N3VEM

Ham radio op N3VEM. Into HF mostly, but also run a repeater, and dabble with rockets a little bit as a cross-over hobby.

#UnitarianUniversalist - Respecter of the living web & justice is for everyone.

Ask me why I don’t own a microwave.

I have a day job, but it's not what defines me - I'd rather talk about #HamRadio, #ModelRockets, #SocialJustice, #Electronics, #DIY, #Making or anything else you are passionate about.

Might swear a little when angry. Sorry.

Public Key

npub18hcjdev7qzrqjvlp6agemu2r48yu2pxe5sz5ax4mt67d4dxfy09qg46jqr

NIP-05 Address

N3VEM_at_mastodon.radio@mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsrmufxuk0qppsfx0saw5va79p6njw9qnv6gp2wn2a4a0x6knyj8js2k5hcc

Author Public Key

npub18hcjdev7qzrqjvlp6agemu2r48yu2pxe5sz5ax4mt67d4dxfy09qg46jqr

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Last Notes

2024-09-01 01:53:08

Exciting news! The new shop is now open! I’m teaming up with my eldest, so there is more than just ham radio stuff now, but the overall mission is the same. The “Hagfish” category of products directly supports my eldest as a learning opportunity, and everything else is currently supporting my repeater projects (r4e).
Pricing has been updated all around too (with many items now being cheaper) so check it out!
#HamRadio
#SlingingMerchForACause
https://hagfish.us

2024-07-01 01:29:47

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@npub1l3g…vu48 oh man! I loved that game!

2024-07-01 00:58:35

Just as it was getting dark this evening I squeezed in some slingshot work, and got the ropes in place to hoist up the new-old antenna wire for my OCF (switching to some copper-clad-steel that I had from a decommissioned fan dipole.)
It’s too dark now, so hopefully tomorrow sometime I can finish up and get the wire hoisted and tuned.
#HamRadio

2024-06-26 02:50:24

Heavy wind brought down one end of my OCF dipole, so I had to get it back up. Finally remembered to get a quick clip of my favorite antenna installation tool (handed kid #1 my phone to capture the grace and elegance that you see displayed here😀)
#HamRadio
https://mastodon.radio/system/media_attachments/files/112/680/642/914/403/990/original/6ab18d7aff5abe03.mp4

2024-06-21 16:53:59

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@npub16e2…ks3l nothing is quite as thrilling as making fixes in production 😀

2024-06-21 02:03:45

It's a little last minute, but I decided to do a Ham Radio Field Day based give-away! The biggest and best Pride Display at an ARRL Field Day site wins any 3 clothing items from my subversive radio shop! Post pics here and mention me, or email them to me. Please share far and wide (on other social networks too, if you have a presence on them!)
#HamRadio
#FieldDay2024
#Pride
details:
https://n3vem.com/blog/FieldDayPride/

2024-06-19 00:23:24

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@npub1l3g…vu48 lol - I feel you there - I live pretty close to a set of high tension/high power lines, but I must be just far enough because they’ve never caused me any issues.

2024-06-19 00:14:11

The intermittent noise I had on HF seems to not be an issue the last several days. The house next door just sold, and has been sitting empty waiting for closing, so now I’m wondering if something the neighbors had was generating the RFI.
#HamRadio

2024-06-10 20:08:18

Diversion from camp week - my neighbor is selling their house - if anyone likes the awesome views and wants to live next door to the coolest ham ever, let me know within the next 24 hours and I can probably tell you want you’d need to offer to get it (it’s a lot in my opinion, but apparently that’s the market right now) - they’re going to stop taking offers tomorrow 😀

2024-05-22 11:33:13

It’s almost time for our 3rd annual “Daddy Camp” - when school is done we camp in the back yard for a week, and do summer camp type activities all week. If anyone has cool ‘camp activity’ ideas from when they were kids, or that they wish they had gotten to do as kids, let me know - I’m always game for adding new stuff to our agenda 😀

2024-05-04 16:13:29

we locally had a case, in the line of many - where cops got called for someone having a mental health crisis, and their solution was to shoot him. His ‘weapon’ was a foot rest off a wheelchair.
The thing that brings this one close to home is that they shot him in a room in a rehab hospital he had gone into. In that room were 2 patients and a nurse. They shot him in the room with 2 patients and nurse. Like what the actual fuck.
Oh, and one of the patients was my wife’s aunt.

2024-04-11 20:09:47

So here’s a fun thing to do - go to @npub1y4c…d0ae section of the internet archive and do a search on your own callsign, and see what pops up😀
https://archive.org/details/dlarc

2024-04-04 22:20:56

My 8yo has hair that doesn’t fit the cis ‘norm’ because they like it that way. A boomer family member is pressuring us to make them change it, because, in their words, “you know how it is for people who are different right now”
Like, I don’t even know where to start with that. What the actual fuck. Forcing people to be different than what they are is what caused all this shit - it’s not the solution. Holy fuck people.

2024-02-06 21:14:43

Sad news, good news…
The GIANT oak tree that holds one end of my OCF dipole comes down Monday. Sad to loose the antenna support, but the tree is mostly dead, and needs to come down on our terms, before it comes down of its own will.
Good news - it blocks the spot that had been okayed by the spouse for a future tower, so with it down I’ll be able to start firming up my plans/acquiring a tower to put up in its place.
#HamRadio

2024-01-05 08:38:41

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@npub1dm5…5sqe how old is your old iPhone? Mine is one version too old to work with wireless charging at all, without putting it in a special case

2023-12-31 01:45:19

@npub1ecz…6au0 - was it you who mentioned about doing New Years at UTC time instead of local last year? I’m thinking of stealing that idea if I can convince the kids. I’m thinking through the day though, I might need to sneak all of our clocks ahead a little bit at a time till I get there😀

2023-10-09 00:26:00

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@npub16ju…y8u7 I usually go with partner or spouse - we don’t prefer wife/husband, because of some historical meanings. ‘Husbandry’ often referred to keeping animals/property, so the idea of husband and its counterpart of wife, we just don’t really dig.

2023-10-04 00:18:35

Just a reminder if anyone needs to hear it, because I just came across another “my way of doing ham radio is the only way of doing ham radio” blockhead.
Do what brings you joy, in the way that brings you joy.
If someone tries to tell you otherwise, do what I did - block, and move on.
#HamRadio

2023-09-29 23:10:21

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@npub16e2…ks3l @npub1q4n…6fcd still waiting😱

2023-09-29 22:32:57

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@npub1q4n…6fcd @npub16e2…ks3l lol - maybe I should have dramatized it more😀. It was a rather exciting event:
https://www.wgal.com/amp/article/fiery-crash-between-police-suv-and-mail-truck-injures-2/25784090

2023-09-29 21:14:22

Waiting on the mail truck to deliver some bits I’m waiting on. They’re usually here by now. One of the last time it got late, it turned out that our postal carrier had crashed into a police car and both vehicles, and all the mail, went up in flames. Driver and cop were ok.

2023-09-05 23:42:48

Oh! This should be a good #HamRadioWorkbench! They got @npub16e2…ks3l to come on! Queueing it up now!

2023-08-28 00:23:18

Remembering a SciFi story I read as a kid - the tldr; was that big ships were leaving to take everyone to ‘new earth’ because this one was getting too overbuilt etc. and right at the end, an older gentlemen purposefully missed the last fight, making his grandkid miss it too. The grandfather then said something to the gist of ‘This is new Earth. They took the old one with them.’ Been thinking about that story a lot recently.

2023-08-07 17:57:01

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@npub1u76…qmwm I’m also a fan of these little Adafruit breakout boards for experimenting/projects! They work great, and @npub1efn…xgda has great documentation and learning guides. I have a small handful of them stuffed into my radio rocket project.

2023-07-28 23:09:13

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@npub17sh…6e06 @npub17my…sf3q that’s just how we keep out the rifraf.

2023-07-14 01:17:46

My company has an internal AI chatbot stood up, and so far my favorite use for it is to pull it up in a meeting, ask someone who is an expert on the topic at hand what a common question they get asked is, and then ask the AI. I then get to sit back watch someone’s face as they say “that’s just….wrong”
It’s batting 0.000 so far😄

2023-06-28 19:07:19

🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀
https://www.hamradioworkbench.com/podcast/hrwb-184-radios-and-rockets-with-vance-n3vem

2023-06-27 18:42:18

What?!
https://mastodon.radio/system/media_attachments/files/110/617/644/409/494/854/original/931147965a7bec15.png

2023-06-20 18:18:25

Ug. Microsoft transcription in teams blows. I’m on a call and it’s having trouble providing transcriptions for everyone who has even the slightest accent.

2023-05-19 13:49:29

I just went ahead and blocked all .zip and .mov domains via my dns provider.
Bye Felicia
👋

2023-05-17 01:17:18

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@npub12gf…p35w immediately makes me think of the George Carlin 10 commandments bit😄

2023-05-06 14:35:13

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@npub1yk6…4zz4 unfortunately I don’t - i peeked at my copy to see if there is any indication, but it just has his name, and the name that he and my sister in law created for their stuff.

2023-05-06 00:08:46

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@npub1yk6…4zz4 good luck! My brother-in-law self published a photography book - from my layperson’s eyes his self-published was just as good of quality (as far as printing, materials, binding, etc. etc.) as the publishing company books I’ve seen. All that to say if you do go that route, I’m sure it’ll turn out great!

2023-05-04 02:10:40

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@npub1yk6…4zz4 I chuckled at your mention of gazing at the ship over a meal of IKEA’s meatballs, because my spouse and I did just that, the last time we were there, while speculating about what might become of it.

2023-04-18 14:25:59

When the captcha tells me to pick all squares with motorcycles, but all I see is a moped…