the radio. Plus I’d be better off going down the rpi route as that could then mean I would use the touchscreen setup I have and actually do something useful with it. Assuming I do anything at all. I like the idea of having the server stuff on it, and that can sit under the stairs with the main house switch. The only thing to think about is streaming media, as that’s all on the current server, but I’m sure mounting a share would be fine.

Not sure when I’m going to do all this computer admin. The alternative is to not bother and just bring a laptop into the garage when I want to do something. Simple. I would like a consistent place to SSH into for doing stuff - like the little streamlit apps or other random things I do. I have too many computers. There are two in the garage just doing nothing.

Speaking of too many computers, my desire for a Mac Mini M4 has waned somewhat. MacOS is a bit …controlling? Unique in style? I don’t know, maybe all the different keyboard shortcuts would be annoying. The photos thing is the main reason to get one but even then, I’m not sure I’d bother.

I’ll leave the computer stuff for now. I’m pleased with tidying up and will see what I feel like doing next. Perhaps if I can find a cheap monitor, I’ll mount it to the wall and then use it for whatever…would work either way, laptop, server, etc. I thought about a rpi 500 but that’s just another computer and I don’t need more. Maybe I should sell something…

Still got the fuji lenses to sell. Thought about selling the G90 radio too, but it has a convenient tuner in it, so not sure I should. I had wondered about a ft891, as a 100W HF radio but it’s not as light as I thought, and I already have the ft857. I mostly just like going up the hills, making a few contacts and chasing the points. I wonder what I’ll do once I have the 1,000 points. Suspect I’ll go out but just not obsessively every moment I can find 😅 But instead pick my favourite places, or try for new ones and test out different antenna. At the start of the week was my holiday with mates down in the Lake District and we climbed lots of hills - well I did, they skipped some as too much for them! We had a lovely day out together on the Tuesday up one hill. We spent ages at the top and I had two masts, even the flag on top!, and mostly spent it chasing other summits across the bands. It was just with the KX2, which is still my favourite radio for SOTA. By the end we could hear Argentina blasting through but they couldn’t hear us. I did wonder if they would if I had 100W but I suspect not. Going from 10-100W is 10 dB but that’s only 1-2 S point. So the difference between 57 and 59 reports. Maybe the difference between 50 and 52 but I suspect not. Some people have 40-50W amps they bring with the KX2 to get a little more oomph. That’s fine if you have a resonant antenna but the convenience of a random wire and the KX is too hard to miss.

The challenge is going to be finding suitable times to get out to the big hills now. They need long days to get there and back and my usual Friday off just doesn’t cut it, even if my wife begrudgingly picks up the kids. So hoping for some swapping to Tuesdays or Wednesdays so I can leave early and then get back later. Once it becomes the summer holidays, I’m not sure what I’ll be doing. We’re away a bit but then when I’m back at work and everyone is at home, will it be acceptable to go away on my Friday off? I suspect not…perhaps once to do something. I’ve started a calendar to work out what I should do when. I should look at the summer and see how many days I’ll actually get. It’s probably only 3, as 6 weeks off and I think 3 weeks over the time we’re away.