I got my amateur radio license! Let me tell you all about it.

Actually, I've been keeping a secret from you. I've had my amateur radio license for almost a year now.

Close friends of mine urged me to get it years ago. At the time, I felt I had too many hobbies and didn't really want to take on another one. It's funny how peer pressure can change things. Pretty much everyone in my group of close friends had theirs and I didn't want to be the last guy not to have his "ticket", as an amateur radio license is sometimes called. (I kept my licensure a secret from most of them as well.)

Settle in for a long ride if you're so inclined, because I'm going to talk about several different facets of this adventure. There are probably also going to be some rants (by which I mean "of course there will be rants").

Let's start at the beginning.

Paperwork

Everything involving the government, or any government agency for that matter, is going to involve paperwork. You may find that even the paperwork has paperwork.

The first step to getting one's amateur radio license in the United States (as of this writing) is to file paperwork with the Federal Communications Commission to get an FRN. You've got to have that before anything else can happen.

At the time I was planning to do this in late 2025, a government shutdown came along and upended everything for almost two months. Thankfully, the government did eventually reopen and within a few days of that, the FCC's web site was again functional. (Or, more honestly, it was as functional as it ever is. I swear that thing must be served by an overcooked pasta noodle with as slowly as it responds. I suppose this is another hazard of hiring the lowest bidder to do something.)

I filed for my FRN as soon as I was able to do so. 

Finding Out Where To Sit For The Licensing Exam (and sitting for it!)

Getting your amateur radio license here in the United States (and any other place where amateur radio is allowed) involves passing a multi choice examination. As of this writing, technician and general class license exams consist of thirty five multiple choice questions. You have to answer at least 70% of these correctly to pass.

Some testing locations (particularly those associated with the Laurel VEC organization) offer the test at no fee. Most places charge around $15, which is strictly for administrative costs. You'll also have to pay a fee of $35 (again, as of this writing) to the FCC after you've passed your examination. 

Not knowing about where to sit for the exam, I found an area amateur radio club and approached them. I'm disappointed to say that this was a pointless endeavor. At the time, it was also frustrating. Those people I spoke to all mentioned that they'd been licensed for decades (some for more than fifty years!) and all they could say was that "things have changed" since they sat for their tests. Which, while true, is not helpful.

This is the first of my rants. Any amateur radio club should be better prepared than this, and able to answer a potential new operator's questions. In my opinion, they should also have a group of folks offering the exams on a scheduled basis. None of the clubs I approached seemed to have a clue, although the people there were usually friendly and welcoming. If this hobby is to survive (of which more later), there need to be people standing at the ready with the information someone needs to get started and get licensed.

I don't remember exactly now how I managed to find a testing group in my part of the world. It may well have been through the directory published by SignalStuff. I still had questions, so I wanted to reach out to the lead volunteer examiner (often abbreviated as "VE"). Finding their e-mail address was another needlessly difficult task.

Eventually I did get to the point where I had conferred with that person, felt that I had all my ducks in a row and was ready to test. I signed up for a testing slot to take place and then I waited.

As the day grew closer, reports of very bad weather came along. We got the bad weather. Now, if I'd have had to do so, I would have gone to the exam come hell or high water. If leaving two hours early, driving there in a blizzard with snow packed roads at 20 miles an hour in four wheel drive was what it took, that's what I'd do. Unfortunately, the lead examiner had also come down with the flu. The examination would be pushed back to some then unknown future date.

Fearing another government shutdown could be right around the corner, I didn't want to wait any further.

That left testing online. There are numerous places that offer this service, and most seem to have something of an attitude about them. It felt as though if you even so much as looked askance at the computer screen, they'd kick you out of the exam. Then they'll tell the FCC and quite possibly your mother about sins both real and imagined that will subsequently end up on your permanent record! Passing your amateur radio test will then be the least of your worries.

I found one group, called DX Exams, that wasn't like this at all. Their web site was very welcoming and when I spoke to the lead examiner on the phone, he was quite friendly. So I scheduled with them and sat for the technician exam. I later also sat for the general class license exam with them and the experience there was also excellent. If you're in the US and want to get your amateur radio license, I'd highly recommend them when you feel ready to test. They were a class act.

It is here that I'll note for little more reason than I can (and maybe for some humor value) that I took the tests in my bathroom. 😃 

License and Call Sign

With the technician exam behind me, that left waiting on the FCC to determine what my call sign would be (as you may know, this is a unique alphanumerical identifier that all radio stations, amateur and otherwise, are given). I was told this could take a few weeks. Much to my amazement, I was notified of receiving a call sign about twelve hours after passing the examination. That's especially amazing considering that it was a Saturday morning! At that point, I could legally operate within the confines of what a technician class amateur radio license allows (limited privileges on HF, 3-30 MHz, and full privileges for VHF and UHF operations).

Later, I would move up to the general class license, allowing much more use of the HF bands.

I'm still studying for the extra class license. It may be a while before I attempt to sit for that examination. 

Radio Equipment

You can spend a lot of money in a big hurry on the way in to amateur radio. (I know. I have, even though it's been nothing like I think many people do, especially those who are particularly serious about the hobby. I am not (yet, if ever) one of those folks.) Fortunately, getting started doesn't have to be expensive. If you have $40 or so to spend, you can get on the VHF and UHF airwaves after you are licensed.

For better or worse, inexpensive radios from primarily Chinese manufacturers are readily available at low cost. Some people would malign these radios, and I'd say that was fair for the earliest examples. While perhaps still not to the standard of a big name amateur radio manufacturer, the Quanshengs, Baofengs, Anytones and more beside have all gotten a lot better. 

My first piece of radio equipment was a gifted Quansheng UV-K5 (8) handheld transceiver. Flashable with alternative firmware, I think this is an outstanding radio for the money. Newer versions than the one I have (with more flash memory) exist and the third party firmware for these offers up an amazing array of capabilities. For what these inexpensive radios lack in fine reception circuit design, the capabilities of aftermarket firmware more than makes up for it. Their transmitter sections have improved tremendously and if something awful happens to a $40 radio, it's hardly the end of the world.

Since that time, I've invested in some "big name" handheld transceivers. I've also acquired a Yaesu FT-891 HF/6 meter radio that I might talk about more in a future posting. Even with a general class license opening up many more possibilities for operation on the HF (high frequency, 3-30 MHz) bands, I have yet to do anything there.

Operating

Here comes another rant, and some of you may really take issue with this one. If you think that might be you, the "back" button (or simply closing this particular tab or window awaits). I'm not here to upset anyone, and while I'm always interested in even spirited discussion, poor behavior, abuse toward myself or other commenters, politics and harassment are not allowed. So don't go there.

There are a short three quarter of a million licensed amateur radio operators in the United States. By comparison (as of this writing in late 2026), there are over 341 million people living in the US (and likely its possessions and territories). Source: Wikipedia.

It's certainly true enough that new operators are getting licensed all the time. (I will call shenanigans on the linked page's accuracy, because some of the operators listed appear to have been so for a long time. I'm not sure if it counts license class upgrades as being newly licensed, though I don't think it did so for me.)

Though I have no basis in fact for it, I'd say there are more people in the United States who own CB radios than have their amateur radio license, own amateur radio equipment and actually operate. I strongly suspect many of those newly licensed operators will never operate, or may do so for only a short time before losing interest. My father would be one of them, were it not for the fact that I made him operate one day as we were trying to find circuit breakers and what they controlled.)

There's been a lot said about this (do your own research) and probably far better put than I have. It is also a subject of rather lively debate at times.

Thus far, I've spent nearly all of my time operating on the 1.25 meter, 2 meter, and 70 centimeter bands because it's easy to do with a truly handheld and thus portable radio. (As with the above about doing your own research, I'm industrial strength lazy material. I also don't have a place in my home to really set up a proper "shack" for HF and other radio operations.)

(How many of you out there know the 1.25 meter band -- at least here in the US -- is a thing? Along those lines, how many of you own radio equipment capable of such and have operated there. I do, and I have.)

I have spent a lot of time monitoring area repeaters on VHF and UHF. I've also spent time on the nationwide calling frequencies (146.520 and 446 MHz), sometimes with enough transmitter power to be heard over a decent distance. In the short year it's been since I was licensed, I've been responded to exactly once on 146.520. (While I am about the furthest thing from Riley Hollingsworth that there is, I've also heard people using the VHF FM calling frequency improperly, having long conversations rather than switching to another and certainly available frequency. I suppose they think it's OK because nobody is on there. I do very much believe that the rules of amateur radio should be followed.)

Area repeaters are just about dead silent as well. If there's someone on them, it's probably me! It's here that I've had better luck calling on the repeater and striking up a conversation, though far more often than not, the only response I ever get is the repeater's ID. The big exception to this might be nets, or gatherings of operators on repeaters. Most of those are still pretty thinly attended. Twenty people checking in would be phenomenal turnout.

Right about now, there's probably a seasoned ham radio operator saying "all the activity is on the HF bands and that's where you need to be". That is probably true. I don't presently have anything beyond a radio for operating on HF, and it'll be a while before I do. I'll have more to say about operating on HF in just a moment.

In fact, let's get to that now.

I have heard people say, and I very much agree with the statement that taking and passing an amateur radio license exam doesn't actually teach you how to operate. Oh, sure, you will learn from your study materials in broad terms of some things not to do, and what some very general guidelines are. The finer parts of operating are left as learning exercises, be that from books, experiences on the air or learning from other operators.

An amateur radio operator who takes time out of his, her or their day to teach new operators how to do in a professional and proper manner is known as an Elmer. 

Operating with an FM handheld radio on VHF or UHF is pretty cut and dried. All you really need to know is which frequencies are suitable for the type of communication you're attempting, and in many cases, one can find that out by consulting the band plan for their country or area of residence. (For me, that mainly comes from the ILRA. In the US, the ARRL and ultimately the FCC are the ultimate determining factor for what operations take place in the parts of each radio band.)

To me, operating on HF still looks a little daunting. I say that even though I have a booklet covering in pretty good detail what happens where on the various HF frequencies that amateur operators can use, and which license classes can use them. I also have the ARRL's band utilization chart. I've even watched people operating on the HF bands to get a feel for what they do and why. All of these things have helped. Yet when I've gone searching for an "Elmer" or asking questions of someone more experienced than I, I've been anything from brushed off ("oh, it's easy", "I don't know", "I haven't operated recently and have probably forgotten") to ignored. This has been true at two area radio clubs so far, and here again, I think it's wrong. (I've also come away with the feeling that I was bothering someone when I wanted to ask them questions about getting started with D-star operations.) I believe that I will do OK when it comes time to venture onto the airwaves in the HF region. I'd just like to feel more confident about it when I do.

It's doing the amateur radio hobby absolutely no favors at all for future growth to treat newcomers this way.

If you're a member of a radio club, ask yourself if you and the club you're a member of are doing things (or will do things) to help new operators get started and keep going. Are you willing to answer their basic questions? You should be! Everyone was a beginner once.

No matter what the above says, I do not for a minute regret having become a licensed amateur radio operator. I've also tried my very best to be welcoming and helpful to those who are seeking to become licensed operators, despite my introverted and shy nature.

Unfortunately, just by the numbers and what I've experienced, I do believe the amateur radio hobby is anywhere from stagnant to gradually dying. I think that's an unfortunate state of affairs and one that could be helped by the suggestions above.

Microphone Fright

You'll probably hear this mentioned when it comes to getting started on amateur radio. I had a little of it myself when I went to key up a transmitter for the first time. It was just a longtime friend of mine and myself operating simplex (that is, radio to radio), yet I was still nervous about saying or doing something wrong that first time. I'm all of shy, introverted and easily embarrassed. (Also, when I was very young, I was afraid of microphones and even big loudspeakers.)

I felt the same way when my first opportunity to participate in a net on a repeater came up. That same friend was there that night, and while I should have felt more at ease as a result, it was quite the opposite. I felt as though I was being watched by a thousand pairs of eyes, just waiting for me to mess up. Fortunately, it could not have gone better. I screwed up my courage, keyed the radio and checked in without issue. That was an enormous confidence builder, and somewhere along the way, I'm sure I will come across the same during HF operations. In spite of the experiences above with seeking guidance to get started, I will say that the majority of amateur radio operators are truly good people.

Morse Code

Some people will say it's a bad thing that amateur radio exams in the US no longer require knowledge of Morse code. I couldn't disagree more. If you want to learn Morse code, yes, I think you should! It will certainly open up many avenues of communication, especially under extremely difficult conditions where no other method will work as well or reliably.

I've been trying to learn it myself. It's still very early days yet, and thus I expect the going to be slow. While I can recognize some letters, if anything happens that I fall behind, I can't (yet) recover by any other means than just starting over. I haven't been able to "forget" the missed letter and get synced back up. Perhaps that will become doable with time. I certainly hope so. Radio transmissions don't generally come with a "rewind" button.

I recently communicated with an operator who has Parkinson's disease, and thus cannot operate a Morse code key. I'm sorry to say it hadn't crossed my mind how someone with a disability might have been precluded from getting their amateur radio license, in spite of my own difficulties with processing the code so far. I think it's a major disservice to preclude anyone with a disability from participating in the facets of amateur radio that they can enjoy. For that and other reasons, I'm glad this is no longer a requirement, but rather something that someone can learn as and if they desire to do so.

I'm not trying to change anyone's mind with any of the above, though I'll be glad if I do. Nor am I trying to precipitate a fight or start a hassle with anyone. I'm just glad I can explore the parts of the radio hobby for which I'm capable of doing so right now. I wouldn't want to be held back or kept out because of something I may never be able to learn.

Emergency Operations

Some people are attracted to amateur radio because of its use in an emergency situation. In all honesty, I'm not one of them. I know I'm not the person you want on the radio, or passing radio traffic to other stations, when it all goes to the wall. I'm also just not very interested in emergency communications. Which brings me to...

Contesting

There are also some folks whose primary use of amateur radio is that of making as many contacts with other stations as possible, whether as a standalone endeavor or as part of a greater contest with many other operators. While I have some interest in modes of operation where making lots of contacts is the entire purpose (such as FT8), when I get on the radio, it's because I want to talk with someone else.

I know that probably sounds odd coming from a confessed introvert and shy person.

I've gone on for miles at this point and I'd be surprised if very many people have read down to this point. Though there are probably things I have missed or left some particular nuance out of my commentary, it's probably time that I wrapped this up. I've spent more time than I'd care to admit writing this. (Some people would say I like to hear myself talk, and I won't deny that.) The clock stands at about two hours since I typed the first paragraph.

Summary

To wrap this up, and reach a point of closing, here are my thoughts in condensed form. No, they're not all in order.

• I'm glad I got my amateur radio license. I probably should have done so years ago. Don't let the concerns voiced here lead you to think otherwise, or that I am in any way "condemning" the hobby.
• I've been trying to make up for lost time by jumping in and trying different things as time and finances allow.
• It was much more difficult than it ever should have been to learn how and where to start the licensing process.
• Clubs I've contacted (and even the one I ultimately joined) were usually welcoming and polite, yet none of them were able to guide a newcomer.
• Clubs have also been of limited utility when seeking guidance to getting on the air and doing things properly along the way.
• Anyone who is a leader or a member of an amateur radio club should be asking if they and the club they are a part of are prepared to guide newcomers toward getting their license and operating for the first time. (Perhaps you are an introvert like myself or similarly uncomfortable with this. If so, is someone else available and willing to take the reins?)
• Morse code remains a work in progress for me, if it ever happens. To that end, I'm glad it hasn't precluded me from enjoying any other aspect of amateur radio or higher license classes.
• I don't really have much interest in contesting or emergency operations. Fortunately, there is so much to do beyond those things. (That's also not to say I wouldn't help, only that it'd have to be really, really bad, and I might be more of a liability than an asset under pressure.)
• "Mic fright" is real, but don't let it stop you. Have a script if you think that's what it will take.
• Make a sincere effort to follow the rules of amateur radio, but don't let someone who is acting out and being a jerk put you off of ever operating again.
• Also, for those running or managing a radio club: if your club has a web site, please keep it up to date! I know and am a member of a club who recently revamped their web site. It looks great...and it's been out of date for months. Sigh. 

I hope you found some or maybe even all of this posting useful. Please note that it's subject to revision, clarification and additional proofreading in the future as I may see fit. Suggestions from comments may also be incorporated in the future.

As always, I'm certainly interested in your thoughts and constructive criticisms. Outright rude behavior and harassment of anyone (including myself!) is not allowed and will be removed.

Yes, this went on and got a lot more rambly than I intended for it to. It's a common fault of mine, and one for which I make no apologies. Views expressed are strictly my own. Links to other resources are intended for your reference. They're not indications that someone whose information I linked to endorses or agrees with my viewpoints.

On Testing Things Completely

I'm sure that many of the few readers of this blog use uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) to keep their computers or Internet connectivity equipment running at the very least when the lights go out. If you're at all like me, maybe you use them to keep all sorts of things running through times of power loss. Used units that frequently only need a new set of batteries to work like new again are plentiful and cheap. Sometimes they're even free for the asking.

Many times, I have no need of whatever communication capabilities a particular model may offer. (In this same vein, I turn off or physically remove the warning beepers from most of the UPSes I have.)

This particular post involves a UPS that I set up for use with a security camera system. There, communication to tell the computer that it's time to shut down seemed like a very good idea. Now, the right way to do this would probably be to use a halfway modern UPS whose communication capabilities are somewhat decent. Of course I didn't do that. I pulled an old APC Back-UPS 300 (maybe a 350) out of storage that just so happened to have the optional serial port on the back panel. If you've been doing IT stuff for a while, you probably know the exact thing I'm talking about. If not, here's a picture of several models from this product family.

American Power Conversion really got their money's worth out of this design. They sold these from sometime in the late 1980s clear up into the early 2000s with few changes. The internal design may be slightly older than that, as the cases went through some revision over the years. (Changes I've noticed include differences in battery compartments, the types of batteries used, and in some rare cases, a red filtered neon indicator lamp in the power switch as opposed to the more common green LED.)

Fancier models had a serial port at the back to signal a computer and UPS monitoring software of the day of a few different conditions. There's very little to it. Calling this any kind of a communication protocol is a very generous description. Various serial lines are used by the UPS to indicate when it's online, when it's on battery and when the battery is low. That's it. There's no battery percentage, temperature or battery failure indication information to be found. Still, it's better than nothing and in the environment where I wanted to use said UPS, anything fancier might be too heavy.

The inverter is nothing to write home about in these either. It's only a touch nicer than a plain old squarewave. Most computers won't care (though those with more advanced active power factor correction hardware in their power supplies may shut off when the incoming waveform changes). Purely resistive loads won't care. Motors will oftentimes sound strange, labor, run at an incorrect speed or overheat. Things with resistive or capacitive dropper power supplies will usually burn up almost instantly.

What I will say for these particular UPSes is that they're dead simple and pretty much unfailingly reliable even after decades of use. However, all these can do in the face of a power problem is switch to their battery and inverter. Still, that's more than good enough for a lot of applications. 

I'm getting a bit far away from the subject. Let's try to get back to that. I hooked this UPS up to the computer in question and configured the long-slumbering apcupsd software to talk with it. I believe the cable intended for use with these is the APC 940-0020 (and any of its various A, B, C or whatever letter revisions), which I do have but would need to find. Rather than raise my blood pressure and engage in excursions of profanity, I used a rescued 940-0095 "simple signaling" cable because I knew right where it was, in my kitchen junk cabinet. (Doesn't everyone keep UPS signaling cables in their kitchen junk cabinet?)

I pulled the plug to test things, saw apcupsd successfully report that the UPS was on battery, and that it returned to an on-line status when the plug was reconnected. Satisfied, I called this project completed and figured it was all good.

In recent times (relative to the date of this post, here in June 2026), major storms came through this area and played havoc with the power lines. My power was out for several hours, far beyond the runtime of almost any UPS you'd care to name. After the lights came back on, I was quite surprised to find out that the computer protected by this UPS had not been shut down successfully. At first I thought that maybe the battery wasn't strong enough to keep things going, or that the UPS' low battery warning came along with too little runtime remaining for the computer to complete all of its shutdown related tasks. By default, the low battery warning comes along with two minutes of estimated runtime are believed to be left.

This can be increased. There's a bank of DIP switches at the back of these UPSes and one of them (sometimes unlabeled, and having no effect on those without serial ports) changes the low battery warning from two to five minutes. I toggled this switch and then I did what I should have done. I tested the UPS to the point of low battery.

What I found was that when the UPS sang the song of the dying battery, apcupsd was none the wiser about what was going on! To make a long story a little shorter, after looking into this further, it seems that the 940-0095 cable has no way to tell monitoring software of a low battery condition! (Before I swear to that, I do want to test the 940-0095 cable with a UPS model it would have originally shipped with. Watch this blog for updates on that exciting subject in future.) All it can do is tell the computer and monitoring software that the UPS is running on battery. Or, at least that it's all it did when attached to the Back-UPS in question.

So I went looking for a replacement 940-0020 cable, since it is often the case whenever I go looking for something I know I have, I won't ever find it. Usually, I'll find whatever I couldn't find the last time I went looking for something. This makes me mad, raises my blood pressure and probably shortens my lifetime just a little bit more each time it happens. I've learned that it's oftentimes the smart thing to go and buy another of whatever it is I'm looking for if it isn't expensive.

Trouble is, Schneider Electric has thrown pretty much everything about APC's older products down the memory hole and I didn't know exactly what cable I needed. (They've also joined in the craptacular practice of software by subscription. That's a rant for another day.) What few things have somehow escaped are pretty disjointed. When I finally found a manual, it gave no details on what kind of cable to use. Fortunately, after several web searches that weren't helped by how many products APC has reused model numbers for, I did find the right information on the APC/Schneider web site. A 940-0020 was indeed what I'd want, and (again as of this writing), some were available for sale. I decided to try looking for mine anyway. I figured it couldn't be too far from the last place I'd used it, even if that was ten years ago. (Note to those in the viewing audience: don't ever lose that optimism.)

To my complete amazement, I was actually able to find the 940-0020B cable that I have. I didn't even raise my blood pressure or invent any new swear words along the way. I did end up shoveling through assorted trash vortexes without success, and just as I was about to admit defeat, I cast a glance toward a table in the next room.

There it was. My 940-0020 cable.

Cable in hand, I hurtled back to the computer and quickly swapped it out. Imagine my surprise when the UPS suddenly powered down upon connecting it to the USB serial port adapter! Apparently that's another place where the 940-0095 and '20 differ. apcupsd had been configured for use with the '95 cable and seemingly that will cause a sudden powerdown if you switch it out for the '20.

I'd already given the UPS battery rather more exercise than I really wanted to, but at this point, what's one more cycle? I pulled the plug and waited. Sure enough, just as the low battery beep started, this time the computer shut down like it was supposed to.

Almost.

Yes, it almost worked. The computer was properly shut down. Just before the operating system turns power off to the computer via ACPI, apcupsd is supposed to command the UPS to turn off. As we already know from the adventure above, the simple signaling protocol can handle doing this.

For some as yet unexplored reason, that doesn't happen. I don't know if the computer is shutting down too quickly, if apcupsd never gets a chance to assert the shutdown line or if it can even do so. There are apparently limits on what apcupsd can do with the serial port under a Windows operating system. I'll have to do some research on that. That can happen another time.

For now, I'll leave you with the morals of this story. First, test your UPS configuration to the point of shutdown (or simulate such if you can, to save wear on the batteries) so you can be sure it will do what you need it to do. Second, just because APC bills two cables with different part numbers as "simple signaling" cables doesn't mean they implement said signaling in the same way. I'm not actually sure why the '95 cable omits the low battery warning line, unless it's handled in another way by the UPS it came with. If the '95 cable truly cannot communicate that low battery shutdown time has arrived, it seems kind of useless.

To that end, the '95 cable I have was rescued from and seemingly bundled with a Back-UPS Pro. The Back-UPS Pro is a curious thing. I'm not sure why APC shipped it with a "simple signaling" cable. The Pro actually communicates using a subset of the APC "smart" protocol and therefore works perfectly well with the 940-0024 "smart signaling" cable. There's actually a proper microcontroller within, along with capabilities the Back-UPS lacks, such as voltage regulation without having to use the battery and inverter. You don't get everything the Smart-UPS can do, of course. All but the largest Back-UPS Pro units have the modified sinewave inverter of the basic Back-UPS line. (The larger models in metal cases have a note on the back panel saying their output is nonsinusoidal, but that's not true! I've had an oscilloscope hooked up to several of the metal cased 1000 VA+ models with 24 volt battery systems and they are all true sinewave inverters.)

Finally, I have read in a few places that the common 940-0024 cable is both of a smart and simple signaling cable in one. Based on experimentation, I don't believe this is true.
 

I haven't written anything here in forever!

It's been nearly two years since I have posted anything here. I don't really have anything exciting to share with you today. That's OK. I don't think there are very many (if any!) people reading this.

If by some chance you are a person who is reading this, maybe you'd care to leave a comment? Suggest something that I ought to write about? 

No, the Ad Blocker Stays On

Web sites whose operators think that my use of an adblocker is in any way negotiable are absolutely adorable. (In case you're unsure, the use of "adorable" is extreme sarcasm.) It's not.

Hassle me too much, by which I mean "at all", and guess what? If getting very heavy handed with element blocking won't do it...see ya!

There's a special place in Hell for web pages with automatic video playback, and doubly so when the video starts following you down the page. Just don't ever. (I bring this up because on my Groanbooks, Manifest v3 killed the add-on I was using to put a stop to the automatic playback.)

The Scourge of "Got It" Buttons

 Any time a programmer or UI designer thinks they'll put in a dialog box with a button that says "got it", an enormous mallet should emerge from the top of their monitor and smite them.

If you're not a student driver, or don't have one in your family (and probably even if they aren't actually driving at the moment)...take that sticker off of your vehicle.

Finding Misleading Advertising

If you've looked at the title of this blog entry and said to yourself something like "why would anyone ever want to do that?" ... this isn't the blog entry for you. Rather than subjecting yourself to something you aren't interested in and then feeling terribly compelled to tell me all about it...do me a favor and just don't. Go find something else that's more in line with your interests.

Still here?

It's summer time here in the northern hemisphere and the Seedy Advertisers of the Web(tm) are out in full force with wireless cameras in case someone steals your stuff, portable "air conditioners" to help you keep cool and "power misers" if you need to run your central air conditioning anyway and happen to find yourself blindsided by your next utility bill. I would hope that everyone reading this realizes all of these products are of dubious repute to varying degrees. (In case you're unaware: the little cameras are junk, those portable "air conditioners" are nothing of the sort and the power misers are the worst offenders, being nothing less than a complete scam. Any other products you'll see being advertised in this way are also dubious. If you must buy any of them, at least try to find out what the actual product is, and buy it from somewhere more reputable so you don't overpay.)

In addition to their dubious utility, these products all have one thing in common: they're all advertised with breathless ad copy that goes on for pages and pages. (Some might say it's the kind of thing I'd write, but I have standards.) I've wasted some time reading the sensational garbage on these pages, and soon noticed that just about all of them have the following phrase in common:

"Don’t get stuck with some ancient prototype!"

I don't know if these advertisers are all part of the same organization or if they have just ripped that line off from one another to the point where the true author has been lost to time. (If you really want to know, I'd guess it's the latter.) Intended to induce a sense of urgency, the real meaning here is "don't even think -- just buy this product at a grossly inflated price from us or someone we have an affiliation with".

I decided for no very good reason at all to run this phrase through a web search. I was not disappointed at all by the results. Page after page of scammy "advertorials", often with highly questionable grammar, abound for all manner of products that are likely subpar at best and unlikely to work for the claimed purpose at all.

Extra reading: out of all the products mentioned in this posting, the only one that could actually work is the portable "air conditioner". However, it's nothing of the sort. It's little more than an evaporative cooler, often also known as a "swamp cooler". These are used to great effect in parts of the world where humidity is low and the temperature high. In those places, the evaporative action of the water as air is moved over it really does produce a cooling effect. For a large system, this effect can be substantial. If you live in a place where it is both of hot and humid, no evaporative cooler can help you. You'll just be adding humidity to the air and making the problem worse.

With regard to "power misers", while it is true that highly inductive (or capacitive) loads can distort the AC waveform, residential utility customers are not assessed a fee for doing so and your electric meter's accuracy is not impacted by this taking place. Nor is your electrical utility "benefiting" in any way from this. Some commercial and industrial utility customers may be assessed a fee for operating low power factor loads and causing this distortion, though many install large capacitor or inductor banks to offset the source of the distortion.

Even if you did need to worry about this taking place, a small capacitor placed across the hot and neutral lines feeding an outlet in your home is not going to accomplish anything. Many of these devices are nothing more than a small LED fed by a circuit known as a capacitive dropper. Ironically, this means that they might actually introduce the very distortion they claim to prevent. Safety is another concern: the power line is a nasty place and these devices are unlikely to have been vetted by any reputable electrical safety agency.