First swifts seen - NOT amateur radio

 On a walk about the village yesterday we saw 4 swifts. These are migrant birds back from Africa. These were the first seen this year. Usually these are heard before seen. Not this time. 

IC-705 goals this week

 This week, I have 2 main aims:

1.  To get D-star (DV) working;
2.  To get WiFi working.

Well, that is the aim!

Sunspots - Monday May 10th 2021

 Solar flux is 76 and the SSN 18. A=4 and K=2.

160m FT8

This evening, I am on 160m FT8 with QRP and the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground. 12 stations have spotted me with the furthermost  IZ2QPP (956km). On RX 11 stations spotted with the furthermost UA3GT (2630km).

UPDATE 2130z: 13 stations have spotted me on 160m FT8 this evening with the IC-705 and the earth-electrode "antenna" in the ground as the map shows. Now QRT.

Oscar 100 (geosynchronous) activity

Every few weeks I take an unscientific look at the narrowband transponder on this satellite. There is still plenty of space! 

My last look was on a Sunday afternoon in Europe, when you might expect activity to be probably quite high, not that it was!

My impression is you could easily double the number of stations at least.

Quite low activity really

See https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/ .

Sex in older years - NOT amateur radio

Have you noticed that most leaders in politics are old men? 

The current president of the USA is 78 and his predecessor was 74. This is older than me!  There is no way I'd want to lead a country at my age. 

As a younger person, sex was important. In old age it is less so. If you had told me this 10 years ago I would not have believed it.   I am sure this is not universally true, but it is probably far more common than is talked about. I often wonder if our leaders really connect with younger people to whom this is so important? 

Some would say with old age comes wisdom.

Propagation predictions

When I operate I tend to take pot luck. Others make use of propagation predictions, in which case this site may be of use. There are others.

See https://www.propquest.co.uk/map.php. 

Swan on nest - NOT amateur radio

"Well we have nested here for years and we are NOT moving just because there is a building site 3m behind us!". 

Swans seen on our walk earlier.

10m FT8 RX with the IC-705 and the tiny indoor loop

At 0900z, I went on 10m FT8 RX with the IC-705 and the tiny indoor loop. Even with ferrite chokes on the USB lead I was still getting RF feedback from the loop to the rig on 10m, so I am RX only on that band until I get the outside antenna up. 2 French stations spotted after 10 minutes.

UPDATE 1104z: 14 stations spotted on 10m FT8 RX today so far. All Es.

UPDATE 1350z : 21 stations spotted on RX with the tiny indoor loop antenna and the IC-705. 

Crabapple - NOT amateur radio

We have just got one crabapple tree in our garden. Last year was poor whereas the year before we picked over 500 and made crabapple jelly. This year looks promising.