Overtaking? - NOT amateur radio

My elder grandson is 14 years old. In the last year he has shot up.  He still likes coming here.

This was a photo of us both yesterday. 

472kHz WSPR RX last evening and overnight

In all, 12 unique stations were spotted. Furthermost was OH1LSQ (1733km). 

10m FT8 (Sunday)

 

On 10m FT8 today. Even my 2.5W brief transmission was spotted in Scandinavia 5 times. Mostly RX only with 42 spots at 1127z.

UPDATE 1330z : 72 spots on RX so far (see map). 

UPDATE 1948z: 84 stations spotted today on 10m FT8 RX. Now QRT.

Three good things - NOT amateur radio

Every day of the year I post a photo on 365project. Quite often these are of no great interest to others but they form a visual diary for me. I have been doing this for about 8 years! 

One person I follow has a good idea: she lists 3 good things every day. I might try this here. 

Sunspots - Sunday January 9th 2022

Solar flux is 102 and the SSN 31.  A=14 and K=3.

472kHz WSPR RX (Saturday)

As my transverter is broken on TX, I am on 472kHz WSPR RX with the coax to the 144MHz big-wheel tuned via the ferrite rod ATU for a change. 

The RX was turned on at about 1900z.  So far, no spots.

UPDATE 2024z:  7 spots so far with the furthermost LA8AV/1 (1035km).

King's Cambridge - NOT amateur radio

Back in the early 1970's I went to a weekly meeting in King's room X6, visible in this photo taken in the autumn I think. 

Happy days long ago.

8m NoV application

This was first submitted mid October to OFCOM, so I chased today and got an immediate acknowledgement saying, along with other stuff:

Dear Customer,

We have received your request and a member of the Licensing team will be processing your enquiry in due course. Your Case Reference number is provided above, and we would ask you to ensure this is quoted on all future communications.

Planned system maintenance Thursday 25th November to Monday 13th December

Ofcom are in the process of upgrading their Finance systems and as such licensing services will be significantly reduced between Thursday 25th November to Monday 13th December. 

They cannot even update their own acknowledgements!! I presume this is 2021.  Let us hope they wake up next week and manage to give a meaningful response. Miracles do happen. 

In the meantime boys and girls carry on playtime...

Early 481THz experiments

This photo popped up as a Facebook memory today. 

It shows my early trials trying to receive my 481THz optical CW beacon in daylight along the road. As I recall, signals were very strong. Much much further was achieved later including over the horizon (NLOS). 

I guess this was 2012? The gear still exists and still works. It has not been used much since before my stroke.

Amaryllis - NOT amateur radio

We usually have a couple of these on the go at this time of year. They grow from bulbs at a tremendous rate. It is great fun seeing them shoot up and flower. Later we put them outside and sometimes they flower again in the next winter. This one is very tall and fell over! We have now added some more soil and stakes, hoping it will stay upright.