Painted Pebbles - NOT amateur radio

This seems to be all the rage right now. People hide painted rocks around the village which people (mainly youngsters) hunt and photograph. They then re-hide the stones somewhere else. So far I have seen one which my wife and I re-hid. Photos are posted on Facebook. Innocent fun.

How time flies - Philips Velo

Back in the late 1990s I had a Philips Velo handheld that connected (via a wire) to the internet. I think it was at 14.4k.

These days, many people have speeds of hundreds of MB over their tiny phones. I cannot remember what happened to this Philips device. At the time, it was "state of the art". How far we have come in under 20 years. What will the next 20 years bring?  Remember Windows CE?

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philips_Velo

Leather seats - NOT amateur radio

A trick I found several years ago was to use shoe polish to restore worn patches in leather furniture. Unbeknown to me, my wife was taking a photo of me through the window!

6m MSK144 RX

In times of poor solar conditions this rarely fails. At this time of year propagation is usually random MS or aircraft reflection.

Yesterday I spotted 5 unique stations in 3 countries. I decided to go on 6m MSK144 RX again today monitoring 50.280MHz.

My 6m antenna is just my triband vertical omni fed with poor coax.

No spots yet, although I've only been on for about 15 minutes so far.

UPDATE 1046z:  S59SV (1278km) in Slovenia spotted strongly - random MS?

UPDATE 1228z: Now IK4ISR (1170km) spotted as well as G0GGG (211km).

UPDATE 1607z: G1PPA (145km) spotted on 6m MSK144.

UPDATE 1732z: No further spots. After about 30 minutes I shall QSY to 136kHz WSPR RX and 136kHz OPERA RX.

Cambridge Concert - NOT amateur radio

Don't forget the CCS concert in April in Cambridge. Details on the website at www.cambschoral.org.uk .

136kHz RX last evening

As is my norm, I QSYed from 6m (sometimes 10m) to LF (sometimes MF). The shack PC was on battery power to keep the SMPSU noise to a minimum. I did not stay on overnight instead I was monitoring OPERA and WSPR RX during the evening hours. Best DX spotted on WSPR was 2E0ILY (209km) and G3XDV (61km) on OPERA.

Soccer - NOT amateur radio

Although not a great fan (it is years since I last went to a game), it is heartening to see my old local team (Plymouth Argyle) climb and climb. Not long ago they were firmly on the bottom of their table, but with a good win yesterday over the team 2nd in the league, they are now 11th. At this rate, they could even make the play-offs.

Sunspots - Sunday February 4th 2018

Solar flux is 70 and the sunspot number zero. A=3 and K=1.

QSYed to LF RX

Rather early, I have QSYed to 136kHz WSPR RX and 136kHz OPERA RX. I hope I catch some stations this evening.

UPDATE 2055z:  G3XIZ, 2E0ILY and G4FTC spotted on 136kHz WSPR and G3XDV spotted on 136kHz OPERA. All these are using the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground as the RX antenna.

Men to Mars? - NOT amateur radio

SpaceX test fires its big Falcon Heavy rocket next week. There are ideas to put men on Mars using this. There is a fair chance the launch will fail, apparently.

See https://gizmodo.com/spacexs-best-hope-for-sending-people-to-mars-will-launc-1822638923 .