Showing posts with tag: #random
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AI6YR Ben
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Fixed something which has been bothering me for a few years. Every time there's a emergency/disaster, our local amateur radio airwaves go quiet (typically, because local repeaters stop working). So I've taken over the output frequency on the hour (er... more or less on the hour) to provide status updates to anyone who might hear me. Just so people know someone is out there. (still have phone/Internet around here, so people still can get info... but it's been bugging me for years no one gets on at all to distribute info--not even for practice or to keep everyone fresh).
Tags: #random #disasters #hamradio Likes: 0 Replies: 2 Boosts: 0 |
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AI6YR Ben
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Funny self referential circles today. Along the lines of: "Client is doing X with this technology, working with experts on Y. It's really cool." Friend: "Hey, can you help me with Y? You're an expert on this. I'm working with Client" 😂 (it's even funnier when you get a referral to yourself)
Tags: #random Likes: 0 Replies: 0 Boosts: 0 |
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AI6YR Ben
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#Random In-between disaster lessons What went well:
Stuff that did not:
by AI6YR Ben ; Tags: #random Likes: 0 Replies: 2 Boosts: 1 |
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AI6YR Ben
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#Random battery question: does anyone know how to calculate how long to charge a battery? Have a 190Ah battery bank (AGM, 12v) being pushed by a 13V 6A charger (plus some solar panels) at 50% charge per voltage. I should remember this math LOL. 95Ah/6A, or is it 2x because Lead Acid?
@ai6yr you can measure your own results periodically and base things off that, but I don't think there's going to be one good safe solid answer besides "Don't push more voltage than the batteries can take, and use a charge controller that safely stops when they hit their capacity". The batteries are going to offer varying levels of resistance between production runs, brands, lifetime, and temperature conditions. (I should note that I'm new to this, but those are my findings from measuring times and watt-hours needed to charge my 18650s up)
by GreenDotGuy ; @ai6yr 20.6 hours according to this handy calculator that i have no idea if it's reliable https://footprinthero.com/battery-charge-time-calculator
by Anne Ominous ; @ai6yr With my SLA and AGMs I figured out the final resting voltage that showed state of charge to confirm my battery charger was doing the right thing.
by jeffluszcz ; @ai6yr Don't lead acid batteries have widely varying efficiency? Making charge times hard to predict.
by Michael Busch ; I don't have a straight-up answer, especially since it's lead acid and most of my experience is with lithium ion or nickel metal hydride. I'll say that 6 amps is more amperage than I would go with for a simple lithium battery. Rough rule of thumb, assuming appropriate voltage and amperage for that battery, check the power consumption of your charger and figure around 80% of that ends up as battery charge. So, a 600 Watt-hour battery being charged by a 120 watt consuming charger would need about 6.25 hours of charging. But...some chargers will taper the charge when the battery gets near full, dropping the amperage to a trickle for the last hour. So that takes longer. I suggest looking at batteryuniversity.com , which will have more than you want to know about it.
by Artemesia ; Tags: #random Likes: 0 Replies: 6 Boosts: 1 |
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AI6YR Ben
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#Random my son says the Portuguese sausage here arcs in the microwave. 😬
@ai6yr what's a little extra iron in the diet?
by MsMerope ; @ai6yr According to USDA, arcing hot dogs and sausages are not uncommon. Uneven mixing of salts contributes. Root veggies like carrots can do the same thing. Side note-google's AI crap makes a search like this close to impossible. Their own results are utter nonsense. They must be aware, right?
by W6KME ; Tags: #random Likes: 0 Replies: 6 Boosts: 0 |
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AI6YR Ben
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"We will rebuild" is repeated a lot after climate disasters nowadays. Sadly, i don't think you can "rebuild it back like it was" and expect different results and a repeat nowadays. Personally, I think the Japanese have the right idea with "Tsunami Stones" Smithsonian: These Century-Old Stone “Tsunami Stones” Dot Japan’s Coastline “Remember the calamity of the great tsunamis. Do not build any homes below this point.”
A couple of ruins in the canyons around here. The bathtub is not far from the Palisades Fire. The Chimney is in my town. All here destroyed by wildfires in the past. (note: bananas are good firebreaks, those are the original bananas from that house, they survived the wildfire that burnt down this house).
by AI6YR Ben ; Building back the way it was before seems frankly idiotic, given that current conditions aren't the same as the past, and future conditions are almost certainly going to be more intense. Better to build for what you anticipate conditions will be.
by moggie ; @ai6yr I have some relatives-in-law who lost their home in Altadena and are determined to rebuild, which I can both entirely understand as a desire and also I think is just... not a good idea. I feel so conflicted hearing people say "well we'll just do it again, but build it better". Like, is that really a sustainable path forward here?
by dante ; @ai6yr The only homes I have seen designed to withstand fires/hurricanes were custom built for that purpose. Developers just want the house to stand long enough to be sold. (Yes, I saw a lot of homes that looked like cheap flat pack furniture in house form in TX).
by LA Plant Genetics ; @ai6yr Personally I’d like to see us put a strip of farmland between towns and hillsides when feasible. The 2 fires in Camarillo in the last 3 years seemed to abruptly stop when they ran into farmland between saticoy and Camarillo. Strawberries don’t burn nearly as well.
by Steve in Ventura ; @ai6yr I know it would be super unpopular/never happen (and that we have a housing shortage but that’s an entirely different matter), but I was thinking California should really pass a law banning rebuilding any housing that was destroyed by wildfires. They could make it an alternative scheme to fire insurance. So homeowners pay into it and if their house burns down they’ll get the money to buy a home elsewhere but they can’t rebuild.
by armerpunkt ; Managed retreat is now a priority. Building back, in a large number of cases, is futile and expensive. People's resistance to change is going to get them seriously hurt. Governments need to step up. Maybe the fossil fuel companies can pay for it.
by Arapalla ; @ai6yr In the end it may hinge on whether insurance companies are willing to insure new buildings in that area.
by ChookMother 🇦🇺🦘 ; @ai6yr A repost or donation could provide us with the help we desperately need. 🙏
by emadfamilygaza ; @ai6yr You can't prevent tsunami, but you can do a lot to stop fires. It may make it a lot less attractive place to live though
by Jo ; @ai6yr I’ve been pondering that for awhile. When I left San Diego, they were just starting to require better defensive measures for boundary communities – things like wide ice plant perimeters in addition to structural improvements – but that extra land is expensive. I’m not sure low-density cities built around car travel can afford to defend sprawling fire perimeters, but anything more than modest density is expensive in earthquake country and a lot of people aren’t used to it and balk.
by Chris Adams ; @ai6yr In France, we have a geological digital database of natural and human-made risks to the ground (from erosion and contaminated sites to flooded areas). You can't sell/buy/construct a house without this. And insurances know it well, too.
by Petra van Cronenburg ; @ai6yr Unfortunately, even in Japan, no one follows the advice of those stones anymore, land by the sea is just too attractive.
@ai6yr I’m struck by this observation “It takes about three generations for people to forget”
by nak ; This wisdom seem applicable in SO MANY WAYS, not just to tsunamis: > "It takes about three generations for people to forget. Those that experience the disaster themselves pass it to their children and their grandchildren, but then the memory fades."
by Jack William Bell ; @ai6yr I think any homes need to be built to better withstand fire. Thick concrete isn't sexy, but more practical, as well as stone, and to a lesser extent, brick. In Palm Coast, FL, it took my BIL three years to get his home built, to required specs that mean it can withstand most hurricanes. Fire is much harder to build against, but I remember one house that had thick cement walls that survived some years back, while none of the other wood frame homes made it.
by Kim Possible ; @ai6yr
by mizblueprint ; @ai6yr if you avoid all the areas which may be subject to disasters, such as fires, sea-level rise, drought, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, excessive snowfall, how much would be left?
by Gary Houston ; @ai6yr malibu should be turned into what it should have been all along. A park for all not private beaches for the rich. Never gonna happen.
by Crystal_Fish_Caves ; @ai6yr @joncounts That translation has strong "This place is not a place of honour" vibes.
by Philip ; @ai6yr I think the Comment by Fumihiko Imamura is a bit of overly wishful thinking (more so in most western cultures these days) ""It takes about three generations for people to forget. Those that experience the disaster themselves pass it to their children and their grandchildren, but then the memory fades," Fumihiko Imamura, a professor in disaster planning at Tohoku University, told the AP." I would bet its more at 1 generation if you are lucky!
by DaveOfTheNui ; @ai6yr You can find similar stones around the world in river beds saying stuff like "If you can see me, cry." They typically mark levels that historically have produced crop failures and famine.
Tags: #random Likes: 0 Replies: 27 Boosts: 2 |
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AI6YR Ben
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#Random Hmm, every time I finally buy a T-shirt for a group I am associated with, I end up parting ways with that group. Does this mean I shouldn't buy T-shirts for organizations I belong to? 🤔
@ai6yr You can always use those T-shirts to do painting. (Done that)
@ai6yr ...we need to find a way to use your magic to break apart specific groups. Out of curiosity, how would you feel about wearing an OPEC T-shirt during the next equinox?
by Legit_Spaghetti ; @ai6yr
by JJ Krawczyk ; Tags: #random Likes: 0 Replies: 4 Boosts: 0 |
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AI6YR Ben
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I've been writing software since I was 12 years old; I build and have built technology for all my adult life, and I still try to use the non-self checkout option and non-automated systems in stores as much as possible (to keep the checkers in the loop and employed). Fully automated everything isn't a benefit to society, it's only a benefit to the top of the pyramid, folks. The prices don't go down, the choices don't get better, those profits are not reinvested into benefit for the customer. So, don't be so fast to tell me to use the self checkout line, because it's faster. (yeah yeah, that's what your manager tells you).
My wife & I both refuse to use self-checkout. We don't work for you, giant grocery store chain.
by Bandersnatch ; Likes: 0 Replies: 1 Boosts: 0 |
@ai6yr Good work Ben. It's weird, all those nets, practicing passing "traffic", then when something actually happens...silence.
by Bill VE7WYC ;
@ai6yr my local club makes a point of practicing connecting on the repeater's output frequency periodically. It's often a little tricky, because if people don't have “repeater output - simplex" programmed into their radios, if they just dial it up by VFO it automatically sets it as if it's a repeater, splitting the transmit off to a different frequency.
by Sean Reynolds ;