Phil Landmeier @shuttersparks@social.cleverlibre.org

@uanews Good. Please continue. And I hope my government in the U.S. at least sends PLENTY of artillery ammunition.

I would also like to see a swarm of F-16s sent and plenty of Mk 82 and Mk 84 bombs. The Russians really won't like Mk 84s. Being in the vicinity of one of those will take the fight right out of you for a long time.

I wish success to Ukraine in expelling the invaders.

@dcreemer It's getting worse and worse it seems. Back in the 90's I used Standard handhelds, dual band with cross band repeat. Lots of features. Never had trouble programming it without a manual.

My FT-60, I can mostly do without a manual but I have to fumble a lot and occasionally have to look it up.

And Baofengs? Nightmare.

The FT-450D is not easy to use. I realize that Yaesu is cramming a lot of function onto a small panel with not enough buttons and which has to simultaneously address voice and CW operation. Maybe this is an unsolvable problem.

When operating CW you need certain functions easily accessible. When operating phone you need a different set. When contesting a different set. A DXpeditioner needs a different set. Trying to address all of those with one small fixed panel and a few buttons results in a nightmare.

And of course I disagree with their choices. How often do you need to adjust the antenna attenuator and RF amp chain? For me it's never, but it gets a whole button to itself.

How often do I change the AGC? Never. But it gets a button.

Among the small number of buttons on the panel, there are a half dozen that I have never touched since I bought the radio, on CW, phone, or digital. That seems wrong.

Do I need a thousand memories? Actually, I don't need any. A good part of the manual is devoted to the fancy memories, banks of memories, special memories, how to use them, etc. I have zero use for memories.

Redesign the panel and add a numpad for entering frequencies. That's something I'd use a lot. It doesn't have one.

@lauren It is an unusual storm configuration, though. And another coming right behind it, and probably another on into March.

Unfortunately it looks like your temps will be chilly for LA but not cold enough for snow to stick. You might still get a blizzard. Blizzards don't have to stick just fill the air with so much snow that you can't see.

Good luck!

@lauren We expect a full report with photos if possible. ;-) The fun for you starts tomorrow and runs thru Saturday. Wind on Friday.

@ai6yr He's really good on the banjo, I can tell you that much. I would have paid a lot closer attention to him if I had known where he was headed. As you probably know, entertainers are a dime a dozen in Southern California and I grew up in a Hollywood studio connected family, surrounded by talented people. He was just some guy. Lol

@ai6yr Yep. He did. Lol.

@ai6yr Yes, sir. I hope the food is as good as it was way back when.

I loved the low-tech craft exhibits. I spent hours watching the blacksmith and the glass-blower. Today I wonder what the heck my parents did to pass the time while I was off doing my thing.

Also enjoyed the evening amphitheater shows (by the volcano). Back then, Steve Martin was just some guy who played the banjo and told jokes. Nobody had heard of him...yet.

New Mexico is expecting Category 1 hurricane force winds, only there's no hurricane. But there is a winter storm warning.

As has been pointed out for 30 years, global warming doesn't so much mean your zone will become warmer or colder. It might do both. What it means is more violent weather.

@ai6yr I remember. We used to go there frequently in the 50s and 60s. I really liked it back then, especially the food.

@ai6yr So he wants to run a thousand people per hour along a zipline? That would be amusing to watch.

@opsnlops Linear actuators have always been irritatingly expensive. I've used them, electrical, pneumatic, hydraulic since way back. I recently looked into it when investigating building my own "Spot" (Boston Dynamics). They're still expensive. Bleah.

There needs to be a breakthrough but I can't think of a way to solve the problem.