Oscar 100

It is now several months since this geostationary amateur satellite became operational. To get active most have to put together a 2.4GHz TX and a 10GHz RX as well as either 1 or 2 dishes pointing in the right direction. There are no "cheque book" amateur radio solutions. It is possible to repurpose some WiFi bits. Activity levels seem to be no higher than a few months ago.

See https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/

Sea scout - NOT amateur radio

The photo here was taken almost 100 years ago and shows my dad in Salcombe, Devon, UK.

As someone pointed out, this could well be posted for the photographer! It does look posed.

My dad died in 1987.

War by accident? - NOT amateur radio

Probably Iran and the USA do not want outright war. However, the chance of one side miscalculating the actions of the other is quite high. President Trump is a "loose cannon" and sometimes acts irrationally. Iran is not exactly a peaceful and loving nation. I am sure behind the scenes both sides are actively engaged in cyber war.

Although Iran is far from perfect, I personally think Trump is like a little boy with a can of petrol and a box of matches.

6m FT8 RX

So far this morning (it is now 0920z) 56 stations spotted on 6m FT8 RX. All of these are Europeans and most of these are via Es.

UPDATE 1704z: So far today 167 stations, mostly Europeans, spotted on 6m FT8 RX. Nothing by way of "real DX" spotted.

Still the pits. Sunspots - Sunday June 23rd 2019

Solar flux is 66 and the SSN 0 still. A=4 and K=1.

At the moment we are heading for a spotless month.

Longest spotless period

According to Southgate News we have had 33 spotless days now. This is now the longest spotless stretch this cycle and is consistent with the minimum in the next year.

See http://southgatearc.org/news/2019/june/the-sun-is-so-spotless.htm#.XQ5UUvZFy00

Iran-USA conflict - NOT amateur radio

We live in dangerous times with the USA president "shooting from the hip" as if he is in the wild west. Actually the world could fall into a deep recession should he attack Iran. Iran is a dangerous unknown, but just as on climate change, the USA president seems to think he knows best.

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-48728465

Dead Ringers - NOT amateur radio

Some in the UK may recall "Spitting Image" on TV. Famous people were created in rubber puppets and they had the micky taken! It was a wonderful programme and unbelievably funny. It is a pity they don't bring it back.

Dead Ringers on BBC Radio 4 is very similar and perhaps the best programme on the radio. It is broadcast on Friday early evenings and Saturday lunchtime. I am pretty sure it will be on catch-up and BBC iPlayer.

External Links G3XBM main website

A very long time ago, I created a page for my main website with external links. Some of these links probably do not work, so I need to go though all these and check. If you spot any dead links before me, please let me know. Likewise on the rest of the site, please tell me if you spot mistakes or broken links.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/ext_links
See also www.g3xbm.co.uk

Friends - NOT amateur radio

On the bridge over 

the River Lark

For the last couple of nights we had an old school friend of my wife and her husband staying. They were on their way to a holiday in Norfolk.

They are very good company and we really enjoyed them staying.

Yesterday, we took them to Bury St Edmunds, which is a delightful East Anglian place with an old (and new!) abbey.