Apple 🍏 Day

Our neighbour next door has an old orchard and far too many apples! 

Every year he has an apple day when the neighbours can have as many free apples as they want. It’s a lovely occasion.

Sunspots - Sunday September 7th

 Solar flux is 146 and the SSN 108. A=26 and K=0.

10m 500mW WSPR (Saturday)

My 10m QRP WSPR beacon has been on since just before breakfast.

UPDATE 1356z:  9 stations have spotted me today

6m 5W FT8 (Saturday)

My gear has been on since just before breakfast.

UPDATE 1936z:  71 stations have spotted me. Mostly continental Europeans. See map.

QSL Card bug?

In the last few months I have received several QSL cards by email which were useless as the QSO was dated 0000-00-00!

Caveat emptor!!

Back home

After our brief trip to Amsterdam by Eurostar (through train from London), we are now back home, so the usual things have to be done like unpacking, washing etc 😢. 

We love Amsterdam and have been there many times. 

Even though there are cobbles and trams and lots of bikes 🚲 as well as driving on the wrong side of the road (!!) I actually found it easier than the last time.

Sunspots - Saturday September 6th

 Solar flux is 149 and the SSN 128.  A=8 and K=3.

Saturday plans

 Now we are back home I plan to go on 6m QRP FT8 and 10m QRP WSPR tomorrow. 

Amsterdam Centraal Station

We came home by Eurostar today. 

In continental Europe they can have “double decker” trains as they do not have the height limits we have in the UK.

Begijnhof, Amsterdam

This is a quiet oasis of calm and tranquility in the heart of a busy city. We have been here often.

Sunspots - Friday September 5th

 Solar flux is 172 and the SSN 150. A=10 and K =1

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.