Operation Manna - NOT amateur radio

75 years ago today, food was dropped on Holland at the end of WW2 in something called Operation Manna. The Dutch were starved by the Nazis.

My dad, who was a Pathfinder flying in Lancaster 582 squadron as a flight engineer, dropped food on Rotterdam on May 7th 1945.

I hope these cruel times are far behind us, but they remind us that humans can be very cruel.

My dad died in 1987 and never really wanted to talk about the war. Looking back he must have been terrified on every mission. One of my greatest regrets was not talking with him about those days and telling him how brave he was.

Utility room pictures - NOT amateur radio

When we wash the dishes we see these pictures on our utility room wall. As you can see, we like to be reminded of good times.

Just out of shot is the windmill next door. We get quite a good view from the utility room window. At the moment the windmill is quiet. In the not too distant future it will be 200 years old. It is due for a repaint.

Roses - NOT amateur radio

The photo shows a rose in our front garden. There are several now in flower.

Cycle 25 spots

Spaceweather.com reports cycle 25 spots are appearing. At the same time we are still seeing spots from cycle 24. It will still be a while before cycle 25 begins properly and we can confidently say sunspot cycle 25 is really motoring.

See https://spaceweather.com/

Global economy - NOT amateur radio

One thing the global pandemic has warned us about is over-reliance on long supply chains in the interests of low costs. Although it is unlikely globalisation will stop, I can see people in some cases paying a bit more for goods made nearer home. Over the next few years I can see China facing the impact of this. If we make more in the UK and EU I cannot see this being so bad. It reduces air miles, helps the environment and helps jobs.

Very old Fredbox photo

This photo of me having a chat on my 2m Fredbox must be over 45 years old!

It was taken at our Cambridge flat we moved from in 1975!

The Fredbox is a 10mW AM transceiver that I designed and built for 2m. As most QSOs were with Cambridge local Fred G8BWI, it had to be called the Fredbox! At the time I had hair!!

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/vuhf/fredbox for far more infomation, photos, schematic and a video.

10m FT8

At about 0830z I turned on my 10m FT8 gear.

Almost immediately I was spotted by 2 locals when on TX and spotted 1 G and 1 Estonian station on RX, the latter by Es.

As usual, I am running 2.5W to my indoor loop antenna.

Yesterday, it was again spotting South Americans on 10m FT8.

UPDATE 1037z: Now 4 spots of me on TX including 2 from Southern Europe, but plenty of Es on RX.

UPDATE 1310z: So far, 322 European stations spotted and 21 stations have spotted my 2.5W. A couple of QSOs too. Doesn't look like I am missing too much!

Stations spotting me today

UPDATE 1350z: Now 345 stations spotted today on RX and 25 stations have, so far, spotted my 10m FT8 2.5W TX today.

UPDATE 2011z: Amazing day! 58 spots of my 2.5W to the indoor loop and 629 RX spots including 5 South Americans. That loop really works!! Quite a few QSOs too.

Sunspots - Wednesday April 29th

Solar flux is 69 and the SSN 0. A=6 and K=1.

Flat 50 ohm coax?

An old friend has just bought some coax off Amazon so he can feed his aircraft band RX feed though his window without drilling holes. It is very short with just the bit through the window frame being flat. Both inside and out you feed it with "proper" coax and connectors.

Now, I have never seen these for 50 ohm coax and not sure these exist. I expect there is a very limited market, but I guess they could be very useful for some people.

Rain - NOT amateur radio

In the summer of 2018 a lot of our front lawn died. To prevent this I have watered the grass for an hour for the last couple of evenings. Of course, what happens next? You guessed! For the first time in a month it rains! I might have known.