Off to the opera? - NOT amateur radio

Seen outside Helsinki's Opera House last night. 

As it was a public holiday, it was closed.  They also do ballet there. I hope they weren't hoping to see Swan Lake! 😪

These are Barnacle Geese. In the UK we see these in winter. In Helsinki they are everywhere (with young) in summer.

See https://oopperabaletti.fi/en/calendar/

Sunspots - Sunday June 24th 2018

Solar flux is 77 today and the sunspot number 41.  A=16 and K=4. Solar activity is still good for this part of the solar cycle. June averages should be quite good.

Helsinki - NOT amateur radio

Today we left Tallinn, Estonia and caught the ferry over to Helsinki, Finland. It is 76km. On the way we had an excellent free buffet with free drinks (I had 2 red wines and a coffee). Tomorrow we do a tour of the city and a harbour cruise. This evening we had a snack by the lake (Toolonlahti) opposite our hotel. Considering this is Finland, prices were reasonable. Like all the Baltic countries, Finland is clean. I have been to Helsinki 3 times before, twice for work. Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland all use the Euro. Sweden still uses the Kroner.

Bloody MicroCRAP - NOT amateur radio

Microsoft has just popped up with a window I cannot close asking me to choose BING as my default search engine. Microsoft, I am perfectly happy with my current search engine thank you and I strongly object to this pernicious crap. Go away you bunch of scumbags!

Next week on 6m FT8 RX

Starting next week, I shall continue my monitoring of 6m FT8, hoping to catch more "super DX" outside of Europe. So far, I have spotted the Caribbean and South America on 6m FT8. My only USA spot turned out to be a pirate!

This season I have spotted much less than last year on 6m JT65. Last year, quite a few Japanese stations were spotted.  FT8 is not supposed to be as good as JT65.

My antenna is just a V2000 vertical omni fed with cheap CB coax.

UK litter - NOT amateur radio

Without exception Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland are virtually litter free. You sense civic pride. 

In the UK have we no pride at all?  Surely we can get someone to clean our mess?  But why do we drop litter in the first place?

Surely if Estonia with its tiny population (1.36M) can have no litter, we can do the same? Basically we are litter louts! The capital Tallinn sees thousands daily from cruise ships, yet the streets are spotless.

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

Baby fieldfares - NOT amateur radio

Usually in the UK we get fieldfares only in winter when they migrate across from Scandinavia chasing our "mild" weather and food, so it was a real treat to see baby fieldfares in Estonia yesterday.

Sunspots - Saturday June 23rd 2018

The extraordinary high numbers for this part of the solar cycle continue. Solar flux is 79 and the sunspot number 41. A=4 and K=1.

New ICOM handheld scanning RX

According to Southgate News, ICOM has introduced a new handheld wideband RX, the IC-R30. which covers from 100kHz to over 3GHz with many digital modes as well as SSB, AM, FM, CW and WBFM.

See http://southgatearc.org/news/2018/june/icom-ic-r30-digital-analogue-wideband-communications-receiver.htm#.Wy0XKPZFzIU

Free trade? - NOT amateur radio

So the EU has introduced retaliatory tariffs in response to the USA. A trade war is not the answer. Unless you believe literally in Genesis and Noah's Ark, free trade is a 21st century reality.

See https://www.bbc.com/news/business-44567636 .