29 Nov 2017

The US president: is he stupid? - NOT amateur radio

To become president of the USA you have to be rich and clever. Mr Trump is obviously the former and, arguably, the latter. So what on earth possessed him, allegedly, to repost some far right stuff on Twitter?  My advice, although I doubt he reads my blog (that would be something!) would be to check sources carefully before tweeting and consider whether the tweet sent is worthy of being sent or not. Maybe he employs people to check what others say about him? Silly me, bad things said are just "fake news" of course.

"Make America great again".

In this case I agree with the UK Prime Minister - Trump was WRONG to retweet these far-right videos. Doing so make him seem stupid, in my eyes. Others are quite entitled to think him wonderful.

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42166663 .
See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42172032 .
See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42176507 .

I have reached my personal conclusions, although in a free world others are fully entitled to have theirs, even if radically different from mine.

Brother's visit - NOT amateur radio



My brother has been staying for a few days. He left this morning. It was good to see him.  The next time we see each other will probably be in March. We he is here, my wife always manages to find "little jobs" for him to do. This time we visited a local charity shop and the dump. Luckily he is quite happy being busy.

OFCOM and 5.8GHz

OFCOM has made an announcement about 5.8GHz spectrum.

See http://ofcom.cmail20.com/t/ViewEmail/i/FA5636C938F705722540EF23F30FEDED/59D1BD3EA2F08127C67FD2F38AC4859C

630m WSPR overnight

My 10mW ERP WSPR was spotted by 7 unique stations and I spotted 6 uniques. Not a great night.

Sunspots - Wednesday November 29th 2017

Solar flux is 71 today. Sunspot number is 14. A=8 and K=1.

28 Nov 2017

Allocation of amateur callsigns

Southgate News reports on another Freedom of Information request to OFCOM.

See https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/unallocated_uk_amateur_radio_cal_4#incoming-1071737  .

Yet again, I think OFCOM has provided the data on a minimalist basis.

Granddaughter - NOT amateur radio

We know that childhood is transitory. Already our 2 grandson's are changing, whereas one they were very close. Already we can see signs of innocence lost.

Our 2 granddaughters are still little, but we know this cannot last. For now, we are making the most of them being very little. In the photo, one of the 2 grandchildren is reading a comic.

630m WSPR

So far this evening just G0VQH (15km) spotted. I have been spotted, so far, by 6 unique stations (all in England) when using my 10mW ERP. So far, not a good night.

Overnight on 630m WSPR

Quite a poor night really with 9 unique spots of my 10mW ERP. These were all Gs, which is quite  unusual. Best DX spotted on RX was DH5RAE (995km).

10m FT8 RX

Nothing spotted yet, although it was late (for me) getting on the band. I made the switch at about 1030z.

UPDATE 1140z: Still no spots on 10m FT8 RX here today.

UPDATE 1352z: Just G4CJC (73km) spotted.

UPDATE 1852z: No further spots. Time to QSY to 630m WSPR.