When not using the 10m antenna I keep forgetting that I can go on 10m WSPR TX with my W5OLF 500mW WSPR beacon. It is on now.
So far, just local spots from G4KPX (14km).
12 Nov 2021
G3XBM history
In one way or another, I have been interested in radio since 1961. A potted history is at this website.
11 Nov 2021
Mind boggling - NOT amateur radio
It is estimated the Milky Way galaxy (ours) has between 100-400 billion stars and probably at least as many planets. It is estimated there are 2 trillion galaxies in the visible universe. That is a huge number of stars! There are about 6-7 billion humans on earth. Intelligent life has existed on Earth for a very tiny fraction of the time life has existed here.
Yet, we are conscious of our existence at this moment on this planet and we would not be here if just one ancestor had done something different.
Truly mind boggling.
70cm FT8 (Thursday)
More in hope than expectation, I am on 70cm FT8. After a very brief period on TX, I am RX only. Using 2.5W and the omni V2000 vertical.
No spots. Am I surprised?
Will TX briefly throughout the day and evening.
It is a pity 70cm FT8 is not really popular as I am convinced it could be really really good.
UPDATE 1035z: Still no spots. on RX. No spots of me after a brief period on TX just now.UPDATE 1358z: No spots given or received.
UPDATE 1420z: 3 stations spotted including 2 PAs and 1 QSO. Furthermost was PD2NBE (280km) on RX.
UPDATE 1540z: 5 stations (including 3 PAs) spotted on 70cm FT8 RX today.
UPDATE 1832z: 7 stations spotted in 3 countries.
UPDATE 2133z: 3 stations have spotted me with the furthermost G0KTN (211km).
Infilling - NOT amateur radio
We first came to this village in 1975 when the population was about 4000. Now it is around 7000. A lot of spare land in gardens and waste ground has been in filled with developers hoping to make a quick buck.
There seems to be a lack of houses that "real" people need. I guess they make far more profit from selling big houses to those that can afford them. I think the law states that for a certain number of houses on a site, a certain number have to be "social houses", so usually the developers just manage to avoid this.
70cm scatter?
Yesterday evening there an FT8 contest on 70cm. What amazed me was the very distant signals spotted on RX with just the vertical omni antenna. In all 30 stations were spotted in 5 countries.
I am wondering if some kind of scatter was possible? Activity levels probably are too low to see this in normal times, but in an FT8 contest such propagation may be noticeable. Aircraft reflection could be better and troposcatter is also possible.
I am tempted to leave my 70cm FT8 system on this evening to see what happens outside of contests. The combination of FT8 and 70cm could be potent.
The photo shows the activity on 70cm last evening.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Our University of the 3rd Age lecture yesterday (by Zoom - 148 participants) was about AI. Few of us realise just what an impact this could make on our lives in years to come.
We have the potential to make artificial intelligence that could be smarter than us and perform tasks that we could not do with our small brains.
AI has positive and negative impacts. We cannot be Luddites, but we need to look to the future with our eyes wide open. There could be profound changes in the years ahead.
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