Until this morning, I had never heard of this. Today, I have come across it twice within about 6 hours! Firstly I saw that a radio amateur had made some and then it appeared in the BBC Good Food magazine.
As far as I can see, it is a form of fermented tea. In Japan it refers to tea made from kelp seaweed. I think you can get kombucha in various flavours.
Funny how you can go a whole lifetime without coming across it, then it appears twice! 😄
OFCOM is consulting about the dangers of exposure to RF by the general public.
It is intending to add something in the licence to make clear that radio amateurs have to ensure the public is safe.
OFCOM and the RSGB are working on calculators so that amateurs can work out if the RF produced is likely to be a danger.
Being able to show how any potential danger was worked out could be important if a station was to be inspected, for example in the event of interference to a neighbour's TV.
See https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0022/214663/emf-implementation-update.pdf .
OFCOM is to trial 10 limited power FM broadcaster stations for a year and is asking for volunteers to take part. It is wondering if such licences would be suitable for hospitals and army barracks for example. Rnage could be approximately 1km.
See https://www.ofcom.org.uk .
ICOM has released the auto ATU for the IC-705 (the AH-705) reports Southgate News. It is quite expensive and there are lower cost auto tuners that will work as well or better e.g. the Elecraft T1. This is also smaller and probably has a wider range. It is also, lower cost.
The AH-705 is £309.60, which is expensive. The answer is use resonant antennas or lower cost tuners!
At 1355z I turned on my 2.5W FT8 to the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground. I am calling CQ in the middle of the FT8 "window". All I am spotting currently is G stations. No DX is being spotted in the daylight. It is now 1402z. Just one, fairly local, station G4HPW (37km) spotting me this afternoon.
UPDATE 1659z: 5 stations (all G) have spotted my QRP TX this afternoon. 5 stations spotted on RX with the furthermost LY2BVB (1659km) in Lithuania. It is still very light here, although I guess it is darker further east. The European DX is just starting.
UPDATE 1749z: 26 stations now spotted on RX. Clearly European DX is now coming through as night draws in.
I hope to do one soon.
The earliest she has is one showing a relative who fought at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. This is partly hand finished and probably dates from the dawn of photography in the 1840s.
At 1850z I QSYed to 160m FT8 with 2.5W and the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground. It is now 1856z. So far this evening, 4 stations have spotted me on TX and I have spotted 22 stations on RX.
UPDATE 2030z: 16 stations have spotted me on QRP TX on 160m FT8 today.
