Garden flowers - NOT amateur radio

From the sound of it, my brother in Devon has had far less rain than us. His lawns are already brown, whereas ours are still largely green. The photo shows the flowers on our patio earlier.

Rant time - NOT amateur radio

Recently my wife bought some granola from a local shop. Despite a good look we could see NOTHING about recycling. There was lots about birds and bees on the pack. In this day and age this is stupid and inexcusable.

In my view all supermarkets should tell their suppliers to make all packages compostable or recyclable or no business. They have the power and should use it.

6m FT8

In the last 3 hours 4 stations spotted on 6m FT8 this morning with best DX being YO7YM (1927km).

UPDATE 1032z: Widespread Es on 6m FT8 RX today with 72 stations spotted right across Europe.

UPDATE 1925z: Now 102 stations spotted on 6m FT8 RX with best DX LA8ORF (2009km).

Sunspots - Tuesday July 16th 2019

Solar flux is 67 and the SSN 0. A=7 and K=1.

In Australia - NOT amateur radio

One of my sons is with his family staying with the Australian grandparents.

The photo shows one of our grandsons with the local birdlife.

I think you will agree that it is a happy, colourful picture.

DXCC countries

According to Southgate News there are 213 active countries. I am not an active DXCC chaser, but I am probably at about 150 DXCC countries worked mostly with QRP.

See http://southgatearc.org/news/2019/july/dxcc-report-1507.htm

Giddy, exhausted, fog - NOT amateur radio

Many times I have tried to explain just how I feel.

Outwardly I look fine. Inside it is a constant struggle with near continuous giddiness and exhaustion and living in a kind of fog. What few realise is just appearing "normal" takes vast amounts of energy. My voice is poor and just doing ordinary things is now hard. Eating food and drinking I am desperately trying not to spill things or choke.

Although I still drive, I no longer enjoy it as the mental concentration is immense.

Whereas at one time I felt as if I was getting better, I no longer think this is the case. Many are far worse than me. To use a Yorkshire phrase "mustn't grumble". However, life is tough.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/stroke

Facebook issues? - NOT amateur radio

Now, this could just be me! Recently using Windows 10 Edge I seem to get Facebook notifications at the top of the page, but when I click them, to see what they are, nothing (any longer) happens. In the past  I clicked and could see everything. Intentionally, nothing has been changed. It is possible that accidentally something has been clicked "off" when it should be "on".

Am I alone or have others noticed this? With Android, I see no such issues.

Also, I seem unable to post to Facebook from Windows 10 Edge, but all works fine with Firefox.

Cricket - NOT amateur radio

OK, cricket does not normally "grab" me. Yesterday, the BBC website had over 40 million hits for the final day of the cricket world cup. I was one of them. To say it was the most exciting day in British sports history is perhaps no exaggeration. The last few balls were like nothing else I had ever experienced.  England beat New Zealand, but it was so very close.

I was unaware it was live on terrestrial TV on Channel 4. Next year I believe the BBC is showing live cricket again after a break of many years. I hope the profile of cricket rises as a result of yesterday's game.

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/cricket/48986939

2m super DX

Southgate News passes on some news of a blog post by EI7GL about some quite astonishing 2m DX QSOs.

See http://southgatearc.org/news/2019/july/144-mhz-cape-verde-islands-to-italy.htm