This sort of follows on from my semi-satirical "real" ham radio post. I first heard about QSO1 while lurking on the Brandmeister Worldwide talkgroup. It's a very nifty app to be sure, but sometimes I do wonder if I'm fooling myself. Like what separates the average QSO1 experience from, say, Discord, besides worse audio and fewer text chat features.

Yes, you are potentially transmitting over any number of repeaters on RF, but if QSO1 becomes the path of least resistance for rag chewers like myself and everyone ends up using it, what makes it "real" ham radio?

Every now and then I'll come across a comment to the effect of "FT8 isn't REAL ham radio". That got me thinking what exactly IS "real" ham radio. After mulling it over I've come up with a way to quantify whether a given communication counts as "real" ham radio.

To get the percentage of "real" ham radio-ness of a given act of communication, simply use the formula H=100*R/T, where H is the percent ham-radio-ness, R is the total distance traveled over radio frequencies in the ham bands, and T is the total distance.

So let's say Alice has an FT8 QSO with Bob, and they live 1500 miles apart. Both are using FT8 software on PCs connected to their respective radios. In this case the distance traversed by RF is 1500 miles and the total distance is also 1500 miles. Divide the two numbers andjmultiply by 100 to get 100%. So Alice's QSO with Bob is 100% "real" ham radio.

Now let's change the scenario. Alice and Bob are still 1500 miles apart, but they're talking over a DMR talkgroup via linked repeaters. Alice is 5 miles away from her local machine, and Bob is 10 miles away from his. The two repeaters are 1485 miles apart, and for the sake of simplicity we'll say that all four points form a line.

So that's 5 RF miles from Alice's HT to her repeater, plus 10 RF miles from Bob's HT to his repeater, for a total of 15 "real ham radio" miles. The other 1485 miles "don't count" since they're over the internet. This means their DMR QSO is 1% "real" ham radio.

I hope this clears things up :P

First, a bit of an apology. Up until August I was very active on here, then I deleted my account and nuked all my posts. I had to step away from my conworld, as I realized I was spending way, way too much time on it and not on creating IRL human connections that we need as a social species. I can't say whether I'll return to it, but for now it's not looking likely.

I've casually referred to my worldbuiling project as being the result of maladaptive daydreaming, but I only recently actually looked into what that meant. It can hinder one's day to day life, as I mentioned above, but it's also addictive, and I was thoroughly hooked.

Anyway, here's an unrelated random wolrldbuilding idea I had that may end up in an SCP-esque setting that I'm starting to practice technical writing for my job.

Maslovine

Maslovine is a white, crystalline powder that when ingested, usually in pill form, causes the subject to feel as though their physiological desires are completely satisfied. It has extreme anorectic and anaphrodisiac effects. It completely eliminates the sensation of thirst and desire for sleep as well. However, it does not remove the physiological need to eat or sleep, merely the desire to do so. Human subjects report a feeling of complete and total satiation. It is also a potent painkiller.

While the drug is not a euphoriant or hallucinogen, it is nevertheless highly addictive, and addiction universally results in death from thirst, hunger, or lack of sleep. Subjects' reported feelings of satiation and contentment persist until death, with none of the negative effects of sleep deprivation.

I bought the assembled version of the Prusa core one+ (gen 2). Got through the setup and calibration until hitting a (literal) snag when attempting to calibrate the filament sensors.

The assembled printer is supposed to come with a bit of orange PLA filament already loaded, sticking out of the end near the spool holder. I can see the orange filament in the PTFE tube, but the bit that's supposed to stick out seems to have snapped off. Telling the printer to unload the filament doesn't do anything.

I'm coming from a BambuLab A1 Mini, so I'm very much in the printing side of the hobby and not the printer side of the hobby, and I get a bit lost when the first step seems to be to completely disassemble the business end of the printer.