Recently joined an on-road RC racing club.

Gets a lot deeper than I ever thought it could. The mechanics of making a car go around turns better/faster gets very in depth. Lots of trial and error. Race every 2 weeks so tons of time to experiment with adjustments between race days.

Ages range from near 80 to 10... everyone out just having a good time and helping each other for a few hours. During winter, Florida busy season, we have 50+ people racing 5-6 different classes in a public parking lot.

Started with a used off the shelf car for $75 from a club memeber 5 months ago... now building competition grade kits and put up shelves in the bedroom for all 7 of my cars. Almost all used for VERY cheap that just needed a bit of love to be competitive again.

You are assuming everyone lives within a mile of a bus stop and has a safe road with sidewalks or bike lanes to get to that bus stop.

This. But I will say that during Hurricane Ian, direct hit, my 2m/70cm radio was very useful. Local group is extremely active. Messages to family/friends were passed on until someone with a phone would make a call for them, passing traffic. Hearing the updates of power, gas and aid in what areas was a huge help that news stations just couldn't give at the speed it was given over radio. Radio operators were stationed in hospitals as backups for first responders and in shelters.

On a day to day basis? Not very useful unless you go HF. Then it's expensive, even with "cheap" equipment. You don't have to buy a $5k Kenwood but you'll still be spending a lot.

TH-9800 and a X50 antenna 25ft in the air gets me 20 miles+ crystal clear. Florida, very flat. ~$300 not including coax cost. A $30 baofang and a slim Jim jpole thrown over a tree branch is enough to hit my local repeater though.

On a fun note that same baofang radio I've used for listening to ISS broadcasting to a elementary school and Russian SSTV, decoded with Robot36 on android, pictures from ISS.

Money is the biggest issue. I've had my general for years... have never been able to afford a radio to use those bands at home. Ive had a magnetic loop antenna all ready to use in my garage for several years but no radio to run it. The local 2m/70cm is just old guys complaining usually. Passing traffic is fun during hurricanes... Only so many times I can enjoy trying to hit satellites that are swamped with people.

Looks like a puma...

They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn By fools in old-style hats and coats, Who half the time were soppy-stern And half at one another’s throats.

Man hands on misery to man. It deepens like a coastal shelf. Get out as early as you can, And don’t have any kids yourself.

-Philip Larkin

It's just "Fern Gully"... But with blue people. Go ahead, watch Fern Fully (1992) then watch Avatar.

It's a rip off.

Make it affordable isn't a reasonable request...

How about don't trash talk inexpensive equipment. "This $4k radio is what you need, not that Chinese junk." Watch the majority of people will just walk away.

My unused general license is a perfect example. The multiple free HF antennas and free LMR400 run to my free 30' antenna mast I was given didn't even put a dent in offsetting the cost of a radio to use the equipment I have rotting away.

I'll keep my dual band tyt and my 2m Kenwood. If there's an emergency where it is useful, I'll use it.

Moondog's album "Sax Pax for a Sax"

Use a service like privacy.com. Cancel the card they charge monthly... no phone call needed. Added benefit is if the vendor is compromised there is no loss...the cards can be locked to only allow charges from 1 business. Steal the credit card info... can't use it anywhere else.

And 2 more femurs... They show 2 needed but 4 used in the constructed frame.

Rest of the owl I guess...

An improvement over having to sail the seas for a race because ESPN decided it's a great idea to use literally half the screen to show baseball stats/scores the entire race.

Those inexpensive, although less traditional means is the answer to the question that started this thread.

They need to be promoted and advertised above all else. Once someone is interested then you can add in the expensive things.

Example, I race RCs. Just the chassis of some of the cars is well above $500(I use $100 3racing Chinese knock offs and extremely very competitive with them btw). These cars are raced on perfectly flat and prepared asphalt so it's very niche. The club wants members to race... We don't tell people that come to watch that they should buy the $1500 car&radio, nobody will join. We have several classes that are "starters". The cost of the cars is $100-200 ready to race. It's not fast at all but it's cheap enough to see if you want it. It's also cheap and easy to maintain. Most people enjoy the inexpensive racing that fills the majority of the day.

The hobby needs to adapt to the complaints/requests of people not actively involved but willing to give it a try.

I was a little afraid nobody would get the reference.

"Hey Rufio... Why don't you go suck on a dead dog's nose."

A line I quote often.

The guys yard was 4 lots so fairly nice sized (1 acre?)... Underground tunnels that lead to "satellite" cages for the prairie dogs to keep an eye on the yard. Venomous snake shed(cobras and rattlesnakes) and to top it off a pair of breeding crocodile monitors. A true Florida man.

The Lightbringer series by author Brent Weeks.

The type of "magic" in this fantasy series is unlike any other that I know of. Light can be split by some people into it's individual colors, 1st book is The Black Prism, and those colors are able to be used/cast in a physical form with each color having specific properties and effects on the person that has the ability to use that color. Green is wild/free, red is anger/impulsive and so on. The prism, god chosen representative, is able to use all colors without limits. Murder, spies, politics, love, plot twists, magic...it's got it all.

The reading is fairly easy and the story is easy to follow. This is, I think, the 4th time I am listening to the series. All of Brent Weeks books have been good...but something about this series is great.

Never really looked at all the options Victorinox has. I have a massive Swiss Champ I was gifted but only regularly use the scissors, knife and toothpick... I can have a tiny one with those tools for $22?!?

Everything beyond the Dewey decimal system is/was pretty unnecessary, imo. We created a way to organize and "quickly" locate information stored in a physical format.

The near complete lack of manual labor has had many long reaching effects on society.

I type this on my brand new flagship phone...

Worked great when I moved from Google to Spotify due to YTM. A few songs didn't transfer correctly, a few saved as covers of the original but as they shuffled I'd just manually search them and correct it.