Ham BBS

 Another mini link dump...from RJS:

I was looking into Packet Radio BBS at one point, but never found the time to set things up. BPQ seems to be the common platform:

http://guardian.no-ip.org:81/ChatNetwork.htm

Robust Packet also has some BBS functionality, but looks like it is mostly used for other types of data transfer:

http://robust-packet.st/

Rob Richter ran the largest BBS in the area back in the '90s -- North Castle BBS. He has since been involved with amateur radio and emergency communications: https://web.archive.org/...//www.ncastle.com/album.html

Link Dump

 I can't he'p it!

• The Ultimate Guide to Chocolate Chip Cookies: The Cookie Calculator
• Grrilla grill tool
• Vienna Teng's Waking Hour (no link)
• Synology Drive ShareSync: to link up multiple Synology NAS boxes
• Covid Infographic "Datapack"
• Flaky Butter Pie Crust recipe from "num's the word" via Yummly
• Pistol Stabilizing Braces without Determination Letters via Ammoland
• The million-hour light bulb
• Japan's "Border measures to prevent the spread of novel coronavirus (COVID-19)" as of 2022.01.18

Analog

Well, being that I mostly work with the digital side of things and my professional exposure to analog electronics is minimal, I thought that I could fulfill that part of my experience via delving deeper into amateur radio.

Part of the problem with longer-distance radio communications is the need for lower frequencies (at least below VHF), which requires more expensive equipment and antennas.  Some people build their own antennas, but for the HF noob, perhaps pre-built ones are more accessible.  Buckmaster has an off-center-fed dipole antenna that covers seven bands, which may be where I should start.

One thing about ham radio is being able to find active frequencies.  To that end, I've poked at using Airspy with an RTL-SDR to find conversations to eavesdrop on.  Ultimately I'd like to get a portable, self-contained setup on a Raspberry Pi with a display to run all the time, or at least on a timer.  On that note, RPi projects for ham radio, I found a project site that has some useful information.

Lastly, while looking for SDRs, I found Analog Devices' learning toolkit for SDR, ADALM-PLUTO.  More interestingly, they have a 25 MHz oscilloscope device called the ADALM2000 that plugs into a USB port, for only $200, along with an analog electronics learning package.  That would sure be fun to poke at.