"Our" windmill next door - NOT amateur radio

We are lucky to live just next door to a fully restored windmill that is 200 years old. This photo was taken some years ago. 

Castle Acre - NOT amateur radio

One of my Facebook memories today was this photo of Castle Acre that we visited some years ago.

I am all for a balanced view of history and there are many dark moments that we are not proud of, yet just destroying statues and monuments as we judge them by today's standards denies future generations the chance to judge them.  

Sunspots - Wednesday August 25th 2021

 Solar flux is 81 and the SSN 29.  A=5 and K=3.

Oscar 100 activity update

Every few weeks I take a peek at the activity on the narrowband transponder of this geosynchronous satellite. It has been up some while, although activity still remains low. I last looked in the late evening European time.

See https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/ .

Jason M0NYW

This morning Jason M0NYW called in and it was a real pleasure to meet him. We have exchanged many emails over the years! It is good to meet real experimenters, as he clearly is.  Sadly too many just buy the gear they need and do not realise what fun they are missing.

10m WSPR TX - 500mW (Tuesday)

For a change I am on 10m WSPR TX with my 500mW beacon. As this is quite late in the Es season I am not expecting spots. Apart from initially setting the clock it is totally self contained and does not need a PC. It runs 100% of the time, but randomly changes frequency every 2 minutes to avoid being clobbered by a strong station co-channel. It is currently 0748z.

UPDATE 1145z:   6 spots by 2 unique stations so far.

Sunspots - Tuesday August 24th 2021

 Solar flux is 78 and the SSN 14. A=4 and K=1.

Sunflowers - NOT amateur radio

Our own sunflowers were eaten by Muntjac deer which are common now. Our neighbour has some good ones and we see them better than she does! 

The ones in the photo are in her garden.

Loop antennas

From my own results I think loops are (maybe) 6dB down on a dipole. This is far from accurate, but the losses are likely to be greater on lower frequencies and less on higher bands. 

This is 1 S point, so not too great. For some applications that do not require much frequency change they can be ideal. FT8, PSK31 and WSPR come to mind. 

When I had no external 10m antenna earlier in the year, I used an old Whizz Loop on 10m FT8. Although I may have missed some stations, I still spotted plenty. Mine was just on the shack windowsill indoors.

If you have limited space and can cope with them being very sharp tuned, if efficient, they can be a decent compromise antenna. With QRP you will not need special capacitors. With QRO the voltages at the high impedance points can be very high so special capacitors will be needed.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/antennas/loops .

Afghanistan - NOT amateur radio

In the end, I hope the political situation there settles down and everyone is treated respectfully. 

For almost 200 years external forces have tried to "sort the country out".  In the short-term this may have appeared to work. In the long term it has not.

Personally, I am very conflicted: I find the apparent treatment of women and gay people as poor by our standards. However, after almost 200 years and billions of pounds I think we should leave them to it.

I think the evacuation of those wanting to leave is shambolic and could have be done so much better.