SeijakuFukinsei

one of many thousands...

I find it nuts that F1 cars still have to have a plank bolted to the underside of the car for many many reasons, yep its an ultra modern plank...but its a plank...

@porphiron

I recently had a conversation with someone regarding negative thoughts.

Like so many I have a difficulty in stepping away from them, be they judgemental or resentful thoughts. It's worth remembering that when we become resentful, the only person who has changed is us.

My Mentor's thoughts were thus, as hard as it may be, try not to let the thoughts take root, turn the page on them.

Yep many of us are over thinkers, but go overthink about something else. Find that other rabbit hole you've been dying to look at, rather than burning energy on someone we perceive to have wronged us.

The reality is, they probably didn't even consider they were being mean, people are people and they've already moved on with their lives...

I'm not saying this is easy, take it from me, I overthink everything I do, even this post..but...yeah...time to turn the page.

@porphiron

In the UK, folks like nothing better than to grumble about the weather. Too hot when Its nice, a bit parky when its below 0, they just cant be satisfied...for me its wind and rain that can just go find somewhere else to play....but, if you like all things command line and indeed shell or maybe terminal then, there theres no better way of charting how grumpy people are going to be that day, by heading to:

wttr.in

This lovely piece of coding, makes good use of curl to adorn you terminal emulator with all the weather information you could need to ensure you are ready to deal with any weather based conversation / resentment you may come across in your daily life. Better still if you would like a continual stream of information with regards to how (un)happy folk might be about the weather,

here's a small bash script to keep a continual weather based feed heading your way:

'#!/bin/bash while true; do clear;curl wttr.in/ sleep 360 done'

simple innit....or better still...go outside every now and then....or not

@porphiron

A great mentor once said.

This too shall pass....

Some days like a kidney stone, but this too shall pass...

This is true for both good and bad times and its worth remembering to package up the good times and open them like a present when facing bad times, rather than brood, difficult when facing hard times but....they will pass.

@porphiron

I once heard someone say:

Bad luck, is just the result of bad decisions based on poorly perceived choices.

This has stuck with me.

As someone who blamed so much of the things that happened to me on bad luck. I realized, most of the time I put myself in those situations. I always rationalized it was always someone else's , or somethings fault...

In reality, some things happen for which we have no control and somethings happen because we make poor choices...

@porphiron

So hopefully this will be the first of a number of mini reviews on my new found hobby...handheld radios, walkie talkies etc....

For my first review / ramble , we're going to look at a Radtel RT-900 clone, the BinTolk BT8000, a very chunky 'disposable' radio for the sum of £26 for the Bluetooth version..

Aliexpress

Ok so as it goes the spurious emissions could be a concern with this radio, so use with caution. If I'm honest I do not plan to be broadcasting with this, unless in an emergency...but that's what phones are for...but as a scanner this thing is epic...

18 to 1000mhz 18-108 RX/(TX) 108-136 RX aviation 136-580 RX/TX 760-999 RX/TX

all ranges tested and although the Stock firmware doesn't seem to TX on 18-108 the Radtel fw will (also as a byproduct this radio gets pushed from 256 channels to 512) which seems to have remained with swapping the fw back to stock

You have a couple of use case choices...so you can If you wish upgrade the firmware to the Radtel RT-900, but be aware this comes with a couple of caveats...

Primarily you lose the capacity to be able to switch between A nd B and also the capacity to switch between VFO and Channel setting, without resorting to software.

The reason behind this is, the BinTolk unit does not have the extra buttons you find on the RT-900 to change A/B/CH/VFO and relies on long press on the OK / EXIT button, which becomes disabled on firmware change.

That said the firmware upgrade does (afaik) assist with the above spurious emissions (please don't quote me various online sources say yea or nay ) and it also provides the capability to transmit on CB channels which if on long journeys would be useful. You can however switch between A and B / VFO and CH in software as previously stated (the Radtel CPS works fine as does CHIRP), that said there is an upgraded firmware from another clone which you can install if you decide you want to return the handheld to its normal state here:

Ksun uv110d

I've personally tested this with no obvious issue.

The Bluetooth seems to differ from unit to unit, this unit worked fine as does noise suppression.

At time of writing there isn't a CHIRP driver but the beta RT-900 driver works fine. This can be accessed by utilizing the CHIRP developer mode in the help section, going to the CHIRP site and downloading the beta RT-900 driver and works fine, as stated prior, as does the Radtel CPS, so the choice is yours.

In my limited experience, this unit seems to be perfect to be thrown around in a car. Packed in a chonky body, you get decent bang for buck. Aviation band seems clear (with a decent antenna obvs, the stock ones are as you would find ), sound is good with PMR GMRS channels and have had fun scanning from the lower band, hitting a number of foreign broadcasts with a 27Mhz antenna.

Given its price range, it is the cheapest Handheld that comes with CB capacity and has albeit slightly older hardware, Radtel tech at its heart.

For me, this is a great little radio to mess with without breaking the bank and being in fear of bricking.

photos to follow.

Edit: 28/06/25

So after a bit of tinkering I realize that the the signal scope was missing, as luck would have it I had already ordered a second unit so the plan is to copy the firmware from the new one and write it to the old....hopefully

@porphiron

And off the back of that... Truth and Belief

Truth can never be found in mere belief. Belief is restricted. Truth Is boundless.

-Brad Warner: Hardcore Zen

@porphiron

There is a small amount of spiritual understanding to be found when stepping on something wet in the dark. Hoping what it might be, rather than switching on a light and finding out what it actually is...

Some days seeking the truth isn't always a good thing....

@porphiron

We tend to judge others , because most of the time...we tend to judge ourselves harshly

@porphiron

Having hunted high and low for a very simple programme to stream music to my phone and have access to files and folders and be able to create playlists..I found an old friend in:

mStream

I used this a few years ago and although its last update was last year Dec 2024, it runs fairly smooth and there is even a docker install..if you just need something simple and access to your files and folders..this is a pretty decent go, my hope it will have further updates...there have been updates to git hub in the past 2 months so, here's hoping.

@porphiron