Geminids meteor shower

This peaks tonight, so I am monitoring 50.280 MSK144 to see what appears overnight.

OFCOM

OFCOM has published it technical analysis about sharing at 700MHz.

See http://ofcom.cmail19.com/t/ViewEmail/i/C7C5470B2352391A2540EF23F30FEDED/59D1BD3EA2F08127C67FD2F38AC4859C

Cambridge Pret A Manger - NOT amateur radio

As I was in Cambridge for my U3A course on Samuel Pepys, I called in to Pret A Manger for a coffee and bread roll. Surprisingly it was less busy than last week. I have always found the staff helpful and polite and prices reasonable.

Sunspots - Wednesday December 13th 2017

Solar flux is 73 today. Sunspot number is 11. A=13 and K=1.

6m FT8 RX

At the moment, I am monitoring 6m FT8 RX. Nothing yet.

UPDATE 1415z: Just ON8DM (237km) spotted.

630m mistake!

When on 630m WSPR I usually check spots on another machine in another room. I noticed spots stopped around 2130z last night. So, I went into the shack to see the connection to the antenna had fallen off! Luckily, it was easily reconnected. Luckily, the transverter PA was not damaged and full power was restored.

70cm UKAC

Well, I probably have the very worst set-up for this contest: 5W SSB, RG58 (lossy) coax and a 2m halo!! Add to that that speaking is very hard and that I was only on for about 10 minutes and you can see why I never win!

QSYed to 630m WSPR

At 1900z, I QSYed to 630m WSPR (10mW ERP, 20% TX). 10m WSPR was really not very good.

10m WSPR (2W, 20% TX)

For a change, I decided to go on 10m WSPR transceive today. I am using 2W (instead of 0.5W) and looking for others 80% of the time on RX.

UPDATE 1514z:  No WSPR spots given or received on 10m all day so far. Dire.

UPDATE  1824z: Although no-one spotted me, I spotted DL and OM. Best DX was OM1AI (1269km).

Fewer Christmas cards? - NOT amateur radio

In the last few years postage costs have rocketed in the UK. Also, people keep in touch by email and social media far more than in the past. Postcards used to be sent to/by lots of people on holiday, but there are far fewer these days.

It is early days, but I am expecting far fewer Christmas cards this year. Some people have died, some find postage costs too high and some decide to give to charity instead. If it wasn't for my wife, I expect we'd send out far fewer cards!

One thing I have wondered - why not reduce the cost of second class postage stamps in the UK in early December? This would encourage more people to post Christmas cards. Overall, it might help with PO revenue. The PO could sell 2nd class special Christmas stamps at, say, 35p each in the lead-up to Christmas. They could even stipulate these are only to be used on Christmas cards.