Hi Martin,
No problem - any questions - drop me an email (“I’m good on QRZ”).
73 Ed.
Hi Martin,
No problem - any questions - drop me an email (“I’m good on QRZ”).
73 Ed.
I use these, which have silicone rubber loops over the ear, and are comfortable under a hat!
Can’t remember where they came from, but googling “earphones for running” brought up a few simillar products…
To keep it on thread, I should say that they come in BT form as well
The loops over the ear may be what I need. I could also try wearing a different hat. My fleece hat is almost 27 years old and I’m rather attached to it. It’s cosy but maybe a little small for my big head.
It’s a trendy nonsense term originated as “life hack” by a UK technology hack (*1) at a technology talk some 18 years ago simply to make his less than exciting presentation appeal to people at a technology talk. i.e. his talk was about tedious and boring scripts that nobody would have attended without the clickbait title.
It’s now used by the media in exactly the same way to jazz up articles and to get eyes/clicks that would otherwise pass by. The type of article that Private Eye would parody as having been written by Phil Space or B. Leedingobvious. You know the thing “10 Amazing Life Hacks that make life easier” which starts off with “Drink water when you have a hangover” or “Undo you shoe laces when you take off your shoes so they are easier to put on the next time.”
Using wireless headphones is a good idea. I don’t use headphones but do suffer from the same kind of issue of standing up to change something and pulling the mic and its cable or the morse key and keyer cable with misplaced foot. Minimising cables when in the field with something like this will help apart from issue that the inherent latency in Bluetooth making CW operation difficult. For non-CW ops it’s a good, what’s the word, ah yes, tip!
A good writing guide I read suggests that "The trendy use of hack in the context of cooking, parenting, and other non-computer-related fields, however, will probably eventually revert to tip or suggestion .“life hacks” will be replaced by “useful ideas”. Can’t come soon enough along with stopping people using “reaching out” when they mean “contact”
(*1) a hack is a term used for a “pen for hire” journalist who produces typically low quality writing
cracker
A cracker is an individual who attempts to access computer systems
without authorization. These individuals are often malicious, as
opposed to hackers, and have many means at their disposal for
breaking into a system. See also: hacker, Computer Emergency
Response Team, Trojan Horse, virus, worm.
hacker
A person who delights in having an intimate understanding of the
internal workings of a system, computers and computer networks in
particular. The term is often misused in a pejorative context,
where “cracker” would be the correct term. See also: cracker.
The curse of the link dipole! However getting up to sttetch the legs is important. At least my rigs are cased with flying lead connections, so haven’t suffered in any way.
I thought about a bluetooth system several years ago as I always use headphones, but never got one working to my satisfaction. I must admit I didnt think about the delay on CW… for me that would be an issue, so I guess I won’t be revisiting the idea. Just have to continue to be careful.
27 years! My current sun hat is less than 3 years old and should already be considered a biohazard. At least in the missus’ opinion.
I think the combination of sweat and UV seems to rot the tops out of them.
We have things called washing machines in the UK. Have you tried washing it?
That’s what rainy days are for.
The latency issue also means that remote control systems for radios have to either come up with a locally generated sidetone at the remote point, by having a keyer and sidetone generator at the remote station, or not offer any local method of using a paddle for cw. Eg the RSBA1 software for Icom radios does not offer CW in any form other than keyboard entered text. The remote does not produce CW, it sends keystrokes to the base rig, which has a keyboard input option. Remotetx works that way too, which is why it does not work with the radio models that don’t have keyboard input options. I don’t know enough about Remoterig’s solution to comment.
On voice modes, the monitor function of a base radio cannot be used without totally disorienting the user at the remote station. Hearing your voice echoing back with more than a very short delay is enough to stop most people from talking. This would possibly be a problem for using BT headphones too, with radios with a monitor function like the KX3. Without a monitor, the operator has a tendency to modify their speech so that their voice sounds “normal” to them, despite having headphones clamped over their ears (or earbuds jammed into their ears). A kind of feedback system operates between the voice and the ear to make sure you are speaking intelligibly. Using open air headphones reduces that problem.
Re headphones and woolly hats, I received a birthday gift a few years ago that was a woollen hat aka beanie, with headphones built into it. Probably designed for people listening to music from their music player or phone. I have also unintentionally ripped them off my head by standing up when plugged into the radio.
Andrew VK1DA/VK2DA
Come on guys, the term “hacking” or “hack” has been used in the horse riding context for eons - it is not the sole province of data geeks: Hack (horse) - Wikipedia
or regular trips to Fiordland…
Nice “hack” Martin.
I think hack is a fair term for this. A simple mod. or using something for a different puspose. Like me using a £5 Baofeng mic. with my kx2. A bit of re-wiring and I saved on cost, bulk and weight. So many people have asked me about it. So, a good hack, just like yours.
That is only one of several meanings in the computer world, and a relatively recent one at that. It certainly didn’t mean that when I started in computer science, and that usage was widely deprecated when it first began to acquire that sense. Regrettably that is now a lost cause, but still, in a suitable context the older senses remain valid.
See for example hacker for 7 additional definitions that were once current.
Martyn M1MAJ
I do know this Martyn as in my own field we would use hacker qualified with malicious to distinguish it from cool hacks and hackers. The original use of hackers has long since fallen out of use and to the general public, hackers are people who break into computer systems etc.
Oh well- as a CW op it it doesn’t seem a good idea after all
Yeah, that battle was over before the end of the eighties, and RFC 1392 was a bit of a last gasp.
An alternative is to use a FM transmitter module. Filthy cheap, longer range, and zero latency.
What’s annoying is that my cellphone has the FM rx hardware, but I can’t find any android app to make it run anymore
Plus a set of builder’s earmuffs with FM receiver?
I bought some good Shure wire-based ear plugs in 2018. A bit expensive, but very durable, reliable and good with all types of hats, caps and such.
73, Markus