Reddit, the self-proclaimed "homepage of the internet" is known to be a pretty toxic place. Since it has some "subs" related to all of my hobbies, e.g. r/shortwave, r/amateurradio and r/hamradio I occasionally read the newest posts there anyway, but more for the entertaining cringe than for gaining valuable knowledge. A prime example is how the Belka is represented there by people who don't know what it really is, never mind having any hands-on experience with that radio. Here's an example post where someone was particularly asking for the smallest, but best performing SW portable for ultralight backpack traveling, the Belka was fitting his further descriptions to the i-dot and somebody (of course) suggested it. But then these guys showed up...
![Screenshot 2023-08-01 at 04.40.23.jpg](./download/file.php?id=190)
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The same odd point was made again today (as if the post-processing power would have anything to do with the deciding performance metrics of the frontend):
![Screenshot 2023-09-08 at 12.39.38.jpg](./download/file.php?id=193)
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Needless to say that the Airspy HF+ Discovery is a good SDR that may very well have what's needed to outperform the Belka (that comparison is on my to-do list), or at least be on par with it - if they're connected to a decent external antenna. But I'd be incredibly surprised if it could do that with the Belka's 74cm whip! The other guy continues to point out the other thing that's wrong with this comparison but then...
![Screenshot 2023-08-01 at 04.41.43-III.jpeg](./download/file.php?id=194)
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Just to show that these guys were never even near a Belka, here's the same two in another post where someone asked about the Belka:
![Screenshot 2023-08-01 at 04.44.09.jpg](./download/file.php?id=191)
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There are plenty of reviews, videos and sound clips discussing and demonstrating literally every aspect of the radio, so a simple Google search and 15minutes of reading could've kept them from repeatedly putting their feet in their mouths - if they'd care about that.
And then there is one guy who actually owns a Belka but had bad luck with his headphone jack. Yes, that's bad and I can understand the anger but instead of letting Alex solve the problem...
![Screenshot 2023-08-01 at 04.42.32.jpg](./download/file.php?id=192)
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Well, that's at least some actual experience shared. Of course the traveling guy seemed to buy all that bold speculation disguised as advice and may have actually opted for a different radio. OK, he could have asked Google and do a little reading as well, instead he opted for asking on what might be the worst place for that question so my compassion is staying within limits.
Why do I even care? Of course I'm a die-hard Belka fanboi (but solely based on the performance and quality of the radio, not some odd ideology, brand fetishism or the like) and that this needless bad-mouthing is keeping people from enjoying that thing irks me. The good old "somebody's wrong on the internet" syndrome. What irks me more though is that reddit, with its pretty young demography is attracting actual newcomers on said "subs" more than any other platform, and its strange comment voting system is making the visibility of comments more based on timing than anything else, so noise usually swims up and the rare well-thought out response is prone to get washed down the threads. The same can be observed in the other subs I'm topically interested in and Wikipedia has a whole section in the article about that. It often helps watering down, dissolving or even inverting what used to be common knowledge, increasing the entropy, misleading uninitiated people...in short, and I guess you saw that coming by now, I don't like that platform very much.
![Mr. Green :mrgreen:](./images/smilies/icon_mrgreen.gif)