"Enough" - a book by John Naish

May I recommend this brilliant book reflecting on the sheer stupidity of our endless striving for better and more when we already have more than enough? We have evolved into a race chasing the impossible dream that ends up with us all stressed out, depleting our resources, unhappy and unfulfilled. The author argues we need to develop a cultural sense of "enoughness" and to be happy with what we HAVE rather than always striving for more and better.

I couldn't put this book down and all the way through was saying, "yes, spot on" again and again and again. Having read the book I doubt any of us will instantly change our ways, but just maybe we will reflect on our culture and modus operandi and think a bit more carefully about what is REALLY important in our lives.

The book is not a dull, environmentalist tome. Rather it is full of humour and light-heartedness. A truly excellent read for western man in the 21st century. I suspect this book will be seen in years to come as the book that woke us up and brought us to our senses in much the way that Rachael Carson's "Silent Spring" did back in the 1960s.

Robert Helliwell

The death of Emeritus Professor Robert Helliwell of Stamford University was announced today. Helliwell was the author of the book "Whistlers and Related Ionospheric Phenomena" back in 1965. This is a wonderful book on the subject of VLF atmospheric physics which is still available from Amazon.

My 50uW ERP signal at 45km on 137kHz in QRSS30

Chris G3XIZ has sent me a nice screen shot showing my QRP beacon signal a couple of days ago. The signal is in QRSS30 and as Chris says, certainly good enough for a 2-way QRSS QSO on 137kHz. Chris is 45km from me.

Bluebell woods

Just spent a pleasant afternoon walking through an old wood near where I used to live in Devon. The woodland floor was a carpet of bluebells and garlic flowers. This is the first time I'd been back there in around 40 years and it was as lovely as ever.

Ultra low voltage oscillators

Thinking a bit more about my crazy idea for a mains hum powered QPRp beacon TX, I chanced upon this page which discusses FETs running from extremely low voltage supplies. See http://www.dicks-website.eu/fetosc/enindex.htm. Some of the zero threshold voltage MOSFETs (ALD110900A) used in sensitive crystal sets may also be useful in this application. The link shows an FET oscillator powered by just a thermocouple producing only 13mV! Incredible. See also http://cap.ee.ic.ac.uk/~pdm97/powermems/2009/pdfs/papers/069_0209.pdf and http://www.aldinc.com/pdf/Ultra%20Low%20Power%20Oscillators.pdf

UK trains - actually pretty good

For the last couple of days I've been down in Canterbury visiting my son, his wife and our grandson. As my wife was busy I took the opportunity to travel alone by train. There is now a new high speed service from London to Canterbury that has slashed journey times on that part of the trip. All trains were clean, on-time, fast and comfortable. Also, at £25.50 return with my senior railcard, excellent value. We complain too often, but railways in the UK are actually rather fine of you can travel off-peak when the commuters are not crammed in. As an ex-trainspotter back in the late 1950s and early 1960s I still love trains.  Secretly I'd like a Ian Allen locospotter's book (now Platform 5 books) so I could collect numbers still, but would risk being called a sad anorak!

325km with 50uW ERP on 137kHz

Well, Henny PA3CPM has just sent me a new screen grab showing my signal at 1041z today on 137.676kHz in QRSS30. This time you can make out some of the CW (visible just below the continuous Loran line) and the periodicity between callsign blocks is visible confirming this is indeed my signal.  Distance is 325km (202 miles) to JO22mb square. This is the first time my 137kHz signal has got into mainland Europe. I am amazed that a really simple beacon on a tiny board into a simple wire loop in the garden can span such distances. Even more amazed that Henny could find it!

Over 100km on 137kHz with 50uW ERP

Just got a screen grab from G3WCB 101km away showing my QRSS30 beacon signal being received at his QTH near Windsor. Mine is the lower trace in which you can see "BM" (part of XBM). It is not strong, but there. I will leave the beacon running with around 50uW ERP during today.

A few hours later G3WCB got me stronger with the XBM very clear on the screen.

Henny van Elst in Holland was also seeing traces at the right frequency, but too weak to positively identify.

QRSS3 beaconing on 137.6748kHz

My QRSS30 (slow CW) LF beacon has just been started up. I'm hoping that QRSS30 will get me reports from a bit further afield.  Any reports and screen grabs would be much appreciated. It will be on for much of the weekend unless I need the antenna for some VLF tests. The message cycle takes about 25 minutes and best results will be with Argo, Spectran or Spectrum Lab software on a PC and FFT bandwidths of around 0.1Hz.

Message:     XBM in QRSS30, pause, then G3XBM in 10wpm
Freq:           137.6748kHz
ERP:           50uW (antenna 80sq m vertical loop)
Location:    JO02dg, Burwell Cambs

2 transistor transceiver kit

The Four State QRP Group is offering the new "HamCan" transceiver kit for sale at just $30.  It is a 2 transistor crystal-controlled CW transceiver, delivering 0.5-1W TX power with enough sensitivity and selectivity to receive plenty of signals. They claim it is a minimalist yet good performance transceiver. The kit features a high quality PCB, low parts count and fast and easy building. It is claimed to be an excellent kit for first time builders. It has been selected as one of the ARRL Midwest Convention's Buildathon kits. 

More information at http://www.wa0itp.com/hamcan.html .