Slavery - NOT amateur radio

In recent weeks there has been a lot of focus on how coloured people are treated. This all started with the death of a man in Minneapolis at the hands of policemen. Since then, the "Black Lives Matter" campaign has gathered momentum globally.

A little while ago, I heard that only quite recently has the British government finished debt repayments for a huge loan taken out centuries ago to compensate land owners who lost out when slavery was abolished. If this is true it means many of the wealthiest people in the UK are still living off this centuries later!  Frankly, this is immoral. 

Slavery was/is evil. If injustices still exist today as a result of skin colour this is abhorrent. Until all human beings are treated equally I can understand the festering resentment felt.

Now, I am sure many people today are quite different from their ancestors centuries back. However, it does make you question the human justice in all this.

At school, we hear of the valiant efforts of our brave leaders, but rarely do we get a balanced view showing their darker sides too. We all have darker sides I am sure, but it is wrong surely to put some people on pedestals as good and virtuous people when they have dark sides we never hear about.

I am not in favour of statues being angrily toppled,  but we need to venerate those who strove for a better world and not those who had a much darker side we never knew about. Quite a few we venerate had a very questionable darker side hidden from view. Some endowed great institutions so history would judge them differently. Some of these statues belong in museums with a plaque making clear why these people were seen as great, but also their other sides.

Teach us about the past, good and bad. We need to face up to our history in every nation. Some of our past was good.  Some of our past was not. What we all need is balance and fairness.

10m WSPR TX

10m WSPR TX spots in last day

Since way before breakfast I have been on 10m WSPR with my 500mW and the indoor loop. No spots yet.

Yesterday I had 20 10m WSPR spots

Sunspots - Thursday June 25th 2020

Solar flux is 67 (even worse tban yesterday!) and the SSN 0. A=4 and K=1.

W5OLF 10m WSPR beacon

Many years ago I bought a WSPR TX beacon for 10m from Jay W5OLF. It is still in almost daily use. I am not sure if it is still available. It produces 500mW on 10m.

In better years it has been spotted all over the world. It is about the same size as a pack of cards and is totally self contained. No PC is needed.

The only antennas here are simple end fed wire antennas. More recently, the only 10m antenna is my indoor loop.

6m FT8

At 0630z the 6m FT8 kit was turned on. A very brief TX period resulted in two UK spots, but no DX. Currently I am RX only.

UPDATE 1948z:  Today, I have mainly been on 6m FT8 RX. Just for a few minutes I was on TX. On RX  best DX were Saudi Arabia and Gulf states.

10m WSPR TX

Today I made an early start. At 0630z the 500mW WSPR beacon on 10m using the indoor loop antenna was turned on.

Stations spotting my 10m WSPR 500mW to 1825z

UPDATE 1825z: 19 different stations have spotted me today so far. And here was me thinking nobody used 10m WSPR!!

Simple pleasures - NOT amateur radio

Yesterday our son came. The photo shows our granddaughter enjoying an ice-cream in the shade in the garden.

Sunspots - Wednesday June 24th 2020

Solar flux is just 67 (poor) and the SSN 0. A=4 and K=2.

Alstromeria - NOT amateur radio

The colourful flowers were a gift from a friend. I think you will agree they are very bright.

8m and 5m news

EI7GL's blog has some news about the 8m and 5m bands. I do hope more countries get access to these bands in the near future. In my view the Eire government has been very far sighted.

See https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/