I confess those are 3 things I don’t want.

1) an apocalypse
2) be in a movie
3) a hero

But I guess if they had to be a package deal it wouldn’t be the worst thing.

Wise man. I agree w you. Needs to be “all or nothing” for me

I got a technician license for use as a Skywarn spotter. I don't really use ham radio for other than reporting on severe weather conditions. The test is pretty easy, basic understanding of electronics/radio theory is all you need to pass it.

To put a pinball spin on this, that's why Whirlwind is my grail game.

Yeah orange fruit chew with a sherbert centre. Allens (melbourne) make them along with Minties and all the other aussie lollies.

I looked over some sample questions last night and most parts definitely look easy for electrical safety. The schematic questions also look easy just one or two components I didn't recognize at first. I'll have to spend more time on the frequency and radio stuff I don't know so much about. The antenna stuff I don't know anything about either. I was going to stick to the Tech license too but the General looks more appealing to get a crack at longer distance frequencies.

I've was told that other than my fat guts, big tits, bony arse, chicken legs and punkinhead, i'm quite an attractive man.

So there's that.

I work at a hospital near an oil refinery, electric power station, an air force base, and the intersection of two highways - it'll be quick.

The women are all about big ears and noses, so I am able to deliver as well!

EJS Ironically I left the amateur radio hobby (partially because I confess that it was getting too political and way more political than pinside ).
Too much of a good old boy network and unfortunately another hobby doomed to die out in a few generations or be used forever in the Mexican drug trade with illegal repeaters and towers. But I digress. 99% of the people in the hobby are awesome and helpful.

Just renewed for the first time my general class license. Got my technician's class license and in a month went for the general license because it gives you more bandwidth to talk and play in. This was over ten years ago. I counted my blessings they no longer require Morse Code to pass the tests . I was very active in a large club and bought radios for multiple bands, had fun on simplex (radios just broadcasting over the air to other radios) and on networks (both simplex and through repeater systems).

For the technician's license, you can get away with memorizing all the questions from the pool of Technician's questions here.

http://www.ncvec.org/page.php?id=373

Just save off and study and memorize all the questions with just the CORRECT answer. That was what I did. Same thing - just more questions for general license (the next class up that allows you to talk on more frequencies). Extra class has more questions. You can then double back and read what they mean, how they apply in real life etc.

Head's up though - they are changing the pool of questions AFTER July 1 2022 so you may want to wait a month or two and take the test then. There are books you can get, flash cards, online tools - a lot of them free. Take the practice tests until you can answer them in your sleep .

Suggest you also join a local club which hopefully owns a repeater and/or jump on once you get a license and just talk talk talk. That is how you gain experience and talking with other hams.

For equipment - talk to locals for what gear they run for the frequencies near you.

Most of the people in the hobby are nice, wonderful helpful people. I have too many hobbies now as well busy with work and the original reason I got the license was to help out with emergency services volunteering (Red Cross, Rose Parade, Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)- and I did for over a decade but now too busy and any free time from work or family or chores I try to play pinball . Good luck and feel free to message me if you have any questions.

pinball2020 you definitely know your stuff.

It took me until 1:00 this morning of research to figure out the test cycle. I actually ordered a guide for the test that starts July of this year which seems odd they’d already know what’s on there but maybe that information is already published to those folks.

There is a group that appears to get together every couple weeks and offer the exam for those who wish to show up. It looks like I’ll have to wait until July to take my test but can start studying now. The second test has a different date range so I can start studying right now and take later in the year. Or apparently in the same sitting if they let me.

I mostly just want to get a solid radio that can reach a long ways not looking to get too deep into the hobby. I have enough trouble keeping up with my pinball projects and restorations.

I will definitely send you a message when time gets closer to taking action ie tests and purchases.

EJS - I refreshed the first post about this above with a link to where the test questions are.

Yes, since this is government required testing (and in this case not a bad way) they have to give you warning and time to study so they let the questions out early.

https://hamexam.org/ <-- This should help you immensely. Please donate to this guy. He practically spoon feeds you the test questions and answers and you can track your results. Good luck .

That’s interesting I’ve seen someone who administers an online test say if you use that guide you won’t pass because not all the questions are on there but from what I saw that looks to be a good resource. As you say there are probably underlying politics I don’t even want to know about.

I will definitely consider donating too.

Even if you aren’t super active you have noticed the group shrink as a whole from a hobbyist perspective?

Once I get my study materials I’ll give one of the ham threads a bump so the Confessional can get back to its usual autistic way of working.

On that note I confess I really like that skinny pop popcorn. I got a variety pack and that sweet and salty is REALLY good.

Sweet and salty is the taste sensation. Still eating salty oranges most days.

Todays music is not a cover (that i know of) but a cracker of a prayer song.

I’m a big fan of sweet and spicy too.

My new Stern 24 is similar. Easy shots, easy rules. Nothing amazing, just good simple fun. Ritchie and Sheets, can't go wrong.

People come and go in amateur radio and I think more people are leaving because the draw for communicating by amateur radio has been surpassed by texting and video conversations. Especially true for younger people and so many other options for hobbies.

However, in Los Angeles, when we have had disasters hit and cell phones are down, the amateur radio groups were up and running. It is a good way to communicate in the event of a disaster and good to know how to work one's equipment.

The hobby gets a bump every time there is a local natural disaster and all of a sudden people want to learn about alternative communication methods.

I confess I find myself waking up in the middle of the night to pee. I need to stop drinking gallons of liquid prior to going to sleep.

Get a diabetes check. It's one of the backup systems your body has for getting rid of sugar it can't process.

I'm up every hour to hour and a half.

How late do you drink and what time do you go to sleep?

I love my sodastream a little too much (I don't add anything) and just do straight water. Sometimes I'll have one as late as 10:30/ 11:00 and only have to get up once.

That being said I'm around 2 liters a day.

I drink water up till I go to sleep sometimes early (8-11 pm) and wake up at 1-2. I need to change my habits and diet more on a regular basis . That being said I started reading the pizza thread on pinside.

And there you have it. Discord, Twitter etc have replaced amateur radio. The big selling points for amateur radio in recent years are - "wow, with digital signals listen how clear it is" and "I can connect now and talk to people clear as a bell across the country or world on repeaters etc." With the Internet and new tech and cell phones, people do that all the time now and don't need another way to do something that isn't quite as fun - though it is interesting and for me, always good to have other methods to communicate available if there is an emergency. Heck, fire up a Zoom meeting and talk face-to-face for forty minutes to someone for free too .

Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It has been 24 years since my last confession.

I hate “The Adams Family” oh lawd it’s so corny and the movie sucks (I’m age appropriate) you are all insane.

Pat Lawlor is great though, I own a Whirlwind and it’s incredible.

I have had low sugar since I was 18, and the same thing, have to pee all the time, gets old.

Confess for me anyway, stress is just as bad as some foods and drinks to mess my system up.

When everything is perfect, I pee about every 2-3 hours during the day, and only get up once during the night.

The other day the dude that I operate the excavators for was being a real dick for no reason, and the stress from that I was peeing every 20 minutes.

Confess my girlfriend got tired of hearing me vent about that dude.

I think that dude has mental issues or something, one minute he is fine, then the next minute he is a pain in the ass to deal with.

Confess I don't plan to operate anymore excavators anytime soon, at least not for this dude.

Confess I am still so busy with other work at the moment, I rarely have time to post here much anymore, but I do still make time to give plenty of upvotes is several threads.

I hope all of you have a GREAT WEEK!

I confess I have a Discord account. I’ve only used it once.

When I was 23 I wasn’t in chats I was out chasing girls around.

Now in my 30s hanging out in the garage smoking cigars and playing pinball late on a Sunday and nobody tells me it’s time for bed. Yes I have to work in the morning.

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Guess you had to be there.

I love excavators, shut the door, put the air and the music on and dig.

Could be on a roller Johnny or a slasher. I hate driving anything where i have to turn my head. True operator.

I confess I still have work to do from April. Nobody has gotten angry yet.

Has anyone started watching “High Score” yet?!

I was going to confess I don't understand the appeal of HAM radio because I thought it for amateur DJ / talk radio people broadcasting into the wind. Your post helps though. I didn't realize it was a two-way deal like CV radios.

Just booked an interstate trip away to a pinball tourny weekend. it's our first trip this year and i confess that even though it's six weeks away i'm really excited. Hope to get a decent crew of players from here to challenge the QLD'ers.

5 comps, we'll skip the last one though (5 hour drive home), should be a ball.

https://www.sunshinecoastpinball.com.au/event-details/south-e-stern-qld-pinball-carnival

Go the Freeballers!

I confess I have not heard of Discord before.

I've heard of it but have no idea what it does, nor twitter, tick tock twitch or any of that other shit.

High Score is extremely well done. I grew up during the heydays of EM's into the transition of digital and video games and this documentary reconnected me as if I was part of the story...well, I was, right? We all were! Brilliant work.

Completely agree! Brought back some great memories!

I was listening to a bunch of Supertramp and Roger Hodgson tunes a bunch the other day, love them, great stuff.
But I have a funny story to confess that I remembered from listening a bunch on the weekend. buddy and I went to a Roger Hodgson show in Saskatoon a handful of years ago. I don't know how my buddy does it, he must sit hitting refresh all day because he always gets great seat tickets. Well, we were sitting front row, dead centre. Roger's doing his thing for a number of tunes, and it's getting later on in the show, and he says, everyone, get up and come up to the stage (I as like 15-20ft from it already) and he he dos a quick strum of the start of "Give a little bit", just an absolute happy classic song in life and I was excited to hear it live, I crack out my phone, for one video (i'm usually not huge into that stuff) but I was standing below Roger at is feet and I aim my phone right up at his guitar and I video the entire song, it was fantastic and I was pumped I got this great angle up and close with a nice copy of the song. well, shows over and we head out and what not. Next morning, I take a look at a couple pics and go to watch the video I was so proud of. Well, there was no sound..... It was a brand new phone work gave me that week and I didn't take the plastic off the back and it covered the mic.

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My musical compass has made a major swing from ska in the east through to the south in the last few weeks. Listening to Amy LaVere atm.

I won't stand for managers to use the word "resources" instead of wording it with staff, people, etc. I call them out every time.
Fuck right off.

I was reviewing the entire Gottlieb catalog - I honestly feel they died in 1982 with the release of the fantastic Spirit. Alien Star in 1984, and nothing beyond that had good gameplay, good theme, and good art in one package.

Won't find a gottlieb here at mine. DE's are out too.

If you have people over often give Alien Star a try. Dry rules but damn, that game in multiplayer is f’ing amazing.
As for the DE pins, check out Laser War (a lot of interesting shit) or the late DE/SEGA stuff. Rules are simple but addicting

I had a Tommy and Tales from The Crypt. Liked them both, but it was always maintenance with the DE's. i don't work on my own machines if i can avoid it, so they were a sinkhole. Caps, coils, always something.

I've had a Black hole and Royal Flush, so have given the Gottliebs a go, but a man's gotta have rules, so they are out. Happy with my B/W's, Hankins and modern pins.

My sterns are all up the front atm, along with lost world in the corner. You'd be hard pushed to find 4 games more fun. 2 x tough, 2 x forgiving.

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