trailrider
Well-Known Member
Thanks for your service, Capt. Lovell. RIP.
Running Bear's August 2025 Coffee Shop
- Thread starter Bruette
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He is one of the few that can say he lived life to the fullest!
RIP Sir!
Happy International Cat Day!
ICD... OCD... Coincidence?
You be the judge...
Fun fact: back in that era, my radio station of choice (before Satellite, even!) was Star 98.7 (KYSR Los Angeles, I do believe), where Ryan Seacrest got his real start as far as I'm concerned. Listened to his show in the mornings back then, well before American Idol existed.
Don't hold back 
It's good to see your post.
I see in baseball can piss me off! So yes, yesterday's game was fun to watch. You know me, I don't mind losing, but stupid is hard to take!
When I was with Comcast, they sold me Gig speed internet, but it never tested as so. T-Mobile's 5G is far more reliable, consistent, and much cheaper! Before I switched permanently, I changed my grandson's connection to T-Mobile. He was the final test, and he never noticed a thing. After a week I canned Comcast. It turned out to be a wise and cost-cutting choice.
As a bonus, a big bonus to me, I get MLB.TV free through T-Mobile and other free streaming services, but MLB.TV is the one I watch the most.
I can't do that! 
Fiber seems less troublesome if you have a provider that can actually maintain their network. Jury's still out on the new service I have from FiberFirst. There have been a couple of outages, but they're new, so I'll give 'em another year or so to get it sorted.
Cellular is great up to a point (I use my iPhone's hotspot when the local Fiber is out for some reason, and the speed is, frankly, astonishing for long-range wireless). For your use case it's probably excellent, and my use cases are trending that way now too (yay retirement!). Back when I was working, though? Nope. Not enough bandwidth to keep me even remotely happy.
For now I still need a hard line because I tend to run public services out of the rack in my train room.
When I signed up with T-Mobile home internet, they promised no hidden fees and no price increases. So far, they have been true to their word. $50/month every month. And they give me a $10 credit/month for the internet and $10/month for each phone line for using autopay. We have three phones and home internet for $180/month.
Good Saturday morning! It's 73°F and clear.
Have a great day!
Another consideration is the router's wan-lan speed.
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Kusojiji
RANK AMATEURS OF THE MODEL RAILROAD FORM MEMBER
I remember an incident in Concord, CA where a protester(?) got in the way of a nuclear something carrying train. Not sure if it was waste or weapons, but they just ran him over. Not stopping for that. A long time ago.
migalyto
Well-Known Member
Living to the ripe age of 97 and accomplishing all that he did.
He is one of the few that can say he lived life to the fullest!
RIP Sir!
RhB Michael
RhB Lokführer
Study the Tech and General license test exam. If you pass the Tech, you should be able to take the General immediately after. Code is not required for either. One of the best study guides is published by the ARRL. Should be available on Amazon or directly from the ARRL.
A good scanner antenna is the Diamond RH77CA for a BNC jack. There is an identical antenna under a slightly different pre-fix (or suffix, can't remember now) if your scanner has an SMA jack.
These will work indoors too if the source isn't too far away and your RF environment is not too noisy.
If you want a base antenna, a discone is a good all-band antenna, but has 0db gain. You can build your own 1/4 or 1/2 wave ground plane cut to the frequency band you most often listen to, but will receive above and below the center frequency too. I recently built a three element directional Yagi to point at Scott AFB to listen to the air traffic. Works great and was easy to build. It receives about 30° either side of center and has good rear rejection.
A good scanner antenna is the Diamond RH77CA for a BNC jack. There is an identical antenna under a slightly different pre-fix (or suffix, can't remember now) if your scanner has an SMA jack.
These will work indoors too if the source isn't too far away and your RF environment is not too noisy.
If you want a base antenna, a discone is a good all-band antenna, but has 0db gain. You can build your own 1/4 or 1/2 wave ground plane cut to the frequency band you most often listen to, but will receive above and below the center frequency too. I recently built a three element directional Yagi to point at Scott AFB to listen to the air traffic. Works great and was easy to build. It receives about 30° either side of center and has good rear rejection.
insomniville
Well-Known Member
Hi, folks. Evening for you, "morning" for me. I'm being nocturnal again, and hiding in fiction mostly; not feeling social at all lately. Not sure if that's because of the stress of the upcoming anal probe (*shudder*) or just because I'm me.
And yes, I know intellectually that the colonoscopy is no big deal (@Marlin39: hope your lab work comes back good!). I've even had one before. This kind of thing still stresses me out for no good rational reason. And let's not talk about the prep...
It's 89F and 54% on the patio at the moment; the humidity is a bit high for me.
This is a surprisingly cool summer. I have a convertible Mustang that I bought back in 2014 because I was driving PCH to work every day, but then the company moved, and then I moved. I'm too lazy to put the top back up (seriously, it stays down all year 'round with the nice cover on it), so it mostly sits in the garage, except for a month or so out of the year when the weather is perfect for driving it. It's only got 21K miles on it.
This summer has been much better, and I'm driving it much more because the temps are lower. I also get to drive it more than just around town right now since I'm watching my folks' house at the moment. Nice forty-five minute round trip, and a fun drive.
Just took it to the store to get some steak and potato for dinner; the steak is busy marinating (KC Masterpiece steakhouse marinade is amazing IMO), and I'll grill it when I get back from the folks' place. I have to wonder what my neighbors think when I fire up the barbecue at 3AM...
Nice to be able to drive the fun car for a change. That's one thing CA had going for it that I miss: a T-Top or convertible was an awesome thing to have pretty much all summer long, almost every year.
Oh, and if you saw a deleted post from me earlier, it's because I accidentally posted my queue of quotes to respond to with no responses yet entered. I hope I found all the quotes again, but I might have missed a bunch since I'm so far behind today.
The one that makes no sense to me is Costco. They had hand-held scanners that you could use to scan your stuff without taking it out of the cart, but then took them away for some reason. That was a great customer experience before they stripped it! It's not like theft should have been an issue given that they count your stuff on the way out...
To answer your question, with that level of bandwidth on a cellular connection? Yeah, the streaming probably interferes with the test in significant ways, both bandwidth and latency wise. Run it with an idle connection to be certain.
I'l have to find a pic to post for International Cat Day...
Been a while since I've listened to Sixpence; I need to fix my iTunes library and get all my songs back online and available (I ripped everything back then). I have 'em, they're just all stuck on an old machine.
Other one hit wonders from that era that I lump into the same category of "really good obscure stuff" are Hothouse Flowers ("Thing of Beauty" was their big hit), and Jars of Clay ("Flood" was their charting single IIRC), another Christian band.
Actually, Sixpence is probably the least obscure of those, by far.
I miss those days, cruising Mulholland Drive with the T-Tops off and the music blaring, with my future so bright I had to wear shades...
Have a good weekend, folks.
And yes, I know intellectually that the colonoscopy is no big deal (@Marlin39: hope your lab work comes back good!). I've even had one before. This kind of thing still stresses me out for no good rational reason. And let's not talk about the prep...
It's 89F and 54% on the patio at the moment; the humidity is a bit high for me.
This is a surprisingly cool summer. I have a convertible Mustang that I bought back in 2014 because I was driving PCH to work every day, but then the company moved, and then I moved. I'm too lazy to put the top back up (seriously, it stays down all year 'round with the nice cover on it), so it mostly sits in the garage, except for a month or so out of the year when the weather is perfect for driving it. It's only got 21K miles on it.
This summer has been much better, and I'm driving it much more because the temps are lower. I also get to drive it more than just around town right now since I'm watching my folks' house at the moment. Nice forty-five minute round trip, and a fun drive.
Just took it to the store to get some steak and potato for dinner; the steak is busy marinating (KC Masterpiece steakhouse marinade is amazing IMO), and I'll grill it when I get back from the folks' place. I have to wonder what my neighbors think when I fire up the barbecue at 3AM...
Nice to be able to drive the fun car for a change. That's one thing CA had going for it that I miss: a T-Top or convertible was an awesome thing to have pretty much all summer long, almost every year.
Oh, and if you saw a deleted post from me earlier, it's because I accidentally posted my queue of quotes to respond to with no responses yet entered. I hope I found all the quotes again, but I might have missed a bunch since I'm so far behind today.
I have... mixed feelings about the whole self checkout thing. I love the self checkouts (they're *so* much faster), but I get that people probably abuse them -- and there is definitely a lack of good customer service these days. HEB around here has an attendant present at all times, which is handy if you're buying alcohol or something, since it needs their access to do that, and I really like their setup.
The one that makes no sense to me is Costco. They had hand-held scanners that you could use to scan your stuff without taking it out of the cart, but then took them away for some reason. That was a great customer experience before they stripped it! It's not like theft should have been an issue given that they count your stuff on the way out...
Every time I see a post like this, I remember how I was so *thrilled* to have 128Kbit dedicated ISDN into my first apartment back in, what, '94? Now I'm unhappy with anything in even the megabit range. Gigabit minimum or bust! How times have changed...
To answer your question, with that level of bandwidth on a cellular connection? Yeah, the streaming probably interferes with the test in significant ways, both bandwidth and latency wise. Run it with an idle connection to be certain.
Gorgeous kitty!
she does not care at all that it is international cat day
I'l have to find a pic to post for International Cat Day...
There was some great stuff in that era (early to mid nineties, I guess?). Sixpence is definitely on the list. Leigh Nash was one of the few of those types of voices in that I actually like, let alone love like I do hers. Another great song off that album was "There She Goes". For some reason I always associate them with Nickel Creek on the Country side, though Sara Watkins has a quite different voice IMO, and their music is totally different. Oddities of the brain, I guess.
Been a while since I've listened to Sixpence; I need to fix my iTunes library and get all my songs back online and available (I ripped everything back then). I have 'em, they're just all stuck on an old machine.
Other one hit wonders from that era that I lump into the same category of "really good obscure stuff" are Hothouse Flowers ("Thing of Beauty" was their big hit), and Jars of Clay ("Flood" was their charting single IIRC), another Christian band.
Actually, Sixpence is probably the least obscure of those, by far.
I miss those days, cruising Mulholland Drive with the T-Tops off and the music blaring, with my future so bright I had to wear shades...
Have a good weekend, folks.
insomniville
Well-Known Member
Happy International Cat Day!
ICD... OCD... Coincidence?
You be the judge...
Awwww man I remember when that song was brand new back in the late 90s. Personally, I've always been more into heavy metal and country but still I ain't ready for the music that came out when I grew up being on the oldies station. Yes, I know 94.5 FM 3WS in Pittsburgh calls it's current format "classic hits" but I was a kid in the 80s and 90s and to us it was the oldies station. Granted in western PA it's always either 1978 or 1994 depending on which rock station you're listening to.
insomniville
Well-Known Member
Heh -- yeah, it's a little disturbing when I notice things like that.
Fun fact: back in that era, my radio station of choice (before Satellite, even!) was Star 98.7 (KYSR Los Angeles, I do believe), where Ryan Seacrest got his real start as far as I'm concerned. Listened to his show in the mornings back then, well before American Idol existed.
Bruette
Well-Known Member
Don't hold back It's good to see your post.
I try to always be happy, but sometimes the stupid
I see in baseball can piss me off! So yes, yesterday's game was fun to watch. You know me, I don't mind losing, but stupid is hard to take!Be you, it comes naturally. We are all different, nothing wrong with that.
That illustrates what I mean, we are all different. How cool is that?
I had a Us Robotics 14.4 ISA Voice/Data/Fax Modem. How times have changed. I don't even have a land line anymore.
When I was with Comcast, they sold me Gig speed internet, but it never tested as so. T-Mobile's 5G is far more reliable, consistent, and much cheaper! Before I switched permanently, I changed my grandson's connection to T-Mobile. He was the final test, and he never noticed a thing. After a week I canned Comcast. It turned out to be a wise and cost-cutting choice.
As a bonus, a big bonus to me, I get MLB.TV free through T-Mobile and other free streaming services, but MLB.TV is the one I watch the most.
Sit at my desk and not have MLB.TV on...
I can't do that!
insomniville
Well-Known Member
Even today, there's massive variance in service levels. I had Suddenlink (Optimum now) until recently. It was rock solid full gigabit, but way too expensive (and they mess with you by raising your rates every year). My sister got the same service with the same company twenty minutes south of me, and it outright sucked.
Fiber seems less troublesome if you have a provider that can actually maintain their network. Jury's still out on the new service I have from FiberFirst. There have been a couple of outages, but they're new, so I'll give 'em another year or so to get it sorted.
Cellular is great up to a point (I use my iPhone's hotspot when the local Fiber is out for some reason, and the speed is, frankly, astonishing for long-range wireless). For your use case it's probably excellent, and my use cases are trending that way now too (yay retirement!). Back when I was working, though? Nope. Not enough bandwidth to keep me even remotely happy.
For now I still need a hard line because I tend to run public services out of the rack in my train room.
Now that is one hell of a deal.
Bruette
Well-Known Member
That is true. We are fortunate to get coverage from two T-Mobile 5G towers. I know others who get zero T-Mobile service and still others who get a fair signal. It all depends on where you live. No matter who you choose they all have holes in coverage. And some play games when the traffic gets heavy. Which is why we upgraded to T-Mobile's Magenta plan, we get priority when traffic is heavy. Plus, we get additional free streaming services. All at a fraction of what we were paying Comcast for premium cable and internet.
Annual increases were standard procedure for Comcast.
When I signed up with T-Mobile home internet, they promised no hidden fees and no price increases. So far, they have been true to their word. $50/month every month. And they give me a $10 credit/month for the internet and $10/month for each phone line for using autopay. We have three phones and home internet for $180/month.
Bill Tidler Jr.
Retired NS Signal Construction Gang Signalman
Good Saturday morning! It's 73°F and clear.
Have a great day!
insomniville
Well-Known Member
Make sure you're running it with a wired connection to your router. A lot of people forget that; Wi-Fi just doesn't have the bandwidth (or consistency/lack of interference) of wired connections. of course you'll only get a single gigabit unless you have multi-gig ethernet, which most people don't...
Kusojiji
RANK AMATEURS OF THE MODEL RAILROAD FORM MEMBER
Yup, I go wired as much as I can. I hate wireless but other members of the family can't be bothered. When I had the house built, I installed a MTOA in each room. It provides two power outlets, BNC for TV and CAT6 outlet. The TV and living room have two each. But of course, it ain't enough, eh?
Another consideration is the router's wan-lan speed.
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