AF0CX

I seem to have this down to a bit of a science. By the time I have a 1.0 script that converts the question pool without intervention, I'll be out of tests to make Logseq friendly.

For the curious, this is mostly selecting the syllabus page and pasting into a text file, and running sed to add double brackets and indentations where needed. Then I do the same on the pools themselves, adding the card tag where needed, indenting question answers and adding leading dashes where needed. But before that, there's a horrific for loop like so:

for x in {A..Z} ; do
     for y in {0..9} ; do 
          grep -A 5 -E '^G$y$x' Pool_Dump.txt > G$y$x.md
     done
done

find . -type f -name "G??.md" -size 0b -delete

Could this be better? Of course it could, but perfection is the enemy of good.

Regardless, here's the General question pool: https://git.af0cx.org/chris/General-Study

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Update 1: I've also added an Extra Class study guide. We now have: – https://git.af0cx.org/chris/Technician-Study – https://git.af0cx.org/chris/General-Study – https://git.af0cx.org/chris/Extra-Study

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Edit 1: Adding bold font to the edit/update notes

AF0CX Blog by Chris Wall is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

In the long ago times of two months ago, I had dreaded the idea of re-licensing. Fortunately I found out that I would only need to take Technician instead of taking all three tests. However, I wanted to make sure I still had a hold of the information.

Enter Logseq

If you don't know what Logseq is, you may want to check out logseq.com for full detail. The summary is that it's a personal knowledge management, outliner, flashcard, whiteboard, link-rich, wiki-like tool. It is very powerful and often easy to use.

For my purposes, I decided to take the question pools and mangle them with UNIX text manipulation tools to get them into a format that Logseq would use to make flashcards. This was the start of what became my ham radio personal knowledge base notebook.

Instead of just plugging through the questions, I would find terms that I was hazy on and create links (adding [[]] around the word) or tagging them with a hashtag like #review. When you click a link or tag in Logseq it will take you to a page (whether you've explicitly created it or not) that has linked and unlinked references at the bottom. You can also get pretty graphs that use radial lines to give you a pretty picture of how pages relate to one another:

Sharing is Caring

Since I found (and continue to find) this useful, I decided to create a “starter pack” version. You can find it in my public git repository here.

If you find errors, or have suggestions, please feel free to let me know. My email address is chris @ mycallsign dot org, or on Mastodon at @af0cx@mastodon.hams.social.

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Update 1: I now have all three classes Logseq-ified. Logseq'd. However you call it: – https://git.af0cx.org/chris/Technician-Study – https://git.af0cx.org/chris/General-Study – https://git.af0cx.org/chris/Extra-Study

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Edit 1: Fixed the link to my Fediverse profile Edit 2: Actually made review a hashtag.

AF0CX Blog by Chris Wall is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

A.K.A. What a lovely rabbit hole you've found here

Yesterday I began the final steps of getting myself on the air. My home rig is such a series of compromises that I am sure that none of this will be earth shattering. It will be interesting (to me, at least) to look back to the history.

There are three major limiting factors for my home installation. 1. I rent and do not own my home. 2. The windows to my home, except for one, are all caulked and painted shut. 3. I am surrounded by trees, electrical lines, transformers, and all the detrius of a urban setting.

My solution has been to get a Yaesu ATAS-120A, mount it on a tripod, and throw out radials in my backyard. I went with 16 16.5ft 20awg radials, in 4 groups of 4 using a banana plug system. I straight up stole this setup, minus the alligator clips, from this video.

Last night was mostly about tuning on various bands, and getting used to the new radio (Yaesu FT-991A). All the advertised HF bands were tested and tuned up nicely. 40M, for example, tuned to a SWR of 1.38. This is great since the scuttlebutt has been that this antenna struggles on 40M. I have not tested the VHF bands and feel inclined to skip all that anyhow.

What I have yet to do is actually call CQ. I honestly don't know how well I'll be able to get out from this location. The advantage of this setup is that it's pretty much one good battery away from being a viable mobile installation. I'll also be honest that after all this time I still have ham stage fright. I'll get over it and talk to strangers soon enough. In the meanwhile I heard QSOs from all over the East Coast from New Hampsire to Florida, but struggled with managing noise. This will be an exercise in getting to know my radio.

Regardless, this is a good start for day one.

AF0CX Blog by Chris Wall is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0