Amsterdam flower market

 

They certainly like their bulbs in Amsterdam! This was the flower market earlier this afternoon.

Swimming in the Singel Canal, Amsterdam

 Imagine my surprise when I saw these people swimming past my hotel window this morning.  The Amsterdam canals must be pretty clean.  I guess they come early to avoid the boats.

Best value transceivers?

 Like most things, in the end it comes down to personal choice and budget. 

If you are after a 100W rig the Yaesu FT710 is hard to beat and includes an automatic ATU and 4m in Europe. It can also be widebanded with just button presses with no uncasing or hardware mods.

At the new lower price the ICOM IC-705 is hard to beat as a 10W radio. There are lower cost products from India and China 🇨🇳.

Oscar 100 narrowband

 

It seems ages since I took a look at the webSDR by the BATC at Goonhilly in Cornwall. It would appear nothing much has happened on the narrowband transponder although I wonder if there is any free software to decode the DATV transmitted through it on the wide band transponder? Or if anyone has a website of screenshots?

Sunspots - Thursday September 4th

 Solar flux is 180 and the SSN 128. A=12 and K=2.

Dessert

 

My wife and I shared this dessert as for one person it would have been far too much. We soon travel home.

Dutch Resistance Museum

 

At the end of WW2 my dad dropped food to the starving people of the Netherlands from a Lancaster plane. I am so pleased he was able to help them. 

Today we visited the Dutch Resistance Museum. It was excellent and shows how brave some people were.

This little book was just one Euro, which is excellent value 

The Fermi paradox

 This is the apparent mismatch between the number of planets that should support intelligent life and the total absence of any evidence that intelligent life exists.To my knowledge we have been looking for about 60-70 years without any success.

Sunspots - Wednesday September 3rd

 Solar flux is 187 and the SSN 175. A=34 and K=4.

Hotel window view

 

This is the view from our hotel bedroom in Amsterdam overlooking the Singel canal.