Israel Blows Up Gaza's "Palace Of Justice" Compound Which Housed The Palestinian Supreme Court, The Court

Ham radio license 101

*Please see safety note added to the end of this post.

The Cost:

Exam is $14. If passed, the license fee is $35. Optional classes and study materials vary in cost.

(How much are Ham Radios? You can get a basic handheld model for $50. Start with one of those before deciding whether to spend big bucks on anything.)

License Levels:

There are 3 licensure levels for amateur radio operators. (There used to be more.) In the order: Technician, General, and Amateur Extra.

Study Time:

Average is 10-14 hours of study time to pass the exam.

The exam itself is 36 multichoice questions, randomly selected from a pool of 411 questions.

Is There Math??

Yes. But only a little at the Technician Class level. (Edit: you can use a calculator too!) I encountered long division with decimal points and multiplication. This was only required by a couple of questions on the test.

If you have a math disability, I hope it reassures you to learn that folks allowed to miss up to 9 questions on the test.

The more licenses, the more priviledges. But you can start using a ham radio with just the Technician Class license.

Morse Code?

No longer required for the exam.

Study Materials:

I didn't attend a class. Instead, I used these two resources:

1. Godon West's book "2022-2026 Technician Class: FCC Element 2 Amateur Radio License Preparation". (Options: paperback or audiobook.)

2. HamStudy (it's a free phone app).

How I Studied:

I started by reading the book. When I reached the questions and answers section, I focused on reading the questions, followed by their correct answers only. I purposefully avoided reading the wrong answer options. This helped heaps during the test. The right answer stood out as the familiar pair with the question.

I studied for Q&A portion for 30 minutes at a time, then took a break. When I returned from break, I would go back through the previous section's questions and try to recall the answers.

Taking a break, then attempting recall, helps develop memory retention.

After finishing the book, I used the free, HamStudy phone app. I adjusted settings to focus on 1 section at a time until I could get 100%. Once I had covered each section like this, I changed the settings to include and randomize the entire, 411 question pool.

Scheduling The Exam:

You will need to sign up to get an FRN number from the FCC, before scheduling your exam. (It's like an FCC social security number.) I got the instruction for how to do it from the Gordon West book. But they are posted various places online as well.

You can find both on and offline testing teams (VEC's) here:

ham.study

HamStudy.org: Find an Exam Session

Prepare for your ham radio test for free with stats-driven flash cards, question lists, explanations, and practice tests.

I chose to test online with W5YI-VEC for 3 reasons: Their header pun. ("Promoting ☢️Radio-Activity☢️ Nationwide with Friendly, Untimed Exams!"). Their profile page emphasizes accessibility accomodations. And they let me text their phone number to schedule a more convenient date and time.

Taking The Exam:

I took the exam online. A panel of 6 people from the W5YI-VEC team observed through my webcam. The exam layout was reminiscent of the HamStudy app, which I appreciated. On average, people complete the test in about 20 minutes. I completed it in under 10. Some people take an hour. We dont all get the same 36 questions. So some tests will take longer than others. You've made it this far. Give yourself enough time in your day to not rush, no matter how confident you are.

My advice: this is where you want to carefully read every answer option. Don't just quick scan for key words between the questions and the answers. You'll make unnecessary mistakes that way.

After The Exam:

My VEC team gave me my results right after I submitted the test. Then they emailed me a certificate. (This certificate is not your license.)

That evening, I got an email from the FCC with instructions for how to pay the $35 license fee. (My least favorite part of the entire process. For being the FCC, their instructions and website both suck.)

IMPORTANT: Dont try to pay your fee using your phone! That whole process is not mobile friendly. Trying can cause a bit of a glitch in their system. You could add more than a month to your wait time for a license. Just use a desktop computer for this part.

Your License:

The FCC no longer issues a physical license. Instead, they post a record of your license to their "FCC ULS" database. You do not have a license until it is posted there.

IMPORTANT: Be sure to keep a current email on file with the FCC. If the FCC emails go to an address you're no longer using, or get lost in your spam box, the FCC can yank your license. No fun.

Callsigns & Vanity Callsigns:

You are automatically issued a callsign with your license. If you want to choose your own callsign (aka, getting a "vanity callsign") you must wait until after you have your license and the original call sign that goes with it. Your pool of vanity call signs are limited by your level of license.

I'll exand on the Technician Class vanity callsign options, once I get the Gordon West book back. (It's on loan to a friend until December.)

Your First Radio:

The Gordon West book has things to say about this too. (I'm waiting on my license before I get my first radio.)

What I'm personally looking forward to:

(Aside from gaining a skill for disaster response.) As a backpacker, I want to learn how to make a homebrew Garmin InReach. Amateur radio can do cool things with gps, send text messages, etc. I'm not tech savvy. And I'm not sure if I'll need a higher license class to do whatever that requires. So, I imagine that project could be much further down the road from where I am at present. It's an exciting thing to look forward to though.

Safety Note:

Whichever address you get your radio license under will become public record, forever. My advice? For safety, use a PO Box from the very start. If you have a stalker, look into getting a forwarding PO Box in a different city if it's legal. Ask if you can use initials or shortened versions of your name before submitting any information to the FCC. Be consistent. Name on your exam and the name on your FCC account must match.

Habibi (2011) dir. Susan Youssef

Habibi, a story of forbidden love, is a fiction feature set in Gaza. Two students in the West Bank are forced to return home to Gaza, where their love defies tradition. To reach his lover, Qays grafittis poetry across town. Habibi is a modern re-telling of the famous ancient Sufi parable Majnun Layla. The full Arabic title is ‘Habibi Rasak Kharban,’ which translates as “Darling, something’s wrong with your head.” — from the Palestine Film Institute

btw now feels like a good time to plug the organizations that the kissinger death tontine accepted donations-as-submissions from!

☞ Cambodian Children's Fund ☞ Desafío Levantemos Chile ☞ East Timor and Indonesia Action Network ☞ Guatemala Forensic Anthropology Project ☞ The Halo Trust ☞ Yemen Relief Project

i know the nyt regularly edits and rewrites headlines post-publication but it's kind of wild that the basically one (1) good op-ed i've seen them publish in ages that was getting really widely shared was renamed from "Why Must Palestinians Audition For Your Empathy?" to much more vague and defanged "The Palestine Double Standard." like. come on.

anyways.

nytimes.com

Opinion | The Palestine Double Standard

The task of the Palestinian is to audition for empathy and compassion. To prove that we deserve it.

(link to the archived page with the original headline)

The task of the Palestinian is to be palatable or to be condemned. The task of the Palestinian, we’ve seen in the past two weeks, is to audition for empathy and compassion. To prove that we deserve it. To earn it.

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve watched Palestinian activists, lawyers, professors get baited and interrupted on air, if not silenced altogether. They are being made to sing for the supper of airtime and fair coverage. They are begging reporters to do the most basic tasks of their job. At the same time, Palestinians fleeing from bombs have been misidentified. Even when under attack, they must be costumed as another people to elicit humanity. Even in death, they cannot rest — Palestinians are being buried in mass graves or in old graves dug up to make room, and still there is not enough space.

If that weren’t enough, Palestinian slaughter is too often presented ahistorically, untethered to reality: It is not attributed to real steel and missiles, to occupation, to policy. To earn compassion for their dead, Palestinians must first prove their innocence. The real problem with condemnation is the quiet, sly tenor of the questions that accompany it: Palestinians are presumed violent — and deserving of violence — until proved otherwise. Their deaths are presumed defensible until proved otherwise. What is the word of a Palestinian against a machinery that investigates itself, that absolves itself of accused crimes? What is it against a government whose representatives have referred to Palestinians as “human animals” and “wild beasts”? When a well-suited man can say brazenly and unflinchingly that there is no such thing as a Palestinian people?

It is, of course, a remarkably effective strategy. A slaughter isn’t a slaughter if those being slaughtered are at fault, if they’ve been quietly and effectively dehumanized — in the media, through policy — for years. If nobody is a civilian, nobody can be a victim.

…

Take it from a writer: There is nothing like the tedium of trying to come up with analogies. There is something humiliating in trying to earn solidarity. I keep seeing infographics desperately trying to appeal to American audiences. Imagine most of the population of Manhattan being told to evacuate in 24 hours. Imagine the president of [ ] going on NBC and saying all [ ] people are [ ].Look! Here’s a strip on the edge of the Mediterranean Sea. That’s Gaza. It is about the same size as Philadelphia. Or multiply the entire population of Las Vegas by three.

This is demoralizing work, to have to speak constantly in the vernacular of tragedies and atrocities, to say: Look, look. Remember?That other suffering that was eventually deemed unacceptable? Let me hold it up to this one. Let me show you proportion. Let me earn your outrage. Absent that, let me earn your memory. Please.

…

Here’s another thing I know as a writer and psychologist: It matters where you start a narrative. In addiction work, you call this playing the tape. Diasporically or not, being Palestinian is the quintessential disrupter: It messes with a curated, modified tape. We exist, and our existence presents an existential affront. As long as we exist, we challenge several falsehoods, not the least of which is that, for some, we never existed at all. That decades ago, a country was born in the delicious, glittering expanse of nothingness — a birthright, something due. Our very existence challenges a formidable, militarized narrative.

But the days of the Palestine exception are numbered. Palestine is increasingly becoming the litmus test for true liberatory practice.

In the meantime, Palestinians continue to be cast paradoxically — both terror and invisible, both people who never existed and people who cannot return.

Imagine being such a pest, such an obstacle. Or: Imagine being so powerful.

THIS!!!!!!!!!! most of us feel like we aren't doing enough because we can't physically stop a genocide but speaking helps!! pressuring helps!! boycotting helps and protesting helps!! please don't give up on Palestinians not when the entire world has turned their backs on them

WHEN ON PERIOD:

do not crash out

your feelings are NOT valid

do not send that text

don't kill yourself. lock in

do not act on negative emotions until at least 2 days have elapsed

Art Help

I redid this list because broken links 💀

General Tips

Stretch your fingers and hands

Art is for fun

Never too late to start/improve

Using a tablet

Editing software: pictures & video

Moodboard resources

Comic pacing

Watercolor

Coloring

Color Theory (not children's hospital)

Resources: coloring things a different color

Gold

Dark Skin undertones

Dark Skin in pastel art

POC Blush tones

Eyes colors

Cohesive Color Palette

Lights and Colors

Human Anatomy

POSE REFERENCES

Wizard Battle poses

Romance poses

Shoulders

Tips for practicing anatomy

Proportional Limbs

Skeletons

Hair Directions

Afro, 4C hair

Cane use

Clothing

Long skirts

Traditional Chinese Hanfu (clothing reference)

CLOTHING REFERENCE

Sewing information

Animals

Horse -> Dragon

Snouts: dogs, cats, wolves, fox

Foot, paw, hoof

More

Drawing references sources

Art tutorial Masterlist

Another art tutorial Masterlist

Inspiration: father recreates son's art

Inspiration: Lights

ART BOOKS

Plants/flowers: North America, Hawaii, Patagonia

Art Cheats

“Safe zone” was always a lie. I hope this is clear to everyone. “Evacuate to the safe zone” always meant “consolidate for slaughter” and that is exactly what is happening now