Author | Lightnews

Chris - Dadmin²

@chris.mcmahon.co.uk

440 followers 520 following 1.1K posts

Proud geek, radio ham (G6FCI), amateur meteorologist and astronomer, IoT dabbler, server manager, web site developer/manager. Retired after 40 years working in various IT roles from developer to cybersecurity manager. #Blackpool #BlackpoolFC #Hamradio

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Chris - Dadmin² @chris.mcmahon.co.uk · 5h

We should invent some more and see if we can get them accepted more widely, e.g. Brussel Sprout Moon is the nearest full moon to Christmas. Chocolate Moon at Easter.

Chris - Dadmin² @chris.mcmahon.co.uk · 5h

That's true, but I don't remember any others that were used, not regularly anyway

Chris - Dadmin² @chris.mcmahon.co.uk · 7h

Thank you. He told me the same thing. Bakers teaching the uninitiated 🙂

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Chris - Dadmin² @chris.mcmahon.co.uk · 8h

Doesn't Avon make the sandwich a bit damp?

Chris - Dadmin² @chris.mcmahon.co.uk · 9h

My son has explained it's bakers maths. Not only do you have special dozens - you also have percentages that don't add up to 100 unless you do special maths. Can you buy a calculator that does bakers maths?

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Chris - Dadmin² @chris.mcmahon.co.uk · 9h

When I was a lad we just had the moon and blue moons. I think it's just clickbait by the tabloid newspapers making everyone think that each full moon is somehow different and special.

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Chris - Dadmin² @chris.mcmahon.co.uk · 9h

I've passed this to my son who often bakes sourdough. I'm puzzled by the percentages which add up to over 240% though. I assume they mean something different than I'm thinking?

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Chris - Dadmin² @chris.mcmahon.co.uk · 10h

Melted UnUn 0 G6FCI 1

I've fitted a replacement for the melted cheese UnUn this morning. Looks to be working OK - SWR is 1.2:1 on 20m which is about what it was before, and I'm being heard 8500km away in China.

I hope that's the end of my UnUn melting career 🤣

#HamRadio

Melted UnUn, with red and black wide, from an amateur radio HF vertical antenna

Replacement UnUn attached to the bottom of an amateur radio HF vertical antenna. Antenna is on the ground to allow the UnUn to be fitted

Chris - Dadmin² @chris.mcmahon.co.uk · 18h

Someone nearby decided 1am was a good time to set theirs off.

Chris - Dadmin² @chris.mcmahon.co.uk · 1d

Doesn't look very tasty though

Chris - Dadmin² @chris.mcmahon.co.uk · 1d

Does anyone know any use for Alexa? She's been in our house for many years but nobody uses her.

Chris - Dadmin² @chris.mcmahon.co.uk · 2d

A little too hot. I think I might have had a fire on my hands if I'd been using 1kW 🔥🎇🎆🚒👨‍🚒

Chris - Dadmin² @chris.mcmahon.co.uk · 2d

That's my HF vertical off air for a few days. The UnUn didn't like me using the antenna on 160m when it's not designed for that band. Oops.

I'll pay more attention to which antenna is connected to the transceiver in future 😱

#HamRadio

A melted UnUn at the base of an amateur radio HF vertical antenna

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Chris - Dadmin² @chris.mcmahon.co.uk · 6d

Thanks for the pointer. I just worked him, giving me a new country on 10m.

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Chris - Dadmin² @chris.mcmahon.co.uk · 13d

Strange events - an air ambulance landed on Layton Rec in Blackpool this afternoon. No road ambulance there. No police to clear the landing area. No paramedics seemingly nearby. It flew back to Blackpool Airport afterwards.

#Blackpool

Yellow air ambulance helicopter landed in Layton Rec in Blackpool

Chris - Dadmin² @chris.mcmahon.co.uk · Sep 5

Another goodie from the archive.

A Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 Linux touch screen handheld from 2002-3. It has a WiFi SD card in it too. I'll have to see if I can find the power supply to see if it still works.

#RetroComputing

Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 touch screen Linux handheld from 2002-ish.

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Chris - Dadmin² @chris.mcmahon.co.uk · Sep 5

A strong VU station who couldn't hear me ☹️

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Chris - Dadmin² @chris.mcmahon.co.uk · Sep 5

I can see the origins of my interest in Home Assistant.

14 Dec 1979 - Algol-W code to automatically log temperature data - see the comment. I had lots of fun as QXEC4 back in the day!

#RetroComputing #HomeAssistant

Mainframe computer output printed on live printer fanfold paper.

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Chris - Dadmin² @chris.mcmahon.co.uk · Sep 5

You must have been a QC guy! I was too busy coding to spend time writing documentation to satisfy QC.

Chris - Dadmin² @chris.mcmahon.co.uk · Sep 5

I didn't have access to ARPANET to do online lookups back then.

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Chris - Dadmin² @chris.mcmahon.co.uk · Sep 5

Sorting through my 'archives' this morning and found an original 1981 Microsoft Macro-80 manual for CP/M. Well over 40 years since I last used it!

#RetroComputing

Microsoft Macro-80 manual for CP/M. Dated 1981.

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Chris - Dadmin² @chris.mcmahon.co.uk · Sep 1

20m long bent inverted-L antenna installed. I was worried initially that it wasn't performing well, but that proved to be a dodgy coax switch.

Without the switch I'm getting good contacts - up to about 10,000km tonight on 17m tonight.

#HamRadio

Chris - Dadmin² @chris.mcmahon.co.uk · Aug 31

I am looking at that as a longer term solution, but the inverted-L is a quick fix.

Chris - Dadmin² @chris.mcmahon.co.uk · Aug 31

I'd like to have a separate RX antenna but my IC-7300 only has a single antenna socket.

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Chris - Dadmin² @chris.mcmahon.co.uk · Aug 30

My vertical antenna picks up too much noise so I'm going to experiment with a ground fed inverted-L with a bend in it. The garden isn't big enough to get a straight run in avoiding obstructions.

Time to climb some trees when I can trust the weather a little more.

#HamRadio

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