petebrunelli

Category: life

  • More Than duo

    This is a companion to my previous post about my experience with Duolingo (actually Super Duolingo paid service).

    First off, I’m just a “punter” when it comes to Duolingo. Please check out the Duoplanet Blog, which is an excellent resource and answers questions more thoroughly and objectively that I have. I’ve linked directly to their review of Super Duolingo, but just go to their homepage and check out their excellent content.

    This just in

    I am “tapering off” on Duo but as soon as I started the next level there were new types of exercises. I don’t think any of them are groundbreaking, or even that useful, but they are better from an engagement perspective. One is sentences with two blanks, one for a singular expression and one for a plural expression. It sucks that they give you both answers and you just chose which goes first and which goes second. It would be better to give the user the word in English (or other native language) so they can answer on their own, but at least you get to jab at buttons. The other exercise is worse. Much worse. You get a voice prompt and two possible words. They aren’t difficult but it is a basic listening exercise. So you pick the right answer… AND IT DOESN’T TELL YOU WHAT THE WORD MEANS IN ENGLISH! WTAF. There are other exercises with the same problem. You complete the challenge but Duo doesn’t provide a translation. Massive fail.

    So Duo continues to disappoint. I admit that it is a quick way to complete some exercises and feel like you came away having improved. I don’t hate that about it. But it can and should be much better at teaching a language.

    A Variety of Resources

    One thing I can’t stress enough is how many other great language learning resources are available on the internet, and through local libraries. Even if you are a die-hard Duo user you can amplify those lessons with some videos or podcasts on basic grammar, usage, phrases, and expressions. Here are a few of my favorites:

    A surprising and maybe under-known resource is this Learn Italian program from UNC. It’s more of a grammar and usage resource, but it is well written. The content is very direct and thorough as you might expect from a university resource.

    I also use a ton of YouTube video content, and here are my favorite YouTubers:

    Easy Italian – This YouTube Channel is where I started with video resources and I still think Katie and Matteo are the best. They have a great mix of instruction in English and in Italian, the content is fun and enjoyable, and they do a great job of presenting it. Their Super Easy Italian series is an excellent intro to the language and you will have fun doing it. Their man-in-the-street videos let you hear actual Italians speaking Italian in an informal/candid setting. They also have a subscription plan through Patreon and it is worth looking into (I have a supporting subscription). The material can be a little difficult to find as it is spread around on JoyOfLanguages.com, Youtube, and various podcast sites. Their Grammar Bank and the exercises/transcriptions for each video are very good. One glitch: Grammar Bank is full of broken Soundcloud links (they should definitely fix this) but the episodes are likely available on the podcast service of your choice.

    Learn Italian with Lucrezia – Lucrezia is more direct than Katie and Matteo, but also delivers excellent lessons in an engaging manner. I often turn to her lessons on specific problems I am working on and they have been very helpful. She has many informal travel-style videos as well as her excellent language lesson episodes.

    Italian in 7 Minutes – Simone is my kind of teacher. His approach of “slow learning” has been very helpful. Spending less time jumping between material and getting closer to doing one thing per day (reading, writing, listening, researching grammar and verbs…) has made a great difference in how I feel about my progress. His specific lessons are also very good. Specifically, his lessons and videos have changed my learning approach from “grammar first” to “speaking and listening first”. I am able to read basic Italian and it is great for learning usage and vocabulary, but my real goal is comprehension and speaking. It’s the part of the process I struggle with, but that is because I never made it the focus of my learning. I’m working to change that after 3 months of “spray and pray” learning.

    Learn Italian with Teacher Stefano – Stefano is the Energizer Bunny of the group. His energy and focus is only matched by the ferocity with which he rrrrrrrrolsssss his rrrrrrrrrrsss. Time spent with his material pays dividends, even though it can be a lot to take in for a beginner. Watch a video a few times in one session and it makes a lot more sense.

    Un sacco di lezioni

    I quickly found myself adrift in a sea of learning material. I found that many of these resources expect that you either have set a goal, or you are in a scholastic setting and are learning *everything* at once and are looking for an assist on certain topics. It isn’t a matter of using fewer resources, but of using the most important ones more and the less important ones less.

    In my case I am shifting from a reading/grammar focus to a speaking/listening/writing focus. I will continue to read and continue to work on grammar, of course. But I am prioritizing putting the language into use and developing my ability to think in Italian, and speak in Italian. In my case that is not my comfort zone, but I think that is self-imposed. If I worked on it more I would be more comfortable.

    I’ll end with a quick story about a conversation I had with my late-great friend Luuk. I am a musician and I had the immense pleasure of performing at the Zappanale Festival in Bad Doberan, Germany. It is, as it sounds, a festival dedicated to the music of Frank Zappa. After a performance we were having a beer and talking about the bands we had seen, and he said “I don’t know how you get up on stage and do that. I would be shitting myself!”. And my reply was that I put in a massive amount of practice time so that I don’t have to worry when playing to an audience. I had already made all the mistakes! So that is my inspiration as I progress in my studies.

    Ciao, amice e amici!

  • 2022 News Flash – Yaesu FT-818ND Discontinued

    2022 News Flash – Yaesu FT-818ND Discontinued

    The Golden Retriever of the Amateur Radio World

    As 2022 draws to a close the amateur radio community was in a bit of shock as Yaesu announced that production of the FT-818ND will cease as well as the FTM-400XDE.

    Greater minds than mine have paid homage to a classic:

    K4SWL at QRPer.com

    OH8STN recounts his feelings here

    A thread on the SOTA.uk board

    And EI7GL pays tribute

    On one hand it is sad because the FT-817/818ND has been and still is such a great radio for so many hams. I had owned three of them (maybe four) before buying a used 817ND in October as a portable LEO uplink radio. I now own a second one which I will not be parting with any time soon. I “speak Yaesu” having owned many Yaesu radios, and currently own two 817NDs, a FT-991A, a FTM-300D, and a FT3D. (I don’t have a problem, YOU have a problem!)

    The 817/818’s low price, wide RX and TX coverage, and small size have made it the right rig for many purposes. The paired 817/818 (1634/1636) approach put thousands and thousands of QSOs in the logs of satellite ops. It has also been a mainstay in backpack/SOTA/POTA operations. They are found as IF rigs in many microwave stations. Even with the original battery it is one heck of a self-contained QRP radio. With one of the modern high capacity replacements it is even better. It is a natural for manpack operation with that front-mounted antenna connector. The one I recently purchased was in use as a bedside radio checking 80M and 40M net activity for a long time ham! It’s the Zelig of Amateur Radio.

    They are known for durability, with some claiming they will be the cockroach of the used amateur transceiver market. They have an alloy chassis, metal covers, and a simple and not-fragile control/display cluster. The aftermarket has been very good to the 817/818, with all sorts of mounting, power, antenna, and user-comfort accessories available. A blind spot in the aftermarket is a reliable source of crystal filters. That would be a game changer. One of the rigs I owned about 15 years ago had both of them installed. Before the supply dried up. Kicking myself but that’s how it goes.

    On the other hand this was predictable. Was it a perfect radio? Not even close. At its time of release it was known that the internal battery was garbage, the idle current was high, the power connector was terrible, the receiver was average (though not fatiguing) and it kinda needed those expensive optional crystal filters to be really useful, especially on CW. Oh, and the original FT-817 had an appetite for final output transistors. Even though the design and construction are more expensive now than they were 20 years ago the price has remained very stable. That’s not sustainable. The boards are full of discrete components, not offloading a lot of features onto a big CPU like you see on the Icom IC-705. It is a throwback radio in a world of muscled-up iPhones with an antenna connector.

    I’ve written in this blog that I believe Yaesu is philosophically incapable of making a real competitor to the ICOM IC-705. They have doubled down so hard on HF+6 contest/DX radios and have gone so far away from the 817-type market that I don’t see them coming back. The 705 could be described as a 10W IC-7300 and a 10W ID-5100 shoehorned into a small box with a big display. It also uses a standard Icom battery. Brilliant. There really is no equivalent in Yaesu-world. Maybe a FTdx10 and FTM-300 mashup? Maybe I’ve just been juked too many times recently by Yaesu’s teasing of a groundbreaking new radio only for it to turn out to be the FTdx10, or the FT-710. The latter was especially tough because that was the rig I thought would be the IC-705 competitor and I could not have been more wrong.

    I feel lucky to say that I run a 817ND and a 705 side by side in my LEO-bag rig, and it is an amazing contrast. I’d take the 705 receiver and DSP all day long, same for the built in recorder and the ICOM twin filter, but the simplicity of the 817ND and the flexibility, especially the dual antenna connectors, is unmatched in a shack-in-the-box rig. Once the noise dies down and the price gougers get their fill we can expect a long post-production lifespan fot these radios. Not unlike the ICOM IC-706/MKII a rig this capable will always be attractive.

    Here’s to the little rig that could, and can, and will. Cheers.

  • A Strange Summer Surrenders

    This summer has been a wild one. The Rhode Island shoreline stayed comfortable and mostly dry while most of Southern New England got walloped with heat and heavy rains in July. That continued into August until the tropical storm carousel started dealing us hurricanes, tropical depressions, and hurricane leftovers. Add in the continues COVID restrictions, and rain-outs on the big holiday weekend, and it was a bit of Groundhog Day from the summer of 2020.

    There were few travel opportunities in 2021, but my wife and I made a great road trip to see friends in eastern Michigan, and saw family on the way home. We arrived back in Rhode Island just in time to batten down the hatches before Hurricane Henri made landfall right in our backyard here. We dodged the worst of it with more winds off to the east and more rain off to the west. Still, tree damage, flooding, and 24-48hr power outages were common here. We also cheered the arrival of the big “summer back-breaker” Canadian cold front, which blew out the over-stayed summer funk and replaced it with an Autumn preview. For some reason it also brought a big mosquito hatch with it!

    We had the chance to catch up with many friends and family, enjoying the change in the weather along with perfect ocean temperatures and great beachgoing opportunities. Those became priority events in my life. I know that I will have a long winter of ham radio and projects, but the opportunities to enjoy the company of friends is often fleeting. The weekend of September 11-12, 2021 was a great example. Normally I would have been packing my portable VHF contest rig and running my /Rover station in the ARRL September VHF contest. That didn’t happen. My wife and I were able to get together with several friends we haven’t seen in too long, and had three days of good food, good waves, and great company. With everything the past 18 months has deprived us of, it was easy to take a pass on a personal pursuit and enjoy some friends and family. This late-summer weather is a reminder of the long cold season ahead, where there will be great opportunities for radio adventures as well as sitting in my warm shack and exploring the airwaves.

    I hope a reader of this post had a great summer (or winter in the southern side of the globe), and is likewise looking ahead to opportunities to come.

  • Catching Radio Waves

    Most hams go through cycles of days or weeks or months where they operate more intensely or take a more relaxed approach. Those “lulls” might look like doing more listening, or working on projects, or making cables, or any of the maintenance things that need to get done. In my current situation I am balancing work, family, friends, and other interests against being on the air. A lazy Sunday walking the beach with a surf rod hoping to annoy some fish is not a time poorly spent. Neither is spending quality time with my wife. We have both been working from home for over 16 months and I think it has made it more important that we do fun things together now. Being stuck in the house together all day is not a substitute for real time spent together. Since I set up an antenna each time I want to operate there is a hurdle to getting on the air. That time is often during peak family time, and family often wins. Even then I am still practicing morse code, reading up on antenna designs, planning my next portable operation, and fine-tuning my VHF Rover setup.

    In a way it is not unlike being a surfer in a lineup. You can never catch every wave. Some of the best time you spend might be sitting on your board enjoying the setting, watching the fish, or cheering on your fellow surfers. Here in Rhode Island we are in the heart of the summer beach season. It brings with it many opportunities for recreation, gatherings with friends, and even some solitude if you know what beach to be at and when. It’s hard to choose sitting at a desk (again) over watching the daylight fade while up to my neck in the Atlantic.

    Every person has their own circumstances, and I can’t deny being a little jealous of hams who are active every day with permanent installations. I look forward to having that chance as my life balance changes. So, I wish I had a technical topic or an operating tip, but this post is about finding balance and making the most of time on the air when we get it.

    OK, I lied! Here is a cool tool for JS8Call, written in Python by Groups.io user basho1600. It scrapes calls, grids, and QSO information from the JS8Call receive window and maps out the station grids with lines connecting stations in QSO. It’s a great example of how you don’t need to be developing executables to make something useful. Being open-source it can also be a starting point for another developer. This is the kind of feature that JS8 needs, and a user stepped in to get the ball rolling. BRAVO

    73, Pete N1QDQ

  • Let the Music Play

    This blog has been dormant for quite a while, but my plan is to start putting up music reviews, and some longer-form pieces on learning, performing, and experiencing music.

    Coming up very soon: A Tale of Two Mothers

  • It’s About That Time

    I have a gig coming up and am taking time each day to get up to speed. Prepping for a gig can be as much or as little as you make it. Want to be uber-prepared? Get busy about two weeks ahead, daily work. If it is very charty, that would be 2 months. Metronome practice, and a lot of it. Until the metronome sounds like Zig. Or Danny Richmond. and so on.

    Meh. Point is: at least I have a plan.

    And the improbable situation I find myself in is that I have become a person who is all about planning. Planning in the sense of structuring activity and time in a way to get things done. I also find myself at the a very weird crossroads in life. A place where I have hit a lot of strong numbers. Turning 50. 21 years on one job. Two amazing nephews turning 21. 25 years with an amazing partner who was suggestible enough to agree to marry me, baggage and all. My main man Wylee kicking ass at 11 years.

    There is a rising drumbeat reminder of how tenuous it is and how things change. How much change I have seen. Who, and how, and when, and occasionally why. Rarely why.

    There is a certainty that the present is a testament to how well or badly we have measured the past. The successes and mistakes form the ripples and eddys. It might be that the most important human mental tool is that we learn from mistakes. If we are especially aware we can learn from others’ mistakes. The humor in the idea that we are better off learning from the mistakes of others is that it is just not the real thing. Yes, you can learn from someone else’s mistake. But you won’t learn as much.

    Nothing will get worn smooth by your mind like rehashing your very own gnarly, craggy mistake. Don’t pass up that juice. I realize that I’m a big fan of mistakes on the simple premise that mistakes are an essential tool. Throwing their value away is a monumental waste.

    Mistakes are a huge part of preparing for a gig. It is all about making the mistakes before you get to the gig. My wife just sat through a week or two of me working on audio mixes for a project. Essentially it is repetitive listening to eradicate mistakes or make incremental improvements. Nobody wants to hear that except one person. And that person is always looking for ways to have to hear less of it. The continuous quest is to get more efficient. Not that inefficiency is all bad, it just is not as good. Being inefficient is its own, lesser, learning  tool.

    And you would be wise to ask why someone would put themselves through all that. All those mistakes and slop and frustration… Simply: At any moment you either decide not to suck at something, or you decide something else, anything else. So the odds are stacked against that decision. To make it, and make it regularly, you have to be motivated by something.  Formal education is all about someone else providing enough structure to make that work compulsory and fairly evaluated. Otherwise you would be going all Huck F. Finn on your schedule. Without that external structure you need to do it because you want to do it. Your plan depends on it. Internal or external, that structure is essential. Huck was not going to ride that raft forever. He had a plan.

    You have a plan of attack. Good. You can treat it as a formula like I did up top in the gig prep. I need two weeks to make all those mistakes. It is an inefficiency, but like friction generates heat, actions generate a voice. In music there are many variables. How you listen. How you feel time. How well you read. How well you can translate your inner voice with your instrument’s voice.Your voice becomes a product of your process. Your product will bear the fingerprints of your plan.

    You decide, you act, you observe, you hopefully learn, and you apply the lesson. Done.

    In a few days I play some Miles Davis, and Herbie, and Nick DeMaria (fer crissakes) and the questions all get answered. Musical questions, and some others too. And there will be more mistakes to provide the grist for the mill.

    Miles’ “It’s about that time” is in the setlist, and each time I hear it I laugh at Miles playing with the words in a way James Brown or Sly Stone would immediately recognize. It is all about “that time”. Miles was always the man with the plan.

    [this post is dedicated to my nephews Nick Charlton and Chris Gonzalez]