I would care! I find non-terrestrial radio emissions interesting and would instantly recognize a waterfall display and be eager to explain to my companions.
For a monoband, they’re quite versatile. I feel one of their best qualities is that they can be rolled up, and still get excellent performance. Another quality is that they are balanced; it almost seems like magic.
E: to be clear, they’re useless when rolled up, I mean they can either be rolled up, and when unfurled and held aloft they work wonderfully.
It’s a great time to be on 10m. My first QSOs went ~1200mi and I was only using a 1/4-wave CB mag mount whip on my car; imo the real fun is on 20m; from New Mexico I was making QSOs with Indonesia on SSB.
Follow your interests, you’re going to have a great time.
Lots of good advice here. Bear in mind that multi-band antennae often have tradeoffs in terms of SWR.
Depending on how industrious you’re feeling, I’ve found tremendous success with a homebuilt vertical monoband ladder line j-pole. KB9VBR has an excellent build video. Downside is that on 20m, you’ll want a mast at least as long as the length of the antenna, but if it’s impractical, you can keep the radiating element vertical and the matching section horizontal, and even then if that’s not possible, the entire antenna can be horizontal.
I wish I could find it now, but there was a quote attributed to someone suffering under an oppressive regime which would blatantly lie, and yet it remained accepted: “The lie is the insult.”
LoFi Girl if you’re looking for real downtempo background noise. Lived on it when I was doing Uni.
If you’re the patient and organized type, you can download their entire library from their main site. The advantage here is that the livestream gets a little repetitive after a while.
This is the part which normalization works to accelerate. Every message is crafted to rally supporters and repulse opponents; enough to get one to tune out and stop paying attention. Do it long enough and whatever they want to do will be done without any scrutiny.
This is one of the reasons the consolidation of mainstream independent media is a serious problem.
There are plenty of “compromised antenna” options for you; there are loads of amateur operators who simply run their antenna around the largest room in their apartment and make long-range communications. It’s not optimal, but it works.
There’s a whole movement in amateur radio right now which relies on being light and portable. A 15 meter carbon fiber mast, some wire, 12v and 100W and you can work the world from a park.
I am.
He hasn’t.
You’re the first Internet stranger to notice! Here’s a celebration emoji: 🎉