Now why would you do THAT?

We're though to the next round! This morning I was advised that "FireFinder" has progressed to the semi finals of the Terasic InnovateFPGA 2021/22 Design Contest. The contest goals are protecting/improving the environment through intelligent edge technologies.  My design is attempting to detect and locate dry lightning strikes, which start a lot of bushfires in Australia, before they get out of control. Can it be done?  In principle, yes.  Can we win it?  Let's find out shall we? Feel free to check out my work so far:   https://www.innovatefpga.com/cgi-bin/innovate/teams.pl?Id=AP004&All=1

I have actively avoided doing this for a while , but now I need to run CUDA-dependent OpenCV Code on a Windows Machine.  So it's time to bite the bullet and get it done. Want to go for a ride?  It will be fun, I promise! Background This is being run on a Gigabyte Motherboard with a 10th-Generation i7 CPU, 64GB RAM and Windows 11 (Release).  You want at least 4GB of RAM and an i5 to do the build with any sort of efficiency. First, get your pre-requisites You will need: Visual Studio 2019.  The free version is just fine. ( https://www.visualstudio.com ) OpenCV and OpenCV-Contrib source code from Github ( https://github.com/opencv ) Python (https://www.python.org) CMake ( https://www.cmake.org ) NVIDIA Drivers to suit your GPU ( https://www.nvidia.com ) NVIDIA CUDA libraries and CuDNN version to suit your GPU ( https://developer.nvidia.com ) A pot of coffee or other suitable beverage Install CUDA, Python, Visual Studio and CMake.  Make sure they are in the user pat...

Now that I have your attention...   (You too can turn your long dipole into these tiny wires!) Back in the day when CB Radios were all the rage (We're talking late 1970's here), most of us had a pretty standard 1/4 Helical antenna attached to some kind of pole so we could have a base station. We were kids then, so not a lot of money to spend on my radio hobby.  People told me I should tune my antenna for "optimal SWR", but I never did so because: I really only ever contacted local folks, so range wasn't a problem. I was afraid of cutting my precious antenna in case I cut too much off it. It worked, so I just didn't mess with it. These days however I want to contact people further afield than Sydney and with a limit of ten watts right now, I need all the help I can get.  It's definitely time to get past my phobia and do things properly. As an aside, if you are taking your 4WD into remote regions and you're going to be relying on a radio for emergencies,...