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May 9, 2022 19:22
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Has anyone played with Meshtastic LoRa stuff on 915 MHz? I, too, wish to poo poo up 33cm with buzzing.
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May 10, 2022 01:08
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Do any of the brands have a better UI for their mobile or HT radios? I remember that being a pain point 20 years ago, if you didn’t program it regularly you probably needed the manual, or at least a cheat sheet.
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May 12, 2022 07:35
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Paul MaudDib posted:Do any of the brands have a better UI for their mobile or HT radios? I remember that being a pain point 20 years ago, if you didn’t program it regularly you probably needed the manual, or at least a cheat sheet. I've been buying Yaesus for ever. I finally bought a Kenwood mobile a few years ago and it was shocking how intuitive the menus are compared to the garbage heap that are Yaesu menus.
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May 12, 2022 14:11
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I found an old unused "82 Channel Booster Coupler", a Winegard Model BC-7820 at my parents house. It was probably installed by the DirecTV crew at some point, but has since been replaced and was just sitting there unplugged from the power outlet so I've repurposed it. I assumed that it's probably just a broadband amplifier, an LNA meant to send a strong signal down long lengths of line? I built a simple whip with a piece of RG6 and rigged it up on the roof to test. This comes down into their garage on RG6 into the 75 ohm input of that booster-coupler. The OUT-4 is connected to a piece of I think RG-59 that's older and runs to the wall jack in one of the rooms. From there it goes on another piece of 75ohm to an unmatched simple F connector -> SMA adapter and then finally about 8" of 50 ohm coax into an RTL-SDR. Phew.   It actually works pretty well! I'm able to get the local airport's air traffic AM on 132.85MHz pretty clearly, which is what I wanted because my little cousin is really into the airplanes. My mom watches him pretty often and takes him to the (small regional) airport to see the planes pretty often, so I thought he'd really get a kick out of hearing the chatter. I guess my questions are: 1) Is there any point in matching the 75ohm -> 50ohm transition on this setup? My understanding is that a lot of hams use 75 ohm and just don't worry about the 1.5 SWR mismatch, but I think that's more applicable to HF maybe? However, this is also receive only and as far as I can tell works just fine. I could rig up a minimum loss pad easily for -5.7dB but perfect match. Or I could just live with it? It seems to work just fine, maybe the RTL-SDR's tune is just able to compensate for it seamlessly? 2) I don't really know anything about the booster-coupler but it looks pretty beefy. Should this really have some kind of lightning protection or is that thing likely intended to have a roof antenna/dish plugged straight into its input already? Edit: I guess it would probably help if I showed the results huh. Here are some screenshots of CubicSDR, first is a plane talking, second is the tower talking, and the last is actually another issue I meant to ask about. Sometimes the planes will be a bit off from 133.85 either high or low. Sometimes it's by enough to make their part of the convo completely incomprehensible, but if I manually recenter it I can actually hear them just fine. I assume this is doppler shifting? Anyway, I'm running CubicSDR on Linux right now, which doesn't let you lock onto the carrier, a feature that SharpSDR apparently has. Anyone know of better software for this on Linux?   
Forseti fucked around with this message at 17:44 on May 12, 2022 |
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May 12, 2022 17:06
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0: Those TV preamps are ace, I like them. I've used them for scanning before no problem. 1: absolutely not. Impedance matching is way overrated for RX chains especially with tiny differences like 50-75 ohm junctions. The real reason we worry about SWR is that it will blow up a transmitter to use it too much into high SWR. With that preamp, the 'transmitter' is like 0.1 mW from the amp to the receiver and power transfer is 99% at 1.5 SWR. To add more - there's a good chance the sdr is not even really near 50 ohms input impedance. You're fine. 2: There probably actually was a lightning arrestor in line before; generally you want them outside and as close to the antenna (but with a short ground wire) as you can get. You're not at HUGE risk, but it is not providing real lightning protection as-is.
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May 12, 2022 17:40
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Jonny 290 posted:0: Those TV preamps are ace, I like them. I've used them for scanning before no problem. Awesome, thanks! There used to be a big yagi VHF/UHF antenna in that same spot on the chimney so there might be an arrestor somewhere, but I also kinda thought that this isn't a massive risk with this particular short whip up there too. They live on a hill and there are lots of trees that are easily 2-3x higher in the air around their yard. The bit of RG6 connecting it to the booster's input also lays on top of the actual ground (out of sight under the deck) for like 8 ft before going into a window to their garage to the booster. I know that doesn't mean anything officially but no idea if practically that would give a strike an out and basically just vaporize the first bit of rg6. Thanks for confirming what I thought on #1, I figured any reflection would be from the adapter back towards the booster which can probably just handle it without an issue on its own terminator. And I also figured leaving that RG59 instead of putting new RG6 there might even be helpful because of its higher loss. Like any reflection may be so small it just gets dissipated anyway. Which I suppose could also be true of RG6, I didn't run numbers, I just wanted to justify being lazy  I guess I was a bit concerned about having accidentally created some kind of weird transmission line transformer because of the 8" line but I don't really know much about the TLT other than they exist. Like I can't remember if it needs to go like 75->50->75 again to make a TLT or what. I was worried that something like that might make a weird comb effect on the SDR, but I think the 8" is only a transmission line for >= c / (2*8 inch) = 737.7 MHz anyway maybe? But really I think the setup is already a higher SNR than the RTL-SDR is anyway. Edit: Actually I think I mean to say higher SNR than the RTL-SDR has dynamic range anyway there. Maybe. Still learning
Forseti fucked around with this message at 19:34 on May 12, 2022 |
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May 12, 2022 19:31
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Any recommendations for stealth antennas? I used to have a VHF tv antenna so I could probably get away with something similar to that, as long as it’s not like “lol giant antenna” nobody will probably care. I could also probably get away with a vertical antenna (flagpole, vertical helical if that’s a thing, etc). I’m interested in going as low frequency as I can get, 20 meter would be great if possible, 40 meter seems impractical but it would be nice if it could be done. Are there any possibilities for vertical or dipole arrays that could get some longer frequencies and more directionality? Being able to configure a couple different orientations for my directionality would be completely fine too, I don’t care about having a back-lobe really as long as I get forward gain out of it. Finally - and this one is the easiest - any particular recommendations for an attic 2m or even 6m antenna? Just wondering what the inflection points of cost and size are there. Probably would want to go with a vertical-ish thing there too, not a rotor.
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May 12, 2022 20:00
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 2m propagation last night was off the hook around here. Guy down the way logged at least one 300mile contacts on sideband. I need a horizontal 2m antenna yesterday 
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May 12, 2022 20:14
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Paul MaudDib posted:Any recommendations for stealth antennas? I used to have a VHF tv antenna so I could probably get away with something similar to that, as long as it’s not like “lol giant antenna” nobody will probably care. I could also probably get away with a vertical antenna (flagpole, vertical helical if that’s a thing, etc). I’m interested in going as low frequency as I can get, 20 Anything is an antenna as long as you throw a loading coil and a tuning capacitor at it. Throw a piece of wire into a tree and tune it, and see what happens. Seriously, i have 4m of wire thrown in a conifer that's sitting outside of my window, and with my 500mW Hartley transmitter on 80m, i can occasionally hear that signal 150km away. With modern, sub noise floor digimodes you can get much further, even with such a objectively poo poo antenna. I have a 12m long spiderpole in the backyard that i occasionally extend. Shortened to about 10m, it's a decent quarterwave antenna for 40m. So far, with 10w CW, i've reached a LOT of european WebSDRs. Because i'm lovely at receiving morse, i haven't made too many QSOs though. Haven't tried much SSB yet on 40m but Belgium i reached with ease. It also works on 80m at full lenght, though less efficiently. I had a decent SSB QSO with a guy who was using a Wireless Set 19 on his side, modified to transmit a rough approximation to SSB. Distance 400km or so, power on my side 10w. I haven't managed to make the vertical work on 20m and higher yet. My tuner is pretty limited for those frequencies. But on 20m, i've had great results with a magloop antenna, 3m in diameter. I could just strap that one to the fence in the backyard when i needed it, and put it inside when i didn't. If you have no metal coated isolation in your attic, a loop will also kinda work there. Neither have i had much luck on 160m. Antenna efficiency is again pretty bad at those wavelenghts, and i couldn't compensate by stuffing the full >100w of my FT101 into the antenna because the tuner flashes over at 20ish watts because i just used broadcast radio tuning caps. Start out by building a simple antenna tuner and then experiment  See if you can find a flag pole that's about a quarter wavelenght in height. Make it a glass fibre one and you can just hide the antenna wire in the core. If your house is tall enough, you can mount a metal drain pipe on isolated spacers against the side of the house, and use that as an antenna element. If you have a wide house, then you can try using the gutters as a radiating element. It's hit or miss with those kinds of things, but especially with narrow band modes like CW/FTsomething/PSK31 you can have fun results with little effort. These are all examples of 'least effort' antennas. If you put in some 'real' effort, you can get much better results. LimaBiker fucked around with this message at 21:43 on May 12, 2022 |
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May 12, 2022 21:26
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blugu64 posted:
You part of the OAK club? I ask because one of them members there was reporting they did this.
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May 13, 2022 03:57
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 Bought a new toy! A TinySA spectrum analyser. The operation is easy, the specs are incredible for the 70 euro price point. But i still have to learn how to probe stuff correctly. The maximum input power is 10mW (and you kinda wanna stay well below that). I'm used to my oscilloscope which is totally fine with putting 50v into the input. I'm very happy i bought this cheap thing because there's quite a lot to learn about working with spectrum analysers. Shown in the picture is the picked up signal from my 1920s style push pull transmitter. I have yet to figure out if the 3rd harmonic is indeed that strong, or whether the carrier is not as strong in the spectrogram as it is in reality. A whip antenna is not the ideal tool for proper measurements.
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May 14, 2022 20:47
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Paul MaudDib posted:Any recommendations for stealth antennas? I built a lil shorty stealth-ish vertical. 15 feet long with a big wire capacitance hat on top. It's naturally resonant right at 30 meters, I can switch a homebrew LC network (cap + coil) in to bring it down to 40, and my autotuners in the shack will bring it up to 20 quite fine. cap hats are amaaaaazing if you can pull em off. Mine's just three 3' wire loops mounted 120 degrees apart on a 4x4 electrical cover box, that's then bolted to the top of the vertical element.
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May 14, 2022 22:44
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I decided to pound down 2 copper spear/earth rod/magnum ground??? to get closer to the earth when i discovered that the above ground radials i have had been teared me apart lisa from the coax connection box thing outside my house. Extra work but after everything was done and a 24 hour test run on wsjt 20m i can say it was worth it because i now hear south america and australia. They dont hear me tho, only have a 15w kx3 station. (pa steps are so expensive  )edit: i had justed waked up and not drinked energi drink so excuse me my langugage.
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May 17, 2022 14:27
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For a good time, tune your SDRs and Ham Radios to 26.965 thru 27.405 MHz, and see if you can pick up some CB radio DX this evening! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CB_radio_in_the_United_States#Channel_assignments EDIT: if you missed it, the unusual CB radio reception was caused by a Sporadic E event Helianthus Annuus fucked around with this message at 15:41 on May 19, 2022 |
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May 19, 2022 03:43
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IIRC channel 6 (27.025) is the unofficial DX channel, referred to as the Super Bowl. Sir Mix-a-Lot is apparently in to CB DX and goes by the handle Prime Minista. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IfS4oMa1Jg
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May 19, 2022 16:23
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Anyone at Dayton this year ?
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May 20, 2022 15:55
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i'll confess, i'm done with hamfests for a few more years yet. even once covid clears up everybody's gonna be pricing everything really high. and i cant collect anybody else's junk any more.
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May 20, 2022 20:43
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I was thinking of going for the first time this year because there’s HamSCI booth and I’ve been trying to contribute to that project off and on over the last year, but getting to Ohio on short notice wasn’t going to work out - I’ll probably go next year though.
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May 20, 2022 20:46
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I don't have a license yet, but woot.com of all places has a 5 pack of Baofeng UV-5R for $95 I was trying to figure out how to get the local scout troop going for their HAM to do a group buy.
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May 20, 2022 22:47
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do it. thats how i get most people into ham already have an activity. add radio. get a bunch of people through the tech exam. then bam. every one effectively communicating during said activity. having all my friends get their ham ticket has saved me so much time while out on adventures. no more going the wrong way for half an hour only to turn back. no more having someone walk across a vast distance only to come back with the wrong thing. no more spending 20 minutes in town trying to find a place to eat. we split up and whoever finds the best spot wins. seriously when i think how much $$$ an hour we’re spending out on group outings. saving an hour or two over a long weekend will pay for those radio’s easily. as a side benefit some people took a bit further and got sick mobile setups and are on the local repeaters now.
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May 21, 2022 00:18
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The best way to get people into ham radio isn't to say "hey you should get a ham radio", it's to go to a side hobby like hiking or offroading or stargazing and say "you know you could add ham radio on top of this and these are the ways that it'll make things more fun and easier and safer" and sell it that way.
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May 21, 2022 02:16
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Jonny 290 posted:The best way to get people into ham radio isn't to say "hey you should get a ham radio", it's to go to a side hobby like hiking or offroading or stargazing and say "you know you could add ham radio on top of this and these are the ways that it'll make things more fun and easier and safer" and sell it that way. He says... Edit: Jonny come back, we miss you in our internet pig based club drunk mutt fucked around with this message at 04:15 on May 21, 2022 |
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May 21, 2022 04:12
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when are the DMR nets again?
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May 21, 2022 07:57
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SAARS net when ????
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May 21, 2022 14:15
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wolrah posted:IIRC channel 6 (27.025) is the unofficial DX channel, referred to as the Super Bowl. This made my day! Pretty sure I’ve heard him, but I’ll be listening out and paying closer attention now. https://youtu.be/sR-B-5JO9fk
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May 21, 2022 14:20
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wolrah posted:IIRC channel 6 (27.025) is the unofficial DX channel, referred to as the Super Bowl. cool, i had no idea! i might have heard him on the air that night
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May 21, 2022 17:33
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Achmed Jones posted:when are the DMR nets again? Tuesday/Friday at drunk mutt fucked around with this message at 19:55 on May 21, 2022 |
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May 21, 2022 19:13
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All right, all right. My new job has stabilized and i've got the spoons to hop on and chitchat. charging the md380 now. might do an aircheck today or tomorrow afternoon
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May 21, 2022 19:30
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drunk mutt posted:Tuesday/Friday at 6pm Eastern/9pm Pacific and oh one hundred hours the next day GMT I think you are very confused on which way the earth spins. 6PM Pacific/9PM Eastern
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May 21, 2022 19:37
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DevNull posted:I think you are very confused on which way the earth spins. Haha oooops, tried to recite the script without looking at it and totally botched that poo poo.
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May 21, 2022 19:54
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cool, thanks!
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May 21, 2022 20:13
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Partycat posted:Anyone at Dayton this year ? I went Friday. Been to plenty of smaller hamfests but first time for hamvention. Same way overpriced junk but 100x as much. All the indoor exhibits reeked of BO by noon. I didn’t make it to any of the forums I was interested in. I did score a Icom IC-2730 for $20, and even if I can’t fix it I can send it to icom for service which is about $100 or so, so worse case scenario I get a $300 D-star dual bander for $120 plus shipping costs. I thought about going for part of the day today but had to work tonight, so I jetted out of town early this morning. I’ll go back, but not gonna make it a yearly thing, maybe I’ll go every 2 or 3 years if I can get the whole weekend off.
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May 22, 2022 02:06
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2730's a really good radio. I have a real yaesu 8900 in the truck but i hate the poo poo out of it and have been thinking of swapping it out for a 2730
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May 22, 2022 17:47
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I don't know if this is the right place to ask, but I figure you could give me a lead at least. I bought a face plate of a Wireless Set No.19. I want to turn it into an interactive object for a WW2 reenactment display (something like the visitor can turn it on and use a knob to "tune" into different recordings of WW2 broadcasts). Where would I possibly go about finding parts from a radios from the 40s?
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Jun 6, 2022 02:50
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eBay or hamfests in your area.
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Jun 6, 2022 13:48
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Ensign Expendable posted:I don't know if this is the right place to ask, but I figure you could give me a lead at least. Where do you live? It makes a big difference in the availability of parts. On ebay you can find a lot, but shipping can get expensive if you live in EU and order from the USA. There are several dutch shops like this one that have parts and complete sets: https://www.quartermaster.nl/index.php/geallieerden-ww1-en-ww2/radio-communication-equipment/ws-19-receiver-mk-ii.html Don't rip apart a complete WS19 though. Unmodified, unrestored ones are getting harder to find.
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Jun 6, 2022 14:15
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I'm in Toronto, so hopefully finding parts for Canadian radios wouldn't be too hard. I would never dream of converting anything even close to a complete set.
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Jun 6, 2022 15:58
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Ok I got the 6 pack of uv5Rs and they're awesome. Is there a quick GMRS training guide for me on how to properly use the airwaves before I give them to the scouts? Edit: I already paid for my GMRS license, forgot to add that. I looked thru the rules but nothing jumped out at me. Vaporware fucked around with this message at 17:31 on Jun 6, 2022 |
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Jun 6, 2022 17:20
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| # ? May 10, 2024 00:44 |
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Speaking of Baofengs, what's the latest good version to buy? Anything newer/better than UV-82, that's not a rebadged UV-5R with a fancy name?
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Jun 6, 2022 17:36
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