Note by @jeder

my bluetooth headphones have a kinda spotty reception due to a shitty antenna implementation (I kinda fucked up the board when I designed it, pending a rebuild anyways). this often means that audio can drop out even if I have my phone in my pocket and I’m just walking about

but apparently in a train, if I leave my laptop playing music in my backpack and go to the toilet ~10m and a wall away, they will just shrug it off and pretend nothing happened. <.<

i’m not even gonna try to understand the 2.4GHz interference at play, it’s all magic (and you can’T prove me otherwise)

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luna "delete & redraft" vivian. @luna@crimew.gay

@domi

it's all magic (and you can't prove me otherwise)

it absolutely is!! (tho wireless communication standards still are very much magic to me (even tho I roughly get how (and why, even) they work))

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dmiException 🎃 @ eth0 @domi@donotsta.re

@luna tbh the further you go with all modern technologies we take for granted (802.11/wifi, USB, GSM…) the more cursed abstractions you discover

even 802.11a/802.11b (the first standards from the 90s) used clever tricks to allow for theoretical 11Mbps rates, not to mention everything after that

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dmiException 🎃 @ eth0 @domi@donotsta.re

@luna like. heck. you’re telling me we have technology to improve throughput for devices with multiple antennas? in another universe, MIMO is something some random hacker theoretized once and everyone else thought that it’s gonna be too hard to implement. it’s giga cool imo

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dmiException 🎃 @ eth0 @domi@donotsta.re

@luna also, aside from modern RF tech - long wave AM radio is so fucking awesome. back in the day when the transmission towers were more powerful, you could (supposedly) receive a polish radio station in china due to the signal bouncing off the stratosphere, back towards the earth.

what.

that’s so insanely ??? COOL

or the fact that AM radio traveled hundreds of kilometers further than FM because of being transmitted on lower frequencies (and that was only possible because it needed lower bandwidth, due to being Amplitude Modulated (i.e. sound is encoded as changes in the power, not slight changes to frequency compared to the “base” freq). SO COOL!!!

imo RF is just fucking magic. not in the “we don’t understand it” sense, because as humanity we have deep understanding of why and how those things happen. it’s magic because WHAT you’Re telling me that you can transmit energy wirelessly just by having some wire wrapped around a cylinder + some goofy-ass looking cylinders housing paper soaked with electrolyte wrapped together with some foil??? MAGIC. I LOVE IT.

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April (@

GPN) The Pink ⋆☾╶⃝⃤☽⋆ [AS208709] @april@donotsta.re

@domi @luna agree, wanted to build my own tube radio but always failed at the "ik too scared of soldering things together" part x3, read up on all dis shit and I understand both ends: how Am and Fm works and on how radios work in theory, what I dont understand tho is how its done in practice cause I always looked at the plans for radios and I wasnt able to.disect it piece by piece so i just kernel panicked, then continued to hyperfocus on biology of frogs instead x3 talking abt biology of frogs I kinda know all german species by now and I can tell you there are MANY, esp of the red list ones.

dmiException 🎃 @ eth0 @domi@donotsta.re

@april @luna most tube / transistor radios are really f-ing overcomplicated. especially since the most effective way of making an AM radio is to make a circuit that receives a single, very specific frequency really well, then create a second one that does the same but is tunable, connect them up with what is basically a very small radio transmitter (!) and sprinkle in some filtering circuitry

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Jeder

@ eth0 (📞422137) @jeder@miau.jeder.pl

@domi @april @luna i want to get like a rtl-sdr or something and just listen to stuff but i don't really have the space or means to get a proper antenna for low frequencies baaa

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dmiException 🎃 @ eth0 @domi@donotsta.re

@jeder @luna @april rtl-sdr doesn’t work that well for frequencies low enough that space is a constraint for the antenna. I think hackrf would be better for that?

anyhoo, a telescopic antenna scavenged from an old radio can get you pretty far with an rtl-sdr in most cases, as long as you know how to use it properly :)

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Jeder

@ eth0 (📞422137) @jeder@miau.jeder.pl

@domi @luna @april literally my whole pay

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dmiException 🎃 @ eth0 @domi@donotsta.re

@jeder @luna @april you can get them for ~500PLN on aliexpress. they’Re worth it

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Jeder

@ eth0 (📞422137) @jeder@miau.jeder.pl

@domi @luna @april yeah thats more manageable

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April (@

GPN) The Pink ⋆☾╶⃝⃤☽⋆ [AS208709] @april@donotsta.re

@jeder @domi @luna me, following the convo having no idea what the trade curve between PLN and € is cause my only experience is going to the polish side of Zgorcelec (excuse my bad spelling pls) and seeing prices 2x of what its on the german side and just assuming they made it even more higher than normal trade value to scam tourists

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